With Halloween coming up and having to research for various shoots and costumes (including my own which I will write about separately), I have been drawn towards darker influences.

When I started preparing for my first shoot, a calender and possible magazine submission with Jennifer Byron photography (http://jenniferbyron.com/) I had absolutely no idea what look I was going for. I knew that it had to be dark/passable as a Halloween theme and also utilise these glittery skulls I had (photographers request) in a different way to last year.

Ker by Jason Harry (www.jasonharry.com)

So, I started looking online for inspiration and here’s what I liked:

Make up inspired by Alex Box.

make up by Alex Box

Vogue Paris Halloween

Inner Demons Photographed by Jerry Bennet :: Modeled & MUA by Manchester Wardrobe and Styled by Alex London Source: http://hautemacabre.com/

I didn’t use all of these influences literally as I always like to create my own looks and items I feel strongly about at the moment but finding inspirational images helps me get a feel for the look I’m trying to create and imagine the possibilities.

I did however try out the make up, I’ve always had a love of organic vein/root patterns and black line drawings so I felt like it needed to be part of the character I was creating.

make up trial (please excuse terrible photobooth pics, it did look better in real life)

I didn’t do this hairstyle for the actual shoot and the dress was covered in so many chains and accessories you wouldn’t recognise it. Images from this shoot hopefully to follow shortly.

At the moment I’m planning a shoot for the Eustratia (www.eustratia.co.uk) feature in Alternative magazine with Toria Brigtside (http://www.modelmayhem.com/1592461).

They have requested we showcase as many different styles as possible so I have decided to give each of the four models a character based on stereotypical types of alt girls/goths. Though the outfits will be quite different, the colour scheme and styling will hopefully tie everything together to produce a concise collection of images.

We will have a very limited time to get ready for this shoot so I thought it would be better to use wigs for at least two of the models, preferably black wigs.

Inspiration:

source: Haute Macabre deisgns: mother of London, blacklickorish latex

Big black hair

While looking for general inspiration I came across two sets of images that I liked which both featured these very high, black, messy up dos. I thought something like this would go perfectly with two of my looks while also being one of these features that ties the whole thing together so I customised a couple of black wigs I had in my collection.

wigs

It isn’t really evident from the pictures but they actually have quite a lot of texture going on. For the first one I actually used my black hair swan and wire scupture which was previously an alien helmet hair ball. I like recycling stuff I’ve used in previous shoots. You can view what is has been used as previously here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=208808015853005&set=a.115201681880306.11512.115197565214051&type=3&theater

More inspiration:

Harpers Bazaar

I was thinking of using a little veil like this on a couple of the models.

Schmuck mag.

And even perhaps using my wire-mesh eyepatch.

To finish off, here are some bad pictures of my quick outfit sketches, hopefully the silhouettes are still visible.

Models left to right: Helen, Amber, Stacey, Victoria

I’m looking forward to this shoot but still have quite a lot of work to do finalising everything.