back from FABAIC - WOW

Boy what a great convention - can't wait for next year. I had an amazing time and I was just amazed at the level of art work. I had a chance to judge 3 competitions , youth, novice and the semi pro level. There were such amazing work at all of these levels. At the semi pro level there were 24 enteries - it took us an hour and we kepted going back to look over the work cause it was such a hard decision on the scoring cause everyone did such an amazing job. The winner just started face painting 3 months ago - he is an artist that does a lot of doodleling and drawing- I had a chance to talk to him at the banquet and told him that his work is at the Pro Level and he should try to compete at that level next year.

I did some body painting and will load the pictures of what I did later tonight or tomorrow. I did a Derby Jockey silk jacket on a girl - it was just from the waist up - it was very simple no big deal compared to all the other works by Mark Reid and everyone else there. Boy was I surprise to see my body painting displayed in the slide show at the awards banquet. OMG I was in such shock and overjoyed, what a moment it is to see your work being display on the huge screens.

I also had a chance to show a new type for a new batman mask which I called "A Bat out of Hell' when I help teach the Flames class along side Mark Reid, even Marcela asked who did the mask. . I am planning on improving it as it was just my first attempt at this new take of a Batman Mask. I will post that pic as well. Maybe someone on this forum can make it better as there is such amazing talent here.

Kathy

Yay! I can't wait to see the pictures Kathy! Kudos on your work being recognized and appreciated, NOT that I am surprised!

Ok I have added a couple designs that I did at the FABAIC convention.
I did two back designs playing with the Bat Man symbol theme and one body painting of the Derby Jockey Silks. So take a look at my gallery and tell me what you think

Awesome! I especially love that flaming batman theme. It looks wicked!

WOW Kathy! Great ideas. Your derby jacket is fantastic

Awesome. You need to do a step by step of how you do the shadow. This really adds lots of dimension to the paintings. Superior!

Metina

The shattered bat man only took me 38 minutes - I didn't start until late on Friday night and was told they were going to close the paint room in 45 minutes which turn out to be an hour and half later. Not bad for 38 minutes of work. To make the shadow I used a mixture of green, black and brown and just made a wash of these blended colors and just painted around the shattered pieces. I didn't have much time or so I thought to really think about where the shadows should lay. I do know that the closer the shadow is to the object the nearer to the surface it is and the shadow is darker. When you place the shadow away from the object , and make is blury, the object will appear higher from the surface. Take a pencil and lay it on a surface and then pull it away and watch how the shadow moves.

You all can see some of the FABAIC pictures at http://lisakonz.com/

There were so many amazing painters, classes, teachers and inspiration! My only wish was that they had left the "jams" open longer and left room for "jamming" while the competition people were painting on Sunday.

The vendors do a good job of trying to giving a few deals and enticing you to take advantage! Got to dig out my receipts so I can write off the day of damage I did in there!!!

Wow. She is an amazing photographer. I love her site.

The photographs are incredible along with the beautiful face and body painting. Its inspiring. I'm going to start saving my pennies so I can go next year!

Kathy - really like your "bat" backs!!! It is sometimes most challenging to take a fresh approach to the regular requests we get! Nicely done!

My other complaint was that I only got one day at FABAIC Saturday and a few hours in the vendor room on Sunday- there were so many classes I wanted to take....... that jewelry class, the Liz Hurley class, and one of the body painting classes or the make your own professional stencils and latex, or the Jeff Edney pregga belly class....RATS! So hard to choose.

Good times!!!!

I know - so many great classes - Wish there was a way of cloning myself - I really wanted to take some of those same classes myself but I was assisting in other classes. I think next year I just want to be a participant so that I can take the classes that I need to take to keep my level of expertise up. My painting excels each year I go to these conventions. Most of my local competitors don't want to spend the money and their work stays stagnant and the same year after year, and mine keeps getting better and better. I found some fabulous brushes that Vargas was selling - they are a dream to use. I really want to compete in the body painting next year as long as I can get one of my assistants to help me. If I go by myself then I will compete in the professional face painting category. There is a new talent that I had the privledge to meet, He took first place in the semi face painting category , can't remember his name - he is amazing and he only has been face painting for 3 months. He is an artist that does a lot of doodling and he draws. His design was really out of the box. When I saw the design I saw "WOW " that's different. So I have my work cut out for this year to come up with something even wilder then his design. I came up with a new bat man face design that I think I will do a step by step and submit it into Illusion magazine. It might get published like my last step by step that was in the lastest issue.

Oooo!