M'sian Bakat List #2: This Guy Can Become Any Fictional Character With One Paintbrush
Lee Seng Hoo has turned himself into The Joker, The Grinch and even The White Walker from Game of Thrones!
By John Lim — 21 Apr 2016, 04:52 PM
Meet Lee Seng Hoo, a face and body painter who can virtually turn himself into any person, creature or character
His caption for this photo reads, "Goodnight. May you get nightmares." Thanks Lee, pretty sure some of us won't be getting a wink of sleep tonight.
Inspired by Tate Langdon from the American Horror Story.
The 24-year-old Ipoh-born artist was first a photographer before diving fully into face and body art. He firmly believes that art should be done traditionally, without the interference of softwares like Photoshop.
"I was heavily into photography at first, but I wasn't a fan of editing photos using Photoshop. Digital art just isn't my thing because I firmly believe art should be approached traditionally using hands, brushes, and paint. This is why I picked up face and body painting," said Lee in an interview with The Sun Daily.
But why did Lee choose to paint on his face and body?
"With body and face painting, there's no correct way of doing it. You can basically do whatever you want, and the results could be pretty humorous and interesting. I remembered sending my friends a video of me as a tiger, and they laughed so hard over it. You can't do that with canvas and paper," he said.
While Lee loves what he's doing, he asserted that he won't be making a career out of it - the reason being it would kill off his passion for art
"It is and will always be a hobby. I've tried painting at children's birthday parties but sometimes I don't like it because I'm getting paid and that might kill off my passion. It helps with my income for sure but I don think I'll enjoy it as a career," said Lee.
"I want to do it for fun, not out of favour."
Lee's passion for face and body art shows through his taking on fictional characters including Joe from Mad Max and Anger from Inside Out
Lee uses lip or eye liner to sketch the designs on his body first before filling them with body paint.
Body and face painting is a lot of hard work, though. Lee normally takes about two to five hours to just complete a piece.
White Walker from Game of Thrones. Who's stoked for the premiere of Season 6?!
Image via Seng Hoo's InstagramLee said, "Body and face painting isn't like any other forms of art because you must finish it at one go. Normally, it takes me two to five hours to finish a piece. But if I'm really focused, I can finish in an hour tops."
Due to the climate in Malaysia, body and face painting can be a major challenge. Just a drop of sweat can mess up a piece!
"I'll have to turn on the air-conditioner and a stand fan to make sure I don't sweat in the hot Malaysian weather. Also, I use water-based paint where a single drop of sweat can spoil the whole the whole piece," explained Lee.
Feast your eyes on more impressive pieces by Lee:
Make sure you follow Lee on Instagram for more body and face paintings!
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