Theatrical Make-up was the first subject I did at LAMP and I'm still doing it now. Make-up had always interested me, so finding out I could do it as a subject was really cool. It combines so many different types of makeup, from glam to gore.
It's such a great way to express yourself creatively, your ideas are always welcomed and encouraged no matter how outlandish they are! In fact, the crazier the better, I think.
To start off you will learn how to make a simple prosthetic wound, this introduces you to working with liquid latex which is used a lot during the course. From there, if you decide to continue with the subject, you will learn all about face shapes, colour theory and camouflage make-up. Throughout the course you will get to make a number of “heads”, these will be your rendition of character or creative make-up looks.
The first project I finished was a gore hand. I was heavily inspired by Pan’s labyrinth and the anime Parasyte. I knew I wanted to incorporate eyeballs into the hand and I luckily had some plastic ones at home (doesn’t everyone?), so I brought those in and started attaching them using tissues I had soaked in liquid latex, this created the eyelids. From there I covered the hand in foundation to make the appearance of skin, I also used a brown eyeshadow to create eyebags and contoured the fingers to make them look slender. I wanted the fingers to be eerily long, to do this I used paper I had rolled into a cone, then attached with masking tape and blended it I with more liquid latex. Then I was pretty much done, I made any final touches that needed doing and finally it was finished. I am still so happy with the final product; I plan to display it in my room.
One of my favourite heads I have created was of Barbara from Beetlejuice, specifically the scene where she is being exorcized and starts to wither away. I knew this was going to be a challenge, but I was ready for it. I first made a prosthetic to make her eyes look sunken, I also made a slender nose within this prosthetic so I didn’t have to make two separate ones. I had to create the look of wrinkles, and lots of them. To do this I again used tissues and liquid latex. Next, I made her grey, using a mixture of Ben Nye’s clown white face paint and black eyeshadow. The most important part of the piece is the wig, which I bought on amazon. Once it had arrived, I cut and styled it using hairdressing scissors and lots of hairspray, I also had to make the wig grey so I used a white hairspray to do this. Then she was complete!
If you have an interest in make-up, hair or costume design I highly recommend choosing Theatrical Make-up as a subject. You won’t regret it!
Comments