Tribute to Nadar...

A quarter ago for my Digital Illustration class I decided to play with a digital tintype/ambrotype idea, I wanted to see if I could create a realistic tintype through digital printing/photoshop. For the course we had to demonstrate photoshop skills, so I decided to "hand colour" the images and drop backrounds into them. I used old Nadar portraits as my images because I am a huge fan of his and have wanted to do a project with his work in it for some time. I tried to keep everything period specific. The boxes I had made/engraved in Colorado. I stained the boxes.The engraving is a piece of an Aubrey Beardsley cover which I modified. Beardsley being my favorite artist of this period seemed only right for the detail. I wanted the images to be presented like that of a daguerrotype/ambrotype so i decided to line one side with velvet. The rope was added to mimick a gold frame. This was a really fun project and came out pretty close to how I had hoped it would. The images actually lose/gain tones depending on how they are turned in the light, much like that of an ambrotype. Whites go silver, skintones fade , etc.

Note- This was a test run for a larger more elaborate series I plan on doing with my own models.