Thursday, March 8, 2012

Dipping My Toe in The Italian Chiaroscuro Pool


             There's a lot of fun in working with red skin undertones. Most commonly seen in Italian designer color palettes, fabric and accessories in these colors also look great on Middle Eastern and African skin tones. My old boss, Ralph Lauren, loved doing his summer khaki collection paired with deep dark African ebony models. We have several African American models coming to the shoot. One of the tricks with working with people with red undertones is to make sure you watch the blues, you want to make sure the skin glows, not looks ashen. You can see the lighting done correctly on right for Ayanna while I have picked a close miss from one of the photographs Sway sent me below. I have other photos she did that are fine, but wanted to point this out as it's a common mistake that's done in the fashion industry. It's a subtle difference, but with such beautiful women it's really worth the effect to show them at their best.
            Anyways, hopefully you will have fun meeting Ayanna and Sway in person. They are both great models and I'm sure everyone will have fun meeting them. One of the really great things about skin tones with red undertones is they look really great in contrasts. The Italians are famous for their Chiaroscuro paintings that contrast light and dark undertones. I won't claim to be Michelangelo, but it is a fun technique that is very flattering. Especially with khaki coming in this season for summer vacation, models with red undertones are popular. I hope that you have fun meeting both these lovely women.

Check back tomorrow when we post more models. Since it looks like we will run out of time to list everyone before Sat, I will mention all remaining models I do not get a chance to feature beforehand afterwards.

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