Voodoo Tribal Queen

I was asked to do a live demonstration for a +Habia  event at +Blackburn College  to demonstrate the skills that I teach as a Media Makeup Lecturer but also as a freelance makeup artist working in an ever changing environment.

I really wanted to demonstrate airbrushing skills as this is an area that is frequently developing and is a skill that can really boost a character creation. Also I haven’t created a headdress in a while so felt like a challenge.

This character focused on tribal styles and had a voodoo influence using lots of feathers and skulls as well as block colours and shapes.

 

The headdress was a lot of fun to make! Skulls are incredibly recognisable and one shape out of place or one cheekbone too high and it throws the whole piece out. It was sculpted out of Sculpt Clay which is an oven baked clay and it took about 2 days to complete this because I needed time to look at the sculpt and then take a break to come back to it with fresh eyes.

 

 

Creating the costume accessories, I wanted to try my hand at creating a feather collar/shoulder pads to relate to the tribal aspect of the character. I used old shoulder pads from a jacket and glue gunned feathers (from +eBay …where would we be without this marvellous online shop!) My colour scheme was black, pink and red…I seem to have a love for red and black at the moment and I think it’s due to how well they stand out when used together.

 

 

For this look I did a test run on myself, this was mainly because I was a little bit nervous about this demonstration to industry experts and salon owners and I wanted to physically plan out the application.

 

 

I'll be honest that I did go a little bit off design with this test run on myself and added a lot of extra bits. I think it worked for me but on my model I had to adapt it also this took too long for the demonstration and I really wanted to empathises the strong bone structure of my model.

 

 

I felt the demonstration went really well, I started it with a glamorous makeup demonstration applying everything with airbrush makeup only (foundation, eyeshadow, contouring,). I used my +Mistair airbrush gun and silicone foundations as well as my Iwata compression and a back up airbrush gun for the water based products to be applied with.

 

 

Unfortunately, I didn't get photo's of the finished look for this one because Amy my fabulous model had to go into the salon next door to be the model for the hair-up demonstrations.

 

 

The creative makeup demonstration I also felt ended up being successful and everybody who came by seemed to learn something from the session, so yay me!

I will admit sometimes at these demonstrations I go a little off topic...in this demo I talked about how airbrush can be used in cake decorating...true fact but not really related to makeup!

 

 My model was perfect for the look because she has such fantastic cheekbones and bone structure that I could really chisel out and emphasis further.

 

 

The products that were used for this look included +Mistair MistFX body art colours which I absolutely love. I have the travel pack which contains a selection of colours rather then the larger bottles but am pretty sure I will be investing in them soon.

I purchased my travel pack when I attended +United Makeup Artist Expo but you can buy them from +Face Paints Direct for a great price.

 

I love this product because you can use it from the body and paint straight onto the face but then you can also run it through the airbrush gun mixing a little distilled water. The colour is buildable and very pigmented allowing you to have block colour or wash of colour very easily.

 

 

I am very happy with how this character has turned out and am pleased that the costume part and headdress complements the makeup well. I have found that the extra elements really do help the concept come together which am hoping my students will take on board when they are designing their makeup/sfx characters.  

 

 

 

So there you have it, a successful HABIA demonstration done and a voodoo queen created.

 

There will be a YouTube video soon but at the moment am currently in Burton Upon Trent and so I don't have my video editing software.

 

If you head over to my Facebook page: Ruth E Moulden Makeup Artist there are more images from this event.

Don't forget to like and follow for more updates of my crazy life as a makeup artist!

 

My next couple blogs will be covering IMATS event as well as my Voodoo King who complements this character perfectly, used for a demonstration at the New Students Day held at +Blackburn College 

 

Bye for now Lovelies!

 

xRx