Body and Face Painting: Snow Leopard & Guido Daniele

As part of our Body Art Month we take a closer look at working with the living canvas, the human figure, and share a step by step to creating an artwork to disguise and transform the human hand into something much more!

When discussing hand painting, Milan artist Guido Daniele comes to mind with his highly realistic hand paintings, which depicted animals. Our quick twenty minute blog does not pale in comparison to his sometimes three to ten hours to complete one hand painted artwork, carefully researching each animal and bringing them to life on different subject's hands. Noticeably with Guido’s work he uses to his advantage the creases and imperfections of the human skin, which develops the uniqueness of the animal's character more so, this can be seen in his creation the elephant.

To achieve some of these 3D effects, Guido has used method’s such as Trompe-l'œil, French for ‘deceive the eye’, a technique involving realistic imagery to create optical illusions, see his Zebra.  

Now, Guido would have used other forms of paint but for the purposes of this blog and for the safety of cosmetic grade materials on skin, we are using Mont Marte Body Art Materials. 

You will need;

• Mont Marte Body Art Kit in Bright Colours
• Wet Cloth
• Camera
• Hand
• Gallery Paint Brushes

What was truly the saddest part of this art creation was watching the paint run down the sink when it was time to wash my hands, so you must always have a camera at the ready, or, simply paint again!

 

Step 1. Start with a reference picture or sketch our your design on paper prior OR if you're feeling confident and know your artistic design inside and out then skip to step 2!

 

Step 2. A great tip when planning out your motif or design is to paint it in white first. This way if you make any mistakes, need to make rearrangements or change proportions, this can easily be removed with a wet cloth. Easy!

 

Step 3. To create the facial hair of the snow leopard we used the Mont Marte Body Art Colours Black and White in the bright kit. We have used a light to dark method when applying to the hand. Firstly add the white beard using a dry brush method. Mix black and white to create a lighter shade of grey then add in as a block colour. Following your reference photo (or if you have seen a snow leopard in real life, your mind!), gradually add more black to your mix applying in areas that are visibly darker.

 

Step 4. Add more white pigment over the grey shades to accentuate the whiskers and give detail to fluffy hair. Before adding in a black outline, colour the eyes with a dark shade of green, then add the highlights to the eyes with a yellow, this is the 'shine you would see on an eye ball. Then you can add in a strong black outline to the eyes and nose, adding detail to the whiskers and speckled forehead.   

 

Step 5. Remember this is your artwork so there is no need to follow the colours given, take some creative license and  maybe make your snow leopard a blue hue. 

Is there any other animal you would like to create, perhaps one you have seen from Guido Daniele??

Happy Creating!