Working with a talented makeup artist is always an incredible experience for me. I get these really crazy ideas, and it is still great to know an artist who can help bring your ideas to life. I’ve known Italia of Eye Candy Makeup for some time now, and we’ve worked on epic projects before. We were both coming off a slump due to being quarantined, but when I gave her this idea to collaborate on a shoot where the theme would center around the colours of the Bahamian flag, she did not hesitate.
There was no one else that could do this besides Tarea Sturrup, the reigning Miss Universe Bahamas. We saw via Instagram that she had recently cut her hair too, so her look was perfect for the concept. Italia’s studio was perfect for doing everything. Our concept involved applying dramatic makeup to the model layered with various sizes of gold glitter. I watched her (Italia) like a kid at Disney World for the first time, my mouth hung, seeing her apply everything to the model. It was indeed about an hour and a half build-up that I could appreciate. We sometimes have no idea how much time goes into works of art but experiencing this in person was definitely an eye-opener.
For my lighting, I used a 3 light setup. (see photo) One strobe overhead the model fitted with a blue gel to cast the light over the model's torso while another strobe sits behind the model to her right fit with an orange/yellow gel as an edge light. Another strobe was placed behind me to give the model’s face some fill and what you see are the results are exactly what I wanted. Tarea put the modelling background to the test! I gave minimal direction. Once the flashes began to fire, she moved and danced, slithered and sauntered her head, shoulders, hands and eyes into mystical frames.
I did a BTS (behind the scenes video) of the set so that you guys could see the shoot in its entirety from application to shooting. Please enjoy the images and video. Feel free to leave a comment below. I’d love to hear what you think!
