Halloween – not so pretty, actually
Posted on Nov 1, 2009 07:26:00 AM
I promised, so even though it’s Halloween… here’s a pretty fairy and a gorgeous wee angel. See, not everybody wants to be hideous on Halloween.
But most people do, so here’s the parade of the damaged, the dead and the ugly.
Lara Croft had a particularly bad day.
I called this picture Death of a Salesman. Imagine if he showed up at the door. I reckon I’d buy just to make him go away.
And apparently this guy forgot to bring flowers for his girlfriend…
domestic violence is a terrible thing.
Hmmm, how’d this get here? It’s from last year… a more traditional Halloween type mask.
Oh, and this is what happens if you don’t let go of the candy fast enough…ow!
So that was my Halloween. I’d love to know what everyone else got up to! 
Zombies and Vampires… I’m starting to think there’s a theme here
Posted on Oct 30, 2009 09:12:00 PM
I got to practice my new skills last week. Larping again, of course. Lots of fun. I had to makeup a bunch of vampires and… well, we’ll call them zombies, they weren’t really, they were magical experiments gone wrong, but essentially they were people with ghastly wounds and really important pieces missing (like brains and hearts) who were still walking around. Sounds like a zombie to me. 
There wasn’t a lot of time and I was singlehandedly responsible for making the game start late. Oops, but I went as fast as I could! Don’t look if you’re squeamish, hehe, but I was particularly proud of this cut throat…
and this gouged out face, and this other fellow who’s definitely got something wrong with him, though he doesn’t look overly unhappy about it.
Look, seriously, I promise I’ll do something pretty next time, ok. Something with butterflies and flowers. Promise. Oh wait, it’s Halloween tomorrow….
LARP Article on 20/20
Posted on Oct 10, 2009 12:09:00 AM
Remember my article on facepainting for larpers? Face Painting and Zombies was written about my most excellent weekend at Chimera. I mentioned that the 20/20 documentary team were there filming an article on the hobby. Well, here it is.
http://tvnz.co.nz/20-20-news/coming-up-20-having-larp-3047776/video
They did show me painting Hugh’s beard, disguising the elastics. Well, my hands anyway. I can live with that.
Evil Twins visit New Zealand for Face Painting Awesomeness
Posted on Oct 6, 2009 06:48:00 AM
Brian and Nick Wolfe of Evil Twin FX came to New Zealand as part of some sort of “almost world tour”. They ran 2 day workshops in Wellington and Auckland. I went along to the Auckland one at the Lake House Art Center in Takapuna. Here’s my class. Might swap it out for a larger version tomorrow. That’s a bit teeny (gets magnifying glass).
It was FANTASTIC! I learned heaps and had a blast doing it. I’ve bought books and watched videos and muddled along figuring out stuff myself, but there’s nothing like having someone lean over your shoulder and go “that’s good, but look what happens if you just move this line here.” and have the design just go pow! If you ever get the opportunity to go to a workshop with these guys, take it! Plus they have these awesome heads to practice on. I need one! So, day one was skull and monster faces, plus some excellent line drawing and tribal techniques which I will be practicing lots.
The best part is that they focus on face painting designs for boys. It’s a little harder to find cool boy designs, especially for older boys. Now I can do bullet wounds, scars and monsters for all! At the end of both days, we students volunteered to be painted by the brothers (or would begged be a better word? yeah, probably!). As Saturday was the David Tua / Shane Cameron fight night, a bunch of folks were going off to watch the fight at various bars and parties. They got all uglied up for the evening, black eyes, cuts, bruises, broken teeth. Me, I hadda take it one step further and ask to have part of my face ripped off.
Yah, LARPers, taking it too far, allll the time. Anyway, here’s me, all uglied up, with Nick Wolfe, who painted it. Thanks! I went to a birthday party after. Fortunately, not a kids one.
Day 2 was wounds, gore and prosthetics. Awesome! I really enjoyed learning how to paint stitches, cuts, bruises and bullet holes, by lunchtime the whole class looked like a war had broken out. These two “reluctant” volunteers (hah!) are our new resident Zombie and Moria Orc. If you ever wondered what girl orcs look like, there you go! Thanks Erin, Jules and Brian Wolfe for posing for the pictures.
A bit more watching and less participation with the prosthetic section, but still, I got to paint some of the grey on the zombie, so he’s partly my creation! Oh, and GM friends, I also took loads of notes, so recreation is a possibility. 
Face Painting Blog Vanishes into the Ether!!! You read it here first.
Posted on Sep 18, 2009 02:44:00 AM
Yes, my entire website went boom. It was supposed to be a simple upgrade to a new server. Unfortunately, the new system was horribly slow and not very user friendly. So, now, after much searching from my tech person (husband) this is my new website. So far all my text is back up, but not the photographs. If my blog entries look really odd because they say “have a look at this photo of xyz” and there isn’t one, that’s why. Full transmission to resume as soon as possible. Hopefully by the weekend. Oh, here’s a picture. Just so, you know, there’s something to look at.
Face Painting and Zombies
Posted on Aug 27, 2009 10:43:00 PM
Last weekend I attended Chimera, the New Zealand roleplay convention. It was a blast, if you’re free in late August 2010, you should show. Really! Watch the movie Role Models all the way to the end and tell me that doesn’t look like fun. Chimera is way better than that. There were so many hilarious or just plain excellent games. A 60′s James Bond spoof, a Victorian mashup with real and fictional characters, Arthurian fantasy, horror… you name it, it was probably there. The 20/20 team were there too, though I managed to avoid that for the most part! I did have to get involved on the Saturday night when the reporter was convinced to join in the Victorian era game. 
They asked me to cover up the elastic straps of his fake beard with face paint and they brought the camera with them! Ack! Fortunately they were really nice people and just filmed Hugh and my hands doing the painting. They took so many hours of film, it’s unlikely they’ll even use it, anyway. It did occur to me after that it was a great opportunity to publicise what I do lost, though. I really have to get over my camera phobia. It’s not like the face painting or the larping are big secrets in my life!
Being the resident face painter, I get a number of requests whenever I Larp, which is cool. This time there was a green feather for an elf girl. Easy! She asked me for something I could do! Yay! There was also a scar for another lady and a black eye for a guy, but I failed to get a photo of those due to being in a massive rush. If I find someone else has a shot of them I’ll put them up (edit: found a mobile phone upload of the black eye, see? ). Oh and also an orc fellow with a monobrow. That was fun, but my photo sucks. I think I’ve got something on the lens of my camera.
On Saturday morning I got to redeem myself with regard to my undead greeblies. My previous zombie face painting experience was less than stellar. This time it was much better. I had my own gear and it was daytime even! I think they looked good, but I’m really looking forward to going to a Wolfe Brothers workshop in October where I can improve my monsters to a place where i’m really happy. I didn’t think I’d like face painting icky stuff, when I started I was really only into the pretty butterflies and princesses and tigers. I still love painting all those things, but I’m starting to enjoy doing other, less beautiful things too.
So, here are a couple of photographs taken by the uber-ninja photographer Judit Klein. You never see her, and then you see photos and you go, “Really? You were there?”. Good fun. This isn’t all the greeblies, but they’re my favourite shots.
Face Painting at school. Or, How to make 200 kids miserable.
Posted on Aug 22, 2009 09:42:00 PM
My son just started primary school. It’s a new class and ALL the kids in it had their birthdays in the last 5 weeks or so, so their teacher decided to throw a party. I immediately volunteered to face paint them all. Good idea right? It was! Really it was! They LOVED it, as kids always do. The REST of the school, however… Heehee. There was an assembly just after lunch and since it was a fine day, they had it out on the playground, just outside my son’s classroom. I was painting away, calling the children in one at a time and then sending them back outside to the assembly. You should have seen the other children’s faces! Sorry guys! So, I made 11 kids really happy, and 200 kids really jealous. Never mind. I’m going to go along and paint for the end of year fair too, so I’ll get to do more of them then.
The Checklist (yes, it deserves the capital letters)
Posted on Jul 31, 2009 07:41:00 PM
Want to see the list of stuff I took to the Body Art Awards? It’s insane. I only drive a Toyota Echo (seen here actual size). Here it is. You’ll just have to believe me when I say there were only about 3 things on it I didn’t use, and I still missed some things.
Area Setup
Table
Chair
Stool
Cushion
Oil Fin Heater
4way plug box
Hairdryer
Extension Cord
Camera
Bucket
Water spray bottle
Design Book
Drinking water bottles x3
soft drinks x2 and plastic cups
chocolate or biscuits, apples
Hair
Wig
hair net
elastics
hair brush
gel and hair spray
Costume
Veil
Train
fan
nail polish or false nails
false eyelashes
body glue
jewels
Face Paint Kit – check it contains,
Wolfe Black, Wolfe White, Kryolan Large Red, Diamond FX Palette, Kryolan
Palette, Ben Nye Palette, Kryolan small black, red, white, starblend
powder White, starblend powder red
sponges, dagger brush x 2, 1in brush x2, size 5 and 3 round brushes,
size 10 filbert, size 2 filbert, large body brush, powder application
brushes, water pot, gold, blue and red glitter
Wipes, lots!
Cotton Buds
Things you might want to know before you enter a Body Art Competition
Posted on Jul 30, 2009 09:40:00 PM
With my now grand total of one competition under my belt, I thought I would make a list of the things I want to remember for next time. Some of these are things I was told beforehand, but most of them I figured
out on the day. Some of them I really, really wish someone had told me beforehand! So then I thought, why not put it here where you might find them useful.
1. Slippers are essential! Our backstage area was concrete covered in plastic wrap. No matter how warm the room is, if your model’s feet are cold, (s)he will be cold. Also, hard floors start to hurt after a while. Take nice soft, padded warm slippers with you. Your model will thank you.
2. An extra chair can come in very handy. I have a folding one that takes up no room at all.
3. Tissues, baby wipes, cotton buds. All three of these are absolutely necessary. Don’t think you can leave one at home and be ok.
4. Absolutely everything you take will end up covered in paint. Chairs, cushions, slippers, robes, towels, you, your assistant, everything.
5. Robes are good (that’s what I took). Sarongs are better, they can be wrapped around any part of the body and they are lighter and easy to wear without smudging too much of your work. Polar fleece blankets are
best of all. Perhaps take all three. You just never know what the room will be like. The room we were in was unevenly heated. My model was freezing and less than 3 meters away another girl nearly passed out from the heat.
6. Oh, on the note of fainting. Right before you faint or throw up, your body sweats, all over. As you can probably imagine, this is an absolute disaster if you are body painting. So that leads on to …
7. Look after your model. Do the best you can to make sure they aren’t freezing or roasting. Make them move, eat and drink regularly. Take chocolate! Do not put them in something they cannot eat or drink in. If
you have a prosthetic glued-on type of mask and it doesn’t have a hinged jaw or a wide enough gap for them to poke a drink bottle or a cracker in then shame on you! They will have to wear it for hours and hours. If
they get faint and sweaty and ruin your entire piece it will be your fault.
8. Take a great assistant. Someone who won’t mind being sent on errands for food/ water/ coffee. Who is willing to figure out how to do new things. Someone who will say things like “It’s ok, <insert name here> 
you’re going to be fine.” and will keep you from panicking when you’re suddenly convinced that there’s no way you’re going to finish in time. My assistant was all these things and more. No, you can’t have her.
9. And finally, try to remember to have fun. You entered because you love body art, right?
How it feels to win a prize
Posted on Jul 27, 2009 02:38:00 AM
Absolutely marvellous!
Wow, I’m exhausted. The New Zealand Body Art Awards were last night and I spent 15 hours there, 8 of them solidly body painting. I’m told it was a beautiful, sunny winter day, but I wouldn’t know. I spent the entire thing locked in a dungeon. Their words, not mine. The prep room was underneath the stage, usually used for set and prop storage, I suspect.
This, as previously noted, was the first time I had ever painted a whole human being. I got SECOND PLACE in my category, which was Hand Painted Novice. I’m so very, very proud and happy! When they told me I was a finalist I actually jumped up and down, in spite of being nearly dead of stress.
I have to say a huge thank you to two people, my model and my assistant on the day. Thanks Haylee and Anna, I could not have done without you! You were both amazing.
Here are some links to photos from the official photographer. I prefer them to mine because mine were taken backstage and have fire hydrants and paint pots in them. The links are a little strange. It loads up a whole page of thumbnails and THEN clears them all and takes you to my photo. Very odd, but never mind. While you’re there, have a look around at some of the stunning body art talent we have in this country!
Oh, and this is me, going onstage to collect my award! Take a look, because I don’t take many photos of me.
Anyway, I’m sure I have lots to say. I know I do, but I’m still a zombie, so I shall leave all that for tomorrow or so. Have a good evening and thanks for having a look.