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570 photographs of everyday people with painted faces, often in exotic designs from around the world. Christopher Agostino has made a thirty year adventure out of the unconventional art of facepainting, from birthday parties to photo sessions for Abercrombie & Fitch. In public events at the world-famous Bronx Zoo he and his Transformation! company have painted tens of thousands of adults and children, setting a standard within the New York entertainment industry and transforming the idea of what a painted face can be. Facepainting is a profound art that reaches back to the very origins of human culture. Drawing inspiration from cultural sources, from the Amazon to Africa to the Chinese Opera, Christopher paints in a mask-like style with bold designs to capture the quality of traditional body art. At a Transformation! Facepainting event every face is different, every face is a creative work of art. The faces are painted so quickly, in three minutes or less, that this becomes a true performance art - as exciting to watch as to be painted. The story behind those faces and the methods employed to generate such creativity make a fascinating and valuable read for any artist. Here are the tools for designing new faces, for developing a personal style and for painting creatively each time you paint. More than a how-to, this book is the distilled vision of an artist exploring all that is possible when you paint a face. This is the art of transformation. After 30 years and 200,000 faces it's time to tell my secret: painting faces is an art - the very first art. When I paint a face it is part of an ancient tradition that retains the power to transform individuals today. I don¿t paint faces just to make kids happy. I paint them because they are my canvas. A living canvas. The most exciting canvas an artist can have. The only canvas with eyes.