Face Painting International Magazine
Volume 7  -  July/August/September 2003

We did the shoot at Papago Park near the Phoenix Zoo during twilight hours.  The three of us had a little bit of a hike, some of it uphill, and it was pretty funny seeing Jim and I trying to keep up with Heather, the fitness phenom that she is.  I actually completed the painting at Jim's studio before we drove to the location.  The painting incorporates airbrushed Totally Tattoo paints with some paint brush detailing and a fair amount of "splattered" texturizing.

The painting itself is based on Native American pottery designs.  The center design is said to represent a butterfly, the symbol of everlasting life.  The other symbols are from Zuni pottery and represent clouds.  Jim has an extensive wardrobe collection at his studio and the dress that he found for this shoot was absolutely perfect.  To top it all off, we were actually able to find some rock formations that were similar in color to the dress and painting as the sun began to set.  The shoot was an absolute success and I plan to frame this shot and hang it in my own home.  Click on the pictures below to see a few more shots from the session and visit Heather and Jim's websites too!

I recruited the beautiful Lynette Brooks to be my patient canvas.  I had previously worked with Lynette at a CopperCon sci-fi convention and I have since worked with her for a Playboy Playmate Search and she has been a joy to work with every time.  The photographer that we invited to the dance was the widely published Steve Gladysz who did a fabulous job on short notice and a long drive.

For this painting I had Lynette lie on a table and specifically asked her to extend her right hand above her head and to keep her left hand by her side.  The intent here was to have her painted in the same pose that she would be photographed in so the image would not be distorted.  Unfortunately I didn't take into account how the curvatious female form changes from lying on her stomach to lying on her side.  The two monuments were perfectly vertical when I painted them, but as you can see they dipped towards the middle in the final shot.  Cest L'vie.

I used mostly airbrushed Ben-Nye liquid make-up for the sky and flat terrain.  I then used a brush to do the monuments and clouds and once again a little splattering for effect.  I actually touched the highlighted sides of the monuments with a hint of fluorescent orange paint too.  Here is another picture from the session and the photograph that I took of Monument Valley.

O.K., so our first surprise was that there were no flowers in sight.  Apparently there was a dry winter that prevented them from flourishing this year.  Oh, well, the rising cliffs in the warm light of the setting sun would still create a great image, so we continued.  We found a cool location that had some character and a variety of desert vegetation.  I was working without my trusty airbrush equipment and had just packed a few colors of Totally Tattoo paints for the trip.  My goal was to make the image on her back match her surroundings as much as possible.

Now, next surprise.  The sky completely clouds over, the colorful landscape becomes dull, and there are even a few sprinkles coming down in ARIZONA.  Both Tawnya and I are very optimistic people.  Others may have called it a day long before we did, but there was that glimmer of hope that the sun would peak through at sunset and literally paint the sky.  Well, in short, it didn't.

To top it all off, I can't say that my painting was up to par, but luckily Tawnya was able to produce this elegant pose.  I added the tobacco gradient in post production to tone down the overcast sky and bring out the colors in the painting.

I had worked with Tawnya before during the LepreCon sci-fi convention and everything went perfect that time.  So, having a few bumps in the road this time doesn't seem so bad.  We plan to work on another project soon, so stay tuned.  Here is one more shot from the day.

The image in the painting is Cathedral Rock, one of the most photographed scenes in Sedona, Arizona.  I was using a photo that I took in Sedona as a reference (see below).  The paint that I used for this project was Ben-Nye, some of it airbrushed and some of it paint brushed.

Although it was "O.K." to walk around this party topless in the name of art, Alison was just a little uncomfortable with it.  I did a quick painting of a sunburst on her front torso and although it didn't really cover anything, it gave a sense of modesty.  In hindsight, I wish I had thought to put a pair of sunglasses on the sunburst, but it's a little too late now obviously.  Here is the reference photo of Sedona and another shot from the session.

This picture features model/actress Myla Leigh Chenoa with a back painting of the Arizona flag.  I set up this photoshoot with photographer Don Crossland and the pictures were originally slated to be published in Phoenix Magazine's PHX FILES, a brief exposé on my artform.  When the original model had to cancel at the last minute, Don was able to entice Myla to work with us on the project.  Poor Myla was under the weather for this shoot and had to break a few commitments so I owe her a great deal of gratitude for toughing it out and working with us.  Unfortunately, Phoenix Magazine opted not to use the pictures from the session, stating that they were a little too racey (C'mon).  The irony is that they wanted to have one of their photographers take a picture of me to accompany the article and as fate would have it, I was under the weather that day.

Myla and Don both had a lot of fun ribbing me about my double breasted suit and ascot.  Someone even mentioned Captain Stuebbing from the Love Boat at one point.  Regardless, I was trying to set a very classy and upscale setting to match the demographic of Phoenix Magazine.  That is also why I had Myla bring an open backed evening ensemble.  My original vision was to bring the table, wine, and glasses along with us to the top of South Mountain so that we could do the photoshoot with the sparkling city lights as our backdrop.  The painting took a little longer than anticipated and we ran out of time to get there before the park would be closing.  We made the best of it though in Don's studio.  I particularly liked the yellow highlight with which he accented Myla's golden hair.

I encourage you to visit Myla's website at www.moremyla.com and see how many diverse looks she can conjure up.  Since the time that we worked on this project she has had a great deal of success at acting including the leading role in the movie Stalked! which is now available at video stores.

I used Totally Tattoo paint from Badger for the primary colors of the flag.  First to be painted was the blue with the upper portion masked and then I masked the blue and painted the upper half all yellow.  After that each red stripe was masked and airbrushed on.  Lastly, I used a brown face paint that has a tacky finish to paint the star and then dusted it with copper metallic pigment.  Oh yeah, and the wine was extra dry, courtesy of Don Crossland.  Here are two more shots from the session.