Make Up!!!

And it's many Perils.

Of all the aspects of the theatre that I have explored, Make Up is truly the hardest to perfect.  It is also one of most fun.  Below are some of my accomplishments and not so accomplished-ments that I've dared to take on.  Have fun! Have a few laughs! I know I did!!

In The Beginning
HA!  I just laugh at this every time I see it.  It's supposed to be a rabbit.  I don't know what it looks like but it's not a rabbit.  Anyways, this was the first project that we had in the Fullerton College Beginning Make up course.   Stunning isn't it!? For some reason, a lot of people like this photo.  It was an experiment in highlights and contrast and the colors that they consist of.  We were to take a photo from a painting and then reproduce the painting on our faces.  I think it didn't come out too well but like I said a lot of people like the photo.
We had the option of doing Kabuki or Chinese Opera. This is a Kabuki attempt. I've done better since then but this just looked like hell to me My first project with latex.  I built up my forehead and tried to give myself bumps leading up to my hairline and building up my chin.  The rest is painted on.  I think the painting made a bad job even worse.
Here I was making up missed Make-up projects.  The idea was to get rid of my eyebrows and create new ones, give myself a black eye, a bruise, a mole and a cut.   This was just a test of how well we were paying attention.  They idea was to make ourselves look as good as we could.  I think my jaw was too square, my lips were too rounded on the edges and I had pink eye at the time...  whoops!!!
This is the Phantom of the Opera make up in it's final stages.  My instructor gave me the greatest compliment of saying that this was probably the best that she had seen in her beginning class.  The photo really doesn't do it justice, though.  Thanks Mela I was a little lazy with the blending and the lines for this one.  It's an old age assignment.  I spent too much time on the bald cap and not enough on the actual make up.
Now this was a tragedy waiting to happen.  I think for the last month of this class, I never had any hair.  This was supposed to be an alien.  I missed out on what everyone else was doing because I again spent too much time on the bald cap, which didn't come out so great this time.  The latex had started to tear as well.  But I would really like to redo this sometime.  It was a good idea that wasn't given the time that it needed.
And here some of us are in our final project.  The idea was to make ourselves as indistinguishable as possible to our instructor.   I think she was just being nice but my instructor said that she didn't recognize me at first so I passed but this was a fun design.  
Starting from me clockwise - Johnne; ring-tailed Lemur, Jessica; bear, Becky?; Lemur Dave; alagator (I think) Beth; a white tiger and Erica; a Bengal Tiger

 

FRANKENSTEIN

Here is Lyn Schlitz in the role of the Frankenstein Monster.  This was my first show that I ever designed in any sort of aspect.  I had to work on about 20 actors.  I had a very competent and steady crew of five and we made this show look great.  Lyn was also one of my adventures into the land of bald caps and liquid latex.

 

Various

The picture on the left is my old manager on Halloween.  He actually designed the make up but I was the one who put it together.
The next picture is Cameron, a student at AMDA who was doing the short one-act, Kid Purple.  The story of a boxer who had a purple head.  I think more should have been done with this but we had about five minutes to do this and it was just me and his scene partner.

Here's the mask that I made at Fullerton University.  It's made of foam latex and a latex bald cap.  I liked the way that this mask went with my Renaissance costume so much that I used it again for Halloween in 1998.  This time, instead of a light blue grease paint base, I used a grey grease paint base with a silver power mixed in and coated on the top to give the purple and light blue highlights and shadows a more transparent effect.  The mask is in three pieces, one for the jaw, one for the face and another being the bald cap.

Here's a "Newish" photo from the play Walk With Me. This is an actor who was supposed to be dying of AIDS. Ben was really great to work with because his quirky personality. He looked really good up on stage as well.

 

Old Age

These are two examples of Old Age Make Up that I've done for two different shows.  In the first is Julie Sabela in her AMDA showcase.  The makeup in this photo was too light but we eventually perfected it to make her appear to be 80 years old, without the use of Latex.  The second photo is Marcus Woolen in 42nd Street.  He was playing the role of Dorothy Brocks lover.  Marcus was much too young for the role so we had to age him about 30 years.  Again, this is an early photo of what eventually became a man in his late 50's.  The trick with Marcus' make up was to adjust it for the different venues that we toured.

 

Bald Cap
I seem to only take pictures at the beginning of a Make Up project but here we are again.  Stephanie Hayslip is here ready for her scene in Marvins Room.  This was probably the best time I had doing a bald cap because for once it was on someone else.  But seriously, I had problems removing the cap from the blending between the cap and her skin being so indistinguishable.  I was really proud of this one.