I was having lunch at The Cheesecake Factory in Phoenix when I got the call from my friend and fellow bodypainter Pashur.  He was in a bind:  he had 20 models to paint in lingerie for a Playboy Mansion party.  Now out of the goodness of my heart, I had to help him out of this "bind".  I didn't have all of the details yet, but bodypainting at the Playboy Mansion has been one of my highest goals since I started into this profession and there was no way that I was going to miss out on this opportunity.

The party at the Mansion was by invitation only and it was part of  a convention being held at the Sheraton Universal Hotel called Webmaster Access West.  One of the first details that I was given was that it would be a pajama and lingerie party and that to attend the party I would need to wear PJ's.  I know there are plenty of wives out there who wouldn't even let their husbands attend a Playboy Mansion party, but I have been blessed with a wife that not only allowed me to go, but also went to the mall and bought me pajamas for the event...what a woman!  I asked her if she wanted to go along to the Mansion.  She declined going to the party, but we did turn it into a family vacation and while I painted, she took our kids over to the Universal Studios theme park on Friday and we all went to see the Hollywood sign and Lego Land on Saturday.

The night before the event, I met with Pashur at the Sheraton to come up with our game plan.  Pashur had flown in from Florida along with pro-bodypainter, Edgar Garayua, and photographer Josh Cruey.  Edgar had to do some improvisation since his bodypainting equipment had accidentally been shipped to New York by the airline (it finally arrived at the hotel the next day around 3pm).  I felt fortunate that I had been able to bring all of my equipment with me since I drove from Phoenix.  Our first order of business was to discuss the patterns and designs for the 20 lingerie paintings.  In addition to being painted in lingerie, the models were also to be painted with corporate sponsor logos.  Initially only 15 of the models were to have corporate logos painted on them in addition to the lingerie, but we ended up adding logos to all of the models.  We were up till about 2am cutting stencils and reminiscing.

Bright and early (around 7am) we started setting up to paint in the hotel ballroom.  The models were to be painted at the hotel and then later in the afternoon they would all be shuttled over to the Mansion about 30 minutes away.  Two models were already there when I got there (Hana and Kristina) and by 8am all of the models had joined us.  The models were instructed to arrive wearing only robes and to not do their own hair and make-up.  They still looked stunning.  These were not typical portfolio models from a local agency.  They had all shot with Playboy at playmate search events and many of them had been in Playboy Magazine or Playboy Special Edition Magazines.  Throughout the day I ended up painting seven of the models and several of the logos.  Here are the seven that I painted and a short description of each of them:

ELLE - I asked Elle if she wanted to go first since she had been the first to arrive.  She was a pleasure to work with and she deserves props for being in the bodypaint all day and then throughout the party and retaining a jovial attitude.  For Elle's painting, I used Reel Creations paints through a Badger Airbrush and Compressor.  Some of the black lace detail was hand painted with Wolfe Brothers bodypaints.  Elle was beautiful before the make-up, but her transformation was really incredible into a retro pin-up look.  Here is a picture of Elle in bodypaint.

KRISTEN - Kristen Smith was up second.  For her painting we looked through several lingerie samples to find something that we both liked.  The color that she was requesting was teal and I thought it might be neat to have the blue and green mix on the skin instead of mixing up a teal concoction.  I found a nice ribbon at Michaels to use as a stencil.  Kristen's lingerie was painted with a base coat of white from Reel Creations and then the green was painted through the lace ribbon stencil.  The blue was then faded in from below.  She indicated that she would be wearing black shoes so I made the trim of the design black using hand painted Wolfe Brothers paints.  The gloves were added just for flair and we decided not to paint nylons on her.

WENDY - For Wendy Desorner's bodypainting, I went with something a little more aggressive in the world of lingerie.  This body paint was intended to give the look of leather.  I typically use liquid latex to achieve this look, but I didn't have enough confidence that latex would last throughout the long night at the Mansion.  I opted therefore to use Reel Creations alcohol based paints once again.  The zipper was real.  I glued it onto Wendy using a very effective glue called Pros-Aide and it stayed on all night.  I did add a little gold striping using Temptu paint to add a little fashion design to the bodypainting.

CY - This model appeared in a “Girls of the Pac-10” issue of Playboy Magazine. She had mentioned to me that she had a fuchsia pocketbook that she would be carrying to the party and I immediately thought of this metallic paint from Temptu that has a fuchsia color.  I began her painting with a swirling design and my intent was to make a pattern that would look like something that could only be painted on since it would not have any straps and the fuchsia swirls would be unconnected.  As I continued into the design though, I opted for more of a see-through mesh look to the design.  We had quite a few stencils on-hand to provide the lacy look and I owe a thank you to Donna Nowak of ShowoffsBodyart.com who gave me the material for the black mesh stencil.  I think the make-up artists did a fantastic job of matching her eye shadow to the paint and Josh's addition of the feather boa was a really nice touch.

APRIL - My next painting was with April Jorgensen.  Her bodypainting and make-up also transformed her into a retro 40's pin-up look.  I was able to spend some time on the details of this painting and I was very happy with the results.  The shadows from the lacing and the intricate loops of the shoulder straps were especially rewarding.  For April's painting I used a base of Reel Creations black and then provided a misted cover of Temptu's "Gun Metal" bodypaint.  The details were completed with Wolfe Brothers and Krylon water based paints.  Our photographer Josh also had the additional task of adding glued-on jewels and other 3-D elements.  This painting was tastefully embellished with just a few gems on the breast cups.  See pictures below.

KAYLA - My next model was Kayla Paige.  I had no idea of her celebrity until after the event.  On her myspace page, she says, "I've been an adult actress and model for about 4 years now. Covering everything from several shows on PlayboyTV, layouts in magazines like, Hustler, Genesis, Cheri, Showgirls, URB, and the cover of Biker to tons of niche fetish movies and hot girl on girl films and even some mainstream stuff for MTV and Benchwarmer Trading Cards."  For her lingerie she was just looking for something simple and not necessarily too artistic.  We settled on a bra and panty set with blue lace trim.  Again I used Reel Creations airbrush paints for most of this bodypainting with some hand brushed details using Paradise water-based paints.  Josh was able to glue on some blue flower patches which gave a nice finishing touch.

KRISTINA - And last but definitely not least, I painted Kristina.  She was one of the first models in the place but waited most of the day before getting painted.  "Dainty" was the look that I was going for with this painting and purple was the preferred color.  I happened to have a full spectrum of Totally Tattoo bodypaints with me and I really love the look of their Purple Passion.  The goal was to make the painting look like a see-through mesh bra and panty set that had purple lace trim and a minimal design within the main mesh areas.  It was a little bit of an afterthought to add the flower vine, but that really ended up being the defining element of this bodypainting.  I didn't catch the names of all of the make-up artists who were on-hand, but I did meet Kristina's make-up artist.  Her name is Eva Woodby.  The picture below of the rock background was taken in the famous grotto.

ADDITIONAL PAINT JOBS - Below are some additional photos of the logos that I painted on some of the models.  The first picture is Playboy model Elisa Prévot with the Kamasutra logo.  She was a Playboy cybergirl of the week in May 2006 and then subsequently featured in the Dec06/Jan07 Playboy Lingerie issue.  The second picture is another model at the party that I painted a black and silver bra on (name withheld).  The other shots are on the logos on the backs of some of the other models.

Here are some of the paintings by Pashur and Edgar.

Once the models were all made up by the bodypainters and the make-up artists, they were the first to leave from the hotel on the shuttles to the Playboy Mansion.  Pashur, Edgar, Josh, and I had a little cleaning up to do and then we donned our pajamas and caught the next shuttle.  It didn't take long for us four amigos to find the open bar since none of us were driving and we were officially off the clock.  Here is a shot that Josh took of us three bodypainters at the Mansion.

Each of the models were able to bring a best friend along (no boyfriends allowed though) so everybody had someone to party with.  We first hooked up with Wendy and her friend and they ended up leading us to the world renown Playboy Mansion Grotto.  Nobody was in the water at the time and there wasn't a whole lot going on, but it was very cool just to be there.  If you check out some of the links at the bottom of this page you can find some pictures from that night by other people and apparently things heated up in the Grotto as the evening progressed.

There were quite a few celebrities that were roaming around the party, but Hugh Hefner didn't make an appearance that I am aware of.  One of his girlfriends though was there.  I recognized Kendra Wilkinson right away from her VH1 TV show "The Girls Next Door".  She was up on stage dancing and rapping with the band fronted by Too $hort.  The opening act was an 80's cover band called 80zAllStars from San Diego.

Among the other celebrities were a host of adult film stars.  Ginger Lynn and Christy Canyon were set up doing a live broadcast of Playboy Radio.  Here is a picture of the two of them with my bodypainting on Kristen Smith and another candid shot of Ginger copping a feel.

Here are a few other famous faces that were on-hand at the party.  They are Jenna Jamison, Aria Giovanni, Martina Warren, and Summer Haze.