Lesson Fourteen: Look-A-Like Makeup--Karen Gillian

       This was our final lesson for the course. We were supposed to take a celebrity (actor, politician, artist, etc.) and hopefully select one with a similar facial structure to our own, and make ourselves up to look like that celebrity. And yes, ideas like Lady Gaga and Marilyn Monroe did go through my mind, but I wanted to include my hair for a more complete look. So, the woman would have to have a redhead pixie cut, or at least very short red hair. I did a Lucille Ball hairstyle on myself recently for a show and it turned out pretty well, so I though I might do her, but she had bright blue eyes, and I wanted to include my eyes as well.
       So I finally settled on Karen Gillian, in her pixie phase.
       Of course I've been growing out my pixie cut slightly longer than hers, for the aforementioned play I've been doing, but I pinned it back. And I contoured my nose and chin to look smaller like hers. I also drew on fuller lips, and thicker, more angular eyebrows.
       I'm not sure how well I succeeded. I don't think I look much like her. My face is longer than hers but looking like somebody else is rarely a perfect match. I think next time I will do somebody with a slightly longer face. I do love the subtlety of the makeup though. I decided afterwards to wipe the contouring part off and take it out for dinner and drinks with friends tonight.

Lesson Thirteen: Fantasy Makeup--Frost Fairy

       For our Fantasy Makeup lesson, we could take any kind of character we chose, but we had to incorporate a household item into our design. Weeks ago I was looking forward to this one because I was hoping to create the Firebird from old Russian legends that could transform herself into a beautiful woman. I wanted to create red and gold flames on her face in her human state, where motifs of her bird state would still be present, like ballet dancers who do Swan Lake. But I didn't have any household items at the time that would accommodate that, and as we were nearing Finals Week and I was performing in a play at night, I didn't have time to leave campus and go to a craft store and buy things for that.
       Then I thought maybe a wizard, and I could pull apart my cotton balls for the mustache and beard. But it wouldn't be a long one. Then I thought I could still use the cotton fluff, but have a frost giant or something like that. But still the beard wouldn't be long enough.
       So I finally settled on a Frost Fairy, and decided to use sugar as my household item, to be the frost crystals.
       Basically I painted my face white, used blue eyeshadow and blue eyeliner for the frost patterns on my "flesh", and put Spirit Gum in places where I wanted the sugar to stick; like eyebrows, cheeks and lips. Basically it is similar to the design I wanted to use for the Firebird, just for ice instead of fire. I could have really gone crazy with the blue lines and curves, but part of the beauty of ice crystals is how simple and elegant their design is. So I stopped when it seemed enough and I didn't want to go overboard. Onstage though, I would probably use silver costume glitter instead of sugar, which doesn't show up as much or sparkle. It might work for a movie or a TV show though.
       I think it turned out rather well. It's very pretty, and a good Halloween costume idea for me--maybe minus the sugar.
       I'm sharing three pictures from before I put the sugar on first, so you can see the blue scrollwork. Then I have the finished design.

Lesson Twelve: Animal Makeup--American Goldfinch

       I am not happy with the way this one turned out. We had to make realistic stage makeup representing animals, and it was suggested we stick to animals that had forward-facing eyes, like owls and cats. That way we could use our real eyes. I knew I wanted to do a bird of some kind, and at first I thought an owl, but then others were doing so many owls that I felt it was getting overdone. So I looked around at other bird makeup patterns and some of the artists I researched did not do the forward-facing eyes, but drew eyes on a different part of their faces, and closed their real eyes to be part of the rest of the head. I figured if I was doing that onstage I could not keep my eyes closed through a whole scene, but I could leave them open a crack to peek through and no one would know the difference.
       So I selected the American Goldfinch--partly because I love their cheerful, summery coloring; but also because they are colors I already had in my makeup kit! Black, yellow, and beige for the beak.
       The trouble was that the black makeup I was using for the top of the goldfinch's head was not opaque enough to completely mask my eyelids. You can still see them. And my real nose is too awkwardly visible over the beige beak I painted. And the yellow isn't bright enough. I didn't go down my neck very much because I figured I would be wearing a costume that covers all but my face. I hope they have a prosthetic beak too, because otherwise I really don't think this would work onstage. I used white hair dye for the first time, for the highlights in the eyes. Something about the way they turned out isn't quite right either.
       But you live and learn. As always, if I attempt this again I will do better.

Lesson Eleven: Horror Makeup--Female Pennywise the Clown from IT

       For our Horror Makeup assignment we had to take a well-known horror or villain character and make our own stylized take on it. I chose Pennywise the Clown from IT, and figured IT would be even more effective at IT's job if IT looked like an adorable little clown girl. Lots of people are scared of clowns--both adults and children. But childlike little clowns are easier to take, or at least, it seems logical that they would be.
       I used a similar makeup design to the iconic one worn by Tim Curry in the original movie, but I added little pink cheeks and incorporated my red hair and little floral hairbow to complete the look. I made some before and after photos so we could see her as she first appears; so adorable and harmless to unsuspecting victims, and then added fake blood dripping from her mouth from a recent meal.

Lesson Ten: Wound Stage Makeup--Blisters, Scratches and Briuses

       We had to create artificial wounds and it was recommended we make them minor ones, as the research for some of the more severe ones could become extremely unsettling. And also considering we were still new to this, it was a reasonable idea. We were told also to create a little story to explain our "wounds."
       For my story, I pretended that I accidentally burned my wrist with hot water, then when dashing across the room for my phone to call 9-1-1, I bumped into the coffee-table and bruised my leg, then landed on my cat, who was so startled that she scratched me in self-defense.
       The blisters turned out pretty well. The scratches were a bit too deep and drastic for a household cat--a puma, maybe. But I used fake blood for the first time and I got a little carried away. The bruise looked relatively all right, except it was a bit extreme for a fresh bruise, and if it was older it would have had more green and purple. But I will do better if I ever have to do this sort of thing again.
       The pictures under the schematic, as always, are not mine but research--mostly post-project since I couldn't find the exact ones I used to do the project with.

Lesson Nine: Prosthetics--Adolescent Nightmare Acne

       This time we were working with nose and scar wax to help create a character. As usual when dealing with something for the first time, I try to keep it fairly simple and not overwhelm myself with a super complicated design which would be hard to carry out.
       So I researched cases of really bad acne and came up with some of the most disgusting pictures I'd ever seen. They made me really grateful for my good genetics which kept my real-life adolescent acne period down to a reasonable minimum and never looked anything like this--thank God!
       I used the wax in little balls and affixed them to my face, painting them white for the pus and then red around them for the blood and swelling, plus splotching red around my face for rosacea. The result was really gross but of course, that's exactly what I was going for!