This convention is one of the smaller conventions in the industry, but as far as conventions that are specific to face and body painting, I'd venture to say that it's the largest in Canada. And the best advantage to a small convention is the one-on-one time that you get with some of the top instructors in the industry. Some of my classes only had a handful of students. At bigger conventions, you'd have to pay upwards of $125 per class for that kind of personalized teaching. These small classes were included with your convention registration at Bodyssey. While the larger conventions have a lot to offer, smaller events can really pack a lot of value.
I was asked to judge the face painting and body painting competitions at Bodyssey. While I don't consider myself a professional body painter, I have competed a few times at the World Body Painting Festival in Austria. For me, competing was a way of forcing myself to try something new. I was being provided with a model, photographers, and a challenge. And no matter how many times I tell myself that I'm going to try to learn a new technique or a new design, it's not until I have a hard deadline that I actually go through with it. And since competitions don't come around every day, they can be a really great source of motivation to break out of your comfort zone.
Unfortunately, most competitions don't provide the artists with feedback that might help them with improving their work. This is mostly due to time constraints, but also due to not wanting to say anything that might discourage someone.
So as someone who has judged several compeitions, I thought it might be useful to some of you to know exactly what it is that the judges are looking for when they judge your work.
Linework
Trying to create a body painting masterpiece when you can't paint a straight line is like constructing a brick building with old crumbling bricks. No matter how great the overall composition, your art is going to look less polished and will give the impression that it was created by a beginner. When you first start painting, the bulk of your practicing should be simply painting lines over and over again.... straight lines, curved lines, lines on faces, teardrops, thin-to-thick lines, etc...
Basing and Blending
Creating a smooth base on a face takes a little practice. Creating a smooth base on a larger surface, like a body, takes a ton of practice. With so many different brands of make-up available, most artists have more than one brand in their kits, especially when you attend a convention and see a color that would be perfect for your competition piece. Each brand of make-up requires a different quantity of water to get smooth coverage. Some brands blend better than others, and some brands don't mix well with other brands. When you buy new make-up brands and colors, spend some time applying them to your legs or some other large surface so you know how to get the best results. If you don't have good results using a sponge for your base, try a large brush instead. Rubbing mica shimmer powder over your base can help smooth out your base as well.
Color choices
You're the artist and of course you want to choose the colors that you've envisioned when you designed the piece. But you also need to make sure that you've chosen colors that allow you to see what the piece is when someone is looking at it from 20 feet away. Too many times, I've seen body paintings that are done completely in pastels or completely in dark colors and you really can't tell what the design is until you get within a few feet of the model. You want to use colors that show a good amount of contrast and make your design more visible. Even when doing small body art applications like glitter tattoos, you can see that using lighter colors on dark skin and using darker colors on light skin makes the tattoos more visible.
Theme & Originality
If the competition has a theme, then adhering to the theme is going to be part of the scoring process. I think a lot of people decide what they want to paint and then try to reach for some vague connection to the theme. Once you know what the theme is, research the theme so you can find a unique aspect that the other competitors may not have thought of. The last face painting competition that I judged was themed, Dungeons and Dragons. Nearly all of the competitors painted dragons, so not a lot of points for originality. But one competitor had really researched dungeons and dragons and brought in elements that no other competitor had. Talk to your model about the work. In many competitions, the artist is not allowed to enter the judging area with the model, so you want to be sure that the model can answer any of the judges' questions.
Accessories and Embellishments
This may sound like a plug for Amerikan Body Art Liquid Bling and Mica Powders (and it is), but when two works of art are at a similar skill and creativity level, the design that has a little bling added to it is going to stand out. I'm not necessarily saying that more is better....as all of us are aware that some face painters will use excessive glitter to cover up less-than-stellar face painting...but knowing where to highlight and accent your painting is important. Be careful that you are not relying on accessories to make the design. Most of the time (unless it is a special effects competition) we are told to exclude (or even subtract from the score) any items that are on the body other than make-up. One contestant that we judged was probably the best work as far as skill and overall impression, but when we excluded the costume and headpiece, we had to give a low score on the theme because without those elements, the painting was too abastract to look at and see the connection to the theme.
Pay attention to the rules
When there is a rule that the whole body (or face) needs to be covered, some artists panic and decide to just accept losing a few points rather than changing their design. When I decided to paint a model as a belly dancer, my workaround was to fill in the blank spots with a sheer pink/ bronze that added a little shimmer, but didn't detract from the outfit I had painted on. If you are painting a mask, you can use the same technique to be sure that the whole face is covered when that is part of the competition rules.
The biggest rule-breaking has to do with adding elements like prosthetics and costume pieces. Choose a design that can stand on its own without all the added fluff. Get your piece judged, and then you can add whatever elements you want to add so you can get great photos for your portfolio.
Many competitions are won by a fraction of a point. You don't want to lose points simply because you didn't understand the rules. If you have a question, ask one of the organizers before you get started.
Completion
It's usually pretty obvious when someone has a really detailed design on the upper part of the body and then hardly anything on the lower part of the body that they simply ran out of time. Body painting takes way longer than you think it would. Just completing the face (which is often a large portion of the score in body painting) can easily take upwards of an hour. If you are allowed to fix the hair and nails before the competion timing starts, definitely take advantage of that. If you have the opportunity, paint the entire design on a model prior to the competion. If you don't have access to a model, at least paint portions of the design and time yourself so you know how long it should take to complete the design. Decide ahead of time which design elements you will sacrifice if you run out of time.
If you are fortunate enough to enter a competition where you receive feedback from the judges, try not to take it personally when you receive negative feedback. Some of us artsy folks may be lacking in communication skills and tact...and to add to that, we're incredibly sensitive when someone critisizes us. Don't be afraid to put your stuff out there and each time you try something new, you're learning what works and what doesn't work and you'll do even better the next time. I tell my kids this a hundred times a day... You have to try and you have to keep practicing. You don't miraculously wake up one day and you're great at something. First you suck at it, but you keep trying and you keep getting better, and eventually you're great at it.
