Sunday, November 29, 2009

Face Paint Recipes

These easy face paint recipes show how to make homemade face paint using common household ingredients. Mix and store in baby food jars or discarded film canisters. Be ready for your next kids party or dress-up event.

HOMEMADE FACE PAINT RECIPES

Facepaint Recipe #1

1 tsp. Cornstarch

½ tsp. Cold cream

½ tsp. Water

Food coloring (variety of colors)

Mix together cornstarch and cold cream until well blended. Add water and stir. Add food coloring one drop at a time until you get the desired color.

Facepaint Recipe #2

3 tblsps. Cornstarch

1 tblsp. Flour

3/4 cup Karo light corn syrup

1/4 cup water

½ tsp. Liquid food coloring

Mix cornstarch and flour together in a bowl. Gradually stir in Karo syrup and water until smooth. Divide mixture into individual containers as needed and tint each one with the food coloring of your choice. Leave one batch untinted.

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Clown Make-up

Blend on a paper plate:

2 tblsp. shortening

5 tsps. cornstarch

1 tsp. flour

Dab of Vaseline

Add food coloring for various colors.

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Fake Blood for Halloween Party Make-up

Karo brand corn syrup

Red and blue food coloring

Milk

Add some red food coloring to the corn syrup, then just a drop or two of blue to get a more realistic dark color. Milk will make the blood appear more opaque and more realistic.

Note: This mixture is sticky and can stain clothes.

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More Fun Make-up Tips:

To lightly blacken faces, carefully burn a cork and when cool, rub on the face.

For a ghoulish look, add a dusting of flour to already made up faces.

For a stubbly bearded look, sprinkle tobacco over a thin layer of vaseline.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Nude Art

Scandalous! Shocking! Without modesty! Nudity has been portrayed without shame throughout history and has been met with varying criticism depending on the time and culture.

Early Nude Art

Ever since early cave paintings the natural human form has been portrayed in its full unclothed glory. This was just how the artists saw his fellow people, and depending on the region, people wore very little anyway. Since then societies have presented the nude form in paintings, drawing, photography, and any other media. This either demonstrates humanity's strong sexual nature, or just a propensity for making aesthetically pleasing artwork, or perhaps a combination of the two.

Perhaps no society was more naked in its art than Pompeii. This ancient Roman city would meet its doom at the wrath of Mount Vesuvius when the volcano erupted and wreaked havoc on the city below. The city would be covered and ruined by the lava flow but an 18th century find would uncover remnants of a forgotten world, including the remains of many of its inhabitants exactly how they met their fiery demise.

The society shows no sign of bashfulness in its many frescoes and surviving statues. In them you'll find depicted sexual acts, more sex, sex, and just plenty of nudity. Being an ancient Roman city, they often depicted gods and goddesses in their art. The most risque probably being Priapus, the god of fertility. Also of interest are the many statues from early Pompeii, which today may raise a few eyebrows. These are no Michelangelo's "David," if you know what I mean.

Erotica

Further through art history, namely long after the invention of oil painting and when art drifted away from a dominant religious tone, nudity was a common thing. Retouching on the ancient themes, pederasty in Roman mythology in paintings and sculpture, carnal love, and in general sexuality (sometimes not so delicate) were painted time and again. This was perceived usually as good taste. Of course, that wasn't always the general consensus.

In Michelangelo's career, he painted the human form realistically and without apologies. The subtle homo-erotic tones of the Sistene's ceiling probably went straight over the head of the pope and any other religious leader for that matter. The musculature of the male form painted in detail and the poses of the many male figures probably would have been omitted from a religious painting. The olives resembling certain parts of anatomy were perhaps there as a joke or subtle reference.

In the case of Caravaggio, his pubescent cupid displayed in "Amor Vincet Omnia" or Love Conquers All , would in these days be met with hostility, and the artist considered a pedophile. But in those days, the nude form young and old was nothing to shy from, and the boy was simply another model paid to pose. Caravaggio's painting is characteristic of his work, steering clear of the idealized subjects, instead showing a common street boy, crooked teeth and all.

Much modern debate has come over Amor's primary owner keeping the painting behind a curtain. While some say that he was embarrassed of the supposed eroticism and kept it hidden, others say that covering a painting is meant to keep it as a piece de resistance, to be uncovered only after the rest of the artwork was shown, as the best of show.

Borderline Pornography

It probably wasn't until the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe, particularly Victorian times of the 19th century when nudity in art started to seem inappropriate. In an age when even in the summer one must cover themselves with layer upon layer, and sexual matters altogether were strictly taboo, its no wonder the paintings were more G rated. This isn't to say that the subtle was absent. Take the Fragonard painting The Swing. It was also called "The Happy Accidents of the Swing." Humorously showing a glimpse up a dress, an unquestionable infidelity, and a cupid statue with a "hush" gesture all show this French painting's sexual symbolism.

Tame by today's standards, The Swing was quite sultry in its day. Going further into the beginning of the nineteenth century, Goya would make a breakthrough in erotic art and paint the first showing of pubic hair. Take "The Naked Maja" which was the complement to the Clothed Maja. Both paintings are wrapped in mystery, as to who the model is and who the intended recipient, but most people conjecture Fransisco was romantically involved with the sitter. Either way, it would get the artist into much trouble. It even got him fired from a lucrative court position, as a result of the Spanish Inquisition deeming the painting obscene.

Later we continue to have scandals resulting from a repressed mass of people. This John Singer Sargent painting called "Madame X" was originally painted with one shoulder strap off and on her arm. Mothers cover your children's eyes, they'll be scarred for life! Sargent later had to repaint the strap in it's correct position, to appease the prudish public.

In the nineteenth century, the "Father of American Painting" Thomas Eakins would be in hot water for removing the loincloth of a nude model in an art class. One of the girls promptly told her parents of such a horrible thing, which would lead to Eakins' removal from professorship at the Pennsylvania Academy. Eakins wasn't ashamed of the naked human body and frequently shot many nude photos, even posing nude himself on the other end of the camera as well. His paintings sometimes had nudity in them as well.

Subtle Undertones?

Modern photography is rife with naked forms ranging from the sexually charged to the artistic erotica. Modern advertisement also has subliminal sexual undertones for its psychological value, portraying people in borderline explicit poses and gestures in an effort to maximize effectiveness. Sex sells!

Speaking of sex selling, the paintings of Rembrandt van Rijn have been known to contain subliminal messages to reach the subconscious. The Dutch word for sex has been found in the underpaintings of several works written in large, barely visible letters. The painting of the Militia of Captain Cocq could possibly have a deep subconscious image. The shadow of a hand on the other man's crotch? Captain who? Interesting.

Modern and Contemporary Nudity

Painting in the modern day, especially at art schools involves the female nude for a variety of reasons. Besides its classical and/or romantic value, the female body is generally a good subject to paint for its curves and contours, giving the student valuable practice in form and shape. One may say that society has come a long way since Fragonard's Swing painting. But at the same time it is not that probable that a painting of a school teacher skinny dipping with his students would be generally accepted, at least not in modern America.

So times change, as well as views on sexuality, nudity, and the human body. Each society and culture has its own views, and inside each has subcultures with differing views and values, such as nudist camps. It also matters which part of the world you're from, as a nudist beach in France is more the norm than a nudist beach in New Jersey.

No matter what day and age, boys will be boys and seek the naked drawings in art books, erotically charged paintings will turn us on, subtle sexual undertones may touch our subconscious and we will always have nude paintings on our walls for whatever the perceived value.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Body Paint and Bibles

I love traveling, not the fact of going somewhere else, but the action of traveling from one place to another. My fascination is of being anonymous, and of course the time spent “people watching”. This is often done alone, which I think is more entertaining as you are not distracted from the serious business of observing.

Two journeys this year, one to the UK and one day trip to Barcelona.

The UK bound trip started with the normal commotion I always achieve at airports. This is caused by the habit of wearing as much as I can to avoid carrying it or more to the point paying the dreaded extortionate fees “excess baggage” what an awful term...nothing I carry is excess to my needs! So off go the alarms, I could offer my services to test their equipment because no matter what I remove I always set the systems blaring. After the “pat down” with nothing found to attribute to the noise I always hear myself apologise! With the current state of the world I am not complaining about these security measures I just would like to get through, just once, without this hullabaloo!

Then homeward bound, the UK airport tempted me with Marks and Spencer food outlet just before you go through customs control. Great idea, buy lunch, and a few presents to bring back, a thought of what you are allowed to have in hand luggage I avoided drinks but settle on a sandwich, fruit, biscuits etc plus cheeses and chutneys for friends. So I discover this is a ploy by airport staff to get free lunches, they confiscated the lot. Nowhere could I see on the list of banned items M&S lunch! I wanted to say “stop let me back over the barrier and I will eat it first” but the fear of not being let through to travel was greater than hunger.

The day trip to Barcelona was just as eventful for different reasons. An unscheduled change of trains half way meant a different set of traveling companions. Sitting ourselves by the door, with an empty seat in front and two to the side, the carriage was almost full. Then, three young, smartly dressed men boarded, taking up the only empty seats. The first oddness I noticed they all wore the same jackets and had name badges so without further thought I assumed they were security or police. Then I saw the bibles they all started to read as we started out of the station. With an hours non stop journey to Barcelona in a full carriage, we start to realize that our traveling companions had a mission or should I say, they were missionaries. Within minutes they struck up conversation with us.

Caught off guard, but fascinated to understand why these three young American men were in Spain. To counter their obvious objective to discuss The Lord, we asked them many questions on their background, my friend and I taking it in turn to question them. The first thought that ran through my head was the “good cop bad cop” ploy we naturally adopted. The friend was gentle in the questioning I was not so! Why was I allowing myself to be drawn into this exchange? Not wanting my religious believes to be questioned or was I feeling confronted?

With the journey over, ahead of us the serious task of shopping. We starting walking from the station in the crowds of city folks going about their business. I could not believe what I saw next, as nobody else seemed to notice, I began to wonder if my eyes deceived me. “Did you see that”? “Was he wearing anything”? Not a pretty sight, just a man with clothes painted on his naked body. To add to the amusing spectacle...not a head was turned. Just like the earlier time in the train carriage I felt the day was going to be different, and it certainly was!

Maybe that is the reason I love traveling, you cannot control what you may encounter only how you react to it.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Body Painting: Henna Tattoo

Henna tattoos are an ancient custom in India: girls and women are body painted before ceremonies, like marriage. They painted complicated patterns on their hands and feet to symbolize their fertility.

Henna (or 'Mehndi', the Indian name) is made from the henna plant (Lawsonia Inermis). The leaves of the plant are dried and ground. The powder gets mixed with water and you get a sort of green-brownish mud. If you put that mud on your skin, let it harden, and then peel it off, you will notice it has left an orange color.

You can get your henna at an eastern shop or a 'souk' in many different colors. There's orange, mahogany, brown and black. The orange one is the traditional henna. The black henna is synthetic. It contains PDD (P-phenylenediamene) and can cause allergic reactions. Even if it doesn't cause irritations, it's still unhealthy. Moreover, in the past, black henna at your wedding was considered a disgrace.

Henna Recipe

With one pack of henna, you'll have enough to body paint the entire football team. Put the henna in a bowl and gently pour some lemon juice and boiling water in the bowl. Don't use too much water, the mud has to resemble the thickness of sate sauce. The purpose of the lemon juice is to help the color hold better on your skin.

Your skin should be clean, dry and not fat. If you want to color your nails too, they shouldn't have nail polish on them. Make sure you really want this, because your nails will be orange for about 2 months. It doesn't come off! When the henna is cold, you can get to painting.

If you want to paint your foot soles, which is a traditional custom in Marokko, make sure you have a pillow of some kind to keep your feet off the floor, before you know it, the henna mud is everywhere! You can apply the henna with all sorts of instruments, what works best is a syringe (without the needle of course).

Symmetric and geometric shapes work best. Don't make the lines too thin, the color won't come on to your skin very well. The bigger the surface, the brighter the color will be.
Now: the annoying part: Waiting...

Let the henna dry in the sun, the warmth of the sun will get your color deeper into your skin. You can also use a hairdryer.

If you make a mistake in the picture your painting: ACT QUICKLY! If you wipe it off too late, the henna will leave a red spot.

After a while, the henna will start to burst. Don't peel it off yet! The henna has to stay on for at least two hours. Then you can start removing the crusts of mud.

DON'T remove the henna with water! Just scrape the crusts of your skin, you can do this with a bold knife. Don't let your body painting get in touch with water for the first couple of hours. Right after you scraped off all the crusts, rub your skin in with olive oil. It will make the color brighter and help keep the color on as long as possible. Your henna painting will survive for about a month or so.

Also nice to know: Swimming, body peeling, scrubbing your back, and bodyscrub products will make the henna tattoo deteriorate faster.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Paul Gauguin - Painting Nude Females

Were we to make a list of the main post-Impressionist painters, the name of Paul Gauguin would be on top of the list. He is known for his innovative and bold experimental use of colours.

But the prime thing that made Paul Gauguin such a renowned artist was his capability to understand the inherent meaning of the subjects he painted. He caught the very meaning of the subjects he painted; and then he uploaded that onto the canvas, expressing the same with his impressionist style of painting.

The subject of painting human body has remained the most beautiful and perfect subject for depiction of their artistic prowess. The artists since the ages have exploited this subject and the human form through its depiction in their paintings. The human body, especially nude female body is a subject of first choice among the artists for the element of mysterious allure. But very few of these artists have done perfect justice to the natural beauty of women's body as the master painter Paul Gauguin has done through his artistic nude paintings.

Many painters have spent their entire life painting nude bodies of the female models. They respected and adored the women sitting for them; and they tried hard to beautify their looks. These painters tried laboriously for injecting liveliness into the portraits of the nude females they painted. The great painters from the time of renaissance have done much artistic endeavours to immortalise a simple smile on the face of the beautiful women or the alluring curves of the bodies of those fatal fames. Numbers of painters have used this subject of painting natural beauties of women, but very few have succeeded in the job as Paul Gauguin.

Friday, November 13, 2009

CATBEAR?!



aaaaarrrrghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
It's a cat! With shark teeth! Or maybe it's a bear?

MUFFIN MAN


If anyone has any idea what the story behind these tattoos is, I would LOVE to know!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Cowboygirl up!



This gem was submitted by a reader. It's actually not that bad... technically it's good, and I get the funny "cowboy up" twist on phrasing. The floating hat is a little weird, but I've seen a million worse tattoos. It did get me into searching for some cowboy tattoos though, and look what I found!



Same artist or inspiration? I kind of like it...

However, there are some truly terrible cowboy tattoos out there, which I am happy to share with you.


I love his tiny feet! They're so dainty!


This poor cowboy only has one foot.


And this is from the anime series Cowboy Bebop, so it's a different kind of cowboy... but it's so terrible I had to share.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Halloween Face Painting Ideas

Halloween is such fun for kids of all ages, and adults too. Here are some face painting ideas to get you in the Halloween spirit.

Halloween face painting idea 1: pumpkin

A bright orange pumpkin painted on each cheek. Black paint used to paint eyes, nose and mouth. A light grey would be used to show the ridges of the pumpkin as well as its outline.
An alternative would be to do a full face pumpkin with an orange face base (blending a darker orange shade over cheekbones), black triangle shape over the eyes (extending above and below the eye area), a black nose and a large black mouth (need to cover more than just the lips).

Halloween face painting idea 2: skull

A full face design. Has a white face as the base, large black 'panda' eyes, black and white vertical stripes on the lips (with the white stripes wider than the black ones) and a trickle of red from one side of the mouth (to indicate blood).

Halloween face painting idea 3: vampire

A full face design. A white face base, bright red lips, fangs coming out of each corner of the lower lip (outline is light grey, fill is white, and tip is red to denote some blood), eye lids are smoky grey (right up to and over eye brows), eye brow then exaggerated with black sweeping strokes.

Halloween face painting idea 4: bat

A full face design. A white face base, bat's face painted on forehead above the nose (it's in black with light grey for eyeballs, and for some definition in ears); the bat's body is painted in black on the nose and ends at the base of the nostrils (use different shadings of black; the bat's wings extends out from head and body and covers the eyes curving up towards the temple and down the outside of the eye to mid cheek (again use different black shadings and some fine dark grey strokes to paint some definition into the wings); the lips are painted in dark grey with an exaggerated upward curl at the corners.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Design Easy Face Painting

At my daughter's first birthday party, I was fortunate enough to have a cousin who is an artist and she whipped out her face painting kit and paint the older kid's faces and whole upper torsos. My nephews were completely done as the Hulk and Aquaman, the girls had their faces painted up as princesses and small cute butterflies and balloons.

Kids love face painting, they are fascinated by seeing others get their faces painted and wait in anticipation to see their face design. My daughter's fifth birthday is approaching and I was desperately, wanting a crash course on how to do it myself, so that I wouldn't have to hire a face painting artist to do my party.

The key is to start with easy face painting designs. The face designs should easy enough to be able to use small sponges cut into circles, triangles, rectangles, diamonds, dab them into the face paint and place it on the skin, leaving a base design that you can build upon or finish off with a little highlight, lowlight, or shading. Use a different sponge for each color; you will need multiple sponges in the same designs for each of the colors you are using.

A great time to practice face painting designs is at Halloween. On a night of horrors, the little odd wavering of a line will be hidden in the dark of trick or treat. If you are unsure of your ability practice on your own hand, close your hand into a fist and paint the top of it. Halloween is the most popular time of the year for face painting. The face painting design include, vampires, ghouls, witches, and ghosts.

Face painting ideas should be simple, fun, and something you have practiced. The more you practice the faster you become and the more faces you can paint.

Face painting design supplies should consist of good paintbrushes. Good paintbrushes will have the bristles securely fastened into the brush end, otherwise, the bristles will fall out and become part of the face painting design. You will spend several minutes pulling bristles out of the design. Good brushes cost between $3-10, and they will last you a long time. Invest in sponges and cut them into different designs like circles, stars, triangles, rectangles, ovals, and any other shape you can imagine. Remember to disinfect all items between faces to keep things sanitary. All face paints should state on the labels that they are face paints and they are okay to use on the skin, start out with two or three paint brushes, and a small range of colors, the basic palettes have white, black, green, red, yellow, purple, and orange. Other fun items to use with the face paints are glitter, stick on gems, stencils, and face painting stamps.

Great items for amateur face painters are stencils and face painting stamps. The face painting stamps are made of rubber and you place in on your face painting paint pad and you have an outline of the design, then you fill in the stamp design with color.

Stencils are outlines of shapes; they are picture version of the ABC's your child might use to learn to hold their pencils in nursery school. You mix and match the designs and use a base color and dab the small areas of the stencil or the entire stencil. Next, you put on the highlights and final touches. Hint, girls love glitter and body gems after all they are princesses!

Where can you put your new talent of face painting to work? Your child's next birthday party, the next fundraiser at your child's school, fairs, Fourth of July, parades, festivals, or you can start your own business.

Practice your simple face painting designs, and you are ready for your first party. Start out with your child's birthday, kids love their faces painted and will be uncaring if it's not perfect. Use thin first layer, wait until it is fully dry before beginning final designs. Hint: to pop the designs outline your design with a thin line of black around the face designs.

Starting a face painting design business begins with volunteering your services at charity events, your child's birthday parties, and very shortly, it will morph into a steady business with a line of kids waiting their turn to get their faces painted.

Face painting at charity events allows you to work on your face painting designs and develop your painting speed. Once your speed increases, begin by setting up a small canopy on the Fourth of July or Good Friday at the fair and paint away. The best way to advertise your new face painting design business is word of mouth. Build your face painting design portfolio with testimonials and photos of face designs of which you are especially proud.

When you are ready to graduate from charity events to paid business, you now need to research your area and find out, how much are face painters paid? Is a face painting design booth less money per face then private parties? Do not price yourself out of the market and remember it just might help to have lower prices to bring in clientele. Have your business cards ready to give out to anyone who asks if you do private parties. Business cards can be made at home with the help of Avery products.

Another avenue for face painting is at restaurants, as they might have a kid's eat free night and have special entertainment throughout the meal. Children's museums and creative art facilities or a community center will be a great place to begin looking for business. Another avenue for marketing could be at your significant other's corporate picnic or event.

If your community offers summer camps, where kids are, face painting will be a hit! Your child's school, fundraising events, and carnivals are great sources of income. Craft Shows are great place to have a booth. Bookstores sometimes want to launch a child's book and a great way to draw children to children's books is to hire a face painter. Theme parks and cruises ships are also great places to look for new business and the latter will give you a free exotic vacation too!

My cousin, who brought out her face painting kit on my daughter's first birthday, is a real artist and she is sells her paintings at our local galleries, however, she uses her artistic talents to make money through face painting. Or perhaps you are a stay at home Mom who wants to make money and be available to her kids after school is out, face painting could be for you.

Whether you are looking to learn face painting design for your child's next birthday or as a new, fun way to have some pocket money, remember, face painting is fun and you can make wonderful memory's for your own child and someone else's too.