In the Making: MAD Magazine - GIRLS

  After graduating illustration in University, it was always a dream of mine to land my artwork in MAD Magazine. I got super lucky and finally landed a gig with one of my dream clients. I got to work on MAD Magazine's spoof on HBO GIRLS, the main characters portrayed as American Girl dolls. American Girl dolls are idolized by little girls, they have different outfits, accessories and each one has a back story. These dolls were to resemble the American Girl dolls, but also HBO Girls characters (Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna & Jessa). This was for a featured article in the issue and made to look like the American Girl online doll catalogue. It's a really funny read if you're familiar with the hit show GIRLS. They're American yes, but not quite the best role models for young girls. This makes for an interesting juxtaposition. I'm so excited to be sharing this new project with you all. Sorry for the photo quality, they were super quick phone photos I took in the midst of working. 

Super rough clay stage, early on, before any joints and torsos.

Smoothed out bodies, base painting complete.

Hello there, bald Hannah. Don't worry I'll give you some hair soon.

In the nude. I attempted to make soft torsos like the original American Girl dolls, but I failed at several attempts. There was just no way to have a soft body and have these girls stand on their own, they just kept slouching. I was trying to be over ambitious with this and wasted a lot of precious time fixing them. I will definitely not be doing any more experimenting with new techniques during a deadline again.

My girls and I in the midst of a 4am re-shoot. The AD wasn't crazy about my original brick walls I created so I had to start them from scratch again, re-shoot with Mako Studios and get everything in the "exact positions" as the original shoot (ie. camera angle, lighting, pose, head tilt, doll distance from each other etc.). It wasn't as easy as you'd think.

 

This is a close of Hannah's (Lena Dunham) arm tattoo. It is measured at 1cm in size.

Credits

Client: MAD Magazine
Photography: Mako Studios
Production: Lunch Inc.
Sculpture Illustration: Kira Shaimanova (me)

A big thank you to Sam, who took a chance on me, never having worked with me before. I was so happy to be a part of this and what a great experience. I got the official "welcome to the team" from MAD. Hooray!

As this issue came out yesterday, I got word that it was emailed to Judd Apatow (producer & director of the show) and all the writers happened to be in the room as he opened it. They all loved the article. WOO!

See the final sculpture illustrations on my Website: www.kirashaimanova.com
Pick up MAD Magazine issue #526 to read the full 5 page hilarious article.