An artist has taken camouflage to the next level with her incredible body illustrations that see her models blend into beautiful murals.
Emma Hack, famed for her work on Gotye’s music video, paints the skin of nude bodies and has amassed over 500 million Youtube hits with her mesmerizing work on the famous music video.
Now the Australian artist will take her work to an exciting new level as she prepares to paint a model live for the first time in a UK gallery.
The 41-year-old will spend up to 15-hours illustrating the nude’s skin to make her blend into the background of an artwork.
The Australian artist will paint a nude live in front of an audience at a London Gallery.
Painstaking: The process can take the artist up to 15 hours to complete
For Emma the process of creating her work can be a lengthily one as she says she has many things to consider when coming up with the design.
‘Generally I research the idea and look at photos I have taken from my travels. I consider what I want the viewer to feel, how the flow of composition appears for the viewer.
‘I then either paint a background or choose some wallpaper from an archive, before heading into the studio with my model, slowly painting her outer edges, then filling in the detail on centre of the form.’
Feathered friend: A nude model wears nothing more than a glove to protect herself from the bird of prey she poses with
Barely there: A model is hardly visible as she poses with a peacock
Emma says she is often inspired n ideasby her travels when coming up with design.
A live owl does its best still-life impression in one of Emma’s bird scenes
In an exciting twist several pieces called Birds of a Feather feature live birds that are held by the naked models, who wear nothing more than a glove to protect their hands.
Emma says that having live animals in the piece can add complications so she doesn’t involve them until completion.
‘If there is a bird in the work, they arrive towards the end of the process and are positioned. I then photograph the results.’
Although Emma seems completely at ease with the nudes that she works with she admits that she wasn’t always so comfortable with the naked body.
‘In the beginning I found the nude models daunting as I have always been quite shy about my own body.
‘I think this is why I was trusted by my first models as I always make sure they are comfortable with what I am doing.’
Despite each piece taking between eight and 15 hours to complete Emma is not yet jaded by the process and says that working with animals makes her job entirely unpredictable.
‘You never know what to expect working with birds and animals. The owl is very cute, but also very naughty and it is hard getting him to look at me.
‘We tend to throw things on the ground or play phone sounds to make noise to get his attention.
‘It’s very hard for the model to hold a straight face while this is happening and quite often they get the giggles.’
