Lara Jade Photography Illustration

I've been a little behind posting on all my different sites, so some of you may have seen this on flickr, or maybe not. I've been a looong time fan of photographer/model Lara Jade (photo of Jade taken by Jingna Zhang), and am continually drawing inspiration from her.

This piece is my own interpretation of a photo created for an avant garde editorial for Masquerade Magazine.

While this has been met with different reactions, I have to say, it is by far one of my favorite pieces to create. What I loved about the original photo was Jade's ability to capture such energy and raw emotion in a photograph. Plus, the incredible styling.

Headpiece by the fabulous Luke Abby, Rings inspired by Gisele Ganne.


I feel this piece gave me an opportunity to create something different. I was able to experiment with tons of different media and alter my style to create an edgier/editorial illustration.

**For more of Lara Jade's work, you can check out her official site or follow her here on blogger or on flickr.

(only in) Remission

"(only in) Remission"
2010



Originally I had considered a red heart. Although it worked for my personal meaning behind the piece, and looked beautiful with her red hair, something about it was just not working. Plus, I didn't want it to look too typical or like some kind of religious iconography, so I had a last minute overhaul of the whole concept-- the night before the show!


The idea of a bruised or grayed/decaying sort of heart came to mind. Then I also thought about how coals are black and gray; dingey and dead looking, yet still containing bright burning red embers inside. From the start, I wanted the heart to morph into something organic. The veins and arteries reminded me of roots (which tied into some complex metaphorical statement I wanted to illustrate, that I don't want to go into right now- haha) and so I was thinking of it turning into roots and twigs; like something was growing from it. The thought of rich blacks and grays reminded me of black irises- thus the idea was born.

One of my favorite, overlooked parts of this is the bust (LOL). Using a super-secret technique, I creating this pattern of colors and highlights, coming through the black of the corset. You should click the image above to see it up close.

Below you can see more textural elements I incorporated throughout this piece:

And there you have it- my latest piece.