See the video: Li Chi Slays the Dragon from Bodies Alive!
An ancient Chinese legend brought to life on painted bodies.
Li Chi Slays the Dragon is one of the stories I tell most frequently. Mostly as a StoryFace, illustrating the tale on the face of one volunteer as I tell it, but, once upon a time, I had the chance to expand the story onto a cast of performers as a tale told with painted bodies. This video is from that performance at the Face and Body Art International Convention in 2008, as part of the Bodies Alive! show we presented there. I was joined in the painting by Christina Davison, Sara Glasgow, and Jennifer Wade, with help from some volunteers, and in performance by Blair Woodward, Cully Firmin, Rebecca Reil and Chloe Agostino. See my StoryFace version of Li Chi live at PIFA. Learn about the Bodies Alive Show. Learn about BodyStories.
My specific inspiration for how to take a legend like this and turn it into a sequence of images on painted bodies came from a puppet show I saw at the New Victory Theatre by Ping Chong, adapting to the stage Japanese ghost stories from the classic movie Kwaidan. Ping Chong’s stage design re-created a cinematic style, varying the size of the puppets and the perspective of the settings he placed them in to do closeups, or long shots or tracking shots, to tell the story sequentially — like in a movie.
The development process included sketches of the body designs which I scanned and then moved around in photoshop to create a rough storyboard, plus some color and design tests done in the course of my regular facepainting gigs. To help the performers understand the visuals that their painted bodies would create on stage, I sketched the designs onto T-shirts for them to wear during rehearsals. Included here are the studio photos taken at FABAIC by Rich Johnson, plus some of the other images created during the process, and since.
Li Chi Slays the Dragon — a Transformation Tale by Christopher Agostino, from an ancient legend of China
One of my favorite tales, Li Chi Slays the Dragon, from a performance on April 30, 2011 at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts street fair, presented by The Kimmel Center. It was a truly beautiful day, the first one after some rainy ones, so the street was packed and a crowd formed instantly as I started up. I painted a couple of people to demonstrate the transformation story-faces concept and to focus the crowd, and then picked a volunteer and launched right in.
The tale of the brave maiden Li Chi who volunteers to be sacrificed to the dragon in order to kill it is an especially fun one to tell. My source is a brief folktale nearly 2,000 years old, written by Gan Bao (or Kan Pao), found in the book “Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies” edited by Moss Roberts, 1979, Pantheon Books. Like most of the stories I perform, it has been gradually re-written through the course of presenting it to modern audiences — though the heroine Li Chi’s chiding of the previous girls sent to the dragon for not taking care of him themselves, that comes right from the original version. 2,000 year old advice: take care of business or you might get eaten.
The source image for my depiction of Li Chi, the female hero from a Peking Opera production
Hero Tales like this are the original motivational speeches, encouraging all of us to take care of business, and this is why they survive (in addition to the pure fun of telling them). I made Li Chi Slays the Dragon a centerpiece of a special show I designed this summer about why we tell stories, for a series of performances at libraries to fit the Summer Reading Club theme of “One World, Many Stories”. Kids need to hear Hero Tales, to know they can defeat a dragon if need be even though they are kids. I especially like to share tales like this one in which the hero is young, or small, or misfit, with no superpowers, fairy godmothers or magic swords (just the faithful family dog.)
Sketch for Li Chi and her faithful dog as a bodypainting design for the back of the performer portraying Li Chi in the Bodies Alive! production.
The tale and the telling of it has also been a source of inspiration for face and body painting designs exploring the Chinese Opera imagery of the female hero and of dragons, particularly as I expanded the visuals from one face to full bodypaintings on a group of performers to create the mountains and the full dragon as well as several changing images of Li Chi for the Bodies Alive! show at the Face and Body Art International Convention in 2008. http://www.fabaic.com/
See my “Shows” page with the tab at the top of the post for more information on my Transformation — Storytelling shows
From Bodies Alive!, with Li Chi, as a painted hand-puppet, approaching the temple on the top of the mountain
Prior to the Bodies Alive! production I worked out some of the designs and did color tests on people's faces at our events. I've always preferred doing such explorations for new designs on actual faces and bodies at our regular events, as well as sketching them out in advance.
One of the sources of inspiration for the dragon face. This image came from a book brought back from China by one of our artists, with dozens and dozens of face designs from the Chinese Opera.
The cast of the Bodies Alive! full body production, from 2008 at the Face and Body Art International Convention in Orlando.
Under Blacklight, only the UV makeups show, all the metallic colors underneath the UV dots turn dark
by Christopher Agostino
Class notes from my presentation at the Face & Body Art International Convention FABAIC 2011
Under regular light, this same face design also looks good, with shimmering Metallic and Interferenze colors, and the Kryolan UV colors still look bright, even over a metallic base color.
My intention in this class is to give participants an understanding of how to use Kryolan UV, Metallic, and Interferenze Aquacolor makeups for face and bodypainting. A hands-on and very practical class in how to use specialty makeups from basic application and tricks of technique to design concepts like how to get the most out of your metallics, how to make Dayglo designs look good in regular and UV light and how to get the maximum effect with minimal makeup expense — the primary focus is on how to incorporate specialty makeups into regular face and body designs that look good in a variety of settings. Although these are specialty makeups I use them most often in my regular faces, using the brightness of the UVs to “pop” a design, or the shimmer of the Interferenze to add glamour. Even we I am painting for an event that has Blacklight (such as club or adult party) usually the blacklight is in only part of the space, so the bodypainting needs to look good both ways —under white light and blacklight. This is a very different approach than how one would use these UV makeups for a BlackLight Show.
Kryolan Aquacolors are the only specialty makeups I use. Their UVs create the brightest effect and are the most flexible in application. Wolf Reicherter was also at the convention teaching classes in “Blacklight Magic”, painting full UV body designs for nightclubs and performances. http://www.wolf-bodymagic.de/
He’s a true master of the medium, and he made the point that Kryolan’s UV Aquacolors (both the cakes and the liquids) are so flexible that they can be applied with any amount of water, from a wash effect to a thick cream, allowing for real control of the amount of light the makeup generates, so you can get subtle shading effects with thin applications and also can go right over other colors with thicker applications and still get the full fluorescence. The UV colors I use most often are Pink, Orange and Green — because these three also look very bright and wonderful under white light so can really add color to any design.
Metallics and Interferenze are two types of Aquacolors that shimmer. The same color can come in both types: there is a Metallic Silver (which looks very much like real silver metal) and an Interferenze Silver (which has a more pearlized appearance), for example. Intereferenze makeups have the pigments ground very fine, so they can sheen in more than one color as the light moves across them, such as the beautifully subtle color “Nacre”, which is a pearlized white that has glimmers of pink and gold as the light changes. I use a variety of metallics and interferenze for special projects like full bodypaintings. The ones I use most often in my regular facepainting kit are the Metallic Silver and several Interferenze colors: Gold, Copper, Bronze, BG (Blue Green), Strauss Wine, and 838G Electric Ocean Blue.
In preparation for the class I painted a model (Jessica), with a variety of techniques to show the range of possibilities, then finished the painting in the class to show application methods and let the participants try the products and paint. Photographing a UV painting is hard, and we had limited time to try before vacating the Blacklight room, but I did manage to get a few reasonable shots. I include here shots of the face and the back, in both regular light and under Blacklight — notice how the face looks completely different under the two different lights, but still works both ways. That is the goal. It has to work both ways because at most events the people you paint will be seen under both types of light, and you want there to be an exciting change as the person you paint moves under Blacklight, because that is part of the fun of Blacklight, the surprise effects.
The design on the demonstration model’s back, under Blacklight. See how the UV colors fluoresce, and everything else turns black.
Kryolan Dayglo Makeups (also called UV or Blacklight)
• UV makeups are special effect makeups — go all UV only if the gig is all blacklight.
• Most gigs are regular light, so I mostly use UV makeup to add “pop” to regular designs.
Use in combination with regular colors for brighter designs in normal light – makes elements of the design stand out. EX: UV eyes on eyelids can be seen from across the room • UV green stipple on top can make a spooky or alien face “glow” • UV orange over reg. red is a powerful background for dragons, etc. • UV orange tiger image can seem to leap off a regular blue background • try UV colors as accents over the same aregular colors, like UV pink dots on a pink butterfly wing
• Mixed light: the design has to look good both ways. Generally an all UV design doesn’t look as good under normal light – so include other colors too and feature UV elements of design that will pop out under the blacklights. Christopher’s Trick – I mix UV colors with Metallic Silver or Interferenze Gold to get a makeup that still flouresces under blacklight and also looks glittery under regular light.
• CLOUDY DAY EFFECT – because clouds block some white light, but let UV light through, UV makeups glow a bit on cloudy days at outside events — and also near sunset.
APPLICATION – UV makeup tends to be softer/stickier. Use more water, apply more thickly.
BASIC APPLICATION ADVICE= “It works — make it work for you”
Creating Designs for Full Blacklight — hints
• All UV colors glow bright under blacklight – the individual colors don’t differentiate much – therefor the essence of UV painting is controling the image through the use of black, not the colors. Think of stained glass.
• for brightest effect, paint UV directly on skin or over white base. (but can still work over colors)
• white underwear is a problem, it glows too bright – even if you paint over it.
• Black can make parts of the body disappear.
Under white light, the same UV colors are bright, but not fluorescent. Notice how different the dragon’s fire looks here, because I “hid” the UV orange flames over regular orange, knowing that would be an exciting change in the image as the model goes from white to UV light. The silver on the armor would normally turn fully black under UV light, so I mixed a little UV Blue into it so it would still fluoresce a bit under the blacklight.
Photographing UV Designs — ain’t easy. On a digital camera, manually set the ASA as high as possible (I shoot at 1600), use a tripod, shoot under full Blacklight (not mixed), No Flash, take lots of shots and then adjust levels on the computer.
• Will look nice on the computer, but they don’t print well (printers can’t print the colors true)
• I sometimes add some blacklight during regular foto shoots to get UV accent colors to pop.
Kryolan Interferenze and Metallic Makeup
• These I think of as “fancy makeups”, not special effects. I use them all the time to help people be excited about their faces.
“Premium Faces” – at our Bronx Zoo concession we get extra $ per face for incorporating Interferenze or UV makeups into our regular designs.
• I prefer metallics and interferenze makeups over using glitter because I can paint with them in all the same ways I use my regular makeups, both with sponges and brushes. Part of my regular kit.
• They blend beautifully into, over and under regular makeups. red/gold blends; purple/gold; blue/silver; green/gold; red/copper; blue/Strauss Wine; etc. Or stipple a little Metallic/Interferenze over regular base to make amore “fantastic” background. APPLICATION is a little trickier than regular bright colors, so may need to use more water than usual, or try dabbing with a sponge rather than swipping or using a brush.
• Can use a full metallic/Interferenze base with regular colors on top and give all the colors a metallic sheen – can also go the other way: try metallic/Interf. over a solid black or dark base.
