Absolut Ad as designed and executed by Shotsie
ABSOLUT CONCEPT PAGE AS PREPARATION FOR THE FINAL BODY PAINTING
Shotsie Gorman received the Absolut Restraint commission from the advertising representatives of Absolut vodka and Temp-tu corporation of NYC.he was charged to design, illustrate and apply a full body suit painting that would mimic a Japanese style tattoo with the negative space representingthe bottle in the center. The photographer Steve Bronstein forward a number of color Xeroxes of the model for Shotsie to illustrate some concepts for the piece. The image decided on was on in the final form of a dragon tattoo done in color pencil over the color Xerox as seen below.
Shotsie then prepared a to scale watercolor study to demonstrate what would be a more true to life Japanese color pallet. After a number of meetings With the art director and photographer we established an aesthetic and financial agreement . The live model came to Shotsie’s Tattoo? Studio. Shotsie laid out on paper a full scale drawing of the design to fit his exact proportions and segmented it for reproduction. The segmentation allowed a pieced fit. Temp-tu Corporation, whom has done faux tattoo work in many feature films like Cape Fear etc., reproduced the outline portion on large sheets of cigarette paper.
The day of the shoot Shotsie and assistants from Temp-tu applied the outline to the model with an alcohol transfer. Once the lines were place and with some minor adjustments by hand Shotsie Gorman painted for twelve hours to apply the final image. We powdered the model to soften the effects of the paint and Steve Bronstein shot photos for another four hours.
This ad caused a lot of controversy both within the agency and in the commercial market place. The big issue was that not only did it depict a tattoo but the naked body of an adult male, both unheard of in our culture for a major advertising firm. As a result of the heavy volume of negative social attitudes about tattooing and the backward puritan concepts of the human body in America the ad was pulled from a large number of mainstream magazines including the New York Times magazine and many others. despite the controversy it has appeared in a large variety of alternative pop culture, music and art magazines as well as sports illustrated, and has generated a cult collectors following.
ABSOLUT WATERCOLOR RENDERING BY SHOTSIE
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