character assessment

And now came our last assessment before xmas...thank god! My brief was 'A middle aged homeless man who has been beaten up'....RRRegarde:

i came up with an entire backstory to Andreas my 47 year old, Italian born, artist, poet, sculpter, follower of literature, science, religion and philosophy. This man had lead a life looking back on his disrupted childhood, pining for his dead mother and for support of his quirky, artistic lifestyle. After becomming heavily interested in Buddhism, he decided to give up his worldly belongings and roam the streets in search of a life gone astray. He was constantly turned away and rebuffed as a bum, and mentally ill.

Today we find 47 yr old Andreas on a park bench clinging to his pipe, sketch book and battered book of poetry. He has been beaten up by a gang of youths who took a dislike to his ramblings. A hefty thump to his left eye leaves a fresh bruise and the mark from where his pipe has been shows clearly on his lip. His hair, and brows show signs of greyish aging, while his haggared and sleepless eyes, weather beaten skin and gaunt appearance age him yet again. His once fine fettle of facial hair is now a patchy tarmac of stubble.

His clothes are stained with paint, dirt and a thousand tales of tragedy and heart break, his shoes reduced to flapping soles are now held together with old bin liners and string. Andreas still wears his favoured waistcoats to this day. A style he was well known for in his early twenties, when he was a hit with the young girls at art school. x

Characature week

Character week....yes thats right, 11 weeks in and we're still going! make up fools that we are... the last week before xmas break, and what better way to get in the festive mood than aging each other with grease paint, and latex and turning us into men....jingle bloody bells here we come!

First up was theatre aging. Shading the face using grease paints to high and low light the appropriate creases and wrinkly bits.

then greying up brows, lashes and hair around the temples and hair line to give a subtle hint of middle agedness.

wrinkles done with latex. Most effective around the eyes, and nose to mouth lines. Nikitta here, looking just a shade older than 20!...

this is my attempt at turning the 'too cute to be true' Vicky into Victor....a tough task. So i shaded her face up to butch her up, accentuated the brow bone, jaw nose etc. The brows were filled in and fluffed up using grease paint, and the stubble stippled on...more of a theatre look than film.

laying on hair to create splendifferous mutton chops! i matched the hair to Jess's mahogany red locks and blended in a few other shades to break them up.

i then attacked the poor girl with a moustache, layed on hair by hair, and also manned up her neat girly brows i the same way, to make them more unkept. A very manly affair indeed, and my newly shaved head went down a storm, making my sex change make up scarily real! x

the shearing shed

A small change of hairdoo thats been a long time coming...thought a pic might be in order....

yew! x

Wiggy wiglets

Wonderful world of wigs was this week....and all the period hairstyles you could shake a well coiffed stick at. This small mouse shaped hairdresser was in her element...

learning to block a wig - or attach it to the wig block...mundane but crucial.

ringlet dowels a la Jane Austin fame

set and dressed ringlets with 18th century style uppy doo at the back

!940s victory rolls

and with scarf, Land Girls style

everyones favourite...1920s finger waves! i was first shown these 9 years ago at hair dressing school, didnt get them then, and found them tricky this time round too...however i now possess the gift of patience....and thus, mastered the full head finger wave

fingers waves dressed out and ready to charleston...pretty pleased with the result i must say...

1940s reverse pin winding

reverse pin wind set and dressed. This week taught me that i still love hairdressing, no matter how much of a break i have from it, and that patience is a virtue. x

ta da .....Bald!

Yes siree, included in the bumper fun pack of prosthetics was every ones fave, bald caps. we made and applied the caps of shiny truth to each other over 2 days...this is the onslaught:

so we start with a red head dummy, layers of cap plastic coloured with fleshy toned paints, are painted onto the red head in grauating layers to build up to the thickest point on the crown.

each layer is powdered in between and at the end, then left to dry and cure.

the models hair is then wrapped super tightly, using lots of hairspray and pins

soaped to keep in any ends, and blowdryed to create a rock hard finish

a layer of cotton wool is added to create a bump free surface

cap is applied (slightly drunk looking model there...)

trimmed and stuck down using prosade and spirit gum, and coloured with pan sticks to blend.

This is the finished cap.

Then the equally as fun, removal....

I loved mine, elle...not so much.... x

The Birds... and other creatures..

Its been a while, yes indeed it has. I have been lost in a world of fiber glass, plaster banadages, life casts, alginate, things that sting, itch, burn, stick to, and generally irritate ones epidermis in a most fun and exciting way....two challenging, but ultimately satisfying, weeks of prosthetics. I have a million photos of each and every crucial step of the past 2 weeks, but to prevent boredom i shall whip thru the most interesting ones so im basically skipping the first 4 days....

so here we start sculpting from water based clay...i decided to create and evil bird type creature

then started sculpting in wax based clay copying my original design

both sculpts to compare

finished wax sculpt ready to be cast. complete with wrinkle and skin texture detail.

foam latex mask once cooked

this is my finished piece complete with make up, costume and of course lovely model Sean

bird man and his date, the scottish orangutan....

me and sean after 5 looong hours of work...now just to remove it all.... x

Film clippy numero deux

And another film clip, this one from my jewellery/poetry exhibition i had whilst living in Byron Bay. This film was created by my dear friend Oliver Buckworth and myself. x

A little film clippy

Thought i might aswel put up a student film thingy that i worked on before heading to make up school. This is my dear dear friend Mikeys music vid. I got to act in it aswel as doing the hair, make up and costume.... x

at school pics

A few "at school" pics, mainly to show me mum...

the gals,

the class

comparing burns with Elin

These bodies that we paint...

Body painting week this week.

Day 1 was a classic Chinese Opera make up to test out our blending skills. Mine wern't too bad, however my shakey hand, left over from the halloween madness, took its toll, thus, a side on pic!

Day 2 was clothes. We started with the top of a halter neck toppy thing that was copied from a photo....

This was my end of the week project. My lady painted to look like a pair of antique sewing scissors. I was pretty happy with the result, tho she was supposed to be painted black so that she blended into the background, but i ran out of time. Had sooo much fun spending 5 hours painting her.

NB: names left out on purpose, a slight nod towards privacy if thats possible with bum out......

this is what she then did to me the next day, which i think is awesum! a painted raggy doll. check out the freaky eyes. x