Q U E E E N   O F   H E A R T S


c2000 Painting and photo by Mark Greenawalt

Welcome to the "Queen of Hearts" bodypainting webpage.  This bodypainting was the feature of the 2001: An Exotic Odyssey, which is an exotic art show held every year at the Alwun House in Phoenix, Arizona.  The date of the event was February 9th 2001.  I approached the people who run the Alwun House art museum about doing a live body painting at the event several months prior to opening night.  While showing them my bodypainting portfolio, they took a special interest in the Queen of Spades session.  They asked if I would paint the Queen of Hearts due to the nearness of Valentines Day and I said yes.  The next thing that was a true honor is that they used my queen of spades photographs for the invitations, posters, and flyers, but they had graphic artist David Coven change the colors to red and spades to hearts with Photoshop on his computer.  These invitations were sent to hundreds of people in the art community.

For this event, I once again chose Kay from Chandler for my model and once again it took 5 hours to complete.  Below you can see some progress shots from the session.  I painted her at her house and then we made the 40 minute trek to the event, trying not to mess up the paint.

The idea behind the image was to make the top face of the card become the models face, like it's popping out of the card.  The paints used on the card were Ben Nye face paints.  Large areas of color were applied with an airbrush and the finer detail was brushed on.  The shiny red paint that looks like a wetsuit was liquid latex paint applied with a sponge brush.

For modeling information, e-mail Kay at Kaystuff@cox.net .  If you are interested in ordering a print from this photoshoot or would like additional information on bodypainting, please feel free to contact mark@futureclassx.com and visit my website at www.futureclassx.com .  Please browse through the additional images from the Queen of Spades bodypainting session below.  Thanks for visiting!