Need subjects for velvet paintings

I’m trying to find some non-copyrighted color photos to use as subjects for some velvet paintings I want to produce. Does anyone have any old snapshots they want to share that have that 1930’s to 1950’s classic Leeteg, Erwin, Bouvier look? Or does anyone have any moody Tiki photos that would look cool on velvet?

Unga,

I'm crying......

And my stomach muscles hurt.

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2008-04-07 05:51 ]

UB and his photoshop tricks.

Very amusink. Unfortunately, both of the above subjects are not really ideal for being rendered on black velvet, and I will explain why.

But let me first say that, unlike with Tiki carving, there is no black velvet painting revival to speak off yet, and that's a darn shame! So I am in support of all and any efforts to revive the art form, and here is my contribution:

Unfortunately, I did not have a live nude vahine handy, so Crazy Al's classic bobber will have to do. As in all great painting the LIGHT is of critical importance. The flat light that is thrown on the two subjects above is very undramatic. Here is the same light used on our model, creating a generic, matter of fact look:

Below is a much better lighting concept, a modeling key light from the left, and a cross light from the right, sculpting the body and separating it from the background. This lighting is best for photography, to make the subject as three dimensional as possible:

Looking much better, but we want to paint with light like Caravaggio did on canvas, but for our black velvet medium. For that, part of the figure has to melt with the black velvet, the shadow parts have to be pitch black with no fill light, so it looks like the nude is emerging out of the darkness. That is what creates the glow and mystery of a good velvet painting:

For this effect, I used just one key light, slightly diffused, no fill, no back light. This one here is from below, but a top light can look good too, especially with men.

Problem is, you usually won't find this type of look in snapshots that people have lying around. But you are on the right track asking for "moody" photographs. I hope this will give you further guidance to what to look out for.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-01-28 20:52 ]

Bigbrotiki, did you figure that out? Thats amazing how much not only what light but from where! I am impressed! We never saw that at art school.

Thanks BB. That's my OTHER job: as director of photography on movies, music videos and commercials, it is all about the lighting. Looking thru the camera is just a small part of the activity, the atmosphere you create through lighting is really your signature.

Yah, the greats understand the relationship between light and shadow. Gutzon Borglum, Ansel Adams, Tyree.

How about going through the bazillon old Hawaii and Tahiti post cards for subjects? You're not going to copy the image - you're just looking for inspiration, right?

Really interesting post Sven :D Is the velvet just stretched over a frame in the same way a canvas would be? And what paint - oil? acrylic?

Good questions. Sorry, I don't know, I never tried it.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

GROG is Great! New piece...."Velvet Jungle" on sale now.

Grog's genius piece proves a good point: With today's computer photo programs, like photo shop or even I-photo, flat lit subjects can be made into better black velvet models by cranking up the contrast and bringing out the highlights while bringing down the shadow areas....although I have no idea how he managed to do that with Unga's "boyfriend", he really is as flat as a flounder (lighting-wise).

Sorry Sven, you can't have em.

what would kristin gehring say...

Thank you for the lesson in lighting. Going back to Leeteg of Tahiti I now see so well how important it is for dramatic effect. There's got to be some TCers who'd love to pose for you if you wanted to work with me. :)

Here are some ideas I thought I'd work from. They're all from old post cards, but again I'm reluctant to use them as a source because of potential copyright issues. The last one is a rough idea to mix Tiki with Caravagio. Tikiavagio?

I've been wanting a velvet painting of Don Ho for years now. Also, a Blue Hawaii velvet of Elvis. It seems like every other era of Elvis is seen all the time on velvet, but I've not myself been able to track down a Blue Hawaii one.

I would think the Elvis one could be a big seller anywhere, while a Don Ho series of velvets might move in tiki aficianado circles.

Just a suggestion...

Sigh. Now: WHO here would like to have a fine black velvet painting hanging in their home bar/rec room? Quite a few folks, I would assume.
So: Here is a genuine request for material with which WE, the TCers, could help the creation of such paintings become a reality....AND, even better, put the concept of making them yourself out there, maybe sowing the seed for more people to get into it !!!...and all we can muster up is this?

The only person who came even close to posting something productive in terms of model material was the initial poster himself! Embarrassing.

To keep Tiki culture alive and growing, you have to do a little work, contribute, water the Tiki Garden!
Why do I have to do everything round here.... This is not even my expertise....grumble grumble...

Koolau had a good suggestion: Old postcards. Now good ones are not that easy to come by, but with all the hunters and collectors here, there must be more than these two for example:

Then there are the Mai Kai calendar girls:

And old tourist photo books and brochures. This guy has nice shading for black velvet portraiture:

But ultimately, the classic black velvet subject is the Wahine, preferably in the nude. Now we do not necessarily need a Polynesian nude, one can simply ad the island elements to a classic nude photo in the painting:

I easily could see her sitting on a rock, with a waterfall pouring over her. This and the next two nudes are by 50s photographer Andre DeDienes, who did tons of nude photo books for the adult "artistic" photography connoisseurs of the mid-century.

Here is a leafy nature girl that would look nice on velvet:

And look at her....uh, GUITAR !:

Beachcomb, I would not worry about copyright until you plan to make thousands of paintings, really! So you can go and use contemporary photos like these:

On the next one, which is another example of low angle key lighting, I tried to do the "crank-up-the-contrast" trick, which was unfavorable for her facial features, but then, who's complaining...:

The two contemporary photos above are by Teva Sylvain, descendant of Sylvain, THE outstanding photographer of Tahitian Vahines in the 20th Century. If anybody ever turns this classic photo by Sylvain below into a good black velvet, I want it:

'nuff said.

'nuff said alright... 8) 8) :wink:

PS: another very informative, well researched and visually stunning post Sven!

If Mai-Kai calendar girls are desirable for black velvets (and I think they are, even though they are not nude), there are plenty of pictures of them available here for inspiration:

1966
1975
1978
1990
And the several years of Mai-Kai calendars that Swanky posted on his blog.

I think this one in particular would make a stunning velvet:

Here are a couple of velvets from our collection to perhaps 'inspire' you.

I'm not sure if basing your velvet painting on some old photos or postcards will get you in trouble until you start reproducing it and making tons of money selling it. If what you want to do is use some old pics as 'inspiration' I'd say you'd be in very good company. (Although I'd tend to steer clear of a certain well-known M. Mouse. His bosses tend to be, ironically, a bit overzealous in the protection racket.).

Naked, or semi-naked ladies in tropical settings are an obvious choice, and Svens' post above is a great jumping-off point. Elvis has been done a lot but it seems his Estate doesn't mind too much these days (sensible of them).

It really comes down to the lighting with a velvet. You just gotta go for mood and drama and boldness. Watch old Film Noir as well. You can say you're doing 'research' while enjoying great film.

Oh, and please don't paint bullfighters. Nothing personal against bullfighters, but they already have too many pictures of themselves in velvet. I know vanity is part of their 'thing' but really...

Wasn't it Picasso who said “good artists copy, great artists steal.”?

CH

Feel free to take a look at MY website for inspiration. If you want to use one of the shots I took as inspiration we can talk about some kind of trade or reference in exchange. best way to contact me is peter_t_richards @ yahoooooooooooo .com you get the idea. Please do NOT reproduce without my permission... but I am certainly willing to talk and work with any TC artist or do an exchange.

Cheers

http://www.TheHulaDance.com

[ Edited by: Blowfish 2008-01-31 11:06 ]

On 2008-01-30 23:22, bigbrotiki wrote:

The two contemporary photos above are by Teva Sylvain, descendant of Sylvain, THE outstanding photographer of Tahitian Vahines in the 20th Century.

There are a lot of great Teva Sylvain photos on this website:
http://www.pacific-promotion.com.fr/WW70AWP/WW70AWP.EXE/CONNECT/Tahiti?mappel=CONNEXION&langue=us&mconnex=photo
Here are some examples that I think would be great for black velvet insperation (They are all copyright PACIFIC PROMOTION TAHITI SA.)

There are just a few tiki related photos like these:

And there are also some great wallpapers - this is the one on my desktop:

Here's my 'I wish I really had Photo Shop to do this right' manipulation of a post card to see what I could come up with for a reference. I know there are TCers who could do a much better job than me on some of the great photos people are submitting.

Does anyone make a color printer that works on velvet? :)

Many of the old (1950s or earlier) Tahiti and Marquesas travel books have nice B&W photos with great contrast. Ditto the older Oceanic arts books for tikis. I've found quite a few complete books on the internet archive and project gutenberg, and ebay listings often have some nice scans included. There are always plenty of vintage postcards on there (ebay) too. There is also a very nice Taschen book on Sylvain.
I've been collecting these for a while in the hopes of one day doing a large scale "Beauty and the Beast" sculpture...

Pretty sure this one has been done a few times - he looks very familiar:

As does this chap....

We return to our regular programming:

bonus for Sven - no idea where I got this from:

On 2008-01-31 13:34, Paipo wrote:

Which month was she on the Mai Kai Calendar? :)

Yesssss, that is great! Thank you, my faith is restored!

Now, Beachcomber, you are under the gun! :) In a couple of weeks, we wanna see results!

I think you did great with your photo conversion above. It would be neat if one could store the combination of settings, and then one-click the photos with it, and quickly check if they would work as velvets.

PS.: I am not talking about HER ! :roll: BAD! (also, see Tiki Modern page 268)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-01-31 13:55 ]

Goodness!

This thread is reminding me of going into the ABC stores as a young'n and picking up as many nudey Polynesian girl paraphernalia as I could fit in my backpack.

A local artist has a number of velvet paintings of mugs on the walls of Thatch, some of which are for sale. It's simple to sit a mug on a black backdrop and go to town!

On 2008-01-31 14:04, Trader Tiki wrote:
A local artist has a number of velvet paintings of mugs on the walls of Thatch, some of which are for sale. It's simple to sit a mug on a black backdrop and go to town!

Oh yeah, good point. Many here will remember Flounder's burlap paintings (one of which Wayne Coombs refused to sell to me because he realized it was his last one, drat!). These would work well on velvet I think. Hope he doesn't mind me posting this image.

But I still prefer the wahines. :wink:

This is a vintage ('69) black velvet from NZ, currently on Aussie ebay (I put a link up in tiki marketplace).

At the Taschen store in Beverly Hills I picked up a little book called HULA, Vintage Hawaiian Graphics, Ed. Jim Heimann. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in vintage depictions of wahines. Full of old photos and lots of drawings. (Good for composition ideas.) Here's one photo:

I want to keep this thread going. I need more ideas!

Here's a composite I made using a couple of old exotica album covers. Would it pass the test?

O.K. I considered painting a velvet and soon realized I didn't know what I was doing. I should have known better. I learned long ago I'm no artist. But I asked a friend who does know how to paint to give it a try and this is the result. It was painted from a postcard. I think it looks very nice. It has that Leeteg romantic feel to it.

[ Edited by: Beachcomber 2008-04-01 21:46 ]

Sorry to hear you gave up. We were looking forward to seeing your work. Mind you, that one your friend did is pretty darn nice! If you (or he) are interested in selling it we'd be interested in buying it. Drop us a PM if you're interested...

M&M

Tell the friend he should consider doing more. Nice stuff.

WANT!!!

Too Racy to look at while at a Middle School, will have to check out later, but what a bunch of great photos and ideas for velvet that I saw so far.

Would love to try painting on black velvet.
Anyone have any "how to" resources for black velvet painting?

Hmmmm....looks better on velvet? :)
Guess I could have chosen a better topic for my first post.

That reminds me - I have to fix a flat tire on my car!

When I was searching for art for my Tiki lounge, I found a place located in New York called Trailertaste that sold original imitations of Leeteg and other velvet paintings, but the last time I tried to visit their website a few months ago, it was down, so they're probably out of business. (I also found a thread on this site about them from 2002, when they were still in business).

However, I just did a Yahoo! search and came up with these: http://velvetpaintings.com/

As a professional writer who has friends who are artists and musicians, I hate to sound cavalier about intellectual property, but I think that regardless of what you take as source material, copyrighted or not, you won't get into any trouble as long as you are using the source for a painting to go on your own wall. Now, if you are planning to sell them, that's another matter entirely.

As I understand it, Leeteg freely stole imagery from a photographer who shot Tahitian scenes as sources for his paintings, so you will be following in a grand tradition.

Look how good / realistic this one is, big price on it though

http://cgi.ebay.com/Signed-GUERRERO-NUDE-FEMALE-Painting-On-Black-Velvet_W0QQitemZ270235732999QQihZ017QQcategoryZ551QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[ Edited by: teaKEY 2008-05-08 18:42 ]

Interestingly enough another version of that same painting sold the other day for a mere $152.50. It's not quite as nice, but a whole lot cheaper...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Black-velvet-oil-painting-signed-NUDE-WOMAN-huge_W0QQitemZ230248794620QQihZ013QQcategoryZ551QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

ch

How about koi? Not tiki, but would still look great painted on velvet (I have LOTS more than just these 3 photos):

I commissioned an artist new to velvet to work up a series of paintings in that Erwin/ Tyree/ Bouvier/ Leeteg style that I hope people might be interested in buying from him. If there is enough interest there will be more. Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

On 2008-01-28 10:20, Beachcomber wrote:
I’m trying to find some non-copyrighted color photos to use as subjects for some velvet paintings I want to produce. Does anyone have any old snapshots they want to share that have that 1930’s to 1950’s classic Leeteg, Erwin, Bouvier look? Or does anyone have any moody Tiki photos that would look cool on velvet?

..i'll send ya a picture of me nekkid....you can paint that if you like...