Egyptian period makeup meant working with new products and using bold colours in the likes of greens and blues and an amazing gold! Since day one of the course, we have been training our eye to pick correct foundation colours, so trying to change a skin colour tone to suit the Egyptian look was a little difficult at first. How much is too much? Whilst the 'Cleopatra' style was very formulaic, we still had the freedom to experiment. We added an Egyptian wig, jewellery and toga to complete the look and it was amazing to see the regal characters coming to life.
Cirque Du Soleil was a really exciting day! We are very fortunate to have Louise teach us this component. Her time spent on tour with Cirque meant her insight and knowledge on the subject is invaluable. Not only in learning the makeup techniques but also in learning about the culture of the show. Louise cannot speak highly enough about the company, and has got us all thinking about the possibility of working towards a role with Cirque (although we will have to work on our sewing skills first!?). In terms of our own makeup day, we all approached the task with much enthusiasm! We worked from reference and copied existing images. It was great to work with colour and get into creative mode. Once again we were using new products we hadn’t yet touched on and this wasn’t without trial and error but overall we had some great results.
We had our third hairstyling class, which was all about the amazingly versatile GHD! We learnt how to create a variety of curls and waves and the difference between GHD curls and hot rollers. We used aluminium foil and French Pins to create crimped, zig-zag looks, and realised that the possibilities are endless - you just have to get creative.
As Friday approached we all knew it was the deadline for finishing up our prosthetic sculpts and prepping them for the next stage. It was a very intensive day of working on the last stages of texturing and refining areas that still needed work. We are very fortunate that Nick and Paul are ever patient with us and always at the ready with advice and help. We learnt about the next stage for our characters and set the sculptures up for the moulding process, which we will carry out in a few weeks time. It does seem a little bit of an anti-climax to be finished... how do you know when you are really finished? It's the sort of work that the longer you persist with it, the better the end result will be. I’m sure we all agree that we have learnt so much from the experience so far....
Polly McKay - Student
