I’m still trying to get used to these paints! They’re very fun to play with, without a doubt – but they’re definitely different from working with my favoured styles of paint. For one, the amount of water to paint and how often to reload the brush is a balance I am only just starting to get a feel for. Erin was kind enough to let me use her as a human canvas again today, so I wanted to try something with a bit of a peacock flair.
Annnnd I was lucky enough to have another human canvas last night! This time I went with a cherry-blossom inspired piece. Nothing wrong with a few florals, right?
I really love the way the blue, green and yellow blended for the background. I think I’m going to have to try that again soon!
Most of my my body art, up til now, has been created using sharpie markers. I love them for that purpose! They produce clean, precise lines, blend well, and give a finish not unlike a tattoo (albeit a bit shinier). I’ve even used them for facial art. I definitely won’t be giving up sharpie markers as a medium for creating body art any time soon.
However, I’ve had a project come up that requires something a little different: paint. Sharpies get their due when it comes to creating tattoo-like body art, but paint definitely has something sharpies don’t have: vibrancy of colour that sits ‘on’ the skin to cover it completely. Especially when it comes to white.
Thanks to Erin McNamee for being my canvas here!
It has been a long time since I’ve done any actual, honest-to-goodness body painting, so I am still very much getting used to the feel of the paint. It’s different to work with, as it is water-activated and dries relatively quickly when applied to the body. Getting the right consistency of water and paint loaded onto the brush was a little finicky at first, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.
Later the same evening I had a request from a friend to do a little painting on her back too. I won’t say it is my finest foray into the world of painting on bodies, but every little step is a development of skill, so I’m happy to post the picture anyway! Sadly, because some of the paints used are pearlescent, they didn’t photograph particularly brilliantly.
I will say, I absolutely adore how vivid the colours are, using these paints. When I do have the water/paint mix down right, they’re fairly opaque and with a little practice, I am confident that I’ll get better at using them. I’ll just have to practice more before my super-secret-project that requires body painting skills comes to a head!
Every so often I decide to do a new profile picture for myself. After all, it does tend to get boring having the same old picture populate the social networks day in and day out. Well, after getting my make-up done (complete with gorgeous false lashes), I could not resist taking some photos of the result.
Unlike the photos in the previous post, I was able to control the lighting in these ones, which makes (in my opinion) for a far more refined finished product. I absolutely love the way the lighting turned out: soft and subtle across the face, accentuating the doll-like appearance I was trying to achieve.
The thing I love about photography like this is that it really can enhance appearance. In everyday situations, you don’t have perfect lighting or the ability to pose just-so. You don’t have post-processing to make sure that your teeth are just the right shade of white, or to take away that stubborn pimple that popped up out of nowhere. A photo like this is an idealized view of oneself, and honestly, a good ole fashioned ego boost when you’re feeling down.
Although admittedly… it does also make me feel a little depressed that I don’t look like that all the time!
I was recently fortunate enough to be able to take some pictures of Erin McNamee, after she had been made over with an elven look and prosthetics. Although the lighting in the room was not ideal, I still think they turned out fairly well.
The make-up and prosthetics were created and applied by Kylie Joy Creative Makeup. She was a pleasure to work, and had even gone to the effort of custom-mixing eye-shadows just for the look she wanted to create! The make-up itself was fantastic, but for some reason, adding the pointed ears and the flowing wig just transformed Erin into an incredible creature of fantasy.
I’ll be posting another couple of portraits of her soon. For the second look, I was able to whisk her away to where I could control the lighting a little better, so they’re a bit more refined than this pair!
It is interesting when I notice the differences between how different people will use the English language. For example, in Australia, we would call ‘bangs’ a ‘fringe’ instead. It would be very rare, I think, to say to someone here, ‘Oh, I love your bangs!’ They’d just look at you funny. The same goes for ‘barrette’ (American English) and ‘hair-clip’ (Australian/British English).
In fact, when I first heard the terms, ‘bangs’ and ‘barrettes’, I had to look them up to understand what was meant by the words. I just hadn’t come across them, at least not until I was 13 or 14 or so. The words had been introduced to me in an American young adult fiction book (I was an avid reader), and I was deadly curious about what was meant by these seemingly foreign words.
In recent years, my perception has shifted a little though. Whereas, when I first encountered ‘bangs’ it was just a weird word that other people used to refer to a fringe, I’ve noticed myself thinking the word instinctively now, instead of ‘fringe’ – especially if I’m thinking of blunt bangs, as in the picture for today.
The language we use changes over time, but some things will probably always stay the same. While I may understand the term ‘barrette’, they’ll always be ‘hair-clips’ to me.
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