blog By Riina Laine
Welcome to the body painting blog of world champion body painting artist Riina Laine.
Here I share insights into body painting in advertising, campaigns, events and fine art projects.
“Oh my god, this is going to be so fab!” That was my first thought when I was called and asked to join the team for a TV commercial for Veikkaus. I was so excited to hear the stars of the film and my models would be horses!
The most common question people ask me when they hear I am a body painter, is what body painting can be used for. The list is almost endless – performances, events, parties, fashion, trade shows, music videos, photoshoots etc. On this post I’m now concentrating on one of the most interesting uses of body painting – advertising and marketing.
By creating colourful images with body paint of course! That is exactly what Valio did. Valio is a Finnish dairy giant, whose super idea to promote their new flavoured fromage frais was wrapped around body painting.
These fun loving images were originally created for Finnish shoe brand Minna Parikka. These pictures show how perfectly body painting can be used within fashion advertising to support the original designs. Now PANTONE has also found these images!
One of the most interesting body painting commissions I have had so far – an award-winning Non-Smoking campaign event for Pfizer. My assignment was to create the damages of smoking on teh bodies. Usually body art is thought to be just fantasy and pure imagination, but this case was an amazing example how body painting can be used as a visual storyteller of facts too – the paintings conveyed a real message in a very memorable way.
Body painting is a vibrant and eye-catching art form, perfect for drawing attention in any commercial context. It’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for events, videos, performances, and advertisements, known to dramatically increase social media engagement and shares.
Yet, there’s a more enchanting side to body painting that goes beyond its visual appeal. This aspect touches the individual being painted, invoking a profound transformation.
Looking for something special for your event? Live body painting fascinates everyone and it’s a guaranteed way to catch everyone’s eyes. Original and unique living, breathing, moving pieces of art that fit your brand and highlight the theme of your event like nothing else.
I never thought as a child that I could be an artist for a living. In 1997, during high school, I wrote an essay about life as a canvas – a work of art shaped by our choices and experiences. I didn’t realize back then that I was already sketching the path I would one day walk – that the words I wrote were, in a way, predicting my future.
Let’s imagine there was a company specializing in vegetable food products and they wanted to promote them. How could they make their ad stand out from the crowds of tomatoes, salads and peppers that are the seen in vegetable commercials? They know good copy isn’t enough. So what do they do to catch people’s attention visually? Here’s one example!
I got a body painting request from advertising agency Nordenswan & Siirilä. The brief was to create body painting on acrobats for the new visual look of an IT company. At first I thought “Really?” and immediately after that “REALLY!”. What an amazing idea. Little did I know at the time how amazing though.
Body painting is one the most fascinating art forms in the world. People love it and they are naturally drawn to it. Human bodies covered in paint intrigue us and catch our eyes. Yet there are many things people don’t know about body paint. So here are 10 things I think you should know about this fantastic living art!