Body Paint Artist Covers Both Characters

While most fan fiction writers and cosplay artists indulge in bringing their own talents to these timeless archetype characters, a few people get to stand out among their fellow fans and wind up creating something extraordinary. Kay Pike, a Canadian artist and body painter, takes careful practice to use herself as the canvas. Each week she talks to her fans and paints her body to match a lot of pop culture characters. She's been able to do Captain America once and Wonder Woman twice in a few different costumes. I've saved a few of her camera shots of the finished products and posted them here for all of you to enjoy. Do you like her artwork style? She's designed them to start as a 2D painting only for her image to come alive to an action pose.

As far as her classic wonder woman goes, I think she really got the hair flowing correctly and was able to accentuate the ripping muscles in her arms and abdomen. Some fans tend to accentuate Wonder Woman's beauty as her key asset, she is also gifted the strength of Hercules. She may have gone a little darker with the bodice given that the movie version has her bright red/white/blue iconic costume muted to darker shades. Can you tell that those wrist gauntlets are painted on? They look like the real metal props, don't they? What Kay knows best is all about shading herself to give that 3D look. A smaller wrist version that the earlier Wonder Woman uses would have been less likely to have been noticed. The bigger she went the more details she could show off in the project.

Captain America on the other hand was a bit more challenging considering her smaller frame doesn't quite fill out like Steve Rogers is supposed to. Kay's jawline does provide a slight disadvantage, but she makes up for it in the way she is able to paint the illusion of a broader muscular shoulders. From straight on, she hides her female curves to paint sight lines that transform her gender. It's a skill that she's carried over to many other male characters she's done. As Kay had perfected the wrist guards from Wonder Woman, she also put a lot of hard work to detailing the gloves. Those aren't layers of costume - that's all of her shading work! The ionic shield is also painted to where the metal would send some light reflecting off of it to give it a magnificent radiance.

 
You can join along with me to watch her weekly Saturday art projects on her Twitch channel. Subscribe there or follow the channel for her alerts of when she does go on camera. (Just don't bother her with her condition of modesty, she always wears a couple of pasties) She also shares a lot of Twitter pictures and updates her body painting statuses where you can find Kay Pike Twitter She also asks for some support for replenishing her art supplies on her Patreon website.

Does Kay's work inspire you to appreciate Steve and Diana more? Was she able to capture what makes these two magnificent pop culture icons?