We're lucky to be involved in a creative community that isn't just one type of artist, but artists from different disciplines. Every day, we see sneaker customizers finding new ways to use our acrylic leather paint. Regards of what stage these guys and gals are at in their career, the results are always one-of-a-kind masterpieces. Beyond the custom sneaker game, we’ve seen our paint used for other remarkable projects, from leather bags to vinyl toys. But we’ve never seen Angelus paint itself, without a canvas, as the subject of a photography series.
(Source: @chromasmoke)
Recently, we had the pleasure of linking up and collaborating with an artist putting out incredible work—a photographer named Dave Corbett. Dave is an outstanding photographer with a unique talent for capturing movement via bright colors.
Not too long ago, the big boss at Angelus Direct came across one of Dave’s now famous Paint-a-Pult images on the Reddit Pics forum. It should be mentioned, this particular image has racked up over a million views, so Dave’s work is clearly eye-catching. So we got in touch with Dave and proposed something of a creative partnership using Angelus Direct paints.
“Previously I had been using kid's poster paints,” Dave says, “and I was immediately impressed by the vibrancy and saturation of the Angelus paints.”
(Source: @chromasmoke)
And so Dave put Angelus paint to use for another photo series. “By carefully placing the paints on the brush,” he says “I managed to get the colors to mix and wrap around each other in mid-air, creating little liquid sculptures with a lifespan of about 10 milliseconds.”
(Source: @chromasmoke)
The end result shows Angelus paint from a new perspective. Usually our paint is part of a finished product, so catching it by itself required some action shots. To capture that perfect take, Dave used his custom made catapult to literally launch the paint in the air.
(Source: Dcorbettphoto.com)
Luckily, Dave’s photography can’t be pigeonholed to simply 'just taking pictures,’ Dave uses his lifelong hobby of building to create a great picture. “I've been a tinkerer and builder since I was a kid” Dave says. “I took apart all my toys to see how they worked, and eventually my parents gave up and just bought me motors and wires and various parts.”
(Source: @chromasmoke)
As an established photographer, Dave has been behind a camera for quite some time. “In high school,” he says, “I had a darkroom in the basement and my first job was at a one-hour photo. I studied color technology and photochemistry at Brooks Institute in California and was a darkroom technician for many years. As much as I loved the traditional darkroom techniques, I immediately embraced digital photography. My first digital camera was 3 megapixels and cost $1,000.”
(Source: @chromasmoke)
The camera on the newest iPhone is about 8 megapixel, so taking that into account, you know Dave has been working with digital for quite a long time. The years he spent honing his craft turned into a long form approach to photography.
“I tend to become obsessed with a particular challenge for a photograph,” he says “and will work for weeks or months until I perfect the technique. For smoke photos, it was how to layer colored light into zones and control the mixing in the white smoke. For the paintbrush project I built a little catapult that swings the brush in a precise zone of focus and triggers the exposure at the right instant.”
(Source: @chromasmoke)
Creating the perfect moment takes practice, as any artist can attest. Luckily, we’ve got a master like Dave making it look easy!