Face and Body Painting Events and Jams

What happens at the Coffee Morning

By Rosemary Black 

In June I was very lucky to get a Tuesday to attend the free monthly coffee morning at the Eleven17 studios above The Face Painting Shop. The coffee morning is FREE, although you do need a ticket. Tickets are available when the event is announced on  Facebook.  

While each coffee morning has different face painters attending Nicky Gardner is the host. If you’ve never actually met Nicky you’ve probably seen one of her live videos or had an order packed by her. Nicky is one of my favourite on-the-job artists, she’s a great font of knowledge on paint, SFX and henna. Speaking of which, while we waited for other artists to arrive she beautifully applied some to my hand. 

Liz Bylett of Follies Faces (and The Living Art Show) was in attendance and most of the coffee morning was centred around her recreating part of her amazing body paint from the Chelsea Flower Show. She showed us how to paint peonies which we all had a go at on our own arms. There was also plenty of chat with the other painters who were all of varying levels of experience! 

I think there are three major benefits to attending the coffee morning;  

1. Free knowledge, it’s almost like a mini class or a try before you buy session.
2. We are a solitary bunch! Mostly painters work alone or are too busy painting hordes of customers to properly chat to each other. It’s always good to have a talk with your peers.  
3. The Face Painting Shop is just downstairs. After spending the morning trying all the colours and new products upstairs you can go add to your kit.

So be on the look out for our next coffee morning.

The French Body Panting Awards 2019

At the beginning of the month I competed at the French Body painting

awards, and was so excited to get the photo’s back the other day, so I

thought I would tell you all about it, from concept and design to the actual

event itself. For those of you that have been thinking about competing, I

hope this gives you a little bit of insight as to what goes on!

Competition is such a good way of challenging yourself, as well as learning

from those around you and getting to meet some awesome people! I did the

Amateur Brush and Sponge category at the World Body Painting festival last

summer, and I was determined to come back this year to improve my score,

however I just wasn’t feeling the theme (Galactical Zoo incase anyone is

wondering). I had a look around to see what other competitions were going

on both inside and outside of the uk and came across the French Body

Painting Awards, which is a World Body Painting Association Sanctioned

event and fell in love with the themes! When I signed up, the theme for the

Brush and Sponge category was ‘Poetry: The Power of Words’ and the

theme for the open category was ‘Spirituality: beyond the visible world’. I

loved the themes, I thought they had a lot of scope for creativity, but then

just before Christmas I got a very unwelcome email. The theme for the open

category had changed from ‘Spirituality: beyond the visible world’ to

‘Finland: a tale between nature and innovation’. I’m not going to lie, it left

me very uninspired, and I couldn’t get Monty Pythons Fish Slapping Song

out of my head for about a week.

The Concepts

One of the problems with themes that look really exciting is that it can be

hard to narrow your ideas down to one solid concept. I started sketching for

about 10 different ideas (I’m not even joking) before I settled on a concept

to match a design I had come up with. ‘The Ballad of St George and the

Dragon’ is written in poetry form and it meant that I could keep my idea

that was actually inspired by fairy tales and gender stereotypes.

I was lucky enough that Alex had agreed to come as my model for the brush

and sponge category, and had recovered from breaking his knee back in

November, so I was able to practice on him, which is the first time I have

actually practiced my designs on a human being rather than a practice

board before the event itself. I knew what I was doing and was able to

physically see the design, make some changes and prioritise elements that

would take longer to paint.

In the way that it can be hard to narrow your ideas down on a theme you get

very excited by, it can be quite easy to stay objective about a theme that

doesn’t inspire you so much. I decided to take my inspiration from the

Finnish composer Sibelius, who I knew a little bit about already having

studied for a music degree a few years ago. My concept was that Jean

Sibelius was an innovative Finnish composer who took inspiration from

Finnish nature and folklore and is credited with helping to give Finland a

national identity during their struggle for independence.

I then also decided that the auroras looked like frequency and liked the

story that the auroras are painted by the tail of an arctic fox. I didn’t have

the opportunity to practice the full design before hand because I hadn’t

managed my time quite as well as I potentially could have done, so I ended

up making some changes on the day, which I wish I hadn’t made, but I now

know how not to paint auroras!

The week before

I spent the week leading up to the competition refining my designs,

practicing elements of the pieces (although I wish I’d given more attention

to painting books and auroras!) and creating bits of costume for the Finland

piece, which I would be marked on for the open category. I knew we would

also be marked on SFX for the open category, but because Alex had to be in

work again on Monday morning (longest spring term ever!!) we had to catch

the last flight out on Sunday night, which meant that we wouldn’t be able to

stay long enough after the competition to remove any prosthetics applied to

my model. But I did manage to customise some shoes and I also made a glue

gun ice crown (I might have had a bit of a glitter incident whilst making this

one...)

Day 1

When my alarm went off I think Alex was ready to murder me. Because our

flight had been delayed we hadn’t managed to have any dinner, and hadn’t

eaten since a quick lunch on Friday. We didn’t get into our hotel until

midnight, but we got ourselves to the convention centre on time (via Paul

the bakery) and made our way over to the body paint area. If you have ever

done the Pro Beauty competitions, it was almost exactly the same set up.

We signed in, we got set up, got to know our neighbours and recognised

some familiar faces. One thing I really love about body painting is that even

in a competition environment, everyone is really friendly. I then had a

sickening sense of realisation that I had left my DFX black and white and

home, and I knew I would have to adapt some of my elements to work with

what I had brought (literally everything else).

So we got going, there were only 2 or 3 of us that didn’t have an assistant,

and I really felt the struggle. I spent the first 2 hours painting armour and

although I knew it was a big chunk of detailed work, looking around it

looked as thought I had hardly done anything because I didn’t have any

background laid down.

The background was actually the last thing I started on, and had already

decided that I was going to change my background colour from red to green

to give more of a contrast (there was a lot of red before...). However, I made

a poor decision and decided to use the Superstar Golden Green and DFX

Metallic green, instead of a flat, brighter green, even though I had brought a

tonne of greens with me! NeverthelessI had committed to a poor decision

and had to roll with it. I was very tight for time, and as the end was drawing

nearer, my dragon scales got bigger, and I finished the last one just as they

called time.

We were number 14 so we had a bit of time to clear up whilst we waited to

go in to see the judges, and to think about what I was going to say to them.

After the jury we got in the queue for photography. Alex had never modelled

at a public event before and the photographer was really great with helping

with poses. We then had a bit of an opportunity to have a look at what other

people had done (this is probably the most useful thing about competitions

as you can really see what really makes for a great design) before heading

over to the catwalk and presentation. I knew before I even booked the hotel

and flights that I wasn’t going to do well, so I wasn’t disappointed at all with

the results, I didn’t come last and that was good enough for me!

Day 2

It was the same process as the day before, but on the Sunday Alex was

assisting me and we were painting a French model. I am VERY lucky that

Alex is a French teacher and could translate what I was saying to her. As

people started filtering in, I started recognising more people from the World

Body Painting Festival, including the 2x airbrush category champion who set

up next to me. I knew we didn’t stand a chance, which almost made it easier

for me to just enjoy the painting.

There wasn’t really much for Alex to assist me with other than changing

dirty water, but it was little things that were just time consuming like

painting music notes, snow on mountains, a bit of background work, as well

as bits he thought I should work on that really made me appreciate having

an assistant as well as having the ability to communicate with our model.

I actually finished everything I had planned with about 10 minutes to spare

so I went round looking for things I could add to help bring the design

together, like adding a few bits of one stroke to my models wrists and ankles,

and adding some extra shading to the arctic fox. I knew I had ruined the

auroras so there was nothing I could do about that and it wasn’t worth

worrying about! We then got packed up pretty much straight away after they

called time, and Alex made a translation of what my piece was about so he

could speak to the judges in French this time. There were only a couple of

us that hadn’t used prosthetics, and I knew that was going to affect my score,

but it would have been irresponsible of me to make and apply prosthetics to

my model knowing that we wouldn’t be able to remove them for her at the

end of the stage presentation.

UK Bodypainting exhibition event - Exmouth,  Devon - 18th & 19th November 2017
Find out more at: www.devonbodyart.co.uk

We are having a small Christmas gathering in connection with the Painty People Periscope Group.
The party will be a great opportunity to network with fellow face painters, take party in some festive fun and games.
We will have lots of drinks and nibbles avaible and also a few surprises up our sleeve.
The cost is £10.00 per person.(payable in advance or on the day) we have a limited number of tickets available. (30)

The party will start at 6pm - look forward to seeing you for some Christmas fun

You can find the event page pn Facebook here > https://www.facebook.com/events/1787323568183124/

The most important social date in the Face Painting World!

Come and join us for an evening of wine, cake, candy floss and hotdogs, special offers, paint and of course our legendary goody bags to celebrate our 3rd birthday.

Every year we love to mix it up and this year we have done that! so get ready for a fun filled evening with your painting freinds .

Everyone is welcome - including little people

From 5.30pm at The Face Painting Shop

https://www.facebook.com/events/1462252460751013/

Face painting Jam/ get together for the South West area so we can meet each other, offer tips and advice and generally just have a good time.

This will be our 3rd year of running this Jam and its going from strength to strength!

Saturday 23rd January 2016, 10am-4pm.
@Morganians Rugby Club, Bridgwater.

It's for ALL abilitys so if you know of any other Face Painters please add them to this group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/somersetfacepaintingjam/?fref=ts

Come and join us for an evening of wine, cake, special offers, paint and of course our legendary goody bags to celebrate our 2nd birthday and the 2nd issue of Dupe Magazine.

We have a ton of surprises up our sleeve for this extra special party to make you all feel like a million dollars ;-)

Everyone is welcome - including little people

From 5.30pm at The Face Painting Shop

Is everyone looking forward to the Kent Jam 2015??

After two successful years, this will be the third Kent Jam hosted by my good friend Clare Jeffery of Cosmic Face Painting & Pampered Delights and Jules n Andy Feist of Crazy Face Painting.

It will be taking place at Larkfield Village Hall, New Hythe Lane, Aylesford, ME20 6PU. 9.30 – 3.30pm

For those of you who have never been to a jam before, it is great fun! You can bring a small kit and join in with the painting or go and have a nose around other peoples kits and get ideas and inspiration! There are traders there so that you can stock up on all the latest goodies, so make sure you bring some cash (or a credit card!) Retailers coming along include: Rainbow Faces, Façade, and the Face Painting Shop!

Everyone is very welcoming and no one will be left out, you can pick other artists brains and watch the various demonstrations, which will be happening throughout the day.

Demonstrations will include: Debz Mills showing her beautiful rose technique, Mandi Gabler doing Boys faces and Superheroes, Nicky Gardner will be showing One Stroke fast faces, Michelle Koopmans doing her outstanding henna designs,  and Angela Youngs doing gore (of course!!), Jennifer Parker and Leonie Dack will also be demonstrating their skills and techniques. I will also be there, demoing eye designs. So it should be a great day!

There will be a body painting area for 6 body artists, so if you’ve never seen full body art in real life this will be a good opportunity, Five baby bumps will be being decorated as I understand, and henna tattoos on offer. Also beginners and “Frozen” Balloon modelling, and the opportunity to take the FACE test, or at least to find out more about the benefits of joining FACE if you are interested!

There will be all levels of experience at the jam, so if you are new (or old lol), please do come along, you will definitely learn, laugh and meet some lovely people!

Entry on the door is £5 or you can pre pay via paypal for a discounted £4 fee which also gets you a FREE raffle ticket! Children are welcome for £1 each, so don’t worry about offloading the kids! All proceeds will go to charities: Macmillan and K9 Rehoming.

Check out the event page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/713725292039442/

Hosted by Clare Jeffery at Cosmic Face Painting & Pampered Delights and ourselves Crazy Jules n Andy Crazy Face Painting we are pleased to announce the 3rd Kent Face Painting Jam to be Held on Tuesday 7th April 2015 at Larkfield Village Hall, New Hythe Lane, Larkfield, Kent ME20 6PU. Refreshments available donation to lunch buffet please for each adult attending. Limited spaces for painty/glittery traders. 4 body painting spaces, Demos through the day. Charity raffle all donations welcome.

We are now taking Paypal pre entry which is discounted to £4 per adult PLUS 1 FREE raffle ticket for guaranteed places so please go to Paypal and pay clare@cosmicfacepainting.com STATING Kent Jam 2015.

Entry on the door will be £5 per Adult and £1 per child to cover cost of hall. All proceeds will go to charity. Chosen charities are Macmillian and K9 Rehoming.

Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/events/713725292039442/?unit_ref=popular_with_friends