Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Las Vegas Body Painting Article in Las Vegas Weekly


Very cool article in Las Vegas Weekly.

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2010/feb/17/if-you-paint-it-they-will-come/

Here is my favorite paragraph:
The energy level was higher on the last day, as was the creativity. And the temperature—even the models held towelettes under their pits to keep sweat from smearing paint. Though the final presentation ran very late, it was worth the price of a Red Bull to discover that most of the models were dancers too, performing choreography ranging from Balinese ritual to robot moves, showgirl tease, MMA, nunchuk demonstrations, contortion and mime. One artist even sang her model’s accompaniment a capella.

The singer was Rachel from Hawaii. Apparently her sound wasnt cued right and after coaxing her model out to the stage she belted out her description of her work -- totally spontaneously. Rachel rocked the house!

10 tips for Body Painters; or what are the judges REALLY looking for

What are the judges really looking for? That was a question many fresh-faced competitors were asking each other during the North American Body Painting Championships inaugural gathering in Las Vegas during February. Curious contenders could find the scoring matrix on the NABPC web site. Judges would award up to 150 points equally distributed between the categories of originality, creativity, design flow, use of color, application and total design. Unfortunately little more was known by novice painters and the judges certainly weren’t giving away any secrets!

In an effort to help illuminate and educate body painters everywhere the following list has been culled from a variety of sources, including experienced competitors, past judges, as well as first-hand experience.

1. Don’t paint the obvious. Type your given theme into a browser search and bypass the first several pages. You will never be noticed if you design the same ‘wild life’ or ‘tropics’ theme as everyone else.
2. Keep in mind that 75% of your ‘work zone’ happens from the hips to the shoulders, devote the appropriate time there.
3. Work a wide variety of skills into your piece. Add elements that show your depth and ability, think about shadows, perspective, reflections and the way that images layer on top of each other. Don’t be a one-trick pony.
4. Consider an unexpected element for a longer ‘visual ride.’ Both Yolanda Bartram’s NABPC pieces had a ‘surprise ending’ only revealed when the model was in a certain position.
5. Move the judge’s eye seamlessly from one area of the body to another through an element of color or form.
6. Incorporate those places humans naturally look; breasts and bottoms. Make them part of your overall design, don’t make them the reason d’ĂȘtre but don’t pretend they aren’t there with a wash of a single color.
7. Color is king. As a general rule pieces with a limited palette don’t place on the podium. Think in terms of a rainbow of possibilities!
8. Flawless blending and crisp, confident line work are mandatory.
9. Sell your work! Be excited and passionate about your piece. Have a reason you’ve selected the elements you have chosen, spin the judges a story of how your piece perfectly reflects the theme. Confidence is contagious and can only work in your favor.
10. Accessories do make an impact. While you are not officially judged on false eyelashes, fingernails, contact lenses, fangs, shoes or headpieces ours is a subjective art and everything we do has the ability to affect the overall impression of our work.


And a bonus suggestions: Be prepared with a written statement about your piece as well as music selected specifically to fit your painting. Your model will likely be asked perform, or at the minimum present your work on stage. This is your showcase, the public pay-off of the long hours, the sweat, anguish and tears you gave this one brief moment in the sun – be prepared enough to enjoy it!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Bella Volen Body painter: Las Vegas Convention


Hopefully Bella's link will work for you. It didnt for me but i want to give you an opportunity to experience what this woman was about. Bella has a masters in fine arts and is so much more than a body painter. She combines body art with the aesthetic, architecture and symbolism. She says she does 'trasformations'

Yes, you can appropriately read into this that her body art is much more than where the paint meets the skin, as she's thought long and hard about her work. As a third generation artist who has been painting for 50 hours per week since she was 12 years old in her native Bulgaria, Bella embodies her art....

Bella gave her Las Vegas class an overview of body art from early peoples to its raucous teenage years during the free love 1960's then she gave us a glimpse into how she works as she painted the model above. One of the biggest ideas I picked up during her presentation was the fact that black can be too powerful, too heavy, and can create visual holes in your work. You are much better off to use two complementary colors mixed to a dark color. Color wheel complements will create a 'living dark' color, not a dead, flat black. Bella earned a fourth place finish during the recent North American Body Painting Championships

a quote from her FaceBook fan page

Body painting is unique and very old. I love it because it is alive: the painted body can move, dance, sing. From human skin you can create a 3D illusion, an alien, a building, you can express feelings, a whole world, and this world will exist for a few hours, will stay in your mind, and then it will disappear into the running water.


At the beginning my body paintings were more decorative than my paintings.
Many of them were made for competitions. Now I am only interested in
the creation itself. I was creating androgynous art and I still do. The difference is
that now I work much more on the concept, the idea behind and I like to play with
the space around, so the body will be a part of the whole atmosphere. At the moment
I do not just paint on bodies. I do contemporary body transformations.

Las Vegas Face Painting Convention



Holy moly! what a whirl wind last week. FairyDust Faces; Face Painting and Body art went to Las Vegas for some of the finest instruction, competition and fellowship on the west coast. My week started off with the bad boys of face painting, the rock stars of the body art world -- the Evil Twins of transformation, Nick and Brian Wolfe...santa Rosa can expect to see something new this season, take a look at the day long class had to offer:

Their class was 'How to paint like a Wolfe" and they covered some of their basics, from theory and adaptation of basic boy and basic girl design to a few often requested pieces of cheek art. Here is a new skull and unicorn.




then, true to Wolfe style we did full face boy pieces. This is also the base for skulls and monsters





Here is a picture of a classmate and some friends....