Hollywood Kodachrome

These women are not mere mortals but goddesses. My drawings were inspired by photographs of old Hollywood movie stars taken with Kodachrome film. This film was first produced as 16mm film for home movies in 1935. It was then manufactured for 35mm still and slide film a year later. It had a complicated development process, but the results were worth it. Colours values were enhanced significantly and could be manipulated creatively. The images had sharp, crisp detail and very little grain which was beautiful but made it more difficult to retouch.

How makeup was applied became more essential, and skin imperfections had to be dealt with before the shoot. You also had to be careful though not to put too much makeup on or it could look like a mask. Lighting had to be three times as bright to register on Kodachrome film which was also problematic for makeup which could melt down the models face.

Lots of photographers kept away from this troublesome film, but Hollywood could see its artistic merits. They worked with brilliant colours in the cinema and were able to replicate these images in film stills. I love these portraits with their glimpse on Hollywood perfection a perfection which took hours to set up and create. Nothing is real about these images hence the goddess effect. I loved drawing these perfect faces, perfect poses, stripping them back even more and bringing in flat, bright colours.