Fortunately, around the time the illustration market started to show signs of decline, Elins was invited to join a digital art studio. "We were working on Graphic Paintboxes, which were those huge $500,000 image-editing machines from Quantel. We did retouching and movie posters--fairly typical compositing work." But Elins's artistic development flatlined. "Paintbox time was so expensive--$500 an hour--and at that point, the Mac was a 25-MHz Etch-A-Sketch. So it was hard to find time to draw or illustrate" in a digital environment.

Elins decided to break out on his own. "It occurred to me that I could form a relationship with a photographer. By combining photography with my ability to illustrate and work a computer, we could do anything--we could make amazing images. I figured photographers would be really open to this idea because they'd be able to go in directions they couldn't go on their own."

But it didn't turn out quite that way. The pesky issue of ownership reared its head. "I ran into this photographer and we thought this would be a good opportunity to test the waters. So I art-directed the shoot, looked through the camera, and when everything was just right I said, 'Okay, shoot it.' What he told me, right after that, was stunning for me. 'Whoever pushes the button owns the film. It's my copyright.' " For Elins, this highlighted the difficulty of a collaborative project. Who owns what? "I didn't try to dispute his claim, but for my part, as an independent illustrator, I couldn't afford for every project to turn into a tug-of-war. So I decided to be my own photographer. And that's what I've done ever since."

Of course, it wasn't just a matter of picking up a camera and firing away. Elins had to develop a skill for photography, like any other craft. "I knew that I had to embrace the process. And once I did, I loved it. But it took time to get good at it. The biggest thing that I learned was that you really have to gain the trust of your subject, gain empathy for them, channel their personality through your camera. And you don't want to limit them to a specific pose. They're creative people, so you have to learn to give them room to decide what they want to do. You have to empower them so that they can respond to your idea."

Trends and Crossroads
Stewart liked Elins's technique and called on him for several repeat performances. "For this children's fashion spread, I did this same doll-morphing thing (see figure 3). I photographed a real little girl and a doll's body. I even had a prosthetic head built for the doll. Then I composited the pieces together and superimposed portions of the girl's face onto the prosthetic head (see figure 4). Because I was a photorealistic illustrator, I knew how to paint skin so it looks plastic and illustrate the eyes."

Figure 3 (left), Figure 4 (right)

As his digital painting skills improved, Elins found himself in high demand as a photorealistic caricaturist. "People would hire me to do these funny photographic cartoons. For example, when I did the old people look," such as an old Leonardo DiCaprio for Us Magazine (see figure 5), "I got tons of attention from it. I could have made a career out of it. In fact, I was in discussions with Us about taking over the back page of every issue just for this old-person style. But when I went to my syndicator, they said, 'You're going to ruin your career if you do this. You're going to define yourself as someone who steals people's heads and can do anything with them. No one's going to let you shoot them on purpose.'

Figure 5