Breanna Cooke is a Dallas-based visual artist originally from Toronto, Canada. She is known for her fusion of graphic design, body painting and fine art where she translates her designs from skin, to printed apparel, to murals, and more. With a B.A. in Studio Art and a deep eco-conscious mindset, she seamlessly incorporates positive environmental themes into her work through subject matter, personal advocacy, and sustainable product choices. Along with creating custom art for clients, Breanna shares her art knowledge with others through her paint-and-sip body paint class for couples, sustainable art workshops, and art experience workshops for the U.S. Air Force.
Detailed Bio
Breanna Cooke is a Dallas-based graphic designer known for her award-winning body paint and costume creations. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Breanna has been creating all her life and earned a B.A. in Studio Art. Breanna’s experiences in body painting began in 2007 when she started incorporating body paint into her extravagant Halloween costumes. Her signature style blurs the lines between what is skin and what is costume or paint. Since 2015, that body paint style has merged with her graphic design work to produce colorful digital art for printed apparel.
As a body painter, Breanna’s work has taken her to the Texas Bodypaint Competition in San Antonio, TX where she placed 1st in 2018 and Living Art America’s North American Bodypainting Championships where she placed 3rd in 2017. She has been a regular body painter at the annual DIFFA Dallas Gala and Fashion Show and she was a body painter for the Horror Nights makeup team at Europa Park in Germany in 2015. Along with painting performers for special events, Breanna provides body painting for music videos, television, Halloween, and maternity photoshoots.
Breanna’s art and apparel collections regularly feature her passion for the environment and climate advocacy. It has led to her collection of climate “artivism” pieces over the years, which range from body painting works, prints, stickers, and activewear. She blends her crisp and clean graphic design sensibilities with vibrant colors to create memorable works of art with a message.
Along with creating her own art collections, Breanna does freelance graphic design work, custom airbrushing and painting projects, body painting for events and private photoshoots. She also shares her art knowledge with others through her paint-and-sip body paint class for couples, sustainable art workshops, and art experience workshops for the U.S. Air Force
Prior to living in Dallas, Breanna spent the first part of her art career in St. Louis as a full-time graphic designer for book publishing and corporate marketing for a cyber security firm. While living in St. Louis, Breanna also worked with theatre and voice classes at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) to design costumes and prop pieces for performances. She also led the costumes and props department for summer children’s musicals, Annie and Once On This Island. While in Dallas, Breanna has taught at the Dallas Theater Center Summerstage theater camps teaching costume and prop workshops. As a former competitive Latin ballroom dancer and Scottish Highland dancer, Breanna brings her experience with movement and functionality to her costume work and apparel designs.
Grants, Project Awards, Residencies
- 2026 Cedar Hill’s Traffic Box Project: Connecting Community with Nature/Sharing Space with Nature, City of Cedar Hill, Texas
- Two designs selected by Cedar Hill to be used as vinyl wraps on traffic signal boxes.
- 2025 Art at Every Turn, City of Garland, Texas
- Selected to design five (5) different traffic signal box vinyl wraps to be displayed at specific intersections in Garland, TX.
- Visit the boxes with this Google map
- 2024-2026 Arts in the Force, United States Air Force
- Contracted by the Air Force Services Center to instruct art workshops on 10 Air Force bases in 2024 and 42 art workshops across 30 bases in 2025-2026.
- 2024 Sustainable Art Residency, City of Dallas, Texas, (March-May, 2024)
- Selected as 1 of 4 artists to lead an 8-week sustainable art workshop at a designated City of Dallas Recreation Center
- Project proposal was to create large-scale monarch butterfly mosaics out of everyday found objects
- 2023 Murals on the Move, City of Dallas, (March – June 2023)
- Mural design selected by Dallas Office of Arts & Culture to be painted on a 22ft x 7ft container dumpster for Dallas Code Compliance community cleanup events
Awards and Recognition
- 2019 – 3rd place – Assistant to Anja Yamaji – Jan Tana Bodypainting Revolution at the Arnold Classic – Columbus, OH
- 2018 – 1st place Professional Artist – Texas Body Paint Championships – San Antonio, TX
- 2017 – 3rd place Professional Artist – North American Bodypainting Championships – Greensboro, NC
- 2014 – 1st place Emerging Artist – North American Bodypainting Championships – Atlanta, GA
- 2014 – 1st place Novice Category – Dragon Costume (Ysera, World of Warcraft) – DragonCon – Atlanta, GA
- 2013 – 1st – Dragon costume – Stan Winston School of Character Arts Halloween Costume Contest
- 2013 – 2nd – Dragon costume – Instructables.com Halloween Costume Contest
- 2013 – 1st – Dragon costume – Dragon’s Halloween Ball costume contest – Dallas
- 2013 – 2nd SciFi/Fantasy Category – Flying Monkey (with Wicked Witch of the West) – Dallas ComicCon Fan Days costume contest
- 2013 – 1st SciFi category – Dr. Grace Augustine as Na’vi – Dallas SciFi Expo costume contest
- 2013 – guest blog writer for the Dallas Museum of Art’s Uncrated blog
- 2012 – 1st – Phoenix costume – Dragon’s Halloween Ball costume contest – Dallas
- 2012 – 1st – Phoenix costume – McFadden’s Halloween Party costume contest – Dallas
- 2012 – Semi-finalist – Instructables.com Halloween costume contest
- 2011 – 1st – Harpy costume – Creative Arts Center Halloween Art Ball costume contest – Dallas
- 2011 – 1st – Harpy costume – Gloria’s Halloween costume contest – Dallas
- 2010 – 1st – Neytiri costume – ProAm Jam West Coast Swing Competition costume content – Dallas
Training
-
- Sculpting for Flat Moulds workshop with Stuart Bray
- Gore FX workshop with Stuart Bray
- Flat Moulds Workshop with Stuart Bray
- Sculpting for Prosthetics workshop with Stuart Bray
- Horror Face Painting workshop with Nick Wolfe of Evil Twin FX
- Essentials of Lifecasting workshop with Mitch Rogers at BITY Mold Supply, Dallas
- Mold Making workshop with Mitch Rogers at BITY Mold Supply, Dallas
- Advanced Special FX Techniques with ZombieSkin with Joe Glenn, creator of ZombieSkin
Latest Blog Posts
Painting a Dumpster Mural for City of Dallas
May 26, 2026If you’ve ever done a double-take at a colorful roll-off dumpster on a Dallas highway, that might be mine! In early 2023, I was selected by the City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture and Dallas Code Compliance for their Murals on the Move: Paint with Me! project. The… Read more
How to Choose Body Paint and Makeup for DIY Halloween Costumes
September 24, 2022Halloween is the perfect time to try out body painting and character makeup. Whether you’re buying makeup online, going to a store, or using what you already have, below are some product ideas and answers to the common questions I get asked. This post is intended for beginners and people… Read more
Eco-Friendly Shipping and Packaging Supplies for Small Business
July 21, 2022Sustainable shipping and packaging options are getting easier find and I’m here to share what I use! There’s no denying that eco-friendly supplies cost a little bit more. But for me, the extra cost is worth it in order to minimize the environmental impact of my art. Read on for… Read more