Yes, I know I’m very late with a round-up of 2017 in my strange world of body painting and make-up. But it’s been a bit of a crazy year what with a busy working life and a major house move in the mix.  We moved into our new house last June and are still up to our eyes with updating and redecorating our new abode. I’ve put together a few of the highlights from 2017 and I’m looking forward to more body painting fun in 2018.

X Factor Live Tour 2017

X Factor Live Tour 2017

I started 2017 with a trip around the UK as the make-up artist for the X Factor Arena Tour. I’ve been involved with the tour since 2014 so I’m very familiar with the routine of the exciting live shows and the coach travel and hotel stop-overs in between the venues. Last year the tour visited 15 venues including Glasgow, Belfast, Bournemouth and Brighton. Getting to know the different set of performers every year is really interesting and we always have lots of fun combined with the hard work of getting everyone looking their best for their live performances. The atmosphere backstage is electric and the response from the huge audiences is amazing. When the tour finishes I always miss the faces of the friends that I’ve made over the weeks and the giggles that we’ve had travelling around on our tour coach.

Heroes and Villians body painted for Globestar Management in Rome

Body Painting in Rome

In April I was booked by Globestar Management to body paint for a prestigious event at a fabulous venue in Rome. The party had a ‘Heroes and Villains’ theme and there were numerous models that had to be transformed into various characters along with some body painted human statues who would pose gracefully around the venue. As there were multiple models to paint I took along my friend and fellow artist Emily Dowdeswell to speed up the painting time and also join me on my sight  seeing and pasta eating outing! Any booking with Globestar is always good fun and this trip was no exception. The models were great fun to work with and the body painting went very smoothly. We managed to dash around this amazing city and eat our own body weight in pasta and gelato.

Tuk tuk in New Delhi

An Exciting Trip to New Delhi

In May we had a whistle stop tour to India to make-up and body paint the performers at an after party for a fabulous Indian wedding. I put together a team of 2 body artists, 2 make-up artists and 2 male models who would be painted as Greek Gods. The organisation by Acrobat Productions was superb as usual and we all met up at Heathrow airport for the flight to New Delhi. I’ve been lucky to work in India once before when we were body painting for an exclusive event in Mumbai. This was my first time in New Delhi and as we stepped off the plane I’m sure the temperature was hotter than the sun! Thankfully we were in a lovely hotel with a beautiful pool to cool off in, in between the rehearsals and the actual event. On the day of the show we had to keep the make-up and body paint in the fridge as everything was melting in the heat, including us! We managed to get out and about to see some local sites and visit the markets so that we could fill our suitcases with the obligatory souvenirs.

Isle St Marguerite, South of France

Body Painting in the South of France

I was no sooner back from India when I was booked to work with a team of artists to body paint for an exclusive private event on Isle St Marguerite, which is little island off the South coast of France. We flew into Nice and then had to get a boat over to the island. We painted several robotic characters for the party and then had to bounce back across the waves in a small boat in the dark to the mainland. Definitely not recommended for those without good sea legs!

Game of Thrones promotion in London

Body Painting for The Game of Thrones Promotion

In July I was commissioned by Taylor Herring PR to work on the Sky Atlantic launch of the new series of ‘Game of Thrones’. This entailed fitting the prosthetics and body painting the actors and models who would be replicating the characters from the cult TV show. They made several scary appearances during the week-long promotion starting at Hadrian’s Wall. We then moved on to Sheffield and Glasgow and finished at iconic landmarks in London. The White Walkers and Night King even popped up at tube stations to give the commuters a fright! It was really great fun, most of my team are huge ‘Game of Thrones’ fan so it was brilliant to work with the prosthetics and such realistic characters. Their appearance in London, particularly at Buckingham Palace certainly turned a few heads.

Iconic building in Barcelona

Barcelona

In November I had another booking from Globestar Management with a make-up job for an event in Barcelona.  There were several characters to transform into walk about acts for the event, so I packed my wig glue, coloured hair spray and gems along with my body paints and flew off to the sun. Again, everyone was brilliant to work with, the models looked great and we managed to get a quick look around this beautiful city before the flight home.

More interesting assignments to end the year

Other highlights from 2017 include the body painting for the new ‘Dermalex’ TV advertisement. This involved painting lettering onto the bodies of several models. This was much harder than it sounds as the words had to be completely straight on the curves of the body.

Body painted model for Dermalex TV advert

I also worked on a really fun assignment for Channel 4 for a ‘Wickes’ promotion where households were chosen to have their room fantasies brought to life. One of the designs involved recreating a room with a theme that would tie in with Hammer House of Horror films and seances for a 21^st birthday party. The guests had to be transformed using costumes and make-up so that they resembled characters from the vintage black and white horror movies.