Belly art-Attempt #1

I've been wanting to branch into body art a bit more, so I asked a friend if I could paint her tummy before her baby is born. We had a date night scheduled with them anyway, so she said she'd love to be painted while they were over on Friday. It was great fun! We watched 'Start the Revolution Without Me' (hil-ar-ious!). If you haven't seen it, check out a couple of our favorite clips here:

My pleasure
No one can be trusted
I shall be Queen

It was so enjoyable...we had a shrimp platter, Martinelli's, a decorated brie (my favorite...with a apricot/cranberry compote) with crackers, a rasberry/brie tart (sooooo yummy!), lots of cut fruit, and a dark chocolate fondue with fruit, pound cake, pretzels, marshamllows, etc. It was so fun to nibble on yummy foods and laugh together with good friends!

We also enjoyed watching the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the RiffTrax. For those who don't know, RiffTrax is made by the same comedians who did MST3K a long time ago on television. Basically, they make fun of the movie while you watch it. It's so hilarious! You can go to their website and check out some of the previews they have here.

While the movie played, I painted Ashley's tummy. I made up a peacock design that I wanted to try. It was so serendipitous...her shirt matched the colors perfectly! I've also never seen such a perfect pregnant belly...there wasn't even one stretch mark anywhere! I thought that wasn't possible unless a model was air-brushed!  I loved it!  Here is the final product:

I learned a few things from this attempt.

1- sketch out the idea on paper better before I begin to paint. There are a lot of things I'd do differently with the design if I did this pattern again. It looks too simple and cartoony for me. I'd like it the peacock to be more anatomically-correct.

2- Paint a miniature copy of the design before doing the real one, so I can analyze if the colors work together. I don't think these colors worked as well as I would have liked.

All in all, it was a fun night and we really enjoyed our time with friends!

For more fun body art ideas, try here and here and here. For a time-lapse video of me painting one of my favorite patterns, click here.

Have a beautiful day!