Fire Pixie Body Art

Catwoman

2010-10-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

The catwoman body painting gig was a success.

I just got to preview the photos and they're AWESOME. Wowza. The photographer is having a gallery opening on Oct 6, and I'm absolutely going. I can't wait to see them at HUGE size. I would post them here but I promised not to "leak" them so .. you'll just have to wait. Or come to the gallery opening. 111 Minna. October 6. 5-9.

The whole experience was a little odd. We coordinated on facebook, with the photographer taking point and letting the rest of us do our thing. It was all very professional, I was all excited to work with professionals and turn out a professional product.

The house we were in was amazing.. the stylist was a perfect flamboyant San Francisco queen, and the model was raunchy and energetic and loads of fun. The photographer was a rather typical disorganized artist-type, but the shots he pulled off (and the expensive Soma Loft where he lives) prove to me that he sure knows his stuff. Here he is: Tim Williamson.

The paint job took about 3 hours. I designed a slinky catsuit, torn up with claw-tracks, lots of corset lacing and cut to show off all Andrea's tattoos. I got to use some gorgeous metallic purples and shimmers. It turned out really nice, and Andrea loved it, which is so super important to the success of a photo shoot in my experience.

After I finished painting, I watched the photo shoot for a bit then took off. I guess they went down to the Mint after I left and got a bunch of shots of Catwoman Leaving The Impressive Building With Her Jewel Heist. Fun stuff.

All in all I am pleased. I'm also quite excited to see them all blown up and printed and stuff. I don't think I've ever seen my work presented on that kind of scale.. I feel like I've leveled up.

More Photos Here! This one is my favorite:

Native American ideas

2009-02-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

The passion that comes from the creative process manifests itself so differently in different projects. Some projects I'm passionate and excited about from the get-go. Sometimes I'm sort of "meh" about a project until it's completely over with and I find magic in the pictures. Usually it's somewhere in between.

This week I met with a model and photographer, neither of whom I've worked with before. All three of us have slightly different ideas and slightly different goals, which is what makes this kind of collaboration interesting.

Collaboration at its best is finding that spark of passion-that-ignites-art - in a model's eyes, a camera's lens, an accidental look or pose or streak of sunlight. It's almost like falling in love, in a way.. working from different places, to find that common connection to the mystery and magic behind the paint.. working to bring out the truth in the model in such a way that the camera can capture it. It's a challenge, but a delicious one.

I'm excited about the projects we're dreaming up. Breeana, our model, has Cherokee blood and so we all connected with the idea of doing a native American themed piece. There will be turquoise jewelry and eagle feathers and war paint. I'm quite excited.. I find myself spotting detail ideas almost everywhere I look.

We are also talking about doing a motorcycle shoot. I want to do some product shots for my portfolio since I'm interested in doing magazine print work, and I've always wanted to paint a sexy motorcycle shot.. and Breeana is definitely into motorcycles so I hope we can make it work!

It makes me happy just to daydream about it all. The first few bites of a creative project are sometimes the tastiest.

Where There's Smoke..

2009-01-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

I'm up in Tahoe with some friends - we took a few days off and are spending them at the cabin, creating art. I'm here with a musician, a mad scientist (I kid you not, he is in the basement creating lightning - resulting pics here), and a beautiful red-haired model, Melissa.

I was planning on doing a snowy tree body painting and shooting photos outside by the lake, but.. it's been raining lately and the snow is wet, heavy, and messy.. and Melissa has bright red hair and gorgeous curves.. not quite right for a winter tree. Besides, I was trying to plan out the artwork and the ideas just weren't flowing. I couldn't quite "see" the finished project in my head and so I wasn't feeling really inspired.

This morning, watching our resident mad scientist scampering around, running high voltage wires throughout the house and hearing him cackle, my thoughts took another turn. The ozone in the air combined with Melissa's flaming red hair made me want to paint her like lighting, like smoke, like fire.. so that is what came out of my brush this morning.

There are so many factors to creativity. Sometimes, mistakes turn out to be the best part of a design. Sometimes lack of inspiration makes me push harder to create and sometimes it causes me to back off, or take another path. I think lately, the key is learning to relax and just let my brush paint what it wants to paint rather than over-planning or over-controlling each project.

And.. I love what resulted.. here are my two favorite pics. More up at Picasa!

Balloon Cinderella Dress

2009-01-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

Another fun painting I did at the convention.. there were so many fabulous balloon creations there, and Kara had been tapped to wear the Cinderella dress (which was just amazing!). The balloons comprised just the skirt of the dress and she needed someone to paint her bodice..

I know a little something about Cinderella (check me out over at Fire Pixie Parties) and so was delighted to get to help out and get her painted.

She had a great time being a princess (and we had a great time taking silly photos together).

Kara's got a new web site up - check her out!

Winter Tree

2009-01-14T11:39:00.000-08:00

I'm going up to Tahoe next week and I want to paint a winter tree.. I've done a spring tree and a summer tree painting, and last time I was in tahoe the beauty of the snow inspired me to keep working on the series. Now I just need to find a model.. and figure out how to keep her from freezing out in the snow!!

Fire eating and body painting

2009-01-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of the FPBA convention for me was that I had a fire eating student fly down from New Jersey to Orlando to take a fire eating intensive class while I was on the East Coast. I do a lot of fire performance when I'm not body painting (fire.firepixie.com) and it was a lot of fun to be able to combine the two passions for an evening.

Here I am eating fire with a pirate ship on my cheek - much fun! The best part was that we were doing the class out by the pool, and crazy characters in full-body paint kept on popping out to see what we were doing! Delightful. :) Thanks to Mark Reid for the photo!

Getting Painted

2009-01-11T17:46:00.001-08:00

At the body painting convention last week I got painted by Brian Wolfe (eviltwinfx.com - web site coming soon) as an Ice Queen. As I think I've mentioned, I *love* getting painted.. that's really what got me into body painting in the first place. It was great fun - Brian's "evil twin" Nick painted another model as "fire" and the two of us had a great time shaking the whole place down.

I was airbrushed and Heather (as fire) was hand-painted, and I think we made quite a dynamic duo... the silliest part of the story is that I had to fly home immediately after the fashion show where we showed off our artwork.. without having time to wash off first. Yes, I flew from Orlando to Oakland in full-body Ice Queen paint. Oh, the looks I got!!

The little girls in the picture thought I looked *so pretty* and wanted to take photos with me. Little did they know I was standing behind them EATING THEIR BRAINS!!

More pictures up at Picasa! Enjoy!

Hindu Goddess Parvati

2009-01-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the Face Painting & Body Art Convention in Orlando, FL. I got to work with and meet so many amazing people, and create some amazing art - as well as having incredible artwork painted on me! (to be honest, I think being painted by a really great artist might be even more fun than doing the painting myself)

I also entered my first competition. As a rule I'm not really the competition type.. I like to paint for fun and I don't usually like the stress that comes with competing, but this time I decided I wanted to push myself a bit and just use the competition as an excuse to create some art.

I was rooming with another painter named Lacey who volunteered to be my model, and decided to enter the "fantasy" competition, since that meant I could use airbrush, brush & sponge, costuming - anything I wanted to create a beautiful art piece, with no restrictions.

This piece took about 3.5 hours. I did most of the base colors and textures with the airbrush and most of the details with a brush, and then used my belly dance costume to complete the look. I *loved* the way it turned out and so did Lacey - she was shaking her hips the whole night and jingling and really bringing the piece to life!

The idea was inspired by the hindu goddess Parvati - consort to Shiva and goddess of love and passion. She was Shiva's inspiration and "shakti" or energy/life force - the force that drove him to create.

I just got back from a honeymoon in Thailand where I saw so much buddhist and hindu artwork that really inspired me.. also, I wanted to paint elephants (as I fell in love with elephants in Thailand) and the little elephants around her waist were my very favorite part of this design!

I loved creating this - and I entered her into the competition and won third place!! Not too bad for my first competition piece! I will probably add her to my portfolio site. Yay!

More pictures of this piece available on my Picasa page!

2009-01-09T12:48:00.001-08:00

Halloween is about my favorite holiday - everybody wants to get dressed up and painted! I had 7 private clients on Halloween this year and everyone's face or body art turned out just beautiful.

People wanted cats, a lot, this year - though there are always plenty of people who just want to look glamourous and pretty too. I even did a blue-man! But my favorite this year was a client who wanted to be painted as Eve (of Adam-and-). I painted a gorgeous snake winding around her body, and leaves and vines as well and it really turned out gorgeous. We got some really great pictures - and almost everybody called me back to tell me they were the hit of their halloween parties.. which I love to hear! It makes me feel so good to make people feel so beautiful. :)

Remy Martin & David LaChapelle

2008-07-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

Remy Martin, the cognac company, recently redesigned their bottle and threw a bunch of parties in various cities to promote the new design. It's a gorgeous bottle, covered in artwork by David LaChapelle, with big cats and jungles and Josephine Baker prominently dancing in the center of it all.

I was hired along with a couple other painters to paint 4 models for this event. I was to paint 2 models to match the "jungle" aspects of the bottle, and the other models were to be painted as a cheetah and a panther. We also had a real, live Josephine Baker look-a-like for the unveiling of the bottle design. The event took place at an art gallery in San Francisco and it went off really well.

The jungle designs turned out just beautiful. I finished painting my models a little earlier than the jungle cat painters were finished so I ended up helping out and doing the cat faces as well.

The girls were placed on stages around the room, where they danced and posed in front of the art on the walls and interacted with the partygoers. Everyone really loved the idea and the implementation.. and it was really fun to base a design off such a fantastic piece of art!

Almost Famous

2008-05-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

This photo came from the SF Chronicle web site - Leah's "American Flag" body art (almost) made the front page!

It seems this photo was on the front page of Monday's Chronicle.. but they cropped her out. Gotta love America.

American Flag

2008-05-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to run in the Bay to Breakers but haven't found the time or the opportunity.. but this year I got to live vicariously through Leah - a beautiful ex-vegas showgirl who wanted to go to the race in body paint.

She had the vision, the costume, the boots and everything! We got started at 4:30 am (oh my) and finished up by around 6:00, just in time to take some quick photos and then she headed off to the race to catch her "float" before it left.

This was a fun painting.. small enough that I was able to put in some really nice detail without painting all day long. I used Wolfe Brother's paints - in my experience they hold up the best to lots of motion - and bare escentuals black eyeshadow for the shading.

The stars are a combination - some are painted, some are glitter tattoos and some are stickers with glitter tattoo glue on the back. I really liked the effect. The different sizes and shades of stars really added to the ripple effect of the flag. I couldn't find my fixative spray so we used hairspray (!!!) and by all reports it held up really well. On her back were a bunch of rhinestone tattoos and I wrote "Support Our Troops" in paint.

Leah called after the race and told me that she couldn't go 2 steps without being photographed or videotaped! She felt like a complete rockstar.. which makes sense because she looked like a complete rockstar!

The best part: I was relaxing after a show at a tiki bar that night and a friend was showing me photos he'd taken at the Bay to Breakers on his camera.. and he had a great picture of Leah! What a small world.

Painted Fairy

2008-04-07T18:26:00.001-07:00

Fairies and body painting keep on colliding in my head. The other day this fairy flew in the window, landed on my art box, and insisted on being painted. She wouldn't leave me alone until I got out the paints and the brush for her, but then I guess she decided it would be a self-portrait because I couldn't get that brush away from her....

I really love the way this one turned out... it's really just like my vision. The idea behind this piece really centers around fairies pretending to be human. Humans pretend to be fairies all the time (at least in my world). What would a real fairy do when confronted with human toys? Would she understand them? Try to use them as something else? Or just turn pixie and make a big mess?

This was the first time I've really messed with scale in a body art project. I needed to make every stroke large and somewhat awkward, as though she really were painting herself with that huge brush. So I went to the thrift store and bought myself a little naked barbie for $1.00, and used her as my sketch-model. This was really effective.. and I think I'll probably use her for this purpose more in the future.. she holds very still! Also, when I'm sketching designs on the computer or in my sketchbook, I often have trouble connecting the front and back of the design - where does this line end up after it wraps around the hip? How does this stripe deal with the curves on that part of the body? - and painting on a little barbie just solved all those problems immediately.

Stephanie, my model, does princess parties for me on the weekends and I knew she was just perfect for this piece. She's absolutely beautiful, and is able to express so much joy through her face and her posture. I was grinning for hours after the photo shoot because she showered us with so many giggle-vibes! Oh my.

I had a really hard time picking my favorite photo and I ended up doing the composite with the art box on about a dozen of them. I strung them together into a little video, and I think it turned out to be the most saccharin-sweet, cutest, cuddliest little thing I've ever done artistically. (sorry so small! It's much cuter larger!)

2008-04-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

I had an inspiration the other morning as I was sipping my tea... I want to paint a fairy.

No, no, not Paint a fairy... paint a Fairy.

As I was sitting there dreaming, a fairy flew up and knocked on my window and more-or-less demanded to be painted... who am I to deny her?

The project is lined up for Thursday. It should be fun!

The Kicker

2008-03-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

This belly portrait was done at the end of March for Katie - her new baby boy is due at the end of April and her 4-year-old Marleigh is very excited about her soon-to-be baby brother.

The baby is a Kicker! What with all his kicking, Katie decided she wanted to give him something to kick besides her insides, so we came up with the concept of a football goal post. Since Dad's a big Cincinnati Bengals fan, the Bengals helmet design fit in perfectly and the whole thing turned out really nice.

I used Wolfe Brother's paint for the whole design, and used silver stick-on gems as the "screws" on the helmet. (Of course, when I got the gems out, Marleigh got all excited and when I next looked up she had them stuck all over her whole face! Oh my.) The whole painting took about an hour or so.

We got a lot of great photos, but the one above is my favorite. Marleigh is such a camera-hog.. she wouldn't get out of the shot, so we just went with it! I'm glad we did.. having her in the picture too really adds to the portrait.

Here are a few more, for fun.. enjoy!