Wicked Faire 2010

Wow, what a weekend! Jeff Mach's Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire was even bigger and better this year than previously. Eric and I were kept so busy that we didn't even have time to see it all.

I was doing face and body painting, as ususal, but this time we also had our soaps for sale with us. Unfortunately, that meant that Eric didn't get to travel with me when I took my face painting cart to my various body painting assignments.

I did, of course, paint the wonderful Aiden, who oversees every aspect of vendor organization for the event, from registration to placement, to complaints.

Each year, the event has a different theme. This year's theme was Alice in Wonderland, and it was a wonderful springboard for costuming. I, of course, was happy that it led to people wanting me to assist with their outfits like this adorable Cheshire cat...

Of course, there was the typical Renaissance Faire fare of swirls and curls.

In amongst those, I was honored to paint the very talented Sarah, of musical group This Way to the Egress for the band's Saturday night show.

Of course, the male faire attendees and employees didn't let me forget them either! This handsome gentleman, Mike, from Virginia let me take advantage of his available "canvas" and really have some fun.

I think I'm ready to start painting Harleys! Ha!

And Oliver, who was working at the faire and who, together with his girlfriend Timna, makes the most amazing Steampunk accessories, had me paint him to match his very cool outfit.

Last, but definitely not least, on Sunday I painted one of my most loyal models, Patrick. What's a Renaissance faire without zombies?

Especially happy zombies.

Even better than all of this, on Saturday evening, I was given a stage an an audience, to complete a body painting demonstration on the lovely Toni. With her cat ears and tail, I had to give her a cat face to match.

But the body painting was the real star of the show. We had three people taking photographs as I painted my Alice themed design...

Because we had professional photographers taking pictures, I'm not going to post the full finished product today. I don't want to ruin the look by showing you less-than-perfect photos of the painting, which was completed, back and front, in just over an hour! As soon as I have the pro photos, I'll be sharing them.

I also had the pleasant surprise, though, of a surprise body painting assignment earlier on Saturday afternoon. There was a fashion show scheduled, and the organizer's order of body paint hadn't arrived in time. The fiance of a woman I painted last year let them know that a body painter was actually available at the faire, and I was hired to complete the "outfit."

My model was to have cat ears, a tail, and a gorgeous mask, and I was asked to paint her following the style of the mask in pink and black. It was craziness. I brought my cart to the hotel room where all of the models were getting dressed. The others were wearing beautiful Victorian and faire clothing and just the one was to be a body painted cat. People were getting dressed and corseted all around us, hair and makeup being completed, while my model and I twisted and turned around each other to get her done as quickly and beautifully as possible. The energy was incredible.

The fashion show was photographed and videorecorded professionally, and I will have both photos and video links. I'm waiting for those photos and links before I post the results here, so be sure to check back! I wasn't able to see the show, but I'm told my model was absolutely amazing on the runway.

All in all, we had an amazing time, and are completely exhausted!

Not Just Faces

... and here's where we get to the reason why this blog has a warning.

For a face and body painter, all skin is canvas, not just the face. On this blog, I've posted photos of arms, necks, and chests I've painted as well, but that's not the long and short of it either. Body painting is an art form, used all over the world in television commercials, print ads, and even an annual issue of Sports Illustrated!

This weekend, I'll be doing face and body painting at the Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire in Somerset, NJ. I've done this for several years now. The difference is that this year, I won't just be a vendor. On Saturday night, I'm scheduled to do a body painting demonstration on stage! I'm incredibly excited about this, since I love theater as well as painting, and so now I get to combine two of my arts.

It's not the first time I've body painted. In fact, the model I'm painting on Saturday night is one I painted at last year's Wicked Faire as well. Last year's theme was "Wicked Chocolate Factory," so I used face paint as a base, then Green Marble to seal the design. On top of that, I painted her with body frosting I purchsed just for this event.

This year's theme is "Wicked Tea Party," based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, so I've got a design planned that I hope will wow the masses! As a big fan of Alice, all I hope is that I can live up to the story and do it justice.

I also go every year to New Orleans in March (except last March, when I was busy getting married!) to LA Fete, the Living Arts Festival, and take classes in face and body painting, henna, and other forms of body art. We also face paint for one afternoon of the event at the New Orleans Zoo and donate the proceeds to charity.

In 2008, I worked with two friends, Elaine Tindell-Rohr of Alabama and Lisa Rickels of Mississippi, on this great goth body painting one evening.

On another evening of the event, we painted models for a burlesque show at a bar in New Orleans. Lisa helped me realize my design on our wonderful model, Tiffany, who was a hit at the show!

This weekend should be incredibly busy and tiring, but great fun. Expect lots of photos!

Witches' Ball, a/k/a Halloween - Part 3

Last night was the Witches' Ball in Montclair, NJ, co-hosted by Mystic Spirit Metaphysical Shop and Everything Akasha. I'd never been to it before, because it usually conflicts with my own Halloween party, but this year they held it a week later, and so I was able to go.

Me, miss a costume party? Not if I can help it!

My friend came over earlier in the evening, to be painted as The Morrigan, and Irish goddess. This was the picture from which I was working:

Kerry didn't have the head circlet or armbands, so here's what I did:

For myself, I saw this as another opportunity to wear my new pirate garb, so I went as a dead pirate:

Simply because I didn't feel right going to a costume party unpainted!

It was hilarious how many people apologized for saying it was creepy, when that's exactly what I was going for!

After the party, my husband and I stopped at the Wendy's drive-through because he was hungry. I was driving, and scared the bejeezus out of the two women at the window, who then proceeded to call over other employees to look at me.

All in all, a good night!

Halloween - Part 2

My morning clients from Friday liked their paintings so much that they asked to come back Saturday and get painted again! They came over in the afternoon, and this time the husband (who'd been a Jack O' Lantern) requested a face from the Insane Clown Posse. This one:

His wife, who had to be convinced to get painted on Friday, requested this geisha on Saturday:

And this time, they brought a referral with them! The husband's manager at work loved the Jack O' Lantern so much that he wanted to get painted too. He saw the skull face I'd done on Friday and wanted something like that. Doing it again gave me the opportunity to change some details and improve on the design a bit.

He was apparently heading out to the Halloween Parade in NYC to scare some of the city folk.

Later, I was able to do my own face before my Halloween party. I was a vampire.

Unfortunately, because of all the party prep, I was not able to do my husband's face as intended. I'm planning to give another go this Friday when we attend the Witches' Ball in Montclair, so check back after that to see if I accomplished it!

Halloween Appointments

This morning, a great couple came over to get painted before going to work. The husband wanted to be a full-headed scary Jack O' Lantern, and the wife just wanted purple streaks in her hair.

They came with their own orange, green, and purple hair spray, all prepared to go.

So I got to work on the husband, and this is what we achieved:

He and his wife absolutely LOVED it! After I finished this, I did the purple streaks in his wife's very dark hair. Subtle, but cool. Well, he was so excited, and she was so impressed, that he convinced her to get painted too. She just wanted a cool eye mask, something with tribal.

Then, this afternoon, I had another husband/wife team come by for paintings for a party tonight. They contacted me after seeing me paint their granddaughter at the Cabbage Night Festival on Saturday. The wife has a gold and black webby and gauzy dress, and a gold crown with various colored stones. She wanted to be a Butterfly Queen. This is she...

Her husband, on the other hand, went the opposite route. A man after my own heart, he got himself a black hooded robe and was looking for a skull face.

His wife sat behind him on a chair as I painted, and then he turned around. She literally jumped, she was so startled by what I'd done. They decided they couldn't go visit his mother today, because it might do her in!

Meanwhile, my pumpkin head emailed me, to tell me that the people at work were very surprised, and that security wouldn't let him in. He told them, " You know me man!! I've been coming here for years!!" A few of his co-workers got scared, and on the NYC bus it was hilarious. A few people spotted him on the bus and didn't want to get on! The bus driver was laughing so hard. He's been getting lots of stares and most people say, "Great job, who did it?" According to my client, "It's been so much fun man I haven't had this much fun in Halloween since 1998."

Halloween Season

It's begun!

My husband and I went to a haunt in NYC, Blood Manor. It's a popular event, with a line on which we waited nearly two and a half hours. In the drizzle. And chill.

The event planners, sponsored by Club Planet, tried to keep us entertained, with wandering actors and some fairly sick entertainment. Some of the creatures were very well done,

Some, not so much so.

There were also some rather truly gruesome "attractions" happening in the street. Suffice it to say, the men who were having dollar bills stapled to their skin were not the worst of it. This was.

 

 

Yeah, it's called Blood Manor for a reason.  This event is not for kids.

Inside, the walls were covered in UV-reactive paintings on black canvas, with blacklights lighting the way. The paintings were terrific.

All of the elements of the haunt inside were great - the actors, the costumes, the makeup, the props (I want those props for my house!), the various room themes, the use of UV-reactive paint and 3D glasses, the inventiveness of some of the themes. It was all the more odd to me, then, that I wasn't scared. I'm an easy audience, too. I'm very easily startled, and I do scare. I'll be afraid of a dark street or driving alone after watching The Grudge. So the lack of fright with this event was disappointing. My husband thinks it's based on the speed at which we were herded through, though I understand that the tour couldn't be too long or the line outside would be even less bearable.

I'm not sorry we went, though. I did enjoy the various pieces of it all, and appreciated the work and expense that obviously went into it.

When is Body Paint Not Body Paint?

When it's craft paint!

When is it dangerous even if it's not craft paint? When it's not FDA-compliant or used improperly!

There's a good article in Monday's USA Today, that you can read here. It explains the allergic reactions - red rashes, etc. - that can result from using craft paint or face paint that's not the good stuff.

Face and body paint, after all, is not all created equal. That stuff you get at most Halloween stores is usually from China. Remember all those issues we had a while back with products from China? The pet food? The paint used on children's toys? Yeah, same country, similar issues.

The products I use are all labeled as makeup, not paint. So that's a start. If you're looking for face and body paints, look for makeup. Something to note: Face paint (as other cosmetics) are not FDA-approved. Under the law, the FDA does not approve cosmetics. What they approve is the pigments used in the cosmetics. This makes the makeup FDA-compliant, if one is being accurate. If someone tells you that the face paint he or she is using is FDA-approved, s/he's wrong.

Now, I'm going to assume that anyone reading this is bright enough to never, never, never use craft paint on his face or body or the face of his child. That means no acrylics, no temperas, no watercolors, no markers, no Sharpies. Non-toxic doesn't cut it. As a good friend of mine in Minnesota likes to say, habanero peppers are non-toxic, but you wouldn't want to rub them all over your face!

So... what about those Halloween kits you see at the stores this time of year?

They're... potentially OK. But pay attention.

If you buy a great-looking kit to do your son up as Darth Maul, and there's an awesome photo of just such a face on the packaging - read the entire package before you buy. If the label or packaging says to avoid the eye area with certain colors (like red or black, which is very common), listen to the packaging, no matter what the photo shows. The packaging and labeling trump the photography every time. Take it seriously.

If the makeup smells funny, ditch it. Do not try to use it, since it could be infected with bacteria or simply old and past its shelf life.

Your best bet? Hire a professional. Even if it's not me (there, now you know I'm not biased). Ask him or her what's being used. If you hear Snazaroo, Grimas, Paradise, Mehron, Fantasy WorldWide, Kryolan, Fardel, Wolfe Brothers, Diamond FX, or several other brands (do your research if you hear something unfamiliar), you're OK. If it's craft or art products, run. Run like the wind. Run like they're trying to give you the Swine Flu.  There are some allegedly "professional" face and body painters who'll tell you that non-toxic craft and art paints are perfectly safe for use on the body.  They're wrong, and they're the scourge of our profession.  Run like the wind.

And the same goes for face and body painters who won't tell you what they use. If they won't tell you, it's because they have something to hide.