The art of competition

We just returned from a week in Calgary, Alberta where we attended Bodyssey, the Canadian face and body painting convention. After last year's event in Toronto, which was held in April, we were looking forward to a summer event. Much to our surprise, summer does not necessarily equal warm weather in Calgary. While we did not have to contend with snow and ice this time around, the outside temperatures were comparable to what we experience during a Florida winter. Fortunately, the convention kept us busy enough that we stayed indoors most of the time anyways.

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.

 

 

Beware of Email scams

I've been receiving an increasing number of emails lately that look like legitimate job offers but are a new spin on the Nigerian letter scams that have been around for years. Most of you are probably aware of these types of letters, but I know that many of you are just starting out and may not have seen one of these letters yet. I just wanted to post a little information here to be sure that none of you falls prey to these criminals.

The letters typically come from someone outside of your area and state that they will be visiting your area, for whatever reason. Usually the letters are quite vague and may not even mention exactly which services they hope that you can provide, but the scammers have been getting smarter and are trying to tailor their letters to seem more legitimate. Most scam letters are poorly written with spelling and grammatical errors.

The scam happens when the "client" sends you payment in the form of a cashier's check or a money order. The check is always for more than what you were going to charge and they want you to send the remainder to another service provider for the event...like a caterer or a photographer. The checks that they send look so legitimate that banks happily cash them for you, but then realize (perhaps even several weeks later) that the check was fraudulent. Then they take the funds back out of your bank account. By this time, you have already sent some of your own funds to the scammers or their partners. You'll never see the "clients" or your money again.

Here is a copy of a recent email that I received. If you are ever in doubt, send a copy to a colleague to get an opinion before responding to a suspect email.

Hello,

My name is Scott Hamilton,you are one of the few people chosen out of the screening exercise performed by our agent for us saying your work got the features we need for our catalogue update,I have a pay Fashion job for you if you are interested,My client wants to update her

Catalog with her new year release Fashion outfits and i'm interested in you for the professional shooting as Tattoo Artist. so if you are interested you can get back to me.

The shooting will hold at a rented photographers studio in your location,so you don't have to worry about traveling,the name and address of the studio will be froward to you before the date of the

shooting, all make up will be taken cared of in the studio you can come along with any body of your choice on the day of the shooting,your mum,dad,friend,body-guard anybody you wish to come with just for you to feel comfortable .

Get back to me ASAP for me details about the job.

Purple Cow

Believe it or not, we have been freezing our tushies off here in Florida. I know it’s a joke relative to what the rest of the country has to deal with, but it’s still quite shocking to us. My husband was commenting on how sexy the women are looking with their long jeans and sweaters. Mind you, these are the same women who would be walking around nearly naked for 350 days out of the year. But something about being different from the norm, makes them seem so much more appealing, even all covered up. You’ll see teenage girls still wearing short skirts and tank tops in freezing temperatures, because they haven’t matured enough to realize that they’d get more attention by being different from their friends than by looking exactly the same. I remember chatting with a young Danish friend, Mathilda, and realizing that she was naturally a blond and dyed her hair brown. It would seem sacrilegious to do that here in the US, where we pay a fortune for blond highlights. But apparently, a brunette in a sea of blond goddesses is a novelty.

This got me thinking about one of my favorite books, Purple Cow, by Seth Godin. It’s a short book and an easy read, as most of Godin’s books are. I really appreciate that style of writing though, direct and to the point, but with enough examples to illustrate important subjects. A Purple Cow is something remarkable, something that makes you stop and say, “Wow…a Purple Cow!” As a business person, you don’t want to look like every other brown spotted cow. You want people to notice and talk about what makes you stand apart from all those other businesses. You might find it hard to believe, but often, being the best face and body artist or the least expensive face and body artist are not necessarily the most significant qualities that will make you stand apart from your competition.

I’ve talked about the Purple Cow in at least one past newsletter, but I think it’s a subject worth revisiting. I think we all go through lulls where business is going along just fine and we don’t want to put in the extra effort to push it to the next level. It’s all too common an occurrence for me to come up with a great idea and then not follow through on it. I’ve had several new products sitting on the shelves in my warehouse that I haven’t even bothered to start packaging and putting up on the website. You should see a few of those new products popping up on the website this month.

As difficult as it may be to imagine at the moment, spring is right around the corner. If you tend to take it easy through the winter months, your business should start picking up right about now. I should say, that the face and body art business will start picking up right about now. Whether that is your business or another local artist’s business, is going to be up to you. Rather than letting your customers find out what makes you special after they’ve hired you, why not tell people about it before they hire you. When local businesses and families start planning their warm weather activities, what is it that will make them hire you instead of another local artist? What makes you a Purple Cow? Figure out what makes you a Purple Cow and create a marketing plan that features your unique offerings. If you’re not a Purple Cow yet, start studying your competition and figure out what they are not offering and that you could offer.

This Valentine’s Day, my husband did something very special for me. I had mentioned to him that Valentine’s Day was my favorite holiday as a child because although I didn’t have many friends in school, I’d always get a Valentine’s card from every student in the class. Of course, it would be thanks to the parents and teachers insisting on everyone giving a card to everyone in the class, but it still made me feel really good. I was in Las Vegas for the Face Painting and Body Art Association Convention for the entire week before Valentine’s Day. During that week, my husband had all of my friends, neighbors and family fill out little Valentine’s cards. He even called Jennifer in Las Vegas and had her get my friends out there to fill out cards for me. I had no idea until he handed me the basket full of Valentine’s cards. It was the most special and memorable Valentine’s Day of my life. And the reason why I mention it here is that it was something that probably cost him little or nothing in terms of money, but its value was immeasurable.

There are extremely inexpensive things that you could do at a party that would create an interactive experience for guests and hosts, and that would make you seem like the ultimate party entertainer. As the economy shifts, more people are realizing that experiences and memories with our loved ones are more important than material things. Here are some examples for creating memorable experiences at your parties.

~ Take photos of the guests as you paint/ tattoo them. You could copy them to a CD for the party hostess, create an online photo album accessible only to the party host and guests, or bring a small photo printer with you to the party and give each guest a photo of themselves. Even if you just take a photo of the guest of honor, you could make a thank you card for the party host and include that photo with the card.

~ Bring a craft project like a T-shirt, a tote bag, or a giant card where all of the party guests can write a message for the guest of honor. Use a 40% or 50% off coupon at Michael’s or Joann Fabrics to get very inexpensive craft materials. You can also find craft project supplies at www.OrientalTrading.com <http://www.OrientalTrading.com>

~ For baby shower henna parties, you can do belly henna design that has an open space where each guest can henna a blessing for the new baby.

~ Baby Showers and 1st Birthday parties are ideal events for having the guests write messages that the child can read later in life. Use pretty scrapbook papers to make small cards for each guest to write their message, and put them into a small decorative box from the dollar store.

I hope I’ve given you all a few things to think about this month, and maybe some good ideas for your business. I’d love to hear other people’s ideas for inexpensive party extras, so I’m going to post this newsletter on the forum. Feel free to reply with some ideas that you use in your business. Even the smallest tidbit of advice can be invaluable to your fellow artists.

Have a wonderfully prosperous month!

Love,
~Erika