IMATS SYDNEY - Makeup Trade Show Comes to OZ

After weeks of preparation we moved to the Sydney Convention Centre for the International Make-up Artists Trade Show (IMATS).

All past and present students were on hand to help with our stand, with great audio-visual and photos of the students work on display. It was a busy weekend and we were very well received by everyone that visited our stand and complimented on the high standard of work we were producing within our Master Classes.

The seminars throughout the weekend were inspiring and it was great to see so many artists under one roof talking about what they love most in their make-up worlds.

Congratulations to Michael Key, Cheryl Morrill and everyone at Make-up Artist magazine for putting on a wonderful and successful show. See you next year.






www.makeupmag.com

www.imatsshow.com

End of Term… Production Break

It’s a countdown to our 2 week production break. The down side is that this week we have exams, our Term 1 Assignment and Paper Mache masks all due.

Starting off the week we learnt how to make a Bald Cap. We followed the process Penny showed us of pin curling the hair as tight to the head as possible, wrapping the head with glad wrap, marking the front, back and ears, and transferring our custom head wraps onto our Red Head (a special type of head is required so you can make bald caps).

Our final hair lesson for the term was all about, Up Styles and French Rolls. A good roller set was the foundation on which we were to work. The end result was fantastic, with our teasing expertise coming into practice, as our hairstyles were so tall.

The students will also be working on a short film and a theatre production during their production break. A great experience for them all and to put into practice what they have learnt this term.

Our History Ends! On to High Fashion!

We have now completed our journey through periods in history, comparing the 1950’s to 1980’s. Where the 1950’s was, sweet pretty with curls, our sparkling 1980’s was, frost and more frost, with big cheeks and hair.





















We have really enjoyed the research section of the course, as this is getting the students ready for the world of film and television, where it is so important to recreate the correct looks when working on a ”Period Piece”.

Moving forward to ”High Fashion” and our “Photo Shoot”.

Starting in art class with the ”Grey Scale“, which included a painting exercise in black and white emphasising tone through highlighting and shading. Then finishing the day with make-up for ”Black and White Photography”.

Doe Eye to Smokey

We are still on our journey through periods in history. What has made an impression on the students is that in most decades, we repeat many make-ups with a slight twist.

This is very evident when working with our 1920’s and 40’s Make-up and Hair; the 1920’s ”Doe Eye”, a term used to explain the shape of the matt eye shadow placement on the eye, has now been replaced by the ”Smokey Eye“, which is the same shape, now using frosted eye shadows and liquid eyeliner for high fashion. The best way to apply this look is to do the dark eyes first and then finish up with your make-up as normal.

This way you will have a good clean make-up with strong eyes.

Our hair work for 1940’s is the foundation for today’s hair styles, so in our hair class this week we were perfecting hot roller sets, curling irons and blow drying, completing the exercise with a classic hair style.

White, White and more White Base

As we continued through our periods in history, we were challenged by the fact that all 3 make-ups this week require a white base, each different and interesting.

18th Century, Queen Elizabeth 1 and Cirque Du Soleil, all have a different approach to their application and completed look.

White bases are difficult to work with and if you are not careful your base will be ruined with a term called “Fall Out”. When applying eye shadow the colour falls to under the eyes and this is very hard to remove, so great care is needed.

Penny gave us our first wig knotting class and showed us the importance of measuring a head for a wig or bald cap. We also learnt another way to pre-set the hair for a wig using pin curls.

ABC and AFTRS

We headed off to Channel 2 to see how a television station operates. After our lesson on Chroma Key it was interesting to show the students the importance of not using certain colours in our make-ups and to be aware that the hair doesn’t have any ‘fly-aways’, as they will stand up and make a haze around the head.

It was great to speak to the make-up artists there and get them to talk to the students about their make-up routine.

Following this was our trip to the AFTRS, to familiarize ourselves with the environment before we start to work on their short films.

We continued with our design work and focused on the film CLEOPATRA. We looked at art reference and the breakdown of the ‘Egyptian’ look - using strong gold, blue and green on the eyes and trying to achieve a realistic heavy pigmented body and face coverage, utilizing several types of bases.

Shirley, one of our overseas work experience students created this cool conceptual prosthetic sculpture.

CATS Hair & Make-up

Pre-setting their wigs for ‘CATS’.

This exercise involved choosing their wig, pinning it on to a special wig block, then using their tongs, they started to put curls into the wig. They teased and brushed the wig into the shape they required.

Finishing the task using coloured hairsprays and a REAL hair palette to give the wig some highlights and a deep mix of colours. The wig had to look interesting and exciting to match their CAT make-up and costume.

Due to the dancers sweating so much we decided to use grease bases, which were then powdered well to set them so they would not run. To get the CAT colours required, the techniques of mixing colours became relevant from previous lessons.

We are also happy that one of the students starts her first short film next week with AFTRS - so good luck Abby.