Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Introducing the Art Nudes Forum

Forum is up, running and starting to get some activity happening thanks to a few early adapters. Head on over there and sign up, or you'll miss out on the fun.

Please report any other difficulties to me via email, or in the comments below.

Thanks! MB


Hey, big news today. As part of my ongoing effort to improve this blog (and keep myself entertained) I'm pleased to introduce the official Art Nudes Forum. The link is at the top of the blog in the left hand column.

It's my hope that this new feature will make this blog less a soapbox and more a community. I invite all of you to join up. Signing up is free and easy to do. You'll be able to submit your work for critique, critique others, post your favourite images, ask questions, share knowledge and generally have fun.

Right now the forum is in it's infancy, but I'm wide open to suggestions for new topics and features. I'm also looking for forum moderators, so if anyone's interested, please let me know.

artnudes.mybb3.org

Fluffytek Art Blog: The Golden Fluffies 2008



Lin and Richard of the Fluffytek Art Blog have once again announced their annual Golden Fluffies Award to the best sites in the fine art nude blogosphere.

I'm extremely pleased to announce that they have awarded Art Nudes the Photographic Blog Special Achievement Award Thank you! Although I think they maybe being overly generous with their praise, I am nonetheless very flattered.

I'm in some very fine company, as Lin and Richard have scanned the web relentlessly and really keep their fingers on the pulse of the photo blog community.

I encourage you all to visit their site to see the full post with all winners.

Fluffytek Art Blog: The Golden Fluffies 2008

Monday, December 29, 2008

Ian Leake



Lovely platinum prints by UK photographer Ian Leake.

ianleake.com

Frank Rheinboldt



Frank Rheinboldt is a Paris based artist and master of the collage and montage. Check out his biography, he sounds like he'd have some great stories to tell over drinks some time!

Frank Rheinboldt

Friday, December 26, 2008

Nagib El-Desouky



Art Nudes reader Nagib El-Desouky wrote in to let us know he's updated his website.

Nagib El-Desouky | photography/music

tableau_synoptique



In an incredible bit of serendipity, French photographer Stephane Lallemand sent me this image and a link to a gallery of his other painting inspired photographs just as I was preparing the post below.

tableau_synoptique

Nudes in Art History



Olympia, 1863 by Edouard Manet

As evidenced by the post above, perhaps one of the richest sources for photographic inspiration when doing figurative photography is art history. Artinthepicture.com has hundreds of paintings organized by tag and appears to be an excellent resource. I've added this one to the perma-links under the Photographic Reference section.

Art in the Picture.com

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Season's Greetings!



All the best of the season to all the readers of Art Nudes!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Masking Hair in Photoshop CS3



Here's a fairly advanced Photoshop tutorial from Layers Magazine that I found very helpful earlier today, so I thought I'd share.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial | Masking Hair in Photoshop CS3

Ted Preuss Photography



I just visited the website of photographer Ted Preuss. He has a new to me series of platinum/palladium prints called Oasis of Mara, that is well worth visiting for.

Ted Preuss Photography

Monday, December 22, 2008

Changes for 2009

Regular readers will notice several changes to the look and functionality of Art Nudes. After more that 5 years in the "classic" blogger mode, which required lots of ponderous html coding to modify the look of the site, I've upgraded to the new blogger template system.

While I'm still playing around a bit, and more changes are likely, some of the most important changes are as follows:

1) Click on the post title to go to that post's individual URL, complete with linking, commenting and emailing capability.

2) RSS feeds seem to be more popular with folks than I thought, so I've put the site feed subscription button right at the top.

3) Condensed site archive with post titles for easier browsing into the distant past.

4) Labels directory so you can see all posts sorted by type, for instance "male nudes" or "reader profile"

5) Also added "Followers" gadget so fellow Bloggers can subscribe and automatically have a link to their blogger profile and blog added.

Feel free to let me know what you think, and report any bugs via the comments.

christian hang photography



Alt process nudes and other goodies by German photographer and new subscriber to the Art Nudes "follower" feature, Christian Hang.

christian hang photography

Saturday, December 20, 2008

50's Pinup Girls & Vintage Nude Photography




As a photographer who likes to think of his work surviving in the world after I'm gone, and a collector of vintage photography, I was really pleased to get an email from John DeFeo asking me to check out his site.

John rescues fading and damaged Anscochrome and Ektachrome colour slides of nude and pinup photography from the 1950s and lovingly restores them. The before and after results are incredible!

50nudes.com

Greta Buysse




Stunning, masterful, work by Belgian photographer Greta Buysse.

Greta Buysse

photoxyde




Heavily textured work by French Photoshop wizard Marc Dubord

photoxyde

Neil Huxtable




Light and airy nude portraits by Neil Huxtable

Neil Huxtable

Via: Indie Nudes

New 2257 Regulations




American photographers who shoot nudes should be aware that new record keeping regulations coming into effect this year. I feel extra fortunate to be a Canuck when I read this. The idea that you could get 5 years in prison for faulty record keeping makes me shudder.


18 December 2008 - The US Department of Justice published the NEW REVISED 2257 REGULATIONS including the 2257A changes mandated by Congress for compliance with the Adam Walsh Act which established as 18 USC c:110 s:2257A

These new record keeping regulations extend a new record keeping requirement to a lot of work involving mere nudity, and some with no actual nudity at all, presented in any way that can be interpreted as "lascivious exhibition of the genitals or public area" [even if covered] that is produced on or after March 18, 2009


SOURCE DOCUMENTS

Text Version

PDF Version

Lengthy Discussion Thread on Model Mayhem.

2257 REGULATIONS Discussion

Sunday, December 14, 2008

MITSUO SUZUKI




My friend Mitsuo Suzuki wrote in to let us know that he's added a new gallery to his website. It's called Naked 2, show him support and go check it out.

MITSUO SUZUKI

By the way, Mitsuo is one of the featured artists in the Art Nudes Calendar. Have you bought yours yet?



Russian photographer Pavel Kislev has revised and expanded his website. There are treasures to be discovered here if you can navigate the interface.

photokiselev

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Added a new FeedBurner RSS feed. If you're one of the people that likes this sort of this, here's your chance!

 Subscribe in a reader

Photos by Jim Wrightwood - photo.net




A Photo.net portfolio of studio and environmental nudes by Jim Wrightwood.

Photos by Jim Wrightwood - photo.net

Lee Odegard




Here's a small portfolio of moody low key nudes by Art Nudes reader Lee Odegard.

Lee Odegard

Thorsten Jankowski | Fotografie | Portrait | Schwangerschaftsfotografie | Akt | Paaraufnahmen | fotografische Skulpturen




Thorsten Jankowski wrote in to say he's updated his website with a new gallery of his "sculptural" nudes. The man's work is filed in my private bookmarks under Poses. Now I just need some models that can do the sort of thing he gets out of his models!

Thorsten Jankowski

Sunday, December 07, 2008

The Associated Press: Pinup Bettie Page hospitalized after heart attack




Sad news today. Bettie Page, who was inarguably the greatest figure model in history, is gravely ill and not likely to recover.

Thank you Bettie, you changed the world for photographers and models, and we're grateful.

(Photo is Bettie Page shooting with Bunny Yeager, date unknown)

The Associated Press: Pinup Bettie Page hospitalized after heart attack

UPDATE: AFP: American pin-up and culture icon Bettie Page dead at 85


Here's a very good site filled with hundreds of images of Ms. Page and related memorabilia.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

A Special Message from Art Nudes

Here's a special seasonal post for you all. This is the time of year where in countries that have a large Christian population, charitable giving increases dramatically as part of the Christmas season. This is a great thing! I encourage everyone to help the less fortunate in any way you can. However, if you're like me, and feel uncomfortable with the fact the many of the largest charities out there are "faith-based", and serve up a healthy portion of indoctrination along with the food and medicine, you may be interested in this list of secular charities. These organizations do great work without any proselytizing. I encourage you to support them.

UNICEF

Oxfam International

Doctors Without Borders

Kiva - Loans that change lives

The Nature Conservancy - Protecting Nature, Preserving Life

Amnesty International | Working to Protect Human Rights

Ralph Gibson




I don't normally link to individual galleries within a website. However, photographer Ralph Gibson's career spans more than 40 years and there is so very much to see on his site, I've gone straight to his Wounded Nurse series. It's up to you to explore from there.

Ralph Gibson

photographer Konstantin Krasnobaev | photo.sight




Big bold figure studies by Konstantin Krasnobaev.

photographer Konstantin Krasnobaev

Samantha West Photography




I knew photographer Samantha West was from New York before I even read her bio. Though we live in a global community connected by the web, my work as a blogger has shown me that there are still distinctly regional styles. Eastern Europe & Russia, Japan and New York all have a unique look. Ms. West's work is pure New York.

Samantha West Photography

John F. Cooper Photography




Mainly fashion & beauty images, but beautiful work by photographer John F. Cooper.

John F. Cooper Photography