...and I won 3rd place! Yay!!

I set a goal and I won I'm so glad I came to Bodyssey in Calgary and I have benefitted more than I can even comprehend I'm sure. It'll take a while to come down from this high I think. I've met so many awesome people. It was so great to meet Criss right away and hang out during the event. We both loved the vendor room way too much...not looking forward to the mastercard bill. But I am looking forward to playing with lots of new products. It's nice to see what the instructors use and recommend. I learned so many tips that would have taken years to learn on my own. I had two 'masters' (full day) classes with Lucie Brouillard. She's such an awesome person and amazing artist. I got to sit with her during the gala and meet her family too. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of her work now that's she recognized as the world's best. She was interviewed on CBC. http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/ID=1577207588

I ran out of time to do all the detail I'd planned on doing on my design, but I did cover him from head to toe. The theme was fashion through the ages so I painted 'Thor, God of Thunder'. I went with the authentic style of viking fashion and not the hollywood version. As I showed him off on the stage I said that Vikings didn't have horns on their helmets, they were just 'horny'

My model is a 5'6" dark skinned drag queen, so it was pretty funny to paint him like a white viking. His mom is actually part Norwegian, so I told him I just brought his heritage out in him. He was a riot. I met him through a friend of mine. He's in the middle of a 'divorce' from his partner of 11 years and I helped him move the night before the competition. Some people bring snacks for their models...I helped him move.

Here's some of the photos. I focused on getting Thor's face done and ended up with about 10 minutes for the model's face and quickly got his shoes done in the last 2 minutes. I didn't get a lot of the fancy detail done I wanted to do, but I learned a lot. The shields going down his arm are inspired by the shields on the viking ship I had my wedding photos done on. I like it when creations have some significant meaning. The model's face is the dragon head of the viking ship, then the boat and shields are down the side.

Well, I'm pretty tired after this super concentrated learning fest aka Bodyssey. So good night folks







Lucie painted my face too!