Oh! Calcutta!

As shown in an earlier post titled the "Body of the Message," the skin of a nude human body can be an effective medium for advertising a particular event or presentation. The photograph used here is a stock image that Lockstock has graciously offered up to the community of artists to use for creative projects. The overlay is a scanned image of an old page from the entertainment section of a newspaper advertising shows such as Oh! Calcutta, Chloe in the Afternoon, and Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask). Oh! Calcutta created controversy when it was first staged due to the extensive use of nudity, so it would seem natural to use a nude figure to advertise the performance.

Here is the link to Lockstock's gallery of stock images if you would like to view the photographs in the stock collection.

Flower Girl

Michelle-Louise is a stock photographer from the United Kingdom and she shot the stock image that was used to create this human canvas. Here is a link to her wonderful stock gallery. The overlay is a close-up photograph of a piece of fabric that helps to create the illusion of a colorful full body paint treatment. Thanks again to Michelle-Louise for making her fine work available to photographers and artists.

Work of Art

The basis for this human canvas image is a stock photograph taken by a marvelous photographer named Marcus Ranum. He has generously offered up hundreds of stock images for artists to use in their own creations. In this image, Ranum posed a nude model with a large ornate frame. The overlay is a segment of the famous Sandro Botticelli painting titled The Birth of Venus.

Thanks to Marcus Ranum for supplying the stock photograph for this example. If you would like to see more of his beautiful photography, be sure to visit his site. He offers many different galleries and several informative studio photography tutorials.

In the Money

With the President's Day holiday at hand in the United States, it seems appropriate to offer a human canvas using a close-up image of a dollar bill--one of the most familiar items featuring the likeness of George Washington. Actually, the overlay used for this image is the reverse side of the bill with detailed images of the Seal of the United States and the enigmatic symbolism of the pyramid.

Pink Socks

The basis for this human canvas was a photograph of a young woman who was playing volleyball at a nude beach. The socks were not meant as a fashion statement, but rather as a means to deal with the blazing hot sand. Her casual pose as she bends between plays is natural and beautiful. The overlay for the final image is a colorful patch of fabric that resembles the tie-dye look of the Sixties.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras, the French phrase for "Fat Tuesday," has become a popular annual celebration throughout the world. Here is an image that suggests the wild and decorative masks that many revelers wear during the Mardi Gras festivities. An embroidered fabric sample is used here as an overlay in conjunction with a photograph of a nude model wearing a mask in a classic studio pose.

The Birth of Venus

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a nineteenth century French painter who turned his back on the popular impressionist movement of the time to paint rich colorful paintings that depicted mythological themes in a more realistic style. One of his best known works, The Birth of Venus, is shown here as an overlay on a female model--the same model that was used for the "Season of Peace" example posted here in December. The contours of the model's nude body fit nicely with the mythological figures contained in the painting.

Sweethearts

With Valentine's Day approaching, it seems appropriate to use a colorful hearts motif to decorate a beautiful model. The photograph was submitted by a member of Clothes Free International who wanted to see what his wife would look like as a human canvas. The original photo depicted his wife sitting on the floor in their home, but the background was stripped away to establish greater contrast with the subject. The overlay is a close-up photo of a fabric swatch that was then applied to the original model to create the tie-died hearts theme.

Gaudi in the Flesh

Antoni Gaudi was one of the most accomplished and creative of the European architects who worked in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is best known for his still unfinished cathedral known as the Sagrada Familia, but visitors to Barcelona are also very familiar with the colorful and whimsical mosaics that adorn Park Guell. Here is a kneeling model who becomes a human canvas for one of Gaudi's mosaic motifs that appears throughout the park.

Pysanka

Many people are familiar with pysanka, the beautiful and colorful Ukrainian Easter eggs that are hand decorated using a wax-resist batik method. Here is an image of the same model pictured in the previous post, but in this example, she is "painted" with some traditional pysanka designs instead of the paisley fabric overlay used to create that human canvas. The geometric patterns are more clearly defined in this image and the colors are warmer and more subtle.