Super Fly!

I had a fabulous body painting experience last weekend!  A local photo club contacted me about doing a photo shoot of me painting a model, and I eagerly agreed.  It was wonderful to work right there in the studio where it was comfortable, well lit, and nice and warm!  The members who were there were very interested in the process and supplied me with a beautiful and confident model.... as you can see.

I was inspired to do something that looked like ripped latex, and since it had sort of a net-like feeling, I thought adding something that might get caught in a net would be appropriate, and that's where the butterfly came into play.  The more I painted the more it started to feel like a Super Hero or Super Villain body suit.  I named her "Super Fly" but Bob's vote is for "The Chrysalis".

 While we were in the studio, the snow started.  It really piled on everything, and was so beautiful that we ran outside to get some pictures.  My model, Carla, was such a great sport to run out into the snow, wearing little more than body paint!

These photographs were taken by Jim Mitchell of JD Mitchell Photography, you can find him at: www.jdmitchellstudios.com.  Jim also put together the following video of the body painting process (be advised, when I start out she's not covered with paint!  There IS nudity!)

Carla's Body Painting Experience

For more information about Deborah Brommer's body painting, face painting, and henna art see www.OhioBodyArt.com

Baby Batman-Girl Nash

So my preggo sister Sarah, and my nephew Lochlan, and bro-in-law Cory, came to visit from Hawaii last spring... I of course couldn't wait to get my henna cone on her belly!  Lochlan thinks his baby sister's name should be Baby Batman Girl Nash.... I think his parents will MAYBE come up with something a wee bit more traditional when the time comes (which is now quickly approaching!). 

I decided to stick with the underwater theme that I used before Lochlan was born, but instead of Lochlan's Octopus' Garden, I went with a Frilly Koi.

I started out doing this design in front of the big picture windows at my parents house.... I had to hurry and finish, as a big storm and possible tornado were headed our way, so I took the pictures and we headed downstairs to a safer part of the house.  As we were waiting out the storm, Sarah was lying down in the hallway, I ran upstairs, grabbed my henna cone, because I couldn't resist adding more and more details, as you can see here in the "after" picture.

( For more info on Deborah's face paint, body painting, temporary tattoos, and henna designs, please see her website at www.OhioBodyArt.com )

Na'vi siting in Kent at TAAB

I taught and demonstrated some Body Painting at Empire in Kent last month for the Traditional Arts of the Altered Body (TAAB) conference.  One of the paintings that I did was about the potential use of Body Painting on stage and screen, so to keep topical I did a Na'vi character from the recent movie "Avatar".

My model Courtney, was so wonderful!  It was her first time modeling, first time being painted, but she was very into it.  She did her hair in a hundred braids to fit the theme and she looked gorgeous!  When we walked around Kent looking for places to take pictures she got a lot of attention from passersby, and all of the little kids wanted to talk to her.  She couldn't have been more popular if she were in a Disney character costume!

Outer Banks Body Paint 2009

My family spends every Thanksgiving in the Outerbanks of North Carolina. My sister and her family came from Hawaii, and I got to use her as a canvas while we were there!

It was a very cold day, yet she was a great sport to go out on the deck for the photo shoot with no complaints.

Mayan Jaguar Warrior

The theme for the Body Painting Competition at Bodyssey in Toronto this year (April 2009) was "Mystery". I decided to translate that as the Mystery of the Ancient Maya, and came up with this Jaguar Warrior painting. We were given 4 and a 1/2 hours to paint, actually, the doors opened to the room at 4 1/2 hours before the end time, so our set up was included in that time period! That is NOT a lot of time to paint an entire body! But this short period did one thing for me.... I have never been more organized for a painting! I set up split cakes to deal with some of my shading and striated areas, and tried very very hard to stick to my time break downs.

My model was Jennifer Malo, a good friend of mine, who is also a painter, and she was very helpful in reminding me to paint faster! My paint area was positioned right next to Lucie Broulliard, who has won many many awards at the World Body Painting Competition, so it was pretty intimidating... I kept thinking, I have to paint faster, and I have to paint better!

There were a few things that I didn't get done on this painting: I wanted to do a little more to the gold accessories, make it more molten and more 3-D, I didn't get the shadows done that I wanted, and there was a detail that I had to leave out. But, I was super happy with the jade breast plates, the turquoise/jade necklace and belt, and the jaguar pelt!

The best part of this painting is that it garnered me 10th place in a competition full of Big Guns in the body paint world!

Jamming with Mark Reid

For those of you not familiar with the who's who of Face and Body Painting, Mark Reid is one of the best. He's won or placed very highly in the World Body Painting Competition each time he's attended, and he's a sought after instructor at all of the conventions. He's also a great guy and a good friend of mine. He was in Columbus early this year for a class and we got together with a few other painters and had a "jam". I was thrilled with my body painting that day, and even happier when I saw this picture that he sent me of our two models together.

Mine has the red orchids and Mark's has the purple irises. Can you tell where the two women meet?

Art Gone Wild....

.....was the theme for the 2009 Face and Body Art International Convention, and therefore the Body Painting competition followed. I was unsure of what I was going to paint until the morning of, but with the help of my assistant Cindy Farslow, I was able to pull off this Keith Haring inspired painting.

The "Harings" are escaping from their painting into the world, they are "Art Gone Wild".