Pretty On The Outside

After all, love is love.

My partner and I will celebrate our 18th anniversary in May however, as California residents we can't wed. A numbered of my closest friends have recently gotten married in Washington state and couldn't be happier for them.  I painted the HRC logo on my and my partner's hands and as we took the photos, he placed our hands on his heart.  A simple statement about love, solidarity, and commitment--- sounds like a marriage, right?

David Gilmore + Marcelino Rosas + Next Magazine

My body paint and photography are on the cover of Next Magazine. I painted my handsome friend Marcelino to look like a lovely lady. He's wearing a wig of paper flowers and is in front of a backdrop I painted.

He's body painted him entirely using MAC cosmetics: chromacake, chromaline, acrylics, paint sticks, and eyeshadow.

See it online here.

Jan-Michael + David Gilmore + body art

A year ago I body painted tennis star Jan-Michael Gambill with a large HIV awareness ribbon across his torso (his concept) as well another look.  The photos were gifts for his good friend Elton John and now those pieces are a part of EJ's collection.  An article in today's Spokane-Review did a write-up on him and used our photo.  The entire process of working on this was pretty freakin amazing.  The article didn't include my watermark but I threw one on there as things seem to get reposted  without credit.  Thanks Jan-Michael!

Paint By Number featuring David Gilmore for MAC cosmetics in Miami.

The last scheduled stop for my Paint By Number project was this past week in Miami. It was a ton of fun and I'm sad to see it end.  Sigh.  Anyway here's the nearly finished model Charlz standing on the backdrop featuring my work.  Thanks MAC!

 

Paint By Number featuring David Gilmore for MAC cosmetics.

Oh...... I've been a bad blogger.  A very very bad blogger, but I have good reason.  I quite fortunately have been working on a project with MAC Cosmetics called Paint By Number showcasing their fluid acrylic body paint and featuring little ole me as the guest artist.  It started with an illustration--- I designed a backdrop and then elements from that backdrop go onto a model and a mannequin.  What what what???  Let me paint a big picture..........  There are six MAC PRO stores that get this event:  Chicago, NYC, LA, Vancouver, Toronto, and Miami.  I've completed the first five and next week I go to Miami to finish this process.  This line of body paints come in ten colors.  So this backdrop that I designed the artwork for is double sided: one side is the artwork completed referencing the 10 colors of the MAC product and on the other side is just the black outlines.  On the color side is a live model that me and two assistants per city are painting live.  On the opposite side is a mannequin which I prepainted (six in total, one per city) that has the same black outlines as the actual model and then I painted in tiny blue numbers 1 thru 10 corresponding to a body paint color and matches the artwork we are painting on the other side.  Participants at these event are invited to paint in the colors themselves following the numbers as I marked.  Paint By Number.  Makes sense?  I'm better with pictures so here goes my tour:

Stop 1. Chicago

Here's my model in the backstage area next to the mannequin.

And here he is out on the floor during the event.

And here is a view from outside the store at the very end of the event..... hope this illustrates the concept clearer.

Stop 2.  NYC.

He's my model.

Here's the model on the stand and that's me about to paint on his hand while I chat up a guest.  :).

This is the finished model standing next to the mannequin on the outline side.  The participants nearly completed the coloring.

Next stop LA.

Here's my model.

Me and the model.

A better look at the mannequin.

Next stop Vancouver!

Here's my model.

Another look at the platform.

Next stop Toronto.

Here's my model next to the completed mannequin.

And here are some participants at the party going to town.  Love these ladies!

And as I mentioned the next stop is Miami and I'm sad to see this end.  I've always used MAC products when I body paint so it's especially thrilling to be their featured artist for this project.  Thanks MAC!  It's a tough job painting all these handsome young men but someone has to do it.  :)

 

 

Paint By Number featuring David Gilmore for MAC cosmetics.

The invite for my MAC pro event just came in the mail and I am beyond excited!  I created all the artwork for this including the cover of this invite as well as what will be painted on the model.  The event is called Paint By Number and it will showcase MAC's amazing acrylic body paint.  I'll be painting in the following cities: Chicago, NYC, LA, Vancouver, Toronto, and Miami. I've always used MAC body paints and I'm thrilled to be involved with their company.  Thank you so much MAC! 

David Gilmore + MAC Cosmetics + body painting.

The end of last month I had the honor of body painting for MAC Cosmetics at the IMATS in Pasadena.  (Click on that link to see the final looks.)  What I designed for the first day was a series of faces that cover the body.  The same face actually just in different color combinations.  I wanted to try out that look a few times to work out any kinks.  So this is how it played out.........  

First test run.  I painted my friend Khalif's upper body and that's his real hair.  It's magical... it's perfect... it's a thing of beauty.  I used MAC's acrylics to achieve this.  Over his face, some eyeshadow was added for shimmer.

Not a fan of the large watermark but my stuff keeps getting posted on other sites without credit so it's a necessary thing.  Made a black and white version of one of the images as well.

This took about five hours.  Thanks Khalif!

Second test run I painted my new friend Jose.  I painted him head to toe again with the MAC acrylics using a more restrained color combination.  Each face including: hair, features, and skin is one singular color.  

As with last time, I made a b&w version too.

This took about 7 hours.  Thanks Jose!

Third test I painted my new friend John.  This was another full body paint and I used MAC's water-activated chromacakes as well as their acrylics.  This version was more painterly and I opted to leave the face uncovered.  He's wearing a small undergarment in this that I went right over with the body paint.

And a b&w version..........

This took over eight hours to create.  Thanks John!  

It's simply a nightmare having to paint such nice and handsome guys.  :)

So happy that I tested the makeup three times as each session absolutely informed the direction I took for the event.

Hope you enjoyed my show and tell.

David Gilmore + MAC Cosmetics

Hello again.  I know I've been away for a spell but I've been a busy body painting bee.  One of the projects I have to wait until January to talk about but what I want to share now is the work I did this past weekend.  I body painted for MAC Cosmetics at the IMATS (international make-up artist trade show) in Pasadena this past saturday the 23rd and sunday the 24th.  It was a TON of fun.  I was asked to participate (which is like being being blessed by the pope) and so I created a number of design options and the following two looks were selected.  Here's my saturday model:

I had the help of two absolutely beautiful assistants both days.  (Amanda, Tamara, Melanie, and Tiffany--- I love you!)  This first look was created using MAC Acrylics and Chromacakes.  Both are heavenly products.

Here's my sunday look:

This look was achieved using white chromacake and white airbrush as the foundation and then I painted all the faces using their black acrylic.  

I did three trial runs at the saturday makeup with I'll be sharing soon.  

Thanks for indulging my show and tell.

:)

Body paint fun with model Marcelino Rosas and photograper Kurt R Brown.

How did you spend your sunday?  At church?  Did you go on a family picnic?  Maybe you took in a movie after stopping by a farmer's market where you purchased heirloom tomatoes and local honey?  Or perhaps you spent the entire day lounging in your new tempurpedic bed resting up before a busy work week?  Well, I spent the majority of my sunday body painting my friend Marcelino.  He and photographer Kurt R Brown came up with the concept of turning him into a futuristic robot.  A boybot.  And if I may ask, I'm wondering what would you do with this boybot?  Take him to church?  Go on a family picnic with him?  Take him to a movie and then a farmer's market?  Or would you have a little "private alone time" with the boybot?  No judgement from me. You could perhaps sit him next to you on the couch and take in an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills while telling him that you think Taylor looks too thin and that the new girl has bad taste.  But I digress....... 

Here's a cropped version of the finished image and the whole photo is in the second half of the posting.  The final image may be a little not safe for work...... just a warning.

Body painting. Graffiti'd guys.

Here's a little show and tell of some of my work.  I have in two distinct styles that I'm exploring.  One way is to create an optical trick that a body painted model photographed standing in front of a painted canvas appears as though they're a flat image.  Like this and this. The other style also involves painting a backdrop which corresponds to the artwork on the model but this style which is featured above is more in the graffiti direction. I create a free-form scrolling mass of details which travels up, over and around the body.  If some of the painting on the body blurs and becomes one with the art on the backdrop--- then all the better.  More in the second half on the posting.