The Body As A Canvas: Body Art

The Body As A Canvas: Body Art

The human body is the tool through which somebody experiences life and his surroundings as well as interacts and communicates with others. To some people, however, the body is another piece of canvas through which they could express themselves, their beliefs and their traditions.

Drawing a Picture, Telling a Message

Just as paintings hanging on walls make a room more beautiful, body art can enhance a person's good physical attributes. Some ladies have a sunflower tattooed on their backs so that they can wear backless dresses that will reveal their flawless skin adorned by the tattooed flower. In this sense, body art is worn the way diamond necklaces are - it is meant to adorn and enhance the wearer's beauty. However, there are other much more complex reasons for the proliferation and practice of body art. These reasons can be cultural, political, or spiritual.

Body art is extremely common in jails. Tattooing and branding are some of the most common rites of passage for inmates who wish to be part of certain groups. Body art can also be used to declare personal beliefs and political stand. In this case, body art can be compared to graffiti on the wall; it declares what the person wearing the art believes. People in ethnic groups also used tattooing extensively as a form of ornamentation. In some cases, tattoos were used to mark how many people a warrior has killed in battle.

Body Art Types

Widely known types of body art are body painting, tattoos, shaping, scarification, branding and body piercing. Body painting is usually done by painting on the body, usually covering the whole body completely with water-soluble makeup or paints. Body painting is very similar to painting on canvas, however, it can be more difficult to accomplish as the body has contours that makes painting pictures and scenes on the body more complicated.

Tattoos, probably known by all, are permanent decorations on the body applied through the use of an electrically ran needle. Body tattoos usually cover a relatively small portion of the body. Favorite places for body tattoos are the chest, the upper arms, and the back of the shoulders. Body tattoos are relatively permanent, too, as the picture or the letters are etched onto the skin.

Body piercing is accomplished through the use of materials such as beads and precious stones and metals. Ear piercing is probably the most practiced by women and some men for accessorizing. Today, piercing is performed on almost all parts of the body such as the nose, the lips, the tongue, the eyebrows, the bellybutton, the nipples, and others. Shaping, on the other hand, is done to permanently shape the body according to a person's preference. Methods of this type of body art are foot binding - common among Chinese women.

Scarifications are more unconventional methods of body art. There are religious groups that deliberately scar their body (usually with pointed objects like knives) using a prescribed pattern. Somewhat similar to scarification, branding is another type of body art that involves a whole lot of pain. This was originally done to farm animals (cows and horses) and originally used for identification purposes. This is accomplished through placing an extremely hot piece of metal with a certain design on the body until it burns the skin and leaves a mark that may last forever.

Whatever form of body art is practiced, it is certain to elicit varying reactions. Body art can be beautiful, captivating, or disturbing depending on the beholder's point of view and set of values.

Western Painting - Tribal Art - Native Art From the West

Western Painting - Tribal Art - Native Art From the West

Tribal Art - The Concept
Tribal Art refers to the artifacts and objects, the tribes of rural areas create. Produced mostly for religious reasons, rather than as a model of artistry, its myriad uses differ from tribe to tribe. Right from the decoration of the objects of daily use to spiritual ceremonial functions, Tribal Art can be witnessed in several life events. Tribes are often isolated from civilizations, with no tradition of literacy. Therefore, art is a potential means to represent and preserve tribal traditions, mythology, and history. In the Western Art scene, the most well known Tribal Art genres are from the tribes in the remote areas of Central and South America.

The Details
While the geography and the climate of a region primarily influence Tribal Art, the social and religious needs of a tribe and the availability of resources are also other important factors determining its evolution & proliferation. Due to the lack of technology access, artisans mostly employ hand-tools made of natural materials, such as stone, wood, tusks, bones, skin of animals, dyes made from minerals, baskets woven with natural grasses, pottery made of clay, and sand for painting, to mention some. The designs and symbols used relate to favorable weather, good crops, successful hunting, illness cures, and other natural happenings common to the tribe. The most creative works of Tribal Art are the images of dream and supernatural visions. Tribal Art is unchanging in style, owing to the limited influence from the outside world. They usually sustain on the internal trade exchanges among the tribes.

Genres
o Inuit - It refers to the culturally similar group, residing in the Arctic region of Canada, Greenland, Russia, and the United States. The art forms here include from ivory & bone sculptures and figurative works on soft stones, such as soapstone & argillite. Hunting, whaling, and other everyday activities are the commonest subjects.
o Navajo Folk Art - It refers to the Tribal Art from Bluff town in Utah, US. With significant exposure to the civilized world, this art form has diverse whimsical creations, such as vibrantly painted wooden chicken, cowboy riding buffaloes, dog in business suit, etc. Horsehair, wool, and leather are primarily used. Their pictorial rugs, pottery, and sand paintings are famous across the world.
o Hopi Tribe - It resides in the high desert plateaus of North Arizona. Art is inherent in this deeply religious tribe, varying across hand woven kilts & sashes, baskets & pottery, jewelery, Katsina carvings, and Kachina dolls, & toys for children.
o Iroquois Confederacy Homelands - They are in the upstate New York and across the border into Canada. With a culture rich in tradition & history, their motifs span across animals, sun, moon, and other natural elements. The myriad art forms of this tribe include basket weaving, beadwork, pottery, cornhusk artifacts, stonework, woodwork, and metal carving to mention some.

Conclusion
The uniqueness of each form of Tribal Art comes from the history and culture of the respective tribe. The recognition of tribes by the Federal Government and the rights granted to the civilized world to interact with tribes had significant influence on Tribal Art and culture, giving way to Contemporary Tribal Art. With the given exposure, the artifacts are commonplace in museums and souvenir outlets, across the globe.

Body Art Painting - Tattoos No Longer Taboo

Body Art Painting - Tattoos No Longer Taboo

It was not too long ago that tattoos were considered taboo and were frowned upon by the majority of society. Such entities were only found on bikers, ex-convicts, and miscreants of all forms. However, today body art painting is considered a valid art form and is steadily gaining popularity. The artists have training much like the artists who create on canvas or with clay; the only difference is the medium. Some tattoo artists can recreate masterpieces and portraits on the skin of their clients that could rival Picasso or Da Vinci.

Popular Tattoos - Body Art Designs
Tattoos are a very personal matter. After all, the chosen design is going to be a part of your body for the rest of your life. However, as with most things, there are trends that exist. Many love the tribal tattoos with their flowing lines. The traditional tattoos of anchors and birds are making a comeback. Celtic symbols are now very popular because their meanings are generally common to most races and universal in nature.

Many women tend to get tattooed on their ankles, wrists, and lower back; this is where the curves are! Men will generally prefer it on their fore arms, biceps, and upper back.

Body Art Painting
Unlike tattoos, body art is temporary and painted onto the skin. It can last for a few hours or up to a few weeks. It is said that body painting is one of the most ancient art forms. Now, body painting is quite popular in both amateur and commercial arenas, and not all "pieces" involve nudity. Many body artists will include small designs on one area of the body. There are numerous festivals held each year in New York and New Mexico where thousands flock to see the vibrantly coloured participants. The modern revival of body art painting can be dated back to the 1950's when artists would cover a model's body in paint (typically female) and have her roll on a canvas to transfer the paint. The results were intriguing - all the curves of the female body in either monotone or mixed coloring.

How to Paint a Guitar Body

How to Paint a Guitar Body

There are many ways to paint a guitar body, some are simple, some are multi-staged and hard to follow. I'm going to try to keep this tutorial simple and hopefully you will be able to paint your guitar body without wanting to kill me.

The truth is you should not expect your first guitar painting job to be any good. You might have to do it a few times before you get to the stage where you have the confidence to paint the body of a guitar you really treasure.

You can buy aerosol cans of paint for car bodies that will do the job on your guitar or you can buy guitar paint in cans that will duplicate your popular Fender or Gibson colors. You will do well to get a face mask and goggles unless you plan on your lungs and eyeballs matching your guitar. The alternative to cans is a spray gun in which case you will get a better finish that needs less sanding.

Wherever you choose to do your painting, make sure you remove the neck and hang your guitar from a taut wire so that you can walk around it concentrating on spraying without having to stop and move the guitar.

For more information and more tutorials in painting your guitar body, you must visit The Guitar ReRanch website. This is the place to go if you need some more info on whatever stage of repainting you are at.

Your guitar will already have a coat of lacquer on it and this must be removed totally before you can begin to add a new coat of paint. There are lots of chemicals that will strip the paint off your guitar, many of which will have no hesitation in killing you if you go near them with your mouth open. Get advice on which lacquer removal product is best to start with on your particular guitar.

If you have experience in painting, which I hope you have, you know the kind of surface you need to get down to. The guitar, if it is getting a complete repaint, should be a nice sanded down palette waiting for your artistic interventions. Any holes and dents should be filled.

The final coat of paint for your guitar body will look as good as the layers of primer beneath it. You took great care on your sanding and now you need to do a careful priming job. Now you can give your primed guitar a nice light sanding. Your surface should be smooth. At this stage, if you are a beginner to this kind of work, you will be starting to want the job to hurry up and get finished. Don't be tempted to rush. If you are sick and tired of all the effort, take a day off.

Keep applying coats of paint till you are happy with the color you have achieved. This means maybe six coats. Then a clear coat of lacquer. Hang the guitar up to dry for a month so that the lacquer is hardened.

Body Painting: Henna Tattoo

Body Painting: Henna Tattoo

Henna tattoos are an ancient custom in India: girls and women are body painted before ceremonies, like marriage. They painted complicated patterns on their hands and feet to symbolize their fertility.

Henna (or 'Mehndi', the Indian name) is made from the henna plant (Lawsonia Inermis). The leaves of the plant are dried and ground. The powder gets mixed with water and you get a sort of green-brownish mud. If you put that mud on your skin, let it harden, and then peel it off, you will notice it has left an orange color.

You can get your henna at an eastern shop or a 'souk' in many different colors. There's orange, mahogany, brown and black. The orange one is the traditional henna. The black henna is synthetic. It contains PDD (P-phenylenediamene) and can cause allergic reactions. Even if it doesn't cause irritations, it's still unhealthy. Moreover, in the past, black henna at your wedding was considered a disgrace.

Henna Recipe

With one pack of henna, you'll have enough to body paint the entire football team. Put the henna in a bowl and gently pour some lemon juice and boiling water in the bowl. Don't use too much water, the mud has to resemble the thickness of sate sauce. The purpose of the lemon juice is to help the color hold better on your skin.

Your skin should be clean, dry and not fat. If you want to color your nails too, they shouldn't have nail polish on them. Make sure you really want this, because your nails will be orange for about 2 months. It doesn't come off! When the henna is cold, you can get to painting.

If you want to paint your foot soles, which is a traditional custom in Marokko, make sure you have a pillow of some kind to keep your feet off the floor, before you know it, the henna mud is everywhere! You can apply the henna with all sorts of instruments, what works best is a syringe (without the needle of course).

Symmetric and geometric shapes work best. Don't make the lines too thin, the color won't come on to your skin very well. The bigger the surface, the brighter the color will be.
Now: the annoying part: Waiting...

Let the henna dry in the sun, the warmth of the sun will get your color deeper into your skin. You can also use a hairdryer.

If you make a mistake in the picture your painting: ACT QUICKLY! If you wipe it off too late, the henna will leave a red spot.

After a while, the henna will start to burst. Don't peel it off yet! The henna has to stay on for at least two hours. Then you can start removing the crusts of mud.

DON'T remove the henna with water! Just scrape the crusts of your skin, you can do this with a bold knife. Don't let your body painting get in touch with water for the first couple of hours. Right after you scraped off all the crusts, rub your skin in with olive oil. It will make the color brighter and help keep the color on as long as possible. Your henna painting will survive for about a month or so.

Also nice to know: Swimming, body peeling, scrubbing your back, and bodyscrub products will make the henna tattoo deteriorate faster.

Body Painting - Nude Female and Male Body Painting

Body Painting - Nude Female and Male Body Painting

Body painting is an art that uses the human body as a canvas. It is a form of painting pictures or spreading colours on human body to look is pleasant to the eyes of the viewers. It is an artistic application of exotic colours over the parts of body. No part is now a day safe from body painting! But the most of the work is done on the face.

When a person desire to show his or her desires on his or her face, he or she approaches a professional body painter. These painters paint and draw figures on face. Among young boys and girls, such face painting is in vogue when attending a party of a celebration. Festivals are preferred places for the body painters.

The History: In fact the human race as a whole is very fond of painting the bodies. This form of art is beloved to be a prehistoric one. In past we were used to paint our bodies with materials like natural dyes, paints and pigments. In some cases we use ash, vegetable colours and clay, too.

The Beliefs: It is believed that the paintings that we do make on our bodies have some extra sensual powers. Some of these paintings are thought to have magical powers with which one could ward off evil spirits or the tribal enemies. Such was thinking many races in past. However today, the painting of bodies is coined with celebration of auspicious occasions like New Year or a dance party. Same practices are prevailing in the indigenous populations of the countries like New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and certain parts of Africa.

Henna - An Alternative of Body Painting

Henna - An Alternative of Body Painting

For many years, tattoo and piercing have become two popular ways of body painting. Although many people like these, they actually do hurt, so we must be totally ready to do this. Now, there is a new popular way of body painting. It is favored because it creates a beautiful look to our body without giving such a pain. This way is called henna.

If you like watching Indian movies, you will see it painted on women's hands, especially in wedding scenes. Those films might be the ones which spread the popularity of henna to all over the world. Actually, henna plants have been used for thousand years for medicines, cosmetics, and hair colorings. They can be used as an anti-fungal and a preservative for cloth and leather. The flowers are used for perfumes.

Henna plant grows in tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, Northern Australasia, and Southern Asia, such as India, Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Libya, and Sudan. Each region grows a different variety of henna. The powder is made of the leaves. Each plant has its own characteristic, so it influences the colors.

If you believe that henna is black, you are wrong. The pure black color is not the natural color. The pure and natural ones are khaki, dark green, and brown. When being applied to skin, they can produce some colors range from orange to red, to black cherry, and near black color. Some factories usually blend different types of henna taken from different parts of a country or even from different countries to get perfect colors.

You can apply henna on your hands, legs, and arms. For simple designs, you only need to prepare 10 to 15 minutes. For the complex ones, several hours are needed to get the best result. After the painting process, dab it with a lemon-sugar solution in order to preserve the paste. How long the painting will last depends on the quality of the paste and individual skin type. The best quality ones can last up to a month.