Before I had gotten started in the field of bodypainting, I
saw one of the most intriguing pieces of artwork showcased at the 2000 Exotic
Art show at the Alwun House in
Phoenix. At first glance, it appeared to be a bronze sculpture of a
woman's upper torso that was hanging on the wall. Upon closer inspection,
I realized that the detail was so realistic that you could actually see finger
prints on the hands. This was no sculpture, but a plaster casting made
from a mold of a live model and then given an antiqued bronze finish. This
art form, I later found out was called life casting.
About a year later, I happened upon a website called
ArtMolds.com and found the life caster who had done the casting.
There was a picture of the very same casting on the site and it was titled
"Who Me?" The artists name is Byur Gullwing and you can
find his work at both www.lifecastaz.com
and on the Art Molds web site. Since then we contacted each other
and set out to collaborate on a project where he would do the life
casting and I would "bodypaint" the resulting plasterer cast.
ISIS
Our first collaboration was displayed at the Alwun
House's 2003 Exotic Art Show and thereafter was displayed at the Imbeau
Gallery in Mesa, Arizona. The project was entitled
"Isis" and was an Ancient Egyptian themed painting that featured
a colorful neck piece and an Ankh symbol. Below are some images of
the rough draft, progress shots, the final product, and a picture of a
live model that was painted with the same artwork during the opening night
of the Exotic Art Show. The Isis lifecast is available for purchase,
please inquire about details if you are interested.
HALFTIME
Our next collaboration came just over a week after
the world was shocked by the exposure of Janet Jackson's breast at the
Superbowl halftime show in February of 2004. I had been planning to
do a live bodypainting at the 2004 Exotic Art exhibition that exploited
the Janet Jackson outfit that had been plastered all over the news for the
previous two weeks. By a twist of fate, Byur and I had contacted
each other and I proposed the idea of also painting the outfit on another
of his life casts. He happened to have one that was ready and
by chance held a similar pose to the Janet Jackson photos. The piece
was painted and ready for opening night of the exhibit and was put on
display above the stairs for the 600 plus attendees to see. Below
are some progress shots, the final image, and again the live model that
was painted on opening night. This hand painted lifecast is also
available for purchase.
MOON OF PERN

This lifecast painting was part of a live demonstration
during LepreCon 30, Arizona's
annual art-oriented science fiction and fantasy convention. Lifecaster
Byur Gullwing began with a brief discussion of the
art-form of lifecasting for an audience of approximately 30 attendees
and then proceeded to demonstrate the step by step process with the
first of two models. While Gullwing was doing his presentation, I began
painting a finished lifecast on the opposite side of the stage.
The images below show some of the
steps that Gullwing went through to create the lifecast.
The first image shows the application of the alginate material and the
second shows that cotton was patted on the surface to increase it's
strength. The last picture is the final plasterer lifecast that
was made from the mold. Unfortunately, there are quite a few steps that I didn't
have the opportunity to photograph.
After the application of the alginate, the next
step was adding a structural shell made of plasterer and medical
bandages. Once all of the materials had hardened, the mold was
pryed from the model. The total time for each model was less than 45
minutes. This was the final step that was demonstrated at the
LepreCon showcase, but there were obviously several things that Gullwing
had to do to complete the molds and pour the plasterer for the final
lifecast.
While Gullwing was doing his demonstration, I
started mine by painting a plasterer lifecast that was completed days before the
show. The theme of LepreCon this year was
futuristic combat and as I started brainstorming, my plan was to paint a
space scene and have a space ship hovering over the extraterrestrial
moonscape. Somewhere along the way I changed my mind and decided
to replace the spaceship with a flying dragon (exercising artistic
license). Below is a photo of
the lifecast before being painted, a progress photo of how much was
completed in front of the live audience, and a photo of the completed
painting.
This original hand-painted lifecast has been
christened "Moon of Pern" as a tribute to the dragon novels by
Anne McCaffrey. It is currently for sale. If you are interested in
this lifecast or in having one made to order, feel free to contact mark@futureclassx.com
and visit my website at www.futureclassx.com
and/or LifeCast@aol.com and visit
his site at www.lifecastaz.com
.
ELEKTRA

A painted lifecast
of the Marvel comics (and 20th Century Fox motion picture) character
Elektra was created for the 2005 CopperCon 25 science fiction convention. I had started planning this project with Gullwing, the
lifecasting guru of Arizona, several months before the event. I had
a pose in mind that would simulate a swan dive with arms outstretched and
the back arched. Gullwing warned me that this would be a very
fragile lifecast and that although it would be difficult to cast, he was
up for the challenge. I was really impressed with a casting Gullwing
had done of a little girl's hand holding a real Christmas ball. The
girl was able to pull her hand out of the mold while leaving the ball
behind and this created a plaster cast of her hand with the actual
Christmas ball trapped within. Expanding on this idea, I wanted to
have the lifecast of Elektra include her sais (her short sword-like
weapons) molded into the casting of her hands. I was able to buy
some limited edition Elektra sais on E-bay that even sported her
signature logo and matched her weapons used in the comicbooks. Next
we set out to find the perfect model for the project and Gullwing
discovered Andrea. She is a local fitness model and bodybuilder that
proved to be perfect for the part. There were two casting sessions
with her and I took some pictures of the first session, but wasn't able to
attend the second session in which the actual Elektra casting was
made. A significant amount of time was spent planning the session
and building a platform to support her in the pose. Add to this the
time Gullwing spent pouring the mold, cleaning up the rough edges once it
had set, and then applying the primer paint. You can imagine his
dismay after making all of this investment into the project when the arm
broke off while he was carrying it into my garage to be painted. The
lifecast had brushed up against a dolly and that was all that it took to
break the arm into three pieces. Miraculously he was able to repair
it and then I started the painting. For the painting, I scoured the
internet looking for images of Jennifer Garner in the role of Elektra and
I had planned to match as much of her outfit as possible. My search
led me to several evocative paintings by artist Greg
Horn and I decided that I wanted to incorporate some of his costuming
in the casting also. I opted for his loin cloth and leg straps in
lieu of the movie version's long pants. It also appears that the
sais were designed based on Horn's artwork. Here are some
chronological snapshots of the lifecast being painted.
The lifecast was put on display at the sci-fi convention
and had a great reception. In a very interesting turn of events, there was
a book sale in the dealers room and as I passed by I picked up a copy of Elektra, the novelization of the recent movie.
I had spent the past month working on an Elektra lifecast so I had researched the character to the nth degree.
Interested, but I decided to put it back down when sales woman said it was better than the movie and offered to sign it.
I hadn't realized that she was the author. I'm now a proud owner of a Yvonne
Navarro signed copy of Elektra (which is better than the movie by the way).
ARABIAN NIGHTS

Although this is not exactly a lifecast, it is a life-sized
sculpture of an Arabian horse that was painted for the Kaleidoscope Horse
Project. Kaleidoscope Horses is a community art "fun"
raiser project that benefits the art departments of valley public schools and
other non-profit organizations such as Horses Help Therapeutic Riding Organization.
Artists are selected to paint their original designs on life sized horses made
of a fiberglass resin. There are several horse designs including the
Arabian horse that I painted, Percheron draft horse, and a quarter horse, each
weighing more than 125lbs. The first batch of horses were painted and
displayed at local shopping malls and then in October of 2005 they were all
delivered to the Arizona State Fair for the public to enjoy. This is where
I painted my Arabian. We were given free reign on coming
up with our designs and I opted for an ancient Egyptian theme to
coincide with the Arabian heritage. The design is centered around the
three great pyramids of Egypt silhouetted against a colorful sunset. As
the sunset transitions into a starry night, the Orion constellation is seen
directly above the pyramids. Legend has it that the three stars that form
Orion's belt are directly related to the size and layout of the three great
pyramids. There are many other Egyptian themes that I decorated the horse
with including the Egyptian eye, scarabs, ankhs, etc.
Byur Gullwing and I have several other projects in the
conceptual stage and I have been contacted by E. J. McCormick of both www.artmolds.com
and www.ejmccormick.com about painting
several lifecasts to help promote the art form. I look forward to adding
those images to this page in the near future. Check back soon. |