March 2012
I have created several leotards for Symone of Pole Paradise HK in the past, as she needs to have fabric protecting her limbs when she is doing hoop acrobatic shows and wanted unique costumes.
Tag: dance costumes
Cyber punk bodypaint in promo film reel
looks like the Tantrwm guys have included bits f my glittery body art (and Simons bodypaint) in their show real.
Oh yeah:)
http://www.tantrwm.com/tantrwm/we-made-these/
Tantrwm Steampunk Body Paint Glitter Tattoo Film
Feb 2012
I had seen a stunning piece of film shot about Simon Smith when he bodypainted a female Predator warrior on Mel (my Frost Fae last year), shot by Tantrwm Films.
I commented to them that it was one of the only beautifully shot bits of bodyart I had ever seen – sadly far too often we get portrayed as a bit of a laugh or a silly giggle or a bit rude, at best as fast reportage type stuff. But this was stunning and nicely serious, just perfect.
To my delight the film crew asked if I’d like to create a clip too! Yes please! They planned these as a taster to show backers and companies they hoped to interest in doing a longer film about the UK bodyart industry.
So I drove over to Wales (yes its the opposite coast of the UK, but I got to stay with my mum for the weekend and she got to see Finley), in Feb, to meet them.
A friend of theirs, singer Catryn Southall, had a new album coming out with an ordinary-people-can-be heroes- theme and we’d worked up a vague alt superhero idea. She has an amazing career, check out her site!
Enroute I’d stopped at Facade glitter, who had some new greys, greens and dark green metalli glitters I was keen to try. Luckily Catryn liked the idea of a steamp-punk-cyborg look, so I set to work.
Over big pants and custom-cut bra inserts (made to look like an array of cogs and gears) I brushed a base of metallic powders and mixing liquids with some Kryolan Interferenz.
I then stencilled many areas with a computer-cut large stencil I found on eBay, and some smaller DIY ones I had made.
Finally, using the cosmetic adhesives and bottles I sell here, I did sort of circuit-board freehand glitter tattoos all over her.
It was funny as our nicknames were both ‘Cat’, so whenever the film-man asked 1 of us to move we both did!
Here is their film – I LOVE it, its magical! OOOOOoooooo! Hope they get to do the whole thing!
my terrible snip of the artwork:
Paradise Face & Body Jam Feb 2012
This is the biggest jam for face & body artists, held in Paradise Wildlife Park and hosted by Facade.
Lots of competitions, demos, and just painters ‘jamming'(painting and playing with ideas and kit). I’d been asked to do a quick demo/ body paint, but the model I had booked cancelled on the morning.
Luckily Jules abandoned her face paint shop stall and offered to model wrapped in a tablecloth so I could have access to her shoulders!
I had a bunch of fake roses and glued a Body FX foam latex breast cover (rose shaped) onto her shoulder for interest.
Then I used mainly my fave matt Grimas’s as base paint.
And my freehand glitter tattoo work using the bottles, tips and glues I sell on top. Glitters from Facade.
Isn’t she a stunner? Great event! Jules went out like that that night and had an excellent time:)
My Bloody Valentine Dead Doll bodypaint Shoot
Feb 2012
This was an idea that started after I developed my ‘Pretty Horrible’ slashed butterfly/ heart faces last Hallowe’en.
Elizabeth was going to be a beat-up stitched together zombie doll, a bit like the Corpse Bride. The dead doll look is really popular at Halloween, it must be a Manga or Horror Film thing or something as there are loads of costumes of it.
The gorgeous Di Smith of Frozen Photography again came round to take the photos, as we wanted to use them for a Valentine’s promo, and bought big bags of fake flowers as props.
I’d got flesh-time pants and the big bra inserts I like that almost matched Liz’s skin, so we put them on first.
I ‘bruised’ up Liz with an assortment of Grimas burgundy and Paradise lime green etc, before painting on the ‘joints’ and ‘joins’. I then added freehand glitter tattoo glue lines using the kit which I sell, to hold red and dark glitters.
ta dah!
Fish Swirl Baby Bump Glittery pre-natal body art
This was bought by the Bewilderwood staff as a present for one of their own going on maternity leave in 2011.
The mum, Eloise, had liked a swirly bubbly fish feeding ball idea (where fish get excited about a food source and swirl into balls, or are herded in together by feeding dolphins etc).
So that is what we did! Blue metallic face paint base with freehand glitter tattoo work using the bottles and cosmetic adhesives I sell here.
Cosmetic glitters from Facade
It’s all cosmetic and completely safe for the baby, and as long as mum is comfortable is a nice relaxing celebration which gives some lovely memories of a special time. The paint washes off with soap and the glitter may come off then or can last a few days if you want it, before rubbing gently away with baby oil.
Contact me if you’d like to book a Baby Bump Art session as a Baby Shower present!
Hallowe’en Spider Web Vamp Neck Glitter Tattoo Step by Step
Oct 2011
I just got the photos from this so am adding it a little late!
Victoria Lesley the amazing photographer I have worked with several times wanted to be a model for a change (she does work as one sometimes). So, Di Smith offered to take the shots and we met at my father-in-laws to try out the new glue application bottles I had sourced.
I used to use empty bling bottle etc but they tended to suddenly ‘pop’ and coat the model in their entire contents, so I had been looking doe something like I saw nurses using when I was in hospital.
This is what I came up with – squeezable oval bottles with tips that lock on and twist off! I sell them in my shop.
Anyway as it was just before Halloween we went for a spooky feel.
I added tiny dots in a webby pattern, then used silver Mehron or powder to highlight some when it was dry. A dark mix of cosmetic glitters from Facade for the rest of the webs and brush it off.
Another layer of glue for spiders etc, glitter and voila.
A waterproof, smudgeproof sparkling necklace that would last an evening of dancing perfectly.
Thanks ladies!
Traditional Christmas Fairy Body Paint
Dec 2011
I’m lucky enough to get quite a few models and photographers contacting me hoping to work together, and do sometimes arrange a shoot with some of them. Emily I’d painted as a bronze statue for the Paintopia promo shots, and she was keen to get painted again.
Alex Burlingham was still in school and planned to do photography at Higher Education, but the portfolio she sent me was already really interesting.
We arranged to meet up at her house where she had an actual studio set-up, impressive for a school pupil. Once Emily was in big pants and the bra inserts I prfer to glue on (they are huge and cover the whole breast so no naughty bits show), I’d found a traditionally-decorated Christmas Bauble I liked as inspiration,
and to carry on from the glitter-blowing Frost Fae shoot, had got some fake ‘snow’ that you added water to. It puffed up, looked fairly realistic, and was dry to the touch.
This was my favourite Grimas dark red/ burgundy over gold Mehron/ Graftobian powder and matching mix.
A fun afternoon, thanks ladies! And good luck in your career Alex.
Merry Alt Christmas Body Paint fairy card
BRAVE Leonie let us shoot this on a day of sleet in Mid-Dec 2011, in a Norwich graveyard!
She contacted me as she knew I was in Norwich, and she was going to be up visiting friends. We’d met when she was being painted beside me at several body art events, by other artists.
Al Pulford, a local who specialises in photographing gigs, had been in contact with me before and this was a great chance to collaborate.
I decided there are ‘rules’ to my seasonal fae shots; the twiggy gem sprays I made for the first Frost Fae shoot have to be included in some form with every model. So, this time I curled the wires and beads around some twigs from a hedge that still had a few shrivelled rowan etc berries on them and put them into Leonie’s hair.
She also wore another pair of the large bikni inserts as breats overs, and I cut the side strings off a pair of bikini knikers which I glued onto her.
I worked mainly with Grimas paints, and added some subtle lacy snowflake effects with some home-made stencils.
I then hand painted some twiggy black lines and glitter tattoo-d over the top of them.
We did the inital shoot in Al’s house, where I’d painted, and as we finished, looking out at the snow, he said….”There’s a great graveyard just down the road’. And Leonie was keen!
I’d bought my big felted Star Wars (I got it where they shot Tattooine in Tunisia) claok with me, so swathed in that and her boots, brave Leonie trotted down the road in the sleet with us.
I’m glad she did – what a trooper! It was actually snowing so much we did most of these photos under large sheltering trees, with me dashing up with cloak bewteen shots. Thanks guys!
Frost Fairy Body paint Winter Fae
Nov 2011
This was another shoot with photographer Al Hone, who stepped in last-minute to help me out over the summer when I had a postal comp I needed bodypaint photos for.
Mel is a friend of his who was coming up to Norwich to do another shoot with him, and fancied being painted too. Al could get his work’s photo studio so we were sorted!
I had an idea of continuing the vaguely Elemental series (started last slow season – i.e. last winter – with several glitter tattoo shoots – Leafy/Earth. Bubbly, Fire…) which morphed into an ‘Elemental Fae’ theme. I had a new pair of extra-long fairy ears I wanted to use, and got lost in Flikr/ google images of frost, snow etc for hours. Not that I could paint half of those patterns – you’d need a fractal mind!
The day before the shoot, amusing my toddler Finley for an hour in Norwich, I spotted a bead shop. A handful of crystal & plastic beads later, I had an idea of what to do for her headdress as I’m so rubbish with hair. After Fin went to bed I spent the evening wiring and coiling wires to crystal drops, and created some heat-bonded fibre fabrics too……
On Sat we all met at Al’s office studio, and I glued Mel into the breast shields I had chopped into sort of icy-crystal patterns. I mainly used Diamond FX metallic blue/ pink/ purple as a base, with Grimas White. I did her front as she was sat on my tall chair, then her legs and back.
She had a dizzy spell so chilled (literally) on the floor for a bit which meant I switched to mainly decorating her front & upper body for the time we had left when we got going again.
She then sat so I could attach all the bits into a high bun on her head…am so chuffed with the way the accessories came out in the photos – don’t the fibre fabrics I made look weird and icy?
After the paint I added some freehand glitter tattoo glue, waited for it to dry and added the glitter.
Body Painting by Cat 