Wild Paisley

Bright and colorful patterns look especially striking when painted, projected, or applied to the human form. In this example, a rather abstract paisley fabric pattern has been applied to an image of a nude model holding a very simple and casual pose. The final product resembles the painstaking body painting efforts of 45 different Chilean artists that were beautifully portrayed in a book titled Painted Bodies by photographer Roberto Edwards.

Tesselations

Images of art take on different perspectives when displayed on the nude human form. Here is a human canvas creation based on an image of Pam, one of the nudecasters at Clothes Free International. The original photo depicted Pam and two other CFI nudecasters in the communal showers at the Shangri La Ranch, a nudist resort in Arizona. Her image was selected and placed on a black background and then an overlay of a portion of an M.C. Escher print was applied to achieve the final effect. The repeating intertwined images of the Escher tesselation wrap around the model's form in an interesting way.

Abstract Art

Here is another example of a human canvas image that combines a color overlay with a grayscale background. In this example, a woman "wears" a virtual layer of paint that is actually a segment of a Jackson Pollock abstract painting. The grayscale setting helps to emphasize the colorful patterns of paint on this human canvas model.

Naked in America

A while back, the crew at Clothes Free International filmed a segment on bodypainting for an episode titled Naked in America. The image above is a still photograph taken during the filming of the episode that was later transformed into a human canvas image with an embroidered fabric overlay. The two naturists shown here now sport virtual bodypaint that is quite different from the actual painted images they created during the original event. Be sure to check out the Clothes Free International website for information about the naturist DVDs that they offer for sale.

In the Cards

After a short hiatus for the holidays and some travel, the Human Canvas Project returns with some new images for 2008. With the continued generous cooperation of the great people at Clothes Free International, here is another image of a CFI nudecaster 'painted" with a digital overlay that was created from a very common source--the scanned image of the back of an ordinary playing card. Sometimes pictures of objects that we see and use every day make interesting human canvas images. Thanks to Pete Guither and his innovative work on a similar site called "The Living Canvas" for the inspiration for this example. Pete creates striking photographs of nude models bathed in the light of projected images in a darkened room. Be sure to check out the galleries on his site.

A new initiative is planned in the coming months that will give CFI subscribers an opportunity to participate in the process of creating new and unique human canvas images. Watch this site and the discussion forums on the Clothes Free International site for more information.