Carrara Challenge #36 - Pinups and Cheesecake and Hunks - Oh My! - WIP Thread --Meet Ringo Monfort!
This is the Work-In-Progress thread.
"Eyecatcher" by Edward Runci 1955
1. Introduction
Pinups or cheesecake (or beefcake) are images of men or women designed with an undisguised element of sexuality. These images, often highly idealized, display or mimic the human form in a way that focuses on - and draws your attention to - its inherent sexual attractiveness. In other words, a pinup is not just another pretty face. :)
However, even though the "classic" pinup - as defined for this Challenge - has a definite sexual component, the sexuality in such an image is more suggested and implied than it is explicit. Although the attitude of the model may be coy, saucy, flirtatious or even seductive, all such invitations are just suggestions or hopes for the future - more of a tease for your imagination than a "done deal."
Of course, what is considered as sexuality acceptable in a pinup image is largely determined by the aesthetics of the era. For example, there were pinup images printed in the early 20th century which look very mild today, yet they were considered shocking in their time. In the current Challenge, we are not looking to shock, but we do want to stretch boundaries and show how awesome that Carrara is in helping artists create pinups that "catch the eye." However, you can push the limits only so far. Please remember that we must follow the Daz TOS, which prohibits nudity.
To summarize, in a classic pinup, there is undeniable eye-catching sex appeal. And yet, even though a lot of skin may be showing (or not), there is usually a bit of an eye wink present as well.
In that spirit, we begin Carrara Challenge #36.
(Further pinup examples and explanations will be offered in the next post.)
2. General Rules:
1. Each participant may submit up to 3 images, but they have to be in at least two different Challenge categories. The three Challenge categories are PR, NPR, and Halloween. (see Sponsors and Prizes below).
2. Images must be new (previously unpublished).
3. Images must be "mostly" set up in Carrara.
4. Postwork is allowed, but it must not be the dominant part of the image. Posting images of before and after postwork is encouraged.
5. At least one WIP (work in progress) image of the Carrara setup must be posted to the WIP thread
6. The winner of the "Best Participation" category becomes the next Carrara Challenge host, and sets the rules for the next competition. But should the winner decline this honor, the winner of the next category (Best Photorealistic Render) will then get the opportunity to step forward and fill the role.
3. LATE-BREAKING SPECIFIC CARRARA REQUIREMENT
This Challenge started on last Friday, the 13th of October. On the following Monday, Philemo released the G'MIC pluging for Carrara, free for everyone.
To encourage exploration of the new plugin, I'd like to add the following requirement in Carrara Challenge #36 - if you enter all three render categories (PR, NPR, and Halloween), at least one of your renders must include the use of the G'MIC plugin. It can be used anywhere in the process, and not necessarily the final render.
If you only enter one or two categories, this rule does not apply - unless you just want to have fun exploring the new plugin.
4. Sponsors and prizes
Once again Daz will generously sponsor the monthly Challenge.
Our Carrara PA sponsor this month is - drum roll - Ringo Monfort!! Details to follow.
Once again, I propose a slightly different prize format this month (and it has again been OK'd by DAZ). For this contest, there are different categories, much like the Academy Awards (Oscars) and the prizes are all more-or-less equal. An artist can win only one of the Daz prizes, but can win both a Daz prize and a PA prize. Comments about this are again welcomed. I explain the process in more detail in THIS THREAD. Please read it if you have questions.
The four categories are:
Best Participation (cumulative images from a single artist)
Best Photorealistic Pinup (hoping for some ultra-realistic pinups)
Best Non-photorealistic Pinup ( hoping for some classic illustrative style pinups)
Best Halloween Pinup (a no-brainer, this Challenge opened on Friday the 13th!)
This translates into:
Most votes total for one artist: $50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Most votes single image (Photo-real): $50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Most votes single image (Stylized or Non-photo-real): $50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Most votes single image best Halloween pinup: $45.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s)
Dates to Remember:
All dates are Daz Utah Time http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/usa/salt-lake-city
WIP Thread Opens: Friday October 13, 2017
Entry Thread Opens: Friday October 27, 2017
Entry Thread Closes/Voting Begins: Monday midnight (end of Monday) November 13. 2017 (DAZ Mountain time)
Voting Ends: midnight Monday (end of Monday) November 20, 2017 (DAZ mountain time)
Promotions
An announcement-only thread has been made in the Commons. Moderators have made it clear to not place a mirror thread there.
An edited version of this thread has now been added in the Art Studio forum. Please feel free to share your entries there as well.
A quick summary of the variety of entries you can create for this Challenge:
Past-Present-Future - for example, what will a pinup look like in the year 2200?
Military - recruiting posters and bomber nose art.
Advertising - Every type of product under the sun has used pinup models for ads.
Calendar art, movie posters, and regular decorative posters.
Fantasy art. For a small example, Google "Orc Pinups."
Holiday pinups (A Halloween pinup is one of the official entry categories).
Pinups in traditional airbrush cartoon style (Petty, Vargas), or as photorealistic images (Farrah Fawcett, Betty Grable)
Feminine or masculine pinups. This is an equal opportunity Challenge.
Comments
Here is a look at pinups through four lenses, which will hopefully give you inspiration in creating your amazing pinups. However, the subject is vast, and because comments here need to be brief, this post will barely touch upon some of the main artists and genres.
1. Advertising
2. Entertainment
3. Military Morale
4. Holiday Spirit
All of the images below are clickable.
Advertising
In late 19th century Paris, Jules Cheret discovered what is now an open secret in the advertising world - that if you add sex appeal to a product, it will sell better. Cheret, an artist and printer, was the Godfather of the pinup poster. His posters of beautiful women, which he posted on street corners to advertise local burlesque revues (such as the Follies Bergeres and Moulin Rouge), eventually became so popular that the French government began taxing them!
Cheret opened the floodgates. All sorts of companies began to seek popular pinup artists to help sell their products, which continues to this day. Here is a small sampling:
Best Selling movie poster
Entertainment
It is difficult to determine when pinups stopped primarily being vehicles for advertising, and began to also be appreciated in their own right as entertaining art. At some point, pinup-style art began to be used on calendars and posters, as well as stand-alone artwork in magazines. A list of the most famous pinup artists in the 20th century would include George Petty, Gil Elvgren, Zoe Mozert, Art Frahm, and Alberto Vargas.
George Petty - the name "Petty Girl" was coined to describe his style. It was so popular that a movie was even made with the same name. And of course, Petty himself illustrated the movie poster.
Gil Elvgren - "Splendid View"
Zoe Mozert painting her famous movie poster for "The Outlaw"
Art Frahm was known for his models with poor elastic in their panties.
Alberto Vargas was famous for his work in Esquire, and later in Playboy.
Today, a new generation of artists are continuing the pinup tradition. The 50's look is once again being popularized by artists such as Greg Hildebrandt and Fiona Stephenson.
Greg Hildebrandt
Fiona Stephenson
And finally, no entertainment category would be complete without mentioning photographic pinup posters.
The best-selling poster of all time was Farrah Fawcett, from 1976, with over 12 million copies sold.
Iconic Marilyn Monroe poster, fromThe Seven Year Itch
Arnold Schwarzenner back in the 1970's
The queen of pinups, Bettie Page
Military Morale
In WW1, US President Woodrow Wilson formed the Division of Pictorial Publicity to stir up patriotism and inspire new troops to fight.
This was one of the poster messages, which seems a bit odd today:
Here is a masculine call to join the Navy
In WW2, pinups really hit their stride. Allies and Axis forces both used them to boost morale.
The famous Betty Grable poster - 5 million were distributed.
WW2 was also considered the golden age of aircraft nose art. According the wikipedia, the practice of adding pinup art to the nose of the plane was "to express the individuality often constrained by the uniformity of the military, to evoke memories of home and peacetime life, and as a kind of psychological protection against the stresses of war and the probability of death. The appeal, in part, came from nose art not being officially approved, even when the regulations against it were not enforced." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_art
Holiday Spirit
Holidays have always been a ripe subject for pinup artists, especially in calendar art.
Here are several pinups with a Halloween theme:
For Halloween pinup photos (Hollywood publicity photos), try this link provided by Diomede.
HAVE A WONDERFUL CHALLENGE!
Ringo Monfort is the Carrara PA sponsor for this Challenge!
I posted his profile here.
Unfortunately, it is going to be mighty difficult to find anything in the Daz store to help with a pinup image.
On a less sarcastic note, I like having 3 distinct categories, PR, NPR, and... (Halloween?) . Well done.
EDIT:
Expressions for the "Gibson Girl" Jury duty by the "new women", via the Library of Congress collection, from their virtual exhibit, The Gibson Girl's America.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gibson-girls-america/the-gibson-girl-as-the-new-woman.html
Yeah... sounds fun!
cheesy beef or beefy cheese?
crossdressing michael
...a Troll in a loin cloth?
think they call it butfloss lol
Rules question - really
-
I did an entry for Challenge #6, movie poster fobia, that I would like to start over from scratch. Everything would be new in the sense that I would use different figures, model new clothes and acessories, set up a brand new scene with brand new NPR settings, etc. I think my NPR tools and skills have improved. However, I could understand if this would be prohibited by the "must be new" rule.
The question is, is an image new if it is a new scene with entirely new elements and settings? Or, is it not new because the basic concept (humorous NPR horror poster with Art Frahm elements) remains the same?
Rule waived in your case. You the man!
Besides, you correctly guessed the Challenge theme. Extra points! Diomede in the early lead!
Thanks!
.
very interesting choce :)
here's something of mine from quite a while ago
not an entry , you've probably heard of Ernie Schlanganblinder?
Sorry, was in a hurry and gave a joking (but true) answer.
I actually remember your entry from that Challenge, as I have researched most of them. What a resource! And we have you to thank for setting it up.
I think that Art Frahm images are amazing. Anyone here who does an homage to Frahm is going to get some slack. Second, if it is "a new scene with entirely new elements and settings," then it sounds different enough to be "new."
Looking forward to seeing where you go with this!
Ha! Yes, he is a household name around here.
When deciding on this theme, I couldn't help thinking how you - my favorite Carrara artist - would deal with it. I've never seen you do a pinup.
Perhaps I just missed them in the past?
oh I used to run a blog and most of my visitors were women artists and I didnt want to appear sexist so I have avoided the subject by habit :)
you can never tread too carefully in some things
UnifiedBrain, very inspiring theme of challenge! I've never did any pinup (as on your picture above). My pot is starting to boil.
WIP Halloween
Pinup Orc
HAHAHA!! A sneaky video!
If you are looking for materials for a sexy pinup, you don't have far to look.
Lukas by Vyusur
Wow! Thank you, UnifiedBrain! Now I have an idea about the pinup.
Bikini time
OK, this post struck a chord. Are you sure that these ladies - who are artists - would have their sensibilities offended by a standard pinup? Or is it fear of political correctness regarding treating women as objects?
You know your visitors (fans) bettter than I, but I think that most women (especially women artists) are open to attractive expressions of the human figure.
Plus, it is a fact that some of the most famous and sought-after pinup artists from the past (and present) are women. They seem to me more like strong female role models than anything else. All of them are versed in multiple genres and artistic techniques. They don't apologize for their pinup work, and I think you will agree, there is no reason for them to do so.
In the last century, there was Joyce Ballantyne (who also created the famous Coppertone ad), Pearl Frush, and Zoe Mozert. There was also the luminous paintings of Mabel Rollins Harris, an artist in the 1930's who was equally at home illustrating children's books as she was in showing the female figure in all it's glory (you'll have to Google her, as most of her adult artwork was nudes). And of course, Olivia De Berardinis, who took over for Vargas in Playboy.
Images from each are posted below.
Fortunately, Olivia is still going strong, leading the next generation of talented gals who have kept the comic-fantasy-pinup fires lit. Today we see fabulous work from Fiona Stephenson, Jennifer Janseko, Susan Heidi, Nathalie Rattner, and Carla Wyzgala. A sample of their work is also posted below. Within this post, I thought it would be nice to post some pictures of the actual artists as well:
Oliva
Fiona Stephenson Her twitter feed is well worth a look
Jennifer Janesco
Susan Heidi
Carla Wyzgala
NPR
Carrara setup
Base render after Topaz Adjust used for colour correction.
NPR - used combination of Filter Forge and FotoSketcher
UB and HW - The forum TOS seems to address these issues. Lets all try to be reasonable, and if the Mods have to step in for some rare and exceptional reason, lets try to be understanding of their role, and make changes as required. Copied and pasted from the forum TOS link. Will comment on Joyce Ballantyne in second post.
Joyce Ballantyne sometimes used herself as her model. Nice way to save money. In my opinion, her work entitled, Of Course, You Have to Use Your Imagination, would be very, very, very tame if posted to the Daz gallery. I think my second entry will have to be something in her framework.
Vyusur - fun video, I was fooled. I used your Lukas character for Frazetta last month, might see how he looks in a kilt holding a bag of celery this month.
HeadWax - Ernie better worry about the animal rights folks if he mistreats his snake in public.
Bunyip - wow, again, you are on speed dial. Impressive already. Of the three, I like NPR the best (because you know I like NPR), then bikini time, then the orc pinup. The orc could use a little more contrast with the background, in my view.
Are you trying to create some controversy? I'll go along with it if it gets us more entries. :)
Not sure why you think TOS is a factor in my post. I try to deal with facts. Daz is a pinup haven. I have outlined very clearly in the first post what the constraints are in the Challenge, and they are perfectly aligned with TOS. My comment was more about the acceptance of pinups as legitimate art. In responding to HW, I was wondering about the need to be cautious when discussing or displaying pinups online when female artists were present. I wondered aloud if it was necessary, or if it was unnecessary political correctness, given in part that female artists are solidly entrenched in the pinup field. I posted pictures of these gals because I admire them for their talent and accomplishments. That was it.
Are any female artists here offended by pinup art?
Note - I changed General Rule #1. Before, if you entered 3 images, they had to each be in different categories - PR, NPR, or Halloween. The change is, now you can enter 2 images in a single category, but if you enter a third one, it has to be in one of the other categories.
Technically, it means that you can now enter 3 PhotoReal images, as long as one is Halloween. The same goes for NonPhotoReal.
Hope that is clear!
Hey Bunyip,
I liked all three, and I hope that you don't mind some comments. Feel free to ignore, for sure.
I think that the Orc render violates the first rule of pinups, that the model has to be physically attractive. Of couse, I might feel differently if I was an orc.
The Bikini Time render had all the elements of a good PR render - attractiveness, pose, and facial expression. The lighting is good - but can it be better? Her face is kind of dark. Plus, the background is so real, that it makes me more critical of her costume and hair. Something about them doesn't look right to me. High realism in PR images is difficult to pull off - the flaws are noticed but difficult to explain sometimes. I'm not sure that I could do as well, so I congratulate you on your efforts. Please keep working on it. We now have a Challenge designed for the realistic human figure geeks, and I hope that a few show up to share their secrets. PhilW? Margaremoto? Are you folks out there?
Your third render, NPR, has a cool environment. Can you make the facial expression more clear, and central to the image? Can you do a more provocative pose? Most of the time, I just want to see a sexier image, and that is sometimes hard to define!
Not if you include some male pinups as well
Of course! This is an equal opportunity Challenge.