Facepaint UK Blog

Bibi gets to paint her kids again!

After years of having to pay my children to paint them (went overboard in the early days) at last they are actually asking me to do it again, and asking for interesting things too! And their delicious girl friends are queuing up for punishment as well!

It's all about clubbing, and what to wear. Affording fashion is a bit of a problem, and the risk of getting it wrong (especially for the boys) is high. What better than a new look - painted on? They are now also "doing it for themselves" and Friday night can mean a houseful of gorgeous young things splashing the paint around. No, they don't clean up very well afterwards!

After years of having to pay my children to paint them (went overboard in the early days) at last they are actually asking me to do it again, and asking for interesting things too! And their delicious girl friends are queuing up for punishment too!

It's all about clubbing, and what to wear. Affording fashion is a bit of a problem, and the risk of getting it wrong (especially for the boys) is high. What better than a new look - painted on? They are now also "doing it for themselves"and a Friday or Saturday night can mean a houseful of gorgeous young things splashing the paint around. No, they don't clean up very well afterwards!

The venues are a bit risqué with events called The Blood Ball or Torture Garden and the like (see http://www.texaschainsaw.co.uk/ ) and it's all a bit nasty Goth. So I did as much research as I could bear (so I didn't get it wrong) and listened to their ideas too. I haven't used blood yet, relying on something a bit more creative for effect.

The first "project" was to paint Shawnee and Robert for a Halloween event, she had an interesting spiky top and faded pink streaks in her hair. She wanted a "special effect" so I took the opportunity to experiment with Grimas phosphorescent gel. This is a bit tricky to apply, and felt uncomfortable on her face. As it is a gel, it tightens as it dries and feels weird, so we removed it. However it stayed on her back and arms as a glowing background. It needs to be "charged" by light, and we spent a lot of time opening and closing the shutters to darken the room so I could see the effect of what I'd done. I took the spike theme one step further with a tribal slant, and refreshed the unremakable pink in her hair with Wolfe UV pink, it worked!

GLOW IN THE DARK ON SHAWNEE'S BACK

Robert wanted an exact copy of The Punisher, and I painted his chest so that he and Shawnee 'went together' (in his dreams), and added some old Darth Maul horns that I'd made for a photo shoot that were still hanging around. This is the image that got selected for inclusion in the British Bodypainting Calendar.

DARTH MAUL HORNS ON HERO BIKER CARL FOGARTY - PICTURE: COPYRIGHT TOM CRITCHELL, GOLD & GOOSE

Just as they were leaving, little'un (aka Gremlin) suddenly decided he wanted to go too, so got an off the cuff monstery thing - the eyes have it, and make anything look special! Green Stargazer hair gel is fantastic, goes on quickly and the integral comb works a treat.

Another request was in response to a competition to win tickets for Download Festival. This was especially important, as they were sold out! And my sprogs were desperate to go. The challenge was to use the festival logo which is a somewhat remarkable pink dog. We didn't win as part of the criteria was to advertise the event to as many as possible, and we only managed to take him for a walk around hot spots in London for the day. The winner actually put on a promotional event! We did meet one of my ex-boyfriends in Camden, who walked straight past him, despite having lived with us for 6 years! In case you're wondering, yes, I managed to get tickets, and VIP ones at that!

FREE - MAN'S BEST FRIEND?

Next, my big son (aka Ewok) wanted "something mechanical like from the Alien". I happened to have recently bought an as yet unread book on the artist responsible, HR Giger's work, so in the middle of the night (we are all nocturnal creatures) we looked through it together for inspiration in preparation. After a few sketches each, acknowledging realistic time limitations, we ended up with this:

Reading the book, he is one weird guy! I've now found websites devoted to his fantastic if disturbing work...

www.hrgigermuseum.com
www.giger.com
www.hrgiger.com
www.baranyartists.com
www.hrgigeragent.com
www.littlegiger.com
http://gigerweb.ez-internet.org/

Again, Gremlin made a last minute decision to join in and raided my store of latex prosthetics, cleverly fashioning himself a new chin from an old ear! I love how the nose looks like a prosthetic too, but is pure paint.

A professional photographer was at the event and captured these for Bizarre Magazine. It is!

Another day, a last minute quicky in the kitchen (!) gave me the opportunity to get my sword liner out and emulate Lynne Jamieson's spider web design technique from Telford. Ewok was vaguely wimbling about spider webs and barbed wire so I did both! The web turned into wire, but I wish I'd planned the design better.

This last one was done watching TV with son lying on the bed. Sooo much easier than standing up - he's 6'5" tall and VERY ticklish. I got much less complaints this way and he actually stayed still for most of it! He suggested bat wings, (not the underarm type that we older girlies know about) and I thought a skeleton was a more interesting way to go. Luckily I had reference for a bat skeleton, so it looks quite realistic. I think it's very important to have reference to draw from, it's almost impossible to imagine these things accurately.

Here are pictures of the girls as they emerged from the privacy of my bathroom, which now has a vague blue tinge to it! They didn't do bad did they? Just wait till I get my hands on them though!

I have an idea I'm itching to get my fingers on, that I intended to include last time, but ran out of time, so I hope they go out again soon. I'm looking forward to the summer for new reasons - I don't have to worry as much about painting to accommodate coats etc. (no shoulders!). I use mostly Wolfe paint, primed with No Sweat and fixed with barrier spray for these intense events as it is more likely to last the night, and not rub off on the way there by public transport. After all, they would be seen dead being taken there by their mum would they?