Look out..

Hi guys! sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. Every time I've tried to post something new, it wouldn't let me, that & work. But don't worry, im back. new posts coming soon! tasha x

No surgery needed.

Wanting those perfect cheek bones? a narrow nose? a great jaw line? You've come to the right place. No surgery needed either, all you need is a little makeup! Highlighting and shading is the key, where you put it is the important thing. Here is a guide with where best to place each colour, make sure to decide on your artists face shape first, you need to know this to decide where everything goes. ALWAYS blend well, you don't want your artist walking down the red carpet with lines all over their face! this way really does work too, it looks incredible when you have finished and you can really see a difference.

Here is where I placed my shader, just below the cheekbone, I then placed shader down the side of the nose, under the jawline and in the temples and hair line. I then shaded well, so there was no visible line. 

Here it is, after I had applied the highlighter and blended each area well. To be honest I think the nose is to strong, so I would maybe next time make sure my artists nose is blended better.

Bushy beard and brows x2

I had another go at applying a beard in last weeks lesson and we got to do the eyebrows too, mine is more like 'eyebrow' its on the verge of a mono brow. I love putting beards on people and making them look as realistic as possible, its so fun! We used crepe hair again in this lesson and I included a black mix into the hair this time too. If you ever get the chance to apply a beard I definitely would, its really quite easy, can get a bit messy though. 

If im being honest, I think the eyebrows are a little out of control and I could maybe make them look slightly better!

You can see my grey hairs just coming through, this is all in preparation for my first assignment!

Zombies

Don't be too scared!
Yeyy! we have finally started on the more creative side of media makeup! We pretty much carried out the death makeup, but expanded on it, I loved this lesson and can't wait to try out this look again. With this makeup design you can pretty much take it on how ever you like, adding as much or as little detail you want. I made sure to add quite a few broken veins that looked as though they were under the skin, as I think it just looks really sweet, more believable. We got a chance at using liquid latex and congealed blood too. Take this how you want. I didn't go crazy with the latex as I wanted people to see all the veins I had added, but now I wish I had just covered the face! I was really happy with this look and I think it is so fun to do. The one thing I would change... Make it more gruesome looking.

So here's a side view of how my veins came out, I drew them on and then slightly blended.

I tried to make it look like the temples and eyes had sunken in over time.

A front view of my zombie before I added any of the wounds
And then below's pictures are my finished look, hope you like them!

'What lies beneath'

Hey guys! As you all know its been the halloween holidays this week, so I have neglected my blog! sorry! But im back now, so its all good. I want to talk about facial muscles today, we painted them on each others faces, before we broke up for the holiday. Im not going to lie, at first I hated this task, I thought my design looked awful at first, but as I began to slowly build it up, I was happy with it in the end. It is so hard to get the right texture of each muscle and the right colours. You really need to practise this one, or I do haha. Not my strong point. I think I just put too much pressure on myself, because when I look back, I am please with it. Anyway, enough about me. I find the names of each muscle so hard to remember, so dont worry if you do too! Heres the picture I based my design on.

 http://catalog.nucleusinc.com/imagescooked/9300W.jpg

Here you go, this is how mine turned out. Its my first attempt, so there is areas I can improve on. The black areas are the spaces which have no muscle tissue. Hope you like it!

Hairdressing, first vertical roll.

So we are back on hair again and finally styling. We did a vertical roll this week and if im being honest, I had no idea what it was! But I did really enjoy it, it was stressful at times, but I got there. As I didn't actually know what one was, you can imagine I had no idea how to even do one. From previous hairdressing lessons I have found that I really need to practice hair the most, I will probably use it a lot in my career and it would be extremely helpful and great if I knew what I was doing (it would help haha) At first when my tutor was showing us how to carry it out, all I could think was..

How am I going to do this?

It looks easy-ish? or does it? 

But I was okay, I had failed in my head before I even started! The procedure for a vertical roll is quite simple to learn, you just need to practice (well this is what I have found) Here I will talk you through what I did and how I learnt to carry out a vertical roll. 

Right guys, I worked on my block this week and yes I have named her, her name is Cynthia.. I started brushing through her hair with my paddle brush, her hair is pretty coarse, so I made sure it was smooth before I did anything with the hair. As the rollers were heating I started to separate her hair into sections, now they are pretty similar to when I was blow drying the hair, but just slightly different. I have put up my pictures as a step by step guide. When my rollers were warm enough to use I started by selecting one of my sections and then separating it into at least 3. This will help when putting up in the rollers, as you don't want the hair too thick as it wont be as effective. 

I didn't realise rollers were a great way to create volume, I just always thought we used them to get them natural looking curls. I really had a stress over putting the rollers in, if they weren't falling out they were burning me and if they weren't burning me, the grips were not staying in place, nightmare! Thankfully the fire alarm went off though and by the time we came back in I was ready to start again and win! I think I did too, as I am happy with the result.












Look how good those curls came out! I was quite happy to leave her hair how it was, but the task was a vertical role. I was gutted when I had to brush through them and then back comb her hair, but this was all towards the prep. 

And I actually managed to pull it off! For my first try I am so happy with how it came out trying to create that roll though, I wont lie, it took me about 5 or 6 attempts. When I re-do this look I will be making sure I have the hair as tight as possible, just so it neatens it up a little more. Until next time! 

Old theatrical makeup, 'take one'

As we've already taken on theatrical makeup, this week we tried old theatrical. During this lesson we learnt how to make it appear like someone had aged using only makeup. I enjoyed this weeks lesson as I thought it was really interesting. When we were first told, I did wonder how we would make it look realistic without making it look too fake, but when we were showed the application it all made sense. This makeup look is all down to where you apply the lines, this will make up the wrinkles. It is quite a funny task to do, as you will find getting your artist to pull funny faces always helps! (frowning, raising their eyebrows etc) I did find the blending of the lines a little difficult, as I felt as though I blended them a bit too much. I managed to fix them though, just by applying a darker colour. I felt as though for my first attempt it turned out quite well, it could have been better, but I didn't stress over it too much. When I try out the old theatrical makeup again I will learn from my mistakes by not over blending and I will probably apply my lines a bit darker and bolder. Its always good to find out how you might actually look when your older! (not haha) Here's how my first look went!

 

First beard.

The time has come for us all to get a little crazy, yes that's right, us ladies have grown beards! Well not literally, but they look so good! I loved this lesson! I would do it all the time if I could, it was my first ever time applying a beard, I haven't had to apply many, its not something I come across everyday...
I think this is probably why I loved it so much, I know I always say I love learning something new, but I really do! Everyday is different and a new challenge. A little safety tip, always make sure you patch test before you apply anything using spirit gum! Right, now that I've told you that, let me begin. When I first found out that we would be applying the beard let alone making it, I was quite worried, I wasn't sure where I would lay each piece or how I would, but Sharon (my tutor) soon showed me how and I was fine. I didn't particularly like the way my colouring of the beard came out, I felt in some places it was to grey and that I could of separated the colour up a bit more. Having said that I loved the way the beard looked at the end, I think I achieved what I was going for and I am happy with that. When I re-create my beard I think I will probably go for a different style and maybe even a different colour. Here's a few pictures of the process.

So I worked with Kayleigh this week and this is how she started out, she came to college without a beard...
I have also put up a picture of how your beard will start, we used crepe hair and this is how it looks at first. Depending on how long you would like the beard is where you cut it.
The next step was to separate the beard, basically to make sure we didn't have clumps of one colour throughout. I went for a grey, white and brown coloured beard. I opted for the brown to be the natural colour of the beard as Kayleigh is brunette, but I wanted it to appear as though she had aged, hence the grey and white. To make it easier for myself I did separate all the colours before mixing them together. When I started to mix the colours together I really wanted it to look as natural and realistic as possible, I went over and over again, laying one piece of hair onto the other and adding other colours in as I went along. After I had done this I split my hair into sections, you have to make sure each section isn't too thick, as it wont stick as good.
Right the next stage is really knowing where to place each bit of the beard, I started off by applying a line of spirit gum underneath the chin, I then selected which section of hair would best fit. Before I applied the hair onto the spirit gum I cut the top of my hair off, making sure I had a nice, neat line. I made sure my glue was tacky before sticking down and then used my pin tail comb to apply and press down on the skin.
After applying each section underneath the chin, slowly building the facial beard up, I moved my main focus onto the chin. Now I wasn't really sure how to go about this, but I had pictures to guide me. When it came to the cheeks I wanted a rough looking beard, no neat shaven lines and I think I pretty much got what I was going for. After creating the beard itself, I started on the moustache, I found this to probably be the easiest, because you already have the beard formed, so you can use this as a guide for the hair growth.

When I had finished it all, I just had one more thing to do, neaten it up a little. I didn't managed to get all my hair the same length, so it looked a little crazy!  It looked great after it had, had a trim!

As me and Kayleigh were the last to finish, we had the pleasure of walking around college with our beards on. Obviously we looked great and everyone was looking, Lucky us!
But after having our beards on for at least an hour they were beginning to annoy us a little, so we went back to class and took them off, our fun was over! I used Ben Nye bond off to remove mine, it smells quite citrus, so its nice! I made sure to cover my partners face with a paper towel so it didn't run all down her face and just slowly started to pull it away.

I hope you like it! I loved the way it turned out.

Colour correctors.

So in our lesson this week we learnt about colour correctors and which best to use when faced with these problems. Its probably best to learn which colour to pair with which if you ever find yourself having to use them. I personally think they are great, as they can help loads! If you find that someone looks quite red, this can be covered using a green concealer. We learnt that you should put these on underneath the foundation, as you do need to cover it. You can buy different correctors, ranging from a simple palette to a liquid, the only difference is that with the creams they won't cover a large area of the face, only small, but with the liquid corrector you can cover a wide area. Here is a picture to help you understand a little better. I hope this helps as much as it did me!

My first hair lesson, blow drying.

So in our first hairdressing lesson we washed the hair and learnt the correct way to blow dry. Hair is probably my weak point, but im learning! I haven't had much experience with hair, so im trying to pick things up as I go along. We learnt the correct ways in which to part the hair, this separates it into sections so we can blow dry it easier. I also learnt how to put your hair up in a towel, the correct way! (I didn't actually know) I actually really enjoyed this lesson, its something new for me and I love learning new things. I've always been able to mess around with my own hair, trying out new styles etc, but I don't really have any experience with other peoples hair. Even though I did love this lesson, I found drying the hair to be quite difficult, every time I went to dry the next section, the hair would go all over the place making me get a little frustrated, don't worry though, I picked it up in the end! Ill be honest I totally forgot to take my camera to this lesson, so when I got home I tried it out on my mums hair. Ill talk you through how I did it in my lesson, but ill be using my pictures I took at home as examples.

I started by getting my partner comfortable, protecting their clothes with a cape and checking the towel I placed around them was preventing water from going down their necks, I also made sure the wash sink was in the right place and right for them. Look at their hair, is it coloured, fine, coarse? what do they think to the condition of their hair and how do they treat it? I was working with Aly and she let me know that she has quite a sensitive scalp, this helped me in choosing what shampoo and conditioner I would use. I started by washing and rinsing warm water through the hair, make sure to cover the whole head, not missing underneath. I checked throughout the treatment that the water was at the right temperature for her and if she was comfortable. The next step was to apply the shampoo, I made sure to rub it into the hair well (not missing any areas) after doing this I rinsed the shampoo out and moved onto the next stage, the conditioner! to be honest its pretty much the same routine but instead of rubbing it in, gently stroke through the hair with it and rinse out! When I had finished with the washing process I moved onto drying the hair, I made sure to squeeze any excess water out, as hair can soak it up quite well. Without getting Aly to move up from the chair I wrapped the towel around her head and moved her over to my station so I could start blow drying her hair. Remember these pictures are from when I carried this treatment out on my mum!

Okay guys, apologies for nothing matching the pictures, but I hope you can kind of get where im going with this!
1. So here it is, the towel wrapped around my mums head, its quite hard to explain how to do the towel like this, but ill try! Get 2 corners of the towel and fold it over about a quarter of the way, place underneath the head and bring up to the top, place one side over the other and tuck into the part you folded over. Im sorry if that sounds complicated!
2. Now the first parting you need to do, is their natural parting, the one they have everyday. My mum always has a side parting, it will usually just naturally fall into place.

3. The second section I did on my mums hair was a parting down the middle, this will help with blow drying the hair.

4. Okay so another section that will help is a parting just behind the ear, as you can see by the one I did on my mum!

5. The final section you need to do is just half way across the bottom of the head, I really struggled with this sectioning as my mums hair is so short! Hence so many clips...

6. And finally the moment we have all been waiting for, the finished result!

Theatrical makeup, 'take one'

So the time has come where we are now learning about theatrical makeup. This is so different to carrying out your usual everyday makeup, as everything is so much darker and bolder! You've all been to the theatre right? Just think the audience members sat all the way at the back have to see the actors and actresses makeup, so you can imagine how dark it has to be applied. When I was first told we would be doing theatrical makeup I was looking forward to it, but as the lesson went on, I did start to dislike it a little. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but the fact that the makeup I applied kept smudging did annoy me kind of. I used 'supracolors' in this lesson too, there just that good! (sometimes)  
 1. I started off with the base, I went at least 2 shades darker than the natural skin colour. We do this because the lighting on the stage really takes the colour out of your skin, making you look pale and washed out! 

2.The next stage I did was to shade and highlight those facial features we all want! Choose a darker colour for the shading and a light colour for highlighting. Make sure to blend well, but not too much, as we do want it noticeable.

3. When I had covered the base I moved onto the eyes, we all applied a white line to the bottom of the eye and chose what we wanted to do on the eye lid. I just went for a simple brown to cover the lids.

4. I also went with a simple red lip to finish off my theatrical makeup, but you can choose any colour!

This is quite a simple look to do, not too hard at all. Here's how mine turned out!





 
You can probably see from my finished result that the eye makeup smudged quite a bit. Apart from that, im happy with it!  

Week 2, Death makeup.

Okay guys, my lessons seem to be getting better and more interesting as they go on! In our special effects class this week we got to learn how to do a death makeup! This was so much fun, I loved it!  We learnt how to make it look as though some parts of the face had sunken, now death makeup isn't pretty, so this looks quite scary! Its quite a simple look to carry out, not as hard as you would think. If i'm being honest I was really pleased with the result of my makeup. At first whilst applying the makeup I couldn't help but think I was putting way to much purple on my models face, but as I went on, I realised that it could be fixed, you have to build up the colours, making them look as though they were broken blood vessels under the skin. The one thing I was unhappy with was the way my lips turned out, I applied way too much blue, instead of making them pale, but I quickly managed to change it! Here's a few pictures on my first attempt and how I did it, take a look. Hope you like it!

                                                                   

 

Start off with locating which parts of the face would appear sunken when death occurs, We decided on the temples & eyes.
You can use different colours, don't be afraid to mix them too, a good choice would be your blues, purples and even a bit of black.Using a small brush just apply strokes of colour on the temples, blend with your finger, but not too much! just break it all up, if your unsure all you need to do is draw a few lines on the temples, spread them around and blend, if you blend to much, this wont give the broken up effect. Next is the eyes, this is quite simple, apply a dark colour (use your blacks & blues) to the corners of your eyes & blend in, make sure to drag the colour down to what I like to call, your tired lines! If your unsure just look at my end result! Right the difficult part, your skin colour! obviously you are no longer going to have a nice warmth to your skin, or if your like me, you wouldn't need to add much of a white base, as i'm already pretty much there! You will need to mix some colours together, We mixed white with a green, but I found this to come out looking more like a zombie. When you think of them, you think of pale and no colour, so id maybe try out a white that is slightly grey? let me know what you think. To finish off your death makeup make sure your lips are a nice pale colour, id suggest slightly blue. When your done make sure your happy with your end result, apply more makeup where is needed. I hope you all find this helpful! Here's a picture of mine finished! 

Anatomy of the hair.

Whilst on the course we will be doing a lot on the hair, I don't have any hair experience as I've always stuck to makeup. If you are thinking of doing media makeup, hair would be a good qualification to have, as you will use it a lot in the industry. Start from the bottom, get to know the details, I know they can be hard to learn and not always interesting, but with this knowledge it will help you in the future. Anatomy of the hair is something to start on, this should help you get to know the details: 
There's the cuticle, cortex and the medulla. The cuticle is the outermost layer of the hair, the condition of your hair is usually down to the health of the cuticle. The cortex forms the colour of your hair. It is protected by the cuticle and if that is damaged, the cortex will become exposed. The medulla is the central part of the hair.There are 3 stages of hair growth:ANAGEN (act) active growing stage, the follicle reforms and matrix divides to create a new hair.CATAGEN (changing) in between stage, fully grown and starts to separate from the follicle. TELAGEN (tired) hairs begin to fall out naturally and when brushed and new hair begins to grow. 


You will need to carry out a consultation if you do hair, this will include asking questions about what products they use, looking and feeling the texture of the hair and what condition it is in. To help a little more I did some research on it, here's what I found.

Good condition

The hair will have a shine to it, it will have good strength and elasticity.

Poor condition

The hair could have split ends, with low strength and resistance. It could also be quite dry.

Physical hair damage

This can be caused by excessive use of heat. (Styling tools)

Chemical hair damage

Chemical hair damage can be caused from excessive colouring, bleaching, highlighting or perming treatments. Chlorine from swimming can also cause damage.

The weather

Although it may not seem it, too much sunlight can cause damage to your hair.

If you feel someone's hair you should be able to determine if it is fine, medium or coarse. This should help you decide what products you will use on the hair throughout. 

Week 1, Skull.

So in our first special effects class we learnt about the skull, to help us get to know the bones of the face we all paired up and drew it on each others faces! I'm not going to lie, this was pretty hard. I learnt that actually, i'm no good at drawing on the teeth, hardest part! but I really enjoyed it. The best way to figure out where to start is to feel around your models face, I know this might be strange, but it works. By doing this you can start to draw a picture of where the bones form. Don't be afraid to really press down on the face, just check the pressure isn't to much! When I first found out we were doing an anatomically correct skull on the face, I was really looking forward to it, I've never even attempted to do it before, so this really was all new to me! 

Throughout the application I did come across a few problems, but nothing that can't be fixed. I used supracolors, these are great for designs like these, as they are easily removed and you can blend with them really well. My first problem I came across was the teeth, trying to get them to look natural and not a main focus was really difficult for me, I couldn't quite catch how to apply them without them, mine just seemed to look drawn on, almost like how you would on a picture. Don't worry though, its not all bad, for my first attempt I think it did come out quite well, obviously when I look back I can see things I would like to change, but in my next application I can put them all into action (pictures will follow!) I love how I stuck to basic colours, nothing too bright and out there, I wanted my skull to look as realistic as I could get it and I think I achieved it. When I do carry out the skull makeup again I would like to try a various amount of colours, by doing this I can see exactly where each bone is formed and how to point them out. Here's a couple of pictures of how I did, take a look..

Week 1, Anatomy of the skin.

So in my first week of media makeup we had to learn about the Anatomy of the skin, this is a very important topic to cover as a makeup artist as we need to know all about the functions of the skin and how it works! Here's a few things I learnt!

There are 3 layers which make up the skin, the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutaneous layer. Each layer has a job, the epidermis is the layer which we can see and helps protect us, the dermis is divided into 2 layers, the papillary layer which feeds blood vessels and the reticular layer which contains collagen and elastin. Finally the subcutaneous layer is the fatty one, it helps keep us warm and protects us from getting hurt. Always remember SHAPES, this helps us to remember the functions of the skin.

S-sensation: when we touch and feel things.

H-heat regulation: vasodilation can occur where the blood vessels expand. A-absorption:substances can enter the body through the skin.
P-protection:the acid mantle plays a part in protection. This is where our sweat and sebum mix together on our skins surface, this creates an acid like barrier which helps prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi.
E-excretion (gets rid of toxins): when our body gets rid of things we don’t want (sweat, salt)
S-secretion (keeps skin supple & helps build up the acid mantle)
Production of vitamin D-gives bones, nails & hair strength. 

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Hi everyone,
I am currently in my first year of media makeup and I wanted to share everything I learn in my lesson with you all. I am new to this, so bare with me as I go along. This is my journey and I hope it helps a few of you x