Bikini Ad Space turned heads at Fringe.

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Katie Thayer, an attractive local actress and comedian, came up with the idea of Bikini Ad Space at the Orlando International Fringe Festival several years ago. The idea is pure genius and simple. She wears a sexy bikini and you can body paint your message on any of her prime body parts. Her lower shins, and her upper or lower arms, front and back go for $5 each. $10 gets prime exposure on her upper calves, front and back, and her belly. You can “get cheeky” by purchasing ad space on both butt cheeks for $15. Of course the most expensive ad space is the $20 chest ad which can nestle in her cleavage.

We bumped into Katie on the first day of the Fringe Sketch Tour and arranged to sketch her the next day. She works inside the Shakespeare Theater lobby which is always crowded with people buying tickets and waiting for shows. She had her leg propped up on a table covered with show flyer’s. The layer of flyer’s was an inch thick which meant you often had to dig down to find a flyer for the show you were interested in. Usually clients had the opportunity to paint their ad on Katy’s flesh. In this rare instance Katy was painting her own ad to get people to vote for Bikini Ad Space as the best “Bring Your Own Venue” in The Daily City Audience Choice Awards. I don’t know if she won that honor.

Cootie Catcher in the red venue had purchased the prime cleavage ad space while Valence had invested in belly ad space. I saw valance, an introspective dance performance that inspected touch in human interactions, but I never saw Cootie Catcher. My sketch protege sketched me sketching Katy and I’m sure photos were shot which made it a very “Meta” performance. The day before, Katy had left her kit of brushed behind and it vanished. Luckily she found a loose brush in the bottom of her bag, but it was a rather blunt brush which meant she couldn’t add any refined touches. I offered her one of my brushes but she was too proud to take it. I hope that the ads she sold will help pay for a new set of brushes because quality brushes are expensive. Her palette was a clear plastic plate. Friends stopped to ask her advice on the best shows to see. Katy had seen tons of shows, so she was a great resource.

Sterio Type performed at the Fringe Outdoor Stage.

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Stereo Type which hails from Daytona Beach, Florida performed at the Fringe Outdoor Stage. Band members include, Vincent Victor Oath on Guitar and Lead Vocals, Brian Topp on Drums.
Their genre is Punk and Hard Rock. We came across the band performing during the Fringe Sketch Tour. Music sets on the outdoor stage are seldom over an hour long and usually much less, so I rushed to get something on the page. My Sketch Tour protege was a bit tired, having already done about 5 drawings that day. She decided to listen to the music and just watch me work. In a sense this sketch became a demonstration on how to work fast and furious. Hopefully it helped.

The music was also fast and furious as band members banged their heads to the beat. When sketching live performances, the beat and rhythm often work their way into every line and wash on the sketch. After the initial frustrations subside, I often reach a point where I’m no longer drawing things, but a feeling or flow through the scene. It is magic when it happens but I’m to harsh a critic to decide if it worked. I put the sketch aside and start hunting for my next scene to capture.

Tears of a Tyrant performed on the outdoor stage at Fringe.

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On the Fringe Sketch Tour we stopped to sketch Tears of a Tyrant on the outdoor stage. They had a colorful tie-die banner as a backdrop. Danielle Dart was the lead singer with a purple floral garland in her hair. She had a dreamy way of closing her eyes as she sang that was quite endearing. Jester Cordell accompanied her on acoustic guitar. There are usually two other members in the band, but I guess they couldn’t make it out to this pro bono gig. They classify their music as Groovy  Classic Rock and Southern Rock.

To me this adorable couple personified the young Central Florida hipster           . ideal with their flip flops and ultra casual attire.  This casual attire is something I love about Orlando. No matter what event you go to in O-town there will be people in tee shirts and flip flops. If you went to a similar event in NYC, everyone would be dressed in black and wearing designer names in an effort to impress. Orlando has plenty of raw care free talent.

Well perhaps not care free. It is hard to make a living as an artist in Orlando. There is a constant exodus out of this town to other cities that are more supportive of the arts. As the 2015 Tallahassee Legislative Special Session came to a close, the film, TV
and digital media industry was excluded from the budget again this
year. This marks 3 straight years this program has gone without funding.
Additionally the proposed budget includes a staff and budget reduction
to the State Office of Film and Entertainment. This is why many actors and film makers go out of state to create films.

Serafina’s belly dance at Fringe.

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Although Phantasmagoria didn’t have a stage show, they were listed in the Fringe program as Bring Your Own Venue. On the first day of my Sketch Tour they seemed to be everywhere at once. While we were waiting in line for Grim and Fisher at the Rep Theater, Phantasmagoria swept into the lobby to entertain everyone waiting in line. For those who don’t know, (where have you been) Phantasmagoria is a Gothic Steampunk storytelling group that blends dance, aerial work, fire performance and combat into the mix as they weave their horrific tales.

Serafina Schiano began an exotic belly dance. I agonized about how much time I might need to catch the dance. The line started to inch forward and I kept adding watercolor washes to the sketch as we moved towards the entrance. When Serafina was done, I followed her with my eyes to try and catch details of her costume. This is why some sketches can seem rushed and unfinished, because life and performance rushes by. It is a challenge to catch the flash of a moment. That is what makes sketching on location fun, exciting and challenging. Even if unfinished in my mind, I have to accept what I can accomplish in the time that I have and move on. That is a fair analogy to life in general.

The lobby of the Rep is always full of art by school children during Fringe. Most of the work is tight and struggling towards realism. None of the art seems rushed or hurried. This is the problem I have when painting digitally. Since it is all new to me I’m far to cautious and what results has too much polish. I’ve started carrying my tablet out on location with me but it is seldom used. In a dark theater, its glow would distract others and outside in the Florida sun the screen isn’t bright enough.  I wish the screen were larger but the market trend it towards smaller tablets. It is like carrying a hot brick.

Of course the Kids Fringe had a Unicorn Bounce House.

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On each morning of the Fringe Sketch Tour, we would start at Kids Fringe, warming up by sketching the kids stretching under the supervision of a Voci Dancer. After that, we would start the hunt for another subject. This Unicorn Bounce House was in the shade of a huge Live Oak Tree. There was always a line of parents escorting their children to the entrance. Oddly the Unicorn had a sand bag on her head. At first I thought it might be an icepack since the Unicorn might have partied too hard the night before. If that was the case, then having those children bouncing inside couldn’t have helped her unsettled stomach.

I did this sketch to demonstrate the idea of covering the sketch with as few large washes as possible. The Unicorn and all of the foreground was covered with a blue wash for shadows and the local color of the bounce house.  I encouraged Gay to leave the lightest areas at the window where you see a child bouncing and around the Unicorn’s head. The eye is attracted to the areas where there is the most contrast. I put a yellow band across the middle of the sketch to symbolize bright sunlight. Distant trees were treated with the lightest blue-green wash to imply aerial perspective. I also taught Gay to remove objects that over complicated the scene. For instance there were branches and moss directly behind the unicorn’s head, but I removed those in the sketch to give the Unicorn head a clean silhouette.