A year and change ago, I was informed by a girl I knew that she had cast a magical spell on me which was preventing me from doing any body painting. Anyone who knows me will be little-surprised to learn that I greeted this news with some hearty skepticism, and indeed went ahead to do a handful of body painting sets later on that year, though I was swiftly reminded of the all-to-real and non-magical reasons why I had ceased to do so a year or so prior: Getting models and photographers together for this type of work is like herding cats, and broken promises by either are about as common as blades of grass on a lawn.

This year, though, I’ve decided upon a solution to this problem which is beginning to shape up as fairly effective, which is a little something I like to call “accuracy by volume”: In essence, I begin to make arrangements with about twenty models and ten different photographers at the same time, and within a month or so, maybe I’ve got a few actual sets goin’ down. Today, I have the first fruits of this labour to present. And while magical spells may not be real, fantasy-mediaeval fiction is a deep well indeed, and one which one can readily draw all sorts of inspiration from, such as this sort of walking-coat-of-arms set here:

It's true! 

After doing two "hobby" sets (by which I mean sets done in or around my house, without assistants, photographer, sets, etc), I'm getting my legs under me again, and this is my first "professional" set since my return to the field. This one stars a young woman named Britt, who I'm looking forwards to working with again in the near future. Photographic duties were ably and graciously provided-for by my good friend Colin Macdonald. Yes, THAT Colin Macdonald. He is not just the proprietor of Vancouver's number one Satan-themed cafe and bake shop, but is something of an aspiring (and obviously capable) photographer.



As with so, so many of my designs, this one was originally designed for another model, who - after I prepared it for her - disappeared off the face of the earth, but, undaunted, I re-designed it to fit Britt's curvacious form. I'm rather fond of the result. More below the cut, dear friends. Much more... 

Guess what? Less than a month after the last one, I've got another ew body painting set to show! 



This one is modelled by my friend Debbie, who I worked with once before, years ago, and who, prior to her coming over to be painted, I hadn't seen in a year or so. I had been telling her about a design I had come up with for a very slight girl some months earlier (who then flaked on me), and how I hadn't been able to find another model suitable for it. Debbie pointed out that she was very light herself, and voulenteered to model this design for me. Indeed, her assessment of her own frame was if anything an understatement, but this proved no obstacle for me, since - as I have stated before - I'm growing to like working with a good variety of body types more and more. 

So, this one was very loosely inspired by the facial tattoos of the Maori , which I have always adored. I wanted to create a design which was symmetrical in a number of places, and in all other places ... well, you can see for yourself. I think the effect is a neat one. Obviously, this design is a bit of a departure for me, in that it leaves a great deal more bare skin than any other set I've done to date, but in the quest to always do something new with each new set I do, such departures ought to be more the norm than the exception. 

I don't know what more there is to say, but...

After about a year-and-a-half long hiatus, I'm back at it.

The thing I've discovered about professional models is that most of them - not all, but most - are terribly unprofessional. They tend not to do what they say they're going to do, and tend not to show up to photo shoots. Therefore, my best course is to go with friends and friends of friends. So it is with this model; a charming young woman named Kyndra.

The design here is one which was very loosely inspired by some designs I saw in the excellent Vertigo comic book series 'Lucifer', and one which I had a lot of fun designing; Kyndra has a build which is quite different from many of the waifish models I've worked with in the past; nothing flabby or fat about it, but much more solidly built. Designing a paint job for her which best accentuated her natural beauty was a real treat, in terms of having something interesting and new to work with. 

The complete set can be viewed here: http://www.bjorn-comic.com/images/noctourne/main.htm

Check out the whole set here

Since I haven't posted anything but bodypainting designs for the past couple of weeks, I'll just toss out a few odds and ends. 

Odd: Had a dream the other day which was right peculiar. I dreamed that the earth had three moons; one small one close to earth, one medium sized one another step away, and a much larger one a step further out from that. In this dream, I was babysitting these two kids on a rooftop garden, atop a skyscraper. It was late at night, and we were watching a rare cosmological event: All three moons were full, and there was to be a total eclipse of all three of them, which was to say that they would all be perfectly lined up with one another, in a neat row. We watched this lovely event take place, but were distressed to notice there was something else behind the biggest moon... As this moon moved out of the way, we saw that there was a SECOND planet Earth back there! As we watched, huge cracks formed all over it, with magma spilling out of each of them brightly. Then, it exploded, and a white-hot shockwave washed down across the Earth, destroying the tower we were on, and killing us all.

I was a poor babysitter. If I'd been more on the ball, I could have protected them from that exploding planet. 

End: I do hereby resolve not to waste my time debating with adult christians who are markedly below average intelligence. If they have yet to realize that their religion is bullshit by the time they reach adulthood, an hour or two of conversation with me isn't going to signifcantly alter their chances of ever doing so, but it does significantly alter my chances of becoming very frustrated and disgusted. 

Odd: All humans are required to check this shit out. 

End: I'm currently planning out new body painting sets with these four  models, and have updated my OneModelPlace profile, with the earnest intent to keep it updating with new sets in the next couple of months. 

Odd: I'm planning another collaboration with this very classy artist, which fans of my currently-on-hiatus comic, Dave & Vyacheslav, will likely be very happy about. 

End: This awesome documentary (which I bought a year or so ago) has recently been made legal, by its writer/director/producer, Brian Flemming, to make copies of to hand out for free, so long as your intent is to show them to christians so as to explain to them the very shakey theological grounds that their religion is built upon. So, if anyone wants some copies of it on DVD, feel free to ask me. :)

So, been talkin' to some photographers and models and such. Things are shapin' up pretty good. Lookin' forwrds to gettin' some work going, starting in april. Been churning out some new designs in the mean time, and I kinda like this one.

At long last, the set is ready for presentation. Thanks once more to the photographic skills of Erich Saide, the capable assistance of Tori Bryers, and of course, the modelling skills of the beautiful miss Meta Vaugn.

( Check it out. )