My Work with Mike Ruiz

As many of you may have been following on Face Book and Twitter, for the past few months I have created a new relationship with a very talented celebrity photographer, colleague, and friend Mike Ruiz.

You will find quite often through my experiences if I am very clear about what my next step is when it comes to my work, and I make it an intention, usually the Universe places the opportunity right in front of me in some way shape or form.  From there its up to me to say yes or no.  For example in this case, I had made a pact with myself that I would start shooting with 3 new photographers this year, AND that I would like to have more “men” in my book.  Not but two weeks after I put this intention out, Cory Bishop (my dearest friend/colleague I educate alongside at TEMPTU) had sent me a message saying that Mike Ruiz was looking for well established “body painters” to work with for the second edition of his book series called “Pretty Masculine”.  So I connected with Mike over email, and we started chatting about ideas, and next thing I know I am at the Eagles Nest Studio. Just to be clear, I was not just working on “some” more guys for my book, but seemingly an endless supply of the most physically fit muscular men you can imagine.  I had to laugh as the cliché’ echoed in my head “Be careful what you ask for……”

So where did the inspiration come from in the designs I did on these guys?  Well originally when Mike and I talked, we were clear that the body paint design should not take away from the shape and physique of the body.  So at first I decided to play with texture.  I am usually known for doing highly detailed work, and so I thought this was perfect opportunity to create looks with simple body paint, and play with different textures on the skin.  Here are some shots of the original pieces we did. Note these are behind the scenes or low res shots because the actual pictures are so sick, you gotta save some of it for the book.   But as you can see I played with fades of colors, and one of my signature favorite products: pure metallic pigment. Mixed with different mediums you can get this brilliant effect of liquid metal, that when contrasted on a dark background photographs amazing.   You can get this at two of my favorite makeup companies: Make Up For Ever, or Mehron.

This was so reminiscent of the days when I used to work with Jo Lance, because I was doing up to 5 guys a day, and coming up with the design on site, which is good practice for any artist because it has you release control in your artistry.  If I allow myself to get caught up in what it is "supposed to look like" then I may miss out on all those organic 'happy accidents' (yes I watched Bob Ross when I was little) that can only occur when you are not attached to a very specific look.  Now to be clear...this is NOT something you want to practice when a client is very specific on what THEY want, but in this case working with Mike, I think he wanted more "established" body artists so we could have this fee reign of creativity, and not base all our designs on his decisions.  Which I love.  It also highly depended on what guy sat in my chair...

The next few designs I did with Mike, I started integrating more detail into the design, and here is where a buzz was created based on what was posted on Face Book. This is one of the pieces I literally thought up on the spot, and turned out to be a great hit:

 This started a trend of more detailed work that is of course my cup of tea, and seeing the response from it  had us see that the artistry taken up a level, would not necessarily take away from the beauty of the male form.

 Interestingly enough, both Mike and I had an interest in the Roy Lichtenstein paintings from the 60's, and had both done it in some kind of capacity with our work.  I had done my piece at The Make Up Show Berlin in September... and kinda loved doing it! 

So began my Lichtenstein studies which blew up on social media.  Around this time my "LIKES" on my FB fan page went from 500 to 800 in one day.

  

and if we are going to do on pop artist, we might as well do another....

             

To be honest...I had a little panic attack doing this Marylin face...ha ha! Its one thing to do a very recognizable face on a flat piece of paper or canvas, and have all the proportions be correct so people get it right away....its another thing to do it on a very uneven surface, like say massively muscular male pecks! A relief to see that it turns out well, and if I wasn't sure, well after this my LIKES on my page went above 1000...

This prepared me for my final piece, which even I someone who never gets attached to her work, got a little verklempt of the thought of it being washed off. Again, here are some peeks, but the final product is truly outstanding sooo as to not give it all away...

  

Overall this was an amazing experience, and am truly grateful to Cory for guiding me to this opportunity, and I am also extremely grateful to Mike for giving me a platform to play with my creativity, and give  me the opportunity to contribute and be credited in his book.  A genuinely loving open soul, and I cannot wait for new adventures and projects with him.