So today I spent many hours engulfed in a personal project and decided to integrate a some day of the dead imagery into it. I couldn't help it - I may be verging on obsessed.... and after all it's good practice for this summer which might just have quite a lot of Dia de los Muertos imagery slipped in - but more on that later.
I wouldn't be sharing this with you all yet but I decided that actually I didn't quite create the look I was going for as I got a little flustered and neglected to put all the detail in....so as a result I'll be doing it again tomorrow but reworked and hopefully much more exciting!

I've been a busy little bee this weekend working on my little tester animation :) I've had a rather long break from it but now thanks to a (very much needed) friendly little shove from my friend Break Theory it's back to business and dare I say it getting close to being finished! Finished in the loosest sense of the word may I add... still have plenty of editing to do before handing it over to Break Theory to add some skrinkly little sounds to it - but I'm getting there! In the meantime, here's a cheeky little snippet that I've done some post editing on to make it an image all of it's own rather than just a still. If you haven't already guessed it's an homage to Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis, a truly amazing film from the German expressionist era. If any of you haven't seen it yet I strongly recommend you find yourselves a copy as it's a true classic and a visual masterpiece. The sheer scale of the film and the ingenuity of the set design and props is just brilliant - especially when you consider that it was made all the way back in 1927!

I'd like to share with you a new and exciting company I found recently: Vegan Faces is based in the UK and they make a great range of products including (drumroll please...) vegan facepaint, hoorah!!! All of their products are made by a professional cruelty-free make-up manufacturer, and include such deliciousness as organic avocado oil based lipsticks, pro-vitamin B-5 enriched mascara and organic mint lip shimmer so they're not only animal friendly but skin friendly too! As is this wasn't all awesome enough already they're also currently offering a 10% discount on all products AND free delivery on orders over £50 in the UK and over £75 worldwide. Head over to their website & online store to check them out and then bumble over to their Facebook page to get updates on delicious new products :)

This is the second piece in my Save the Arctic series for Greenpeace - this time I've used BP's logo to emphasize the potential impact of oil drilling in the Arctic. To join the campaign please visit my page and sign the petition, thank you!

Greenpeace are currently running a global campaign to save the Arctic from big companies including BP, Shell & Exxon who are pushing to start drilling there for oil... oil that would only last the planet 3 years. This would have disastrous consequences on an already very fragile environment, proving devastating not only to the people who call it home but to all of the beautiful animals who live there too. Joining the campaign gives you an opportunity to speak out against big oil and help Greenpeace by using whatever skills and talents you may have - may they be artistic, literary, technical or centered around activism, everyone can help. The aim is to collect 3million+ signatures for the cause - please visit my page to join and sign the petition.
I have been designing some face and body art to contribute to the campaign - for this first piece I played around with Shell's logo. I noticed that it resembles the shape of the top half of a skull and thought it would work quite well used that way - the eye sockets dripping oil.... I'm going to continue the skull theme throughout the series as oil drilling in the Arctic will undoubtedly lead to an enormous loss of life. Please join the campaign today and SAVE THE ARCTIC!

I've been looking at a variety of masks from around the globe as part of a little personal project to keep me busy and painting.... Today I recreated a wooden helmet mask from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, made by the Bakuba tribe. The Bakuba integrate art into their everyday lives and are considered to be among the most artistic people of the Congo - unlike some tribes in the region they do not reserve arts for the higher standing or more privileged members of the tribe...nice to know!

Mexican art is AMAZING! Bold use of bright contrasting colours, striking patterns and an almost crude, cartoon-like quality work together to draw in and excite the eyes. After stocking up on some nice colourful palettes at the IMATS last weekend (massive thanks to the Face Paint Shop & Scotty's) I decided to put them to use on some Aztec inspired paintings. The first I did on my lovely friend Claire who runs Pixie Nomad's - using strong colours with emphasis on the golds and turquoises that featured so prominently in ancient Mexico. The second piece I did on myself  for lack of a model - and is a recreation of an amazing turquoise Aztec mask that I came across in the British Museum a few years ago.  It was a really fun painting to do and has inspired me to do a series following the same theme...watch this space!!

I absolutely love painting on people with no/very little hair on their heads- there's so much space to play with! This summer at Kendall Calling and Boomtown with Happy Slap Boutique I had a couple of chances to let loose and fully decorate a couple of craniums. James, my model for the the black white and red piece, told me to do whatever I wanted so I improvised and opted to stick to a simple, striking colour scheme and try to produce something fun, bold and freaky. The brain was painted on my friend Scott Salt by request but looked a bit stranded and lonely perched up there by itself so I decided to extend the design down onto the face. Scott is an amazing photographer and was taking photos of Boomtown festival, so with this in mind I left the right side of his face paint free so it wouldn't interfere with his work. For more photos take a visit to the Makeup Gallery...

Pay a visit to the Makeup Gallery to see some new photos from this summer's fun & games with Happy Slap Boutique!

Have been sorting through my photos and came across a couple of face paints I did last Halloween and forgot to share! How silly of me....