Planning and Practising a BodyPaint

The Fairburn System of Visual References. 1970. Male - Full Figure. UK: Fairburn Publications Limited.

Planning a Bodypaint

As bodypainting is so new to me, i'm intriguied as to whether I want to include it in my work or not. I found Johannes Stoetters animalistic artwork so inspiring, and began to wonder whether a model posing as an animal could be part of my project as an animal/human hybrid....

Looking at the positions that models were contorted in to carry out these bodypaints, I began wondering how artists come up with the concept.

Do they look as images of animals and then try and figure out how to create that pose?

Do they play around with poses and try and see images within the figures?

I found it difficult to think so creatively and laterally, so I decided to look in a figure reference book, and try and see something within the poses of the model.

At first I found it difficult, especially in the clothed images as I was trying hard to focus on the human form.

I then saw an image, which I managed to change slightly in my head and see an idea.

In the drawings below, you can see the photo I saw and how I changed the pose slightly to change the shape, which I thought could look like the head of a deer from a birds eye view. Obviously the shape of the pose wouldn't allow the makeup to work from another angle.

I know its not particularly ingenious, but i'm glad I pushed myself to come up with an idea. I don't know if i'll have the time to actually try it out, but I would like to if possible.

As I haven't had any real experience in painting onto the body, I thought I'd try a relatively simple idea for my first try. As clothing is a popular concept in bodypainting, I tried painting on a simple, white, wifebeater style tank top, that wouldn't require too much detail or texture. As it was just a practise, I didn't ask my model to shave, which is why the body hair is present - had this been for a 'proper' makeup, I would have checked my model was confortable with shaving or waxing prior to the makeup.

I started by trying to get a really dense white base with a wide, flat-ended brush, and found building up aquacolour in layers works well. I then mixed some black and white and started painting in all the folds in the fabric. I quickly learned that it was important to mix the colours fully, or the colours can go streaky, ruining the effect.

I spent maybe 45 minutes on the makeup overall. I actually found it quite tiring and frustrating. Maybe this was from standing in awkward positions, or because I was irritated because i thought it didn't look right, i'm not entirely sure.

I found that actually stepping back from it, from a slight distance, it looked quite good for my first attempt.

One thing I wish i'd done was shadow slightly around the outline of the top so it looked slightly raised from the skin so that it didn't look so flat.

I think it's taught me that stepping back from your work and taking it in context is important.

Practising a Bodypaint