Or, How I Learned to Channel My Inner Barbarella
Jett: In And Out In Outer Space was one of the covers that I had the most fun doing. It needed to convey both sci-fi and erotica, as well as a sense of fun. Barbarella was one of the initial images that the author had sent, and it seemed perfect both in style and that very tongue-in-cheek sexiness that we wanted to convey. I’ll never be one millionth of the artist that Frank Frazetta was, of course, but it was fun to try a cover in that style.
Reds, golds, tons of rich colour. Big phallic guns – or in our case a 50s style rocket ship. Tentacles. Alien sex, oh my! Did I mention how much fun I had while doing this cover? :)
This is our Jett.
I thought it might be interesting to add some images to show how stock photography changes during the creation of a cover, when a model goes from being a bland stock image to being a representation of a character. The girl that we picked had the right attitude, but needed flesh and softness and lushness. Boobs were enlarged, as were hips and thighs. The waist was nipped in.
Ah, if I could only do this in reverse in real life! :)
A lot of work on done on her face to make her less angular, open the eyes and add a fuller, more lush mouth. Tons of copper hair was added, and Jett was born.
WOW WOW WOW Ravven… that is AMAZING! I totally LOVE it! And to show us how you manipulate stock photography along the way, is just amazing. So, so cool :D
Thanks, Suzy! A long time ago I used to work in the art department of a really high-end Los Angeles photography studio, retouching people to look thinner, younger, smoother. And that was all done with dyes, which is amazing. So much easier to do it with Photoshop. :)
That’s seriously impressive Ravven! Thank goodness for Photoshop then eh?
p.s forgot to say before… I loved Barbarella!
Love it! It’s amazing how you transformed her. I’m pretty useless at Photoshop, so this stuns me!
Wow. Not even my preferred genre, but I would read this because it looks like so much fun.
Also, please figure out how to do this in real life! Um… the body alteration, not the tentacle bit. O.o
Oh, if I only could!