Happy New Year! I am off to an exciting start for 2012 - lots of creative opportunities coming my way in various avenues of my life.
One of my commitments to myself artistically over the past several months has been to start creating face and body painting that is outside of my comfort zone. For me, this means anything that isn't part of my book of designs - unicorns, Spidermen, butterflies - my "easy" range.
I found an online forum that offers contests to North American West Coast Face and Body Artists and decided that I would enter at least one design every contest, no matter what the theme is. I can't believe I'm writing that here! That means I REALLY have to stay committed!
Well, as some of you know if you follow my facebook page, I garnered 1st place for my first entry in the Monster faces category. Thanks to an intense looking model and the votes of the public, my Snakehead Monster design (pictured)beat out the other entries. Fun!
The second contest I entered was Princess Faces. I really decided to go out on a limb for this one. I knew that most entries would be beautiful and full of swirls and flowers and wonderful girlieness and although I find that very appealing to paint and view, it didn't feel like an inspired challenge to me this time. So I took a risk and interpreted the theme my way: I painted the faces of iconic fictional princesses onto my models face. I placed third for this contest and felt brave for having submitted an "out there" entry.
Pictured here on my model: Princess Leia, The Paperbag Princess, She-ra Princess of Power, and Snow White (my interpretation, not the Disney version! I had to do research to be sure she was, in fact a princess).
The point of blogging about this isn't to brag (although it is a good opportunity for me to thank those who voted - thank you!!) but rather to publicly announce my artistic commitment to continue pushing myself outside of the box. I LOVE my birthday parties and my corporate events AND I need to continue developing my interpretations of how I paint, for my own fulfillment.
Having said that, watch for my latest entry coming soon on the next West Coast Face and Body Painters website. http://www.westcoastfacepainters.com/contestindex.html
The contest will be up by February and my entry will be the bee's knees! (That's a hint and that's all I will say!)
Thanks for your support,
Allyson
