Fashion Monsters are finished!

Finally finished this project that began over drinks in July or August, was shot at the beginning of September (or was it the very end of August) and languished in post-production (read: ME) for the last three months. It is done and I think it looks great. Beautiful shots, beautiful model, beautiful clothes, and some seriously cute and creepy monsters.

About the project:

Fashion Monster was a project conceived with photographer Dustin Cohen to combine his photographs and my "monster" illustrations. We set out to create a noir feel, knowing that the monsters would upend that with their absurd placement and bright colors. Shot on location around lower Manhattan at the beginning of Fall, the light was great and the team Dustin put together created wonderful images for me to work with.

Eli Neugeboren | Art Direction, Retouching, Illustration
Dustin Cohen | Photography
Angelique Velez | Hair & Makeup
Matthew Simonelli | Styling
Andrew Hanenberg | Photo Assistant, Stunt Driver
Winfield Foster | Photo Assistant
Casey Levine & Monique Perreault | Producers, Kids With Candy

All clothes | Edelweiss by Sarah
model | Mirielle represented by APM

see it on Behance

Burton-Ize

The final project I am giving my Digital Imaging students at City Tech is to "Burton-Ize" a self-portrait. We are teaching to a "Core Text" at City Tech this semester and the Core Text is Tim Burton. They chose Burton because of the coinciding show at MoMA and the release of his version of Alice in Wonderland. Visually I figured this would be something both challenging and fun for the students to do as they yearn for the freedom of Summer vacation.

So much fun that I did a quick one of myself this morning:

The assignment can be found at the wordpress site I have been keeping for the class:
http://adv1260.wordpress.com/
Oh, and this here is the original:

A Finer Line

Why is this referred to as "trick photography" and not retouching? 20/20 has spent a good amount of time putting together a report on what is essentially false advertising - an altered (photoshopped, retouched, whatever) picture standing in for a lesser reality. The are calling it trick photography, which implies that we as viewers are being tricked? Why is this language so different than the language they use when reporting on the retouching of female models? Is it somehow offensive to our cultural sensibilities to think that we could be tricked by a fashion photo, but acceptable and understandable that we would be tricked by an architectural one? Does it say something about what we think we want? What are the cultural politics of desire that are at work here that we would differentiate so completely between two acts that are the same: altering a photograph.

The net result is also the same - the alteration is used to enhance and entice, to put forth an ideal version of what really exists, whether that is a fashion model or a Bahamian resort. The closest they come to conflating the argument with the fashion retouching brouhaha is the weight loss advertisements, but with those they focus more on the fact that the images were stolen.

The caption for the video segment reads, "From hotel to weight-loss ads, photos altered for perfect results." 20/20's thesis for this type of photo alteration is "buyer beware", rather than responsible advertising or labeling of altered photos.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/2020/beware-trick-photography-staple-online-ads/story?id=9215461

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Old Invites

Fun with photoshop and pictures of me and Jenni! I love making these ridiculous things.

More stuff from Spin

This was the AD's initial idea for the illustration - DVD morphing into imageThis one is what ended up running. I was happy with how I managed to make the type seem carved into the collumns, and the shadows/highlights seemed to all work well in the end.

splodeytransformer

album art: Indelible Beancurd

Cover art

Interior art

Just finished this album art for my old pals Ethan and Dan. This is the first work I've done as the Liaison to the Sun in about 11 or 12 years. This album is the result of five years of work between these guys: Inspired by the long-distance collaboration that produced the Cooling Pies album(s), Ethan and Dan began writing and recording this album in 2003. They traded visits back and forth between Ohio and NYC, and this gem is ready to go on the world's finger. Er sumthin.

check them on their site and on amazon.

monstertauk

Now I see what was causing all those weird clouds. He doesn't look so bad.

melted, mutated arm

Took a doodle from my pocket sketchbook and colored it in. Not sure if I like it or not; the original sketch is below.I'm still getting the hang of coloring stuff in in photoshop. Its like I just got my first box of prismacolors or something.

Photo Illustration :: Noise Opener for SPIN 200808

Challenging photo illustration (or digital collage, if you prefer) combining these parts into a final image. Grass was too big and had to be tiled. Lanyard on VIP tag had to be "draped" over the edge of the tray. Tray had to be squeezed to fit the page layout, hands were moved and kept at the same size. Two versions follow, the full-color logo is the one that made the final page layout.

Photo Illustration :: Madden for SPIN 200808

Photo collage for the Games review page in the August issue of SPIN. Art Director: Ian Robinson