Author Archives: Christopher Agostino

Bronx Zoo Facepainting – Opening Day – Rebirth

What a beautiful day it was to be at the zoo. Finally it feels like Spring is here, with warm enough weather to open our Transformation Facepainting concession, starting our 18th season of turning people into animals at the Bronx Zoo. After this tough winter it was great to be back at the zoo. Lorraine and I got there before it was open to the public in order to load in the equipment, and I’ve always enjoyed watching the zoo wake up and get ready for the crowds.

The artist we had scheduled for the opening day was Jennifer, and as soon as she was ready she had our first customer of the season, a cute little girl who she painted up as a penguin, an animal the zoo is featuring this year in it’s annual Run For the Wild fundraiser. As we were leaving, I was happy to see that her next customer was a man in his twenties, who was there  with just his girlfriend, it seemed, and no kids at all — it’s great when the adults get painted. Jennifer was turning him into a tribal-style grizzly bear.

http://www.bronxzoo.com/

Working at the zoo is really just an excuse to head over to Arthur Avenue and load up on Italian food supplies. Adding to the pleasure of the morning was discovering that De Lillo, my by-far favorite Pastry Shop, had just opened in a beautiful new, bigger location, with real room for tables. Now it’s possible to get in and out with out having to worry that you’re going to knock somebody off their chair with the packages in your hands as you squeeze by their table. So we sat before going shopping. Lorraine had the berry pie and I had the perfect pastry, a sfogliatella. Heaven.

http://delillopastryshop.com/

We got home in time for me to spend the rest of today gardening, which is the most essential way in which I experience this season of renewal. The stars lined up for me yesterday as well, for as I was out there in the backyard, turning over the earth as I expanded my vegetable garden, feeling the life coming back into the land,  the Rebirth Brass Band was playing live on the radio, on WNYC’s Soundcheck.

We were down in New Orleans around New Year’s Day, and I went to see the Rebirth Brass Band on their home turf for the first time, the Maple Leaf Bar — a transformational experience. I’d seen them before but never there, and I can still feel the energy of that loud, loud music going through my body in that packed bar as they went from song into song without pause, just driving the crowd on.

Facepainting — Tiger Variations

From the simplified formula of the direct mask-like transformation of a human face into a tiger face, an endless stream of variations can be generated by altering colors, styles and decorative elements without changing the basic tiger design —in which the human eyes become the tiger eyes, the nose the tiger nose, etc. (For the basic instructions, see the previous post “How to paint a tiger face”) In the working process, as I am facepainting a succession of tiger faces, I will approach each face with a stylistic change (such as “bolder lines” or “asymmetrical”) or a cultural inspiration (such as the swirling lines of Maori tattoo) and use that change in approach to create a new variation on the spot.

Tigers are the most popular request at our Bronx Zoo concession, and for some of the zoo’s special event weekends we have done entire days when all we paint are tigers, so we’re often exploring new ways to paint this iconic animal. In 2010, the zoo hosted a Run For the Wild event to raise awareness of the critical issue of declining tiger populations. Here’s the video of the faces I painted that day:  

More examples of tiger faces from 2010 and earlier zoo events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As to why we should be turning people into tigers, David Brooks has some advice:

https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/2011/03/29/david-brooks-advice-for-facepainters/

For an amazing video on a fully realistic transformation into a tiger, here’s a video from the remarkable bodypainter, Craig Tracy:  

Facepainting – How to Paint a Tiger Face

adapted from my book, Transformations – for more information go to: https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/books/

Here’s my simplest tiger face, a very basic approach to what is probably the most popular animal face. Just two sponge colors and black. The fotos in this example are from a face painted at an event in 2005. The makeup used is Kryolan Aquacolors, a water-based theatrical makeup, which I prefer for its bright colors and simple application.

 

Step 1 – Orange — Start with a sponge and orange cake makeup for the base color. Leave the skin exposed on the eyelids and around the mouth where you will put in the yellow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2 – Yellow — I use a large, round sponge to apply my cake makeup. By squeezing the working area of the sponge between my thumb and fingers I can control the shape it makes to put the yellow almond shape of a cat’s eye onto the eyelids. By adjusting the size and shape of the eyes you can change the demeanor of the cat: large eyes are cute and kittenish, while narrower eyes can be made sinister. Yellow also goes over and beneath the lips for the whisker areas. When I am working quickly I don’t take a lot of time to blend my colors together, but I can make variations in tone by stippling the yellow over the orange. My sponges have an open texture so if I gently touch them to a face I can quickly stipple on some color to create highlights and a furry texture.

 

Step 3 – Black — Finally, the black line work. The essential methodology of my fast event faces is strong black line work over brightly colored bases. I’ll use a black liquid makeup loaded onto a #8 round brush when working at my quickest. Eyes first, so they can set a bit while I finish the rest. Iconic cat eyes, with a vertical line for the pupil, also have the advantage that they don’t smear if wet when you open your eyes (like a rounded pupil does). A tiger’s face and nose are longer than ours, so you need to create an illusion to help change the shape of the human face to be more tiger-like. For the nose: paint an upside down black triangle extending below the human nose to make it look longer. Beside the nose, draw a line down from the corner of each eye to the nose you made and shade that line out a bit under the eye with the edge of your brush, to make the human nose seem wider. Add the distinctive line cats have from the nose to the lips. Then paint just the bottom lip black (not the top lip at all) to help complete a visual illusion that makes the whole whisker area jut forward. Support this illusion with the curve of the lines extending out from the sides of the bottom lip, and with “fur” lines on the chin framing the yellow patch. For whiskers I use dots (because I think they read better than little lines which can look like stripes in the wrong place.) Add dynamic black stripes and the tiger is done.

This type of design is the most direct form of mask-like facepainting, in which you directly transform the human features into the animal features, i.e. the human eyes become the tiger’s eyes, the human nose becomes the tiger’s nose, etc. In this simplified style it’s quick to paint, makes a strong colorful impact and looks good from a distance — all of which are desirable qualities in face designs for big crowds at large events.

For examples of how this basic design can generate many variations in a tiger face, see the post “Tiger Variations”