Makeup Exploration
Body Art Research
Body art is art that is made on, with, or consisting of, the human body. Body art is also a sub-category of performance art, in which artists use or abuse their own body to make a statement. More extreme body art can involve mutilation or pushing the body to its physical limits.
What are the different styles of body art?
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Tattoo - permanently marking the skin with ink or dye.
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Branding/Scarification – Where the skin is seared with a hot iron or cut with a scalpel or another sharp object to produce a raised design; the darker the skin, the better the keloid.
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Body Paint is a temporary form of body art that tends to only last several hours or can be removed. Mehndi is the Indian tradition of decorating a woman's hands and feet with intricate patterns using henna dye, which lasts longer for a 10 days to six weeks.
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Piercing – A sharp instrument is passed through a fold of skin or part of the body.
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Permanent Makeup is a form of tattooing. This makeup is most commonly applied to eyebrows, upper and lower eyelids and lips. It can last anywhere from four to six years.
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Aesthetic Dentistry can include gold/silver/porcelain caps, having a hole drilled into a tooth and implanting a jewel into the hole, and filing teeth to a point to create the illusion of a fang.
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Body Play or Shaping is the most severe form of body art. It includes body suspension, waist/corset training, implanting foreign objects under the skin, e.g., inserting metal spikes into the skull or inserting marbles under the skin.
Body painting
Large scale or full-body painting is more commonly referred to as body painting, while smaller or more detailed work is generally referred to as temporary tattoos. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting.
Indigenous body painting
Body painting with clay and other natural pigments existed in most tribalism cultures. Often worn during ceremonies, it still survives in this ancient form among the indigenous people of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific islands and parts of Africa. Mehndi, using dyes made of henna, was and is still practiced in India and the Middle East, especially on brides. Since the late 1990s, Mehndi has become popular amongst young women in the Western world.
Also Actors and clowns around the world have painted their faces and bodies for centuries.
Modern Body painting
Body painting became more popular during the hippie movement of the late 1960s, when it was common for young women to decorate their cheeks with flowers or peace symbols at anti-war demonstrations. Also body painting produced an alternative art movement in the 1950s and 1960s, which involved covering a model in paint and then having the model touch or roll on a canvas or other medium to transfer the paint. French artist Yves Klein is perhaps the most famous for this, with his series of paintings "Anthropometries".
Festivals/competitions
Career
Many artists work professionally as body painters across the world. Their work is seen regularly in television commercials, such as the Natrel Plus campaign featuring models camouflaged as trees. Advertising also often uses body painting, shown through magazines, posters and billboards etc. Body painters also work frequently in the film arena especially in science fiction with more and more elaborate alien creations being body painted.
Face paint
From ancient times, it has been used for hunting, religious reasons, and military. It then re-entered during the hippy movement of the 1960’s, where peace signs and flowers were painted onto the skin. Face painting has been used for decades as entertainment at fairs, open-air markets theme parks, parties and festivals. It mainly attracts children, however adults will have their face painted for special events, such as charity fundraisers, Halloween and when involved with fancy dress.
Body makeup
Creates a smooth finish of the shin, Even a sheer coat of body makeup will give the kin a beautiful finish that photographs better than the natural skin. Usually opaque body makeup covers veins, stretch marks, age spots and discolourations. Its widely used in the media, and most products come in water0resistant, sweat-resistant formulas.
Anthropométrie de l'époque bleue. (1960). [image] Available at:http://www.yveskleinarchives.org/works/works1_us.html [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015].
This is one of the pieces created by Yves Klein, in his 'Anthropometries' series. The work cuts out the areas where the body did not touch the canvas creating a unusual body shape. The painting still includes curves, which produces an 3D effect rather than looking flat. This technique did not have to be monotone, but could include multiple colors on different body parts.
The World Bodypainting Festival in Pörtschach, Austria is the biggest art event for bodypainting.
Body painting festivals that take place in North America include the North American Body Painting Championship, Face and Body Art International Convention in Orlando, Florida, Bodygras Body Painting Competition in Nanaimo, BC and the Face Painting and Body Art Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The world body painting festival. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://daylifeimages.newscred.com/imageserve/a2ac316e16a91070ee5b62ccce2ba70f/650x.jpg?center=0.5,0&background=000000 [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015].
Here is one of the works produced for the World Bodypainting Festival. Unfortunately I could not find the name for the artist of the piece of work. I found this piece very interesting as the use of prosthetics have also been included within the work of body painting. I found that the use of colour was unusual and reembled a clown like appearance. Also the colours helped outline the features by the bolder colour acting as the shadow. The piece is very uncanny and personally feel that the character could be included within a horror performance.
Another well known body painted is Joanne Gair. Her most known pieces include clothes being painted onto a nude model. Her work appeared for the tenth consecutive year in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Her piece, August 1992 Vanity Fair Demi's Birthday Suit cover of Demi Moore, was most eminence.
Demi Moore in Her Birthday Suit. (1992). [image] Available at: http://hotcelebscandal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Vanity-Fair-1992.jpg [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015].
Joanne Gair was provided with a Richard Tyler three-piece suit to reference from when creating the body painting piece for the front cover of the magazine. To get the realism into the work it's important to have reference images to work from, as by looking at where the clothes actually crease, shadow, bag etc on the model these can then be translated onto the body in the same maner.
Practical work
In own of our lessons we looked into the basic techniques of Body Painting, by watching the videos produced by Carolyne Cowen allowed us to get a better understanding and view the inital learning of producing body painting. We then experimented with the same methods on each other.
Here shows one of the videos produced by Caolyne Cowen about water-based paint. It explains how a large, flat, square ended brush to create a clean edge. Then it goes through different blending techniques.
Water-based paint
I used red and purple as my contrasting colours.
First with a brush with some of the lighter colour go over where the two different colours meet to make then blend together. This is the bands of colour closest to the wrist in the image.
Next I used a small soft stipple sponge, starting with the darker colour and move it into the lighter colour and then wash the sponge and apply some of the lighter colour and stipple back over the blended area.
I then chose to use a much corser stipple sponge, using the same technique as before. As shown on the 2nd image.
I found that creating an precise strong line quite difficult, although feel that if i had a brush that was flater and square ended would help me achieve this better. When blending the colours I felt that it was quite easy to make the darker colour spread over too much onto the lighter colour. When using the first stipple sponge it blended the edges together well but not give that definite stippled effect. So then by using a courser sponge found that it achieved this effect much better.
Oil based paint
They are waterproof so are better when working in certain conditions or when working with water and sweat. The colours are very strong and bright and blend well together. A smaller brush works better with oil based paint as the paint is thicker.
First I produced a strong blend black to grey to white.
When appling the two colours don't let the black and white paint mix as important to keep the colours clean.
Then using the black brush blend the colours together in both directions, do not apply more paint just use the paint already applied. Using a clean brush extend the white up into the grey. By using fingers can help soften the colour. Powder in the same colours can also help create a better blending.
By painting 4 square opposing colours next to each other helps practice keeping the lines strong and precise, without pulling in other colours. When using coloured powder making the colours use a small brush along the sides of the square. Also start powdering the lower area of the paint as when appling the other coloured powders above the powder will not distort the other colour.
I enjoyed working with the oil based paint as that there was a longer working time to make sure the edges are blended well. Also that the paint does not appear as thin and the skin is less likely to show through when blending. Unfortunately I was not able to use coloured powders but will experiment with them in my own time. Translucent powder still worked well to stop the colours from smudging but it does not keep the original intensity of colour. I learnt to help take away the chalky effect from the power, a water spray can be used then press with a tissue to take away excess powder. I feel that this technique will benifit me when creating other work aswell as body painting.
Fullers earth
Creates texture and holds its shape and pattern on the skin. The fullers earth can be coloured by paint or powders. When its wet sculpt in the pattern required or by using fullers earth within a icing machine can make smaller, detail.
When experimenting i tried adding some white powder by it did not have that strong of impact on the fullers earth. I then added some glitter over the top to see what the outcome would be. Next using the blunt end of a brush i carefully carved in a pattern and left to dry.
The fullers earth took ages to dry and unfortunetly did not get to view the final effect. It produces a textured, 3D effect that can then be painting on over the top. However this material does tend to fall off the skin with movement so is more suitable for photographic work.
Here shows a piece of work created by joanne Gair, where fuller earth has been used. I resembles the background of a cracking appearance. The material has not been coloured and has been left natural to also match in with the models surroundings I liked the outcome of this material as will consider it within my future work.
Another piece created by Joanne Gair, involes 'magic powder', similair to very fine-grain woodchips. She applied vaseline to make it stick to the model.
Again this material would only be suitable for photographic work as would fall off with movement. I like how the appearance resembles a thick powder of looking light and fluffy, again has a natural effect. Its easy to wear as sticks to vaseline so no body glue is required.
