Comic book enthusiasts have been transforming themselves into their favorite characters for decades using mass-produced costumes or custom outfits. This dress-up, known as “cosplay,” has become a celebrated part of fandom. But Kay Pike, 28, is a comic book fan with a different approach: Call it cospaint.
Ms. Pike painstakingly turns herself into an array of characters with a paintbrush, bold colors and a steady hand. Thanks to a keen eye for lighting and shading, her metamorphosis into heroes and villains — male and female, human and alien — eerily resembles two-dimensional comic book art.
Her self-taught body painting has garnered a devoted following on Facebook, YouTube and the streaming video site Twitch, where she paints herself live every Wednesday and Saturday. “I’m very lucky to have found a niche,” she said.
Her admirers include fanboys turned professionals like Bryan Singer, the director of several films starring the X-Men, who posted “Love this artist!” on Instagram when she painted herself as the mutant villainess Dark Phoenix. When Ms. Pike became the alien Nebula, James Gunn, one of the screenwriters of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” channeled his inner Keanu Reeves with a tweet: “Whoa. Amazing.”
Ms. Pike, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, said her fascination with comic book characters began early. “I was more than a little obsessed with anime as a kid,” she said, referring to the Japanese cartoon genre. That led to anime conventions and cosplay. “I was kind of nerdy,” she said. “I really liked the characters, and I wanted to connect with other people who loved all the things I did.”
In 2014, Ms. Pike began struggling with arthritis. It prevented her from sitting at a sewing machine for long periods, which limited her cosplay. Though she has chronic pain, her attitude remains positive: “If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t have discovered this ability.”
Her new passion started in earnest last December, when she transformed herself into a character from Attack on Titan, a manga series about fearsome giants that prey on humans. Ms. Pike became Colossus Titan (picture a body without skin, something a medical student might use for anatomy lessons). The character’s face and shoulders required about four hours of painting.
Since then, the majority of her depictions, which average 10 to 14 hours of brushwork, have been names recognizable to even the nongeeks: Spider-Man, Catwoman, Captain Planet, Invisible Woman, the Flash and others. They all share similar traits, with the stills resembling comic book art and the videos capturing the champions coming to life. (Removing the FAB paint takes about an hour, and includes soaking in coconut oil, scrubbing, lathering and rinsing.)
“You’re painting yourself to be the comic, rather than the character,” Ms. Pike said.
Colossus Titan was popular on her Facebook page, and she posted it on Reddit, where it landed on the site’s home page. She has an extensive fan base on Twitter (12,900), Facebook (324,000) and on Instagram (263,000).
But perhaps the most important metric for her is that her Twitch following (46,000) includes 600 paid subscribers, who get access to ad-free streams, birthday treats and other goodies for $4.99 per month.
Ms. Pike works with her husband, Moose, 37 (a photographer), on the live streams out of their home studio. He has the added roles of producer and stage manager, reading his wife audience questions and keeping up engagement. “It can be pretty chaotic,” Ms. Pike said. “We try to keep it a 100 percent interactive experience with 200 to 600 people.”
She enjoys the feedback, whether it is suggestions for new characters to paint, questions about particular techniques or viewers asking how they can pursue their own projects. “It gets back to the root of why I enjoyed cosplay — to connect with all the other nerdy people,” she said. “That’s my small power as an artist: to help other people find their own motivation.”