Venus Vs. Mars

This series was based on Mars and Venus and the idea came from James Morris who is Mars in the photos. I told him about my idea of a series and he loved it. I have know James for a while and have been trying to find the perfect genre for him so we could work together.

He also suggested that Travis Hoaglund be the photographer and  Haley Mohanna be the other model. After talking to Travis about the shoot I recomeneded a gold or amber filter for the light.

 James has been modeling and acting for a while so I knew he would really get into his character and bring some top notch talent to the shoot.

 I had a meeting with both models so I could get some of their input in what their perspectives where for the characters.

 I had Laura Watkins help with the wardrobe and also have some of her input as well into the characters. I wanted this to be something away from what everyone has seen in the past. Haley has a strong commanding personality in her photos so I knew she would be perfect for Venus. She has also been modeling for a while and has been seen in  ads on the side of buses recently in Salt Lake City.

 James had brought some accessories as well as Travis and they worked out very well. The shoot was super fun and we got some great shots. The goal was accomplished because everyone involved worked together and that was my favorite thing about the end product.

dragon queen

 Penny is an entertainer. She sings, dances, models, and acts occasionally. She was a little shy about asking me to do a shoot with her so I asked her what she wanted to do. Since she is of Asian decent I figured a dragon design would be really cool to do.

 She brought some of her belly dancing accessories which added quite a bit more to the shoot. Jeets is the photographer for this shoot as well.

 We shot this at Midlight studios location again thank you to Jay and Zeke for allowing us to use their place for this shoot. I tried to go with a non conventional approach to the coloring as well and I really wanted the contacts I picked out to pop so I used a purple for the eyes to bring out all the yellows.

Penny has moved to a school out in California which is the equivalent to Julliard. I really like the way the colors worked together in this shoot as well as the shapes and the whole design. I went with black on the legs and part of the arms to add a little more of a floating feel to the character.

gods vs. monsters

 I started a series that has been swimming around in my head the last couple of years called Gods VS. Monsters. The basic idea is having at least 2 characters from any mythology including modern day myth's (which are fantasy and sci fi characters.).

 This one I really didn't have a name for the characters the female character is the protector of nature and the male represents man and progress. I wanted this to be a hate/ love relationship between the characters. The models are Makell and Tycen and the photographer is Jeets. I also had people helping with this shoot and I have video footage of the behind the scenes which was taken by Josh Anderson and Jonathan Martin. A special thanks to Midlight studios for use of their place, also thanks to Makell's mom for providing accessories as well and Tycen's mom for coming by and showing support.

A Book Signing Event

Phillip Jones had a meeting with me one day to talk about a book series he had been writing called World of the Crystal Moons. He wanted me to make a lizard mask for one of the characters and also some elfish type ears for a few others.

 He has written two books in his series and he has just released the final edition of the first book. He gets feed back from his fans and then edits his books according to that information. I did the mask for two book signing events where he had some posters made. The actors playing the characters at the book signing  were giving out autographs as well as taking pictures with the fans of the books.

Kami Coleman is the lizard lady here and she also helped with the costume as well. She was the most popular at the signing and I had to follow her around to make sure touch ups were done. These photos were taken by Jay from Midlight Studios.

The Bronwyn Bird

 I was sent a message from an actress I had worked with before. She hired me to work on the short film Soulless. She wanted to be a bird and I had planned on making a beak for her for the shoot. I had molded her nose and actually sculpted one for her.

 The shoot was scheduled sooner so I didn't have time to mold the sculpture and make a beak for her. So I improvised and I think it turned out very well. I looked at a number of tropical birds because I wanted it to be very colorful.

 We shot this at the Midlight Studios location and Jay took the photos. We also set up a full size mirror for Bronwyn so she could look at herself in it. She did a great job acting like how a bird would while in front of it's own reflection.

 This is actually one of my all time favorite body paints I have done. I love how the colors pop and the detail I am the most proud of. Bronwyn mad a great model and she was very fun to work with. I hope this one is as pleasing to look at for you guys as it is for me.

Cyborg

 After I did the Shrimpy I was approached by Angie to do a shoot. I knew that she was way into scifi and Lady Gaga so I came up with a cyborg design. She had brought a Styrofoam ball that we had cut in half and glued on her breasts. I had a pair of glasses that were broken so I took the frames off them and glued them to her face.

 Jeets was the photographer for this shoot and she always does a great job directing the models to do interesting poses.I am very happy with the detail I was able to get in this paint. I always have loved drawing robots where the wires and stuff inside could be seen.

Angie is an actress and she has a great personality. Here is to the glam rocker and Lady Gaga fans out there.

Shrimpy

 So while I was working on the purple cat I met Kristy who wanted to do a body paint too. We looked through a book that had a ton of sea life creatures and I found this really cool shrimp looking creature. The whole night we were calling it a shrimp until someone read that it was a very small colorful lobster. We still called it a shrimp.

 This was actually the first time I used a stencil and I think it turned out pretty good. Jeets is the photographer and it was the first time I had met her. She is one of my favorite photographers to work with and I have done about 10 shoots with her.

I also had used black scalera contacts for the effect of a creature who doesn't have normal eyes. Kristy has done a number of photo shoots since then and is getting more photographers wanting to work with her. I love her personality and her positive attitude. Every good photographer should get a chance to work with her.

A Purple Cat

 After the shoot with Emily and Midlight I started talking to the next model Brittany. I usually talk to the model before I get an idea for the design I am going to do. I also ask them what they are interested in and usually it's some kind of animal. Brittany loves cats. She has a sassy personality of a cat as well and so the design came really easy.

 She loved looking like a cat and started getting more sassy as the shoot progressed. I went with purple and blue stripes partly because I was limited on how many colors I had but also because I wanted to not do a traditional design.

 Brittany has done more modeling since then. I actually met her while I was doing a different body paint. At the end of the shoot I met her friend Kristy who I did a body paint on and the next blog will be about her.

Tron

 Since Tron: Legacy came out this weekend I thought I would put up the Tron inspired pics that I did almost a year ago. It was also the first time I did a photo shoot with Jay Simmons and Zeke (Midlight studios) It was also the first time I had met Emily even though I had known her through face book for a few years.

 I had based her in a white day glow Kryolyn make up and the lines were done with red. It was also the first time I had used something like a stencil to add texture to it. This was such a fun shoot to do as well it let me and midlight studios know whether we could work together.

 I tried to give the look of circuitry on the body paint and make it look like the characters from Tron.

This is Body Painting

 Body Painting/ Body Art is something a lot of people don't fully understand except that it looks cool. I have to correct people when I present it as an option for marketing or some kind of crowd draw. The most common thing that comes up when I talk about it is "I don't know if we/ I would like to have a naked person walking around representing me". My response is always this "did I say nude or naked once in what I just said to you?".
 Body art is not about someone being naked, it's not about something erotic. It is about art, and it's also about creating an illusion that brings someones imagination out. It's a perfect tool to draw the most attention to whatever your trying to sell whether it's your own art or a crowd of people to an event. It will bring more foot traffic to your booth at any kind of convention or expo than anyone else's.
The photo to the left was taken by Jay and the model is Bronwyn.

 This art form can be used in so many diverse kind of ways and it is one of the most effective things to use. It is a crowd pleaser and the best attention grabber. You don't have to paint someone completely nude in order to display it.  In fact most body paints are usually on clothed people. The ones people associate with are usually done in magazines and those mostly are on nude models. Outside of the ad/ print world of this art form the models have some kind of clothes covering their bodies.
 The picture to the right was taken by Jessi Fox and the model is Tycen.

 I personally have done a large variation of body paints from full nude to mostly clothed. I have done some shoots that tell stories between 2 different characters. I try to make each one something I could put up on my wall as a piece of art. I work at clubs doing this brings in more clientele for the business. I also will work private parties and that purpose is for the people at the party to have an experience of feeling like someone or something else. Doing promotions, expos, conventions and any other kind of event where you want as much foot traffic as possible will bring the majority of the people to you. It will be the most talked about thing at any event and people will go searching for it because of the talk about it. The nude part of the paint is only for specific things and  people usually don't  even notice that there are no clothes on the person. Body painting is also recommended by some therapists to help a person feel comfortable with who they are and look at themselves in a completely different light.
The photo to the left was taken by Travis Hoaglund and the model is James Morris. The photo below was taken by Michael Roberts and the model is Laura Watkins. The photo above was taken by Jay and the model is Emily.

Midlight Studios

 Midlight Studios consist of Jay Simmons and Zeke. I met Jay while I was working at the haunted house The Castle Of Chaos. I knew his then girlfriend for about 4 years. I had done his make-up there as a vampire a few times. After the haunted house I noticed he was setting up a photo studio close to my house. I then called him up and set up a meeting and we met at a KFC close to his studio. The picture to the right is the building he had set his studio up here.

 After that meeting we were both excited to be working with each other. I had told him what I was wanting to accomplish and he saw that I could help him as much as he could help me. The picture to the left was taken by Ethen Killian and it is done with an infra red camera.

 So after the meeting I had wanted to meet with him again at his studio and he asked me to bring my make-up kit. So I did and we shot a really cool black light make-up which I will post later. The photo to the right was edited by him. He has helped me a ton to get my name out there.

 The photo to the left is a make-up I had done on him at the haunted house. Jay has worked on so many things including a ton of fashion shows. There are a few shows where he ended up re-casting and directing last minute. A few times he had asked me to come in and help out as well to do make-up.

 The photo above was done at a photographer/ model meet and greet. He had edited it as well. The shot to the right was an early photo done at the beginning of the midlight studios opening.

He started getting a ton of requests to come and do photo shoots and helping out with fashion shows. To the left is a behind the scenes shoot taken by Jeets. Jay is talking to Brittany W. If your ever in Utah midlight studios is one of the best companies to get a shoot with. They are affordable and work with peoples budgets as well as you get a ton of photos quickly. They are one of the fastest up and coming groups to work with in this area. I owe a ton to them for how much they have helped me.