Have a look at some of stunning examples of body painting from a college competition whose winners will show off their skills at a high-profile festival.

The designs were created for the body painting part of the Level 3 Hair and Media Make-up course at City College Norwich.

To make things more interesting, the college decided to make the final assessment, which happened last Friday, into a competition between the 17 students involved.

The prize was entry into the annual Paintopia Face and Body Painting Festival for the three top students.

First place went to Marlene Valeriano, 18, from Great Yarmouth, whose nocturnal design featured mountains and silhouettes of trees, making use of materials including black painted wire for branches, and cotton wool for clouds, to add to her use of body paint.

She said: 'I was really surprised to have won because I thought everyone did a good job with their body art. I wanted to push the boundaries for myself and do something I was not used to with the mountains, shadow and tree silhouettes.

'I am nervous and excited about going to be Paintopia, as it will be my first time.'

The students, who also do make up for Mustard TV, used family and friends as models, and had just four hours to create their designs on the theme of 'out of the shadows'.

Katherine Greavner, 17, from East Harling, came second with a design featuring a moonlit scene, incorporating painted thorns and a thorny vine snaking around the torso of her model, while Viktoria Vargova, 18, from Clover Hill, Norwich, came third with a striking pair of bat's wings to add dramatic emphasis to her design of bats taking flight and emerging from the shadows.

The top two students will also represent the college in this year's WorldSkills UK body painting competition.