Bold lip on black skin – Portfolio building

I am really pleased with these photographs! I had a lot of fun on this photo shoot, we had it set up at my house and there were about 5 make up artists along with 5 models and 1 photographer – a lot of people in one house! although it was busy, we all had our own space to work.

Originally, I wanted to do a pastel coloured lip, however I did a couple of practices with a pastel lip however it didn’t look as striking as the gold lip.

We also tried taking the photographs against a white backdrop but we then experimented with this brown door for the background and it complemented her skin tone more than the harsh white backdrop.

I really enjoyed working with this model as well, she was polite, really friendly and took good direction!

Creative hair & body painting body painting – portfolio building

Hey! Body painting was something I had never done before, because of this I did find it challenging. I had done a couple of practices before hand to understand where to place colour on the body and how to contour and highlight.

I had a lot of fun creating the wig, I created a wire frame that I then sewed to the base and wrapped the hair from the wig around this frame. I then added some false vines and petals onto the wig and I found this faux moss which I then incorporated in to the hair and the bra.

The character that I wanted to create was the ‘Queen of Fairies’ I used the Midsummer’s night dream character Titania as inspiration however I wanted to move away from the pink colour scheme and use the surroundings in which this character would live in. I took inspiration from the forest grounds and leaves.

After a lot of stress, I really enjoyed creating this character and seeing the final outcome, hope you all like it!

Architectural inspired photo shoot

So, my friend asked me to do the make up for her architectural inspired photo shoot which happened to fall on Friday the 13! This immediately made me nervous that something could go wrong. She told me in advance that she wanted pastel coloured make up with metallic incorporated and gave me the mood board she had created. I started by doing some research in to pastel make up and silver colours. I knew that she wanted a subtle make up so I decided to do a pastel pink around the eyes with a silver pigment in the corners of the eyes complimented by a nude pink lip.

In this photograph it is quite hard to see the make up but hopefully there will be more photographs to come! I felt so comfortable doing this photo shoot as it was with people I knew and the whole atmosphere was calm, chilled and fun, also nothing went wrong unlike I had thought!

1930s Black and white photo shoot

This assessment was slightly different to our usual ones as we had to do make up that would show up on a black and white edited image. This meant darker contour, lighter highlight and discovering colours which work in black and white. Our theme for this make up was 1920s, 30s or 40s, I chose to do 1930s as I had not done that era yet and wanted to delve in.

I do think that my final image doesn’t ‘scream’ 1930s however it was an inspired make up and I tried to shape the eyebrows and style the hair the best I could however I think it got lost whilst the photographs were being taken.

I would really love to recreate this image and do a 1930s make up as if it was from the era!

Moustaches – Knotting and applying

This was a completely new experience for me, we were taught how to knot a moustache! This process is used in all types of facial postiche, wigs and any other hair which is intended to look realistic.

Personally I found the knotting process tedious and sometimes frustrating, it took me a long time to understand however when I persevered with it I got into my own routine and got quicker at the process. I’m not sure I would jump at the chance to do knotting again, but on the bright side I have certainly gained a basic skill which may help me in my career!

When it came to applying the moustache, I used spirit gum for the adhesive. As I had used this adhesive before, I was comfortable with the application, however when the moustache was on I realised that I had created too many knots which made the moustache look too false as they are usually thinner. I was happy with the colour match as my model was ginger, I found it difficult to find a colour which would suit the hair.

If only I had done fewer knots on my moustache it could have saved me more time and concentration which would have made it look more genuine!

Starlight Express

I absolutely love musicals so I jumped at the chance to get involved with the Calder Valley youth theatre group and doing some of the make up for their production of Starlight Express. As it was a youth theatre group, the ages of the actors ranged from 9-18 and as I had done face painting over the summer I did have some experience when working with children. The cast were a lovely, bright and bubbly team! I did the casts bases and a few of the younger children’s make up. This whole experience was enlightening and eye opening to how backstage at a theatre works, although this was a youth theatre, it was still hectic and different things going on.

This experience has made me realise that theatrical make up wouldn’t be my first choice of industry, however I would do the occasional one as I do love the theatre!

London’s calling!

I spent the first weekend of November in London celebrating my 21st birthday! I was really excited to go to Madame Tussauds as I haven’t been in years and it is constantly changing! I found it really interesting to see how the waxworks were made and also finding out that we were doing something similar in Special Effects but we aren’t doing the whole head, just the face!

Walking around, I found it surreal to look at these models in detail and it was amazing how realistic they were which unnerved me slightly! Going back to Madame Tussauds whilst doing this course has made me look at the waxworks in a completely different way to before.

As it was Halloween weekend, we got roped into walking through the Halloween room they had set up, there were people and waxworks in this dark, eerie maze where the people would jump out at us. This was an experience I wouldn’t want to do again! Too scary and jumpy for me!

Halloween!

Unfortunately I had to work Halloween and then get up early the next day to go to London, however I got to dress up for work which was different. I work at a small shop in Leeds and we were selling a lot of Halloween make up, wigs and costumes which meant we were very busy! I decided on Halloween I would attempt a half skull on my face for the main day, it took quite a while to get it to look like this and when I got to work I had a lot of funny looks! considering I didn’t get to go out on Halloween I definitely enjoyed the day even if I was at work.

Bridal

This is a make up I did at uni for an interview practice, we were told to choose a sector of the industry that we felt we were comfortable with enough to get a job. I chose bridal make up as I had some previous experience although it was on a bridesmaid it could have been transferred to the bride. I really enjoyed doing this make up and I am pleased with the final outcome although I could have worked on the skin finish more by having more coverage to hide the redness.

As it is autumn, I decided to use this as inspiration for my make up, I love autumnal colours but I wanted to keep the make up clean and romantic. I opted to use gold, subtle eye liner and a nude pink lip. I hardly have chance to practice this type of make up so it was nice to finally apply some beautiful, simple make up!

Summer!

Hey!

Unfortunately, due to working full time, I only managed to fit in two make up work experiences over summer. As Tour De France was coming to Yorkshire, me and a couple of friends decided to set up a stall for the Hebden Bridge Tour De France Fair. This was a new experience for me as I had never done face painting before, it was also a first for working with children. I thoroughly enjoyed the day, it was quite stressful however the atmosphere was exciting and fun. We spent about 6 hours face painting, I found this day very beneficial towards my time management skills as I had to get the face paint on as quick as possible due to the children being impatient!

The second work experience I did over summer were two wedding make ups. These took place in the Rochdale area, over the two weddings I did a couple of flower girls make up and hair, bridesmaids hair and the maid of honours make up. For me, this make up was very rewarding to me, it was my first wedding make up and as this is a route I am considering going down, it was a good insight to this sector of the industry and helped me realised that it definitely will be something I will look in to.

Hopefully over the next few months I can fit some more work experience in and build my confidence and skill set!