Based in Luxembourg, Europe, Tsume Art is known for their stunning, humongous and elaborate 1/8 scale figures... But what's important is they have the Naruto series licence, and they clearly love Itachi as much as I do (me more ofc). Finally, after nearly a year of quietly displaying their 2nd Itachi figure in my shelf (couldn't afford their 1st *sobs*), I gave my face a tight smack and worked up the motivation to do him due justice.
Dead or alive, Itachi's charm remains on full drive.
I can stare at those lashes and Sexyringan all day...
Till now I still find it a bummer that he's 1/10 scaled (the preset scale under Tsume's X-tra line, presumably named so collectors could learn to be thankful they even have this line). What's unfortunate is that this size compromised the bishie characteristic - the ideal 8 heads proportion. So currently he's looking quite squashed (...but I still love the figure [I have to, I paid $130 for this]).
Here's the condensed info on the figure:
Series: Naruto Shippuuden
Manufacturer: Tsume
Product Line: X-tra
Scale: 1/10
Material: PVC
Sculptor: Cyril Farudja (Sculptor), Guillaume Hémery & Mickael Gros (Color producer)
Release Date: Oct. 2016
Since this is his dead form (ugh the fact that I have to type this...), I figured it appropriate to do a background along this line, drawing inspirations from these images:
A graveyard for the location (not physically doing it there, ofc)
...With coffins in the backdrop like how it was done in the show
To keep things simple and economical, I've restricted to mainly A3 and A4 craft papers bought at the all mighty Art Friend, and created the necessary props:
I did away with the chunky memorial headstones and opted for the cross, so no chance of it being mistaken as mere blocks of rectangle
Also, since my family is Buddhist, things got quite tense between me and my mother, and she wasn't AT ALL pleased with me replicating so many crosses and coffins... (Actually, I kinda brought this upon myself when I sought her advice on the right colour tone for making graveyards lol. She became wary since then)
The coffins were much more straightforward as long as you get the measurements right (and don't screw up the cutting process)
Fake shrubs were added to enhance the aged effect (purchasable as a small pack at crafts store)
While these were the only props I did, they took (esp. the crosses) took a few days... I was unsure of the quantities and kept getting distracted by YouTube...
Alas, it was finally done and I've dragged another 3 days just to get it published...:
The full photograph of this post's click bait, also my favourite out of the lot
The feather effect was an experimental touch to spice the photograph up, and I loved how it gave moment and power to Itachi as the commander of the crows
Here I made the feathers less opaque to compare its effects on the photo's mood
... Depending on how one would like to interpret this, I initially wanted him to be depicted as the God of the Undead (hence the title), since he did stopped this reanimation* and all. However, the emptiness of the landscape and his younger self in the background almost made it melancholic and him yearning to be alive
*Known as edo tensei, it is a forbidden technique casted by a user, who having used a live sacrifice and weaved a specific set of hand signs, could use the live body as a medium to summon the dead. The regenerative nature of the summoned souls makes this twice as deadly
I usually don't show edits that I'm unpleased with or incomplete, but since this is both a gallery and process-showcase post, I've threw in my initial imagination of this shoot. Ideally, I wanted it to be a night setting, but turning day to night (successfully) is harder than expected and I ended up abandoning this after how dull it turned out... I didn't even bother with the floor
Behind the scene...
Testing out the set on my desk, day before the actual shoot
...And speaking of the floor, this is actually my first foray into incorporating digital background, and boy was it time-consuming! It was also doubly challenging to maintain that consistency across multiple photographs, as I have a penchant to rotate my lens so my subjects are usually at an angle.
That means more distorting of the trees and floor, both very risky and taxing (at least for someone who rather spends 3 days making manual props than photoshop them in). The above photograph was hurriedly shot when I realised I forgot to shoot the setup.
This is also probably the most budget setup ever. The white boards kept falling as I'm too lazy to glue them to the black boards @.@
Anyway, once again thanks for staying till the end, for letting me share something I love with you.
xoxo
P.S.: The next shoot will take place in Japan, can't wait to see how which treasure spots I can find!
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