Artist Tony Mauro had worked in merchandising, designing posters, calendars, book covers for projects like the X-Files but always was interested in pin-up art. His choice to pursue this road comes as a great boon to pin-up fans everywhere. Mauro achieves an unparalleled level of photo-realism by starting out with a photo. In this 48 page collection of his art from SQP, Mauro takes fans on a step-by-step tour through his entire creative process from starting out with a model’s photo and then layering color and detail over that, adding in backgrounds and shading, to achieve a distinctive blend of photo and digitally created art. Tony specializes in dark, beautiful women, primarily vampires. An index provides the name of each piece in this full color collection along with the name of the model.

The look that Mauro is able to achieve, particularly with his use of light and shading is simply amazing. Consider the piece of a sorceress or witch standing in an arched opening of a great stone cathedral. The light drenches down the subject through the arch creating a wonderful shimmering effect around the figure. And the there is the painting of a riveting blonde in white lingerie standing on her tip toes on a rock in the ocean. She’s almost engulfed by a full moon as the waves crash about the rock. Absolutely stunning!

“Witch Woman” features Francine Dee painted as an exotic female vampire in a wicked looking spider web-styled outfit. Sexy and buxom blonde bombshell and former WCW wrestling babe Tylene Buck models for a number of paintings in Mauro’s book including “In Waiting” featuring Buck in a sexy bikini waiting for her prey or perhaps her lover against a gothic backdrop. Buck then returns in “After Dark” posing before the gates of a misty, sinister cemetery while a full moon shimmers in the sky. “The Guest” captures dark-haired model Lorissa McCombs as a truly sensuous vampire with luscious, full red lips and dressed in sexy lingerie.

With his unique skill Mauro has carved out his own little niche in the pin-up world in which he reigns supreme. I highly suggest checking out his website at Dark Day Productions. Just Google it, or his name.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Rating: 5 / 5