Hand Laid Bearded Lady

 

It’s been a busy couple of days with lots of exciting projects being completed and meeting lots of new people. One of highlight jobs was creating a bearded lady for Just Imagines’ performance at Crafty Vintage, Houghton Tower.

I have completed a lot of jobs of Just Imagine and they are an exciting events and performance company to work with, with lots of vision and characters to construct. Bearded lady is a character that I have created before, but this time was on a new performer, Emma who had an amazing voice!

So, let’s get into the construction of the bearded lady. It’s a simple technique (with practice) but can be very time consuming if creating a big bushy beard like what we needed for this character. The first thing that is needed is to prep the crepe hair, for this application and for the budget requirements we are doing a hand laid crepe hair beard which although can be itchy (always inform the performer that this will happen, but they will get used to it once its completely applied and styled) creates a good effect for the stage.

Because crepe hair comes plaited and tied, once it’s unravelled it has a natural kink to it which needs to be “relaxed” therefore once you cut the hair to length and remove the string you are going to need to soak it in hot water. Soaking it “relaxes” the crepe hair, you need to keep an eye on this as you do not want the crepe hair to straighten out 100% when making a beard. You want to crepe hair to have a little movement to it (or slight kink) as this will look more natural.  Once fully dried you can move on the applying, which is the time-consuming part of the application.

When applying the crepe hair to the performer you need to prepare the skin effectively using oily free cleansers and barrier creams. To apply the crepe hair to the skin I find that spirit gum/mastix works best for my needs and for this job I used Ben Nye’s Matte Spirit gum but the Kryolan TV Mastix also works amazingly well (I used this in a past bearded lady job) The key to applying a good realistic beard is to lay the hair in rows, working from the bottom of the chin out, then applying another row above and keep going until you have the shape you want applied. Its always a good idea to leave the moustache to the end as this can be the most uncomfortable part of the application for the performer.

When you have the beard laid fully, you can move on to styling and trimming to desired look for the character.

And there you have it, one bearded lady for a theatrical performance, it’s so much fun working with different companies and performers in this way. You learn so much and, in this industry, you can never know everything, so its importance to keep on practicing and learning.

XRx

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

 

Dangerous Beauty Workshops: Creative Makeup Class ... with horns!

Hellooooo my lovelies,

In this entry am going to talking to you guys about my recent workshop at +Blackburn College  with my wonderful level 2 Media Makeup students. As most of you know I teach part time at Blackburn College; covering Media Makeup Level 2 and 3 but every so often I like to go off curriculum and do a fun workshop class or demonstration of the things I love to do in my freelance life. These workshops were planned as part of the college's Industry Week in which people from industry come to the college and hold workshops....hence me doing my workshops!

So this workshop which I decided to name "Dangerous Beauty" (always have to have a theme from all my workshops...yes I know am a nerd!) and focused on using dramatic contouring and eye designs to create edgy pieces. I also decided to allow the use of my headdress for this workshop, my antler and roses one as well as my new rams horn headdress.

Headdress are a new thing for me, but I love being creative so why not! The rams horn one was relatively easy-ish to make but very fiddly do create.

As you can see a lot of wires to fiddle with, the bulk of the horns is made from an air drying putty but my previous "horns" have been made using an oven bake clay...its much lighter but either works.

 

I realised after I painted up the horns that I made one slightly longer then the other...ah well! Painted up using acrylic paints and a little varnish for a smooth/shine finish. I wish I more 'dangly' bits to add but this was all that was in the craft box.

So the workshop demonstration used a mixture of airbrushing techniques, prosthetics and manual makeup...I wanted to demonstrate the variety of skills learnt in Level 3 Media Makeup as well as how to cross over SFX into Fashion Makeup and visa versa...

 

The prosthetic used was just a flat mould textured piece that look like scales...which went with the whole demon lady look.

 

 

Airbrush based using the fantastic #Iwata airbrush gun, its my baby...I will admit am aiming to get an upgrade when I go to +United Makeup Artist Expo this weekend. The foundation used was #mistair which are a silicone based foundation, very light as I wanted the colours on top to pop.

 

Eye liner detail work using +Inglot Cosmetics  eyeliner gel.

 

 

Black eyeshadow by +illamasqua #obsdian This is the blackest of black eye shadows, fantastic to blend, beautifully dramatic. You want a true black eye shadow this is your product!

 

 

The manual contouring was done using +Sugarpill #burnheartpalette ... in particular the red which is called #+love Fantastic palette to do dramatic contouring with as its so pigmented and you can build the colour up so easily! Am pretty sure one of my first review blogs was one this palette so look back through time and check that out if you want more information on the product.

 

 

The colour airbrushing bits, red/black was done using MistFX Aqua paints which can be used alone for body art or mixed 1:1 with distilled water to run through the airbrush gun...which is what I did. The product is brilliant for work like this as it comes in a variety of colours and covers extremely well. No patches or flaking! One piece of advice however make sure you shake the bottle fully and mix the water to paint ratio well other wise you will get a blockage in your airbrush gun.

 

There is an awesome stencil for creating those veins on the neck buuuuut I wanted to demonstrate to the students free hand work.

 

 

Black lipstick by +illamasqua , one of my favourite lipstick to use as it looks beautifully dark and doesn't look patchy as some black lipsticks do ...

 

Studs were pulled out of headband...I tried to find lose ones at my local haberdashery but they didn't have any so, use what you can get....

 

And the final outcome....

 

 

I think it turned out pretty well...the headdress makes it along with those studs down the cheekbones and forehead.

 

 

I love airbrushing...I love mixing it up with manual techniques but the smooth application of the Mistair products looks amazing...my models skin looks beautifully smooth like porcelain.

 

I did another of these workshop with another group of level 2 Media Makeup Students, this time using a blonde model....

 

 

 

 I think both models suit it and am so happy with my new headdress...

 

Huge thank you thank you to the stunning models used...Amy and Simone, you both rock as demonic dangerous ladies!

 

For more photo's from the workshop check out my facebook page @Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA

Also check out my instagram and twitter for more up to date photos and happenings in my crazy creative world!

 

 

Bye for now!

xRx