Painted Fairy

Fairies and body painting keep on colliding in my head. The other day this fairy flew in the window, landed on my art box, and insisted on being painted. She wouldn't leave me alone until I got out the paints and the brush for her, but then I guess she decided it would be a self-portrait because I couldn't get that brush away from her....

I really love the way this one turned out... it's really just like my vision. The idea behind this piece really centers around fairies pretending to be human. Humans pretend to be fairies all the time (at least in my world). What would a real fairy do when confronted with human toys? Would she understand them? Try to use them as something else? Or just turn pixie and make a big mess?

This was the first time I've really messed with scale in a body art project. I needed to make every stroke large and somewhat awkward, as though she really were painting herself with that huge brush. So I went to the thrift store and bought myself a little naked barbie for $1.00, and used her as my sketch-model. This was really effective.. and I think I'll probably use her for this purpose more in the future.. she holds very still! Also, when I'm sketching designs on the computer or in my sketchbook, I often have trouble connecting the front and back of the design - where does this line end up after it wraps around the hip? How does this stripe deal with the curves on that part of the body? - and painting on a little barbie just solved all those problems immediately.

Stephanie, my model, does princess parties for me on the weekends and I knew she was just perfect for this piece. She's absolutely beautiful, and is able to express so much joy through her face and her posture. I was grinning for hours after the photo shoot because she showered us with so many giggle-vibes! Oh my.

I had a really hard time picking my favorite photo and I ended up doing the composite with the art box on about a dozen of them. I strung them together into a little video, and I think it turned out to be the most saccharin-sweet, cutest, cuddliest little thing I've ever done artistically. (sorry so small! It's much cuter larger!)