Acrobats and Kitty-Cats!

This week was an exercise in thick grease foundations, applying layer upon layer. Once we felt our models were sufficiently caked in it, we then set the base with enough of our Showface powder to cover the room in a fine mist. It all began on Monday with Theatre makeup. We were applying liner to open the eyes and giving the face some shape with extreme contouring to counteract the harsh lighting of theatre.

The layers continued with Cirque Du Soleil makeup. With Louise having toured with Cirque for two years we were just mesmerised by her stories and backstage photos. Upon returning to our work we discovered that our Cirque makeup was a challenging exercise of working with and mixing greases, aqua colours and powders. With this we were again learning the lesson of blend, blend and blend!

We spent a day catching up on our various projects like finishing the layers of our paper mache masks, colouring and styling our wigs and continuing to add texture to our sculptures. With a lot to do and never enough time we stayed very busy, covered in glues, newspaper, clay, hairspray or in the case of Nat and myself elbow-deep in Ajax removing colour hairspray from our makeup workstation. Nat's wig in particular looked amazing with the bright colours, so it was well worth it.

Then came the big finale of the week CATS!!!! More layers, more powders, more hairspray and more blend, blend, blend! The final makeup look was very animated and as we were promised, the look really came together with the wigs and costume. Everyone did so well and I think the photos of our fabulous furry felines speak for themselves!!!

Lea Jackson – Student

More wigs than ever before!

We were all bubbling with excitement for our film character makeups. Cruella de Vil was done by Lea, she did a great job on the makeup design and a brilliant effort with the costume to complete the overall look. Everybody got right into each character and made the most of the jam-packed day. A quality you need to excel in for this fast passed industry. This week we learnt how to put on false eye lashes in a completed Glamour makeup and hair look. I felt the pressure during this exercise - to complete within the time frame and slightly frustrated with my application and slow progression. However, when the time came for 'brushes down' I was happier than expected with my result.

Wigs were scattered all over the room. It was now time to prep individual wigs from the musical production 'Cats'. Everybody chose a different character after some last minute reference changes. It was an exciting time and explained extremely well by Tanya. The afternoon was a continuation on from our first hair lesson. Moving into full body blow drys, we had a demonstration with correct techniques and funny examples of what 'not' to do, when it was our turn. Everybody came out with extraordinary results for their first ever, full body blow dry. Well done guys :)

Staring at sculpted faces, it only takes moments till each of us are remodeling and refining our characters. We used thinners to wash down areas of our clay sculpture to help round and clean up the form. The process helped us consolidate the look of the character in our minds. Shez and Alana began to texture today, using wire tools and a stippling technique to add the detail.

Rachel Bartley - Student

Psycho Killer & Iron Maiden

This week began with Character Makeup and I was made up as a psycho killer doctor. I had fake blood smeared over surgical gloves and held a metal tool waving it around madly, doing my best to get into character for the photo shoot. My mission was to turn one of my classmates into a prisoner. I must admit I did enjoy this particular makeup. Adding all the reds, blues and purples to the face to turn a normally pretty girl into someone who is worn, slightly aged and unattractive, was good fun.

Wednesday we began our Paper Mache masks. Jayne our teacher warned us that the process of applying layers of glue-covered paper would be addictive and unstoppable. Well she was right. Once everyone started we kept going well past home time. Applying the layers of paper for hours on end made me feel like a basket weaver.

Then came my favourite part of the week, prosthetic sculpture day. I had my earphones on and Iron Maiden, “Live After Death”, blaring in my ears, sculpting fine details and surface texture onto my clay sculpted face. What a day, couldn’t think of anything better than to sit for hours sculpting ghoulish faces in a sculpting workshop with inspirational music to energise the mind, just awesome!

Adrian Kent - Student

Lips & Hair

Today our subject was different lip shapes. Lopsided, uneven, small, large, wrinkled - we sat in class and completed a fun exercise of lining the different lip shapes on paper to make them all beautiful, plump and luscious. Once our not so perfect lips were filled in and transformed into 'the perfect lips' we paired up and created a 'look'.

Foundation and blusher is the subject of the day! Two sorts - cream and powder. After a small amount of theory, a look into plenty of different types of foundations out on the market and a quick demo, we went straight into the practical exercises. Our aim was to make up both sides of the face, one side with cream blusher, and the other with powered blusher. I enjoyed using the cream blusher, I found that the cream when blended well, has a beautiful finish.

Hooray, our first hair class. I'm very excited for today's lesson - I've always wanted to be able to 'do' hair. Our teacher Tanya is great, fast paced, lots of information. Proteins and conditioners - who would have thought there was so much thought put into products!! We learnt how to shampoo, condition, massage and then we learnt more about the hair. How to dry it properly, which products to use, why and how the hair can be styled. Then it was up to us. Wash, condition, massage, analyzed hair type, product, dried the roots, sectioned the hair, and then straight into the blow dry and then, I was done. My first blow dry! Who knew learning could be so much fun.

Tina Paul - Student

Beauty Therapy, Art & Sculpture

From face shapes, we focused on different eye shapes. We highlighted and shaded to correct each of our eye shapes, to create the ideal almond contour.

Beauty therapy, skin care, basic hygiene principles - we then moved on to the correct procedure of make-up removal, the three-step process of cleansing, moisturizing and toning.

You think shading a circle to give it the appearance of being a sphere is difficult? Well this was our introductory exercise to our first art class with the delightful Jayne. Shape, tone, texture and colour, are the four key elements one must acknowledge when involved in an artistic endeavour, even make-up! Highlighting and shading using both cream and liquid foundations and powders - the key to this exercise was blend, blend, blend!

We were also given the opportunity to watch Nick and Paul make fiberglass moulds of their amazing sculptures - first sealing and using release agents, then applying a fiberglass gel coat and layers of fiberglass matting.

We again came face to face with our prosthetic sculptures. Some were on track and content with their newly formed creatures, while some of us were uncertain and changes were made. We sculpted away to often-dramatic theme music with a dash of Bollywood in the background. We set down tools at 6.45pm, switched off our lamps and were pleased with the work we had achieved for the day.

The fun had just begun for those of us waiting to catch the 309 bus. Everything from wet feet to the tragic fashion crime of a plastic bag poncho were realised. Stay tuned for more 309 adventures!

Natalie Di Risio - Student

New & Exciting

A passionate group of Make-up Students begin their journey! Everyone was excited but we bottled our enthusiasm and spent the first day in silence as we rummaged through our kits, with bits of plastic flying everywhere and the scent of nail polish slowly filling the room. This is going to be an amazing 6 months.

Spent some time learning about the products in our make-up and hair kits and then went onto some basic make-up exercises. We quickly had great insight into seeing how many bad habits we were going to have to let go of.

It wasn't as sunny on Wednesday, so we opted to spend our lunch break inside and Nick was kind enough to show us a bit of old school 80’s footage on some awesome sculpting by Mark Alfrey. This in turn helped us gather some more useful references for the following sculpture day.

We gave Louise a break from us today and joined Nick in the workshop. A little daunting for most of us at first as we sat face to face with our fibreglass heads. But once we got our hands in the plasticine, our sculptures began to take shape. Initially, with this being a new experience for the majority of us, our faces seemed a little peculiar. Fortunately, with Nick's much needed guidance and advice, he helped us make tour characters more visually aesthetic and organic.

I can't believe how fast the first week has flown by. Looking forward to the weeks to come.

Alana Pecotic - Student

A Foot in the Door

Ex-Students are busy working in all aspects of the industry. From features films such as THE HOBBIT and REDD INC, to photo shoots, short films and music videos - everyone is getting their FOOT IN THE DOOR.

To the January class - your Portfolios, CV's and Business Cards are looking great - start networking and building on all the contacts you have made. You are all great artists. Be confident and enjoy the journey...

Nick, Paul & Louise