Danger’s Untold

I was hired to create the interior art for Danger’s Untold, a fantasy role-playing game about a girl who is transported to a magical world. Much like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz, these stories all focus on a girl who is the hero of a fantastic story. When I was commissioned to create the art for this project, I started by thinking about characters. Aside from the Heroine, I created a Cursed Prince, a roguish hero with beast makeup and byronic curls, a Wizard with cold but beautiful features, a lovely fairy princess, and a warrior with silver armor.

I spent two months preparing for the Danger’s Untold photoshoots. I recruited models, built armor, commissioned costumes, borrowed dresses, bought prosthetics and scouted locations to prep for this shoot.

The Heroine and the Cursed Prince

The Heroine and the Cursed Prince

This is my favorite type of photoshoot.

I adore journalism, food photography, weddings, events, but my very favorite thing to do is to let my imagination run wild and tell fantasy stories with photography. I loved every aspect of this shoot, from working with costumers to design unique costumes for the shoot, to imagining the relationships between the characters and constructing scenes between them. I like to imagine the stories that these photos could be telling. I want these images to tell you a story, a love story, and adventure story, a story about family.

These images aren’t meant to tell any specific story though – I want you to look at them and see the fairytale you dream up. I hope you will take these characters as points of inspiration to tell your own story.

The image on the left is my favorite from the shoot. We were down by the water, standing on the sand, the bridge behind us and the sand under our feet. Jared suggested this pose, and I arranged their heads just-so. To me, this image is mysterious and romantic. It makes me want to read the novel that it’s from. That’s my goal when I take photos like this, to make you want to watch the movie or read the book that it implies.

Danger’s Untold was funded via Kickstarter. We hear about Kickstarter projects when they’re fund raising, and if one goes wrong, but rarely when one goes right. This is a Kickstarter done right. I’m delivering to my client, who get to deliver to their backers. Along the way, I’ve gotten to give work to makeup artists, costumers, and models. The money went out to me and then spread out to an artistic community. We all got to win on this one.

If you like this project and have a project of your own you’d like to hire me for, contact me at jrblackwell@mail.com for information and estimates.

Click on any photo below to make it larger.

Credits:

Models:
Heroine: Sara Gates: http://shewolfcosplays.tumblr.com/
Cursed Prince: Jared Axelrod: http://www.jaredaxelrod.com
Princess: Nena Boling (http://www.beautyandbritches.com/)
The Wizard: Dan Waegel
Warrior: Jenn Steen (http://projectnpt.com/)
Baby: Tuktuk

Costumes by:
Wizard Costume: Liza James: (http://www.findliza.com/)
Cursed Prince: Jared Axelrod: (http://www.jaredaxelrod.com)
Princess corset and skirt: Mayfaire Moon (http://mayfairemoon.com/)Armor: J.R. Blackwell (www.jrblackwell.com)

Makeup
Warrior, Heroine, Princess, Wizard makeup by Elizabeth Terenchin: (http://www.makeupartistliz.com/)
Cursed Prince makeup by Sara Gates: (http://rimyeffects.tumblr.com/)

Photos were taken in Forbidden Drive in Philadelphia: http://www.fow.org/about-park

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