Guess where you can find me next?

Remember this?  Well, we're on!

I'll be at the Tribeca Film Festival again!  I'm face painting at the Kid's Festival on April 30.  This time, though, I'll be there all day long, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.!  Can you tell how excited I am?  I really love this event.

Of course, a post telling you where I'm going to be in the future doesn't give you any nifty photos to look at right now.  So here are some long overdue photos from an adult event I did in February...

Halloween 2010

Ah, Halloween, my favorite holiday.

We were so busy this year with so many things that we actually skipped our annual Holiday party and instead made other plans.

I did, however, face paint at my usual Halloween gig, the Bergen County Cabbage Night Festival.  I love this event, and it's great for the kids.

My first model of the day was this adorable girl who wanted something scary and settled on an alien.

She was hanging around as I set up my table, and was the only one around, but once I painted her I was swamped for even longer than my scheduled three hours.

Some more girls who were into the scary faces (my personal favorites) were this zombie, vampire, and witch.

Some weren't into face painting, but were sure into the theme.  A new design for me that was hugely popular this year was my haunted house scene.  I did some on hands, some on faces.

And my first vampire hand painting.  I'm used to turning people into vampires, more than drawing them.  Still, a fair representation, I think.

And of course I had my usual butterflies, tigers, puppies, and this cute cheetah.

Plus, my first ever rocket request, which I then duplicated on this young man's brother.

This next design was a heck of a compromise.  The model wanted a flower, just a simple flower.  Her mom was pushing for a mardi gras mask.  So I suggested a flowered mardi gras mask!

Then there were these three teens who were so cool.  The first one saw the length of my line and chose to keep things moving for me, even though she'd waited for nearly two hours herself.  She requested just a cat nose and whiskers.  The second dubbed herself a comic book geek and requested a superhero mask, which was voted by the three as the "best superhero mask she'd ever gotten" and "sick" (a good thing in teenspeak).  The third wanted nerd glasses, tape and all.

I was so crazy busy painting, that I actually handed them my phone to take photos of each other for me!  I love how they all got into character with their paintings.

While that afternoon I was a Renaissance wench,

later that night, my husband Eric and I went to Forest of Fear, a haunt organized by the same group that does the NY Renaissance Festival across the street from the Faire grounds.  For that, I went as a zombie Alice in Wonderland, and Eric wore this terrific mask we bought him in New Orleans, with a black velvet cloak.

Today, I went trick or treating wtih my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  My nephew, for his first Halloween, was Curious George, my brothe-in-law was the Man in the Yellow Hat, and my sister was the bunch of balloons in the sky.  I was a clown.

We do have one more Halloween event - we're going to Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor next Saturday.  I'll let you know how it was!

Wicked Faire Revisited

I know that I mentioned in my Wicked Faire post that I was hired last minute to do a full body painting on a cat for a fashion show that was schedule to occur at the Faire.  The request was not to make her look like a cat, but to take my cues from the mask she'd be wearing with her ears and tail.  I had just over an hour to complete the look, from shoulders to shoes.  I did it!

The model, Nicole, was great to work with, and apparently was also great at the show, which I unfortunately had to miss.

Then again, she's a dancer, so how could she not be great?  Those boots are painted on, by the way.  Nicole had on t-strap shoes, but we wanted her to look like she was wearing boots, so I painted them right up her legs.

I did my best to mimic the swirls and curls of the mask, as well as the crosshatch pattern and fading that were involved in it.

All photos in this post were taken by Chris Bossio.

Body Painting: Alice in Wonderland

In my last post, I showed a bit of the body painting I did on Toni at Wicked Faire. Well, yesterday I received a CD of photos from one of the professional photographers, and my biggest problem has been figuring out which ones to post because they're all so great!

All photos in this post were taken by Phillip Makselan.

Toni met me in the Green Room with her bra cups already on, and while we were waiting to be called to the stage, I laid down the blue base and the glitter spray.  The blue is Fantasy Worldwide cream; it's really easy to wear and I knew she'd be comfortable in it.  Last year, as we found out, the chocolate I used on her corset tightened as it dried and pinched her.  No issues like that with the creams!  The glitter spray is also skin-safe, made by Mehron, a theater makeup company.

This photo (above) was right after we got on stage.  You can't tell, I don't think, but I was already exhausted. I spent the entire day and night in Renaissance Faire garb, and that corset is tight!  I started "work" at noon.  Plus, I had the surprise full-body painting earlier in the day, and other paintings throughout, so by 8:15 p.m. when this photo was taken, I was ready to lie down (and the day ended at 2 a.m.!).  

Thing is, when I'm painting, I wake back up.  It's just too fun and makes me too happy.  Plus, having an audience is always a good thing.  :D

I started with the Cheshire cat's face because it was the very first element I thought of when I knew I wanted to do this design.  What's Wonderland without the cat?  Once I blocked out that shape, though, I was all over the place, painting everywhere at once.

We had a pretty good audience.  It was smallish, but constant as some people went to see other shows, and then come back, and others passing in the hall poked their heads in to see what was up and ended up either coming in to sit down, or hanging out in the doorway.

On the fly, I realized the teapot really should have red flowers, even though it wouldn't quite be a "set" with the teacup.

S'ok!  

Body painting is really physical, for both the artist and the model.  I kept asking her to turn, raise and lower her arms, and take different positions.  At the same time, I was often bending over and around her.

Or even crouching down to paint upwards.

I did mostly stick to the front first.

At this point, I was actually down on my knees to paint, just to make it easier.

For the back, I was all about the mushrooms and caterpillar.  Together with the Cheshire cat, the caterpillar is my other favorite character of Wonderland.

And what's the caterpillar without his hookah?

Once all the big colors were blocked in, I was able to add details and outlining, since I was going for a cartoonish sort of look.

To tie the back and front together, I used a vine that traveled over Toni's shoulder.  The funny thing about that vine... for Valentine's Day, my husband bought me a 2010 leatherbound edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Stories, in hot pink, to inspire me for this painting.  Around the outside of the cover is a trellis of black vines that - last minute, did inspire me.

This is the finished back.

The finished front.

And a few nifty detail shots for you.

And all done in just about an hour!