I met with photographer Benjamin Reed this past summer to talk about doing some test shoots in the future. His jobs don't normally require the assistance of a makeup artist but I liked his work enough to try. He has some really cool portraits of some of my favorite people (note to Beck--we are now only separated by one degree!)
Ben did contact me for a shoot the other week. His subject this time around was Mariel Zagunis--7 time world champion fencer, winner of the gold medal in Athens and Beijing. She's training for London too and I wish her the best!
Ben has apparently been watching quite a bit of Kill Bill as of late and the films were a big influence on this shoot. He wanted Mariel to be surrounded by bodies and to have a cut on her forehead a la Uma Thurman.
Mariel's skin was really beautiful and I kept her makeup more natural with a bit of a smokey eye. Her cut was a latex prosthetic and molding wax with a little stage blood for good measure.
I'm sooo far behind in posting things here. Better late than never, right?
My lovely model/actress friend Caitlyn asked me this summer if I would join her team on their entry for the 48 Hour Film Project. I am always looking for more film experience so I jumped on the opportunity.
Here's how the 48 Hour Film Project works. All films have to be completed in their entirety in 48 hours or less--casting, script, filming, editing, everything. In order to level the playing field the following is set in place: Your genre is drawn out of a hat at the beginning of the 48 hour time line. Each film had to include a specific prop (a picture frame), character (a lab technician named Brian or Briana Merryweather), and line of dialog ("For crying out loud!").
As luck would have it, my team who specializes in comedy drew the thriller/suspense category. However, they didn't allow that to get them down. They stayed up all night working on the script and we started filming the following day. Everything went very smoothly and our entry made it into the competition on time. I don't think we won anything but it was a fun project nonetheless.
My job was fairly easy here--natural makeup, keep everyone shine free, add some dark undereye circles, mix up lots of blood, etc. I did get to create a very realistic gunshot wound out of makeup, fake blood, and oatmeal but the final cut didn't show a close up. Oh well, it was good practice, right?
Usually I post my fun, pretty test shoot images up here since they are what I get the most pleasure out of doing. I do get other jobs too! They just aren't always near as exciting to look at and I don't always get images out of them either.
I've been working with Chad Brown from Chado Advertising & Design here in Portland. He is a really great guy, super talented and driven unlike anyone else I have ever seen. His firm is basically a one man show and he does it all, literally and figuratively; I don't know where he finds the time. Every time I talk to him he has a new client or project to work on. In an economy where most are spinning their wheels Chad keeps going stronger and stronger! I'm so pleased that he is a client of mine!
Here are some shots for a few of the companies we have worked with.
Honey Mobile Salon Portland, OR
photos: Chad Brown lighting and photo assist: Sanders Anderson makeup, hair, & grooming: Amy Gillespie makeup assistant: Megan Root
Cascade Village Shopping Center Bend, OR photos: Chad Brown lighting and photo assist: Sanders Anderson makeup & grooming: Amy Gillespie
Sometimes when I contact photographers or agencies I feel like my emails and phone calls are swallowed by a black hole out there in cyberspace. I hit the send button and my email is never made mention of, never to be heard of again almost as though it never existed. Then there are times when I am lucky enough to score a meeting usually consisting of them leafing through my portfolio in under 30 seconds and thanking me for my time as they show me the door. I usually send a follow-up thank you email or phone call never to hear from them again; must be that pesky black hole again. However, every now and then, someone comes along who I absolutely have to work with and I won't let it end with a "don't call us we'll call you" meeting. Such was the case with Brian Stevenson, underwater photographer extraordinaire. I felt his work was too special and uniquely beautiful for me to let my meeting with him last winter go to waste. Thus, I mercilessly emailed the poor man until at last, this summer, success! In this case though, I don't think he was putting me off. We just don't have enough swimming pools and nice weather in Oregon to be able to do work like this year round therefore we couldn't really put anything together until the stars were aligned--we both needed time in our schedules and needed to have the sunshine on our side.
Our first shoot was with Kirsten from Q6. This was my first time doing makeup for underwater purposes so I was a little more conservative in colors since I wasn't sure what to expect. Kirsten's skin is flawless so I didn't do much in the way of foundation other than a little concealer and brightener under her eyes. I used a supposedly waterproof liner on her eyes and that turned out to be the biggest mistake of the day since it was anything but waterproof. I ended up doing more touchups than were probably necessary but better safe than sorry. In hindsight I wish I had used a little more color on her lips and cheeks since the water tends to wash everything out (no pun intended). Ah, the learning curve. Here are a few of my favorites from this shoot.
Onto day two... Brian asked if I knew any models who might be good for this sort of shoot so I recommended Lindsay, signed with Ryan Artists here in Portland and Heffner in Seattle. She is super pretty and very athletic so I thought she might be a good fit for this type of shoot since stamina is very important in this case. She did amazingly well and I am so in love with these pictures. I feel like I did a stronger job as well since I figured out a few underwater tricks (ditch the "waterproof" eyeliner!) Her skin wasn't quite as clear as Kirsten's so doing a heavier foundation was a little more of a concern for me. However, my Cinema Secrets foundation with a primer held up amazingly well; I couldn't be happier with how her skin looks. I'm wading through these pictures trying to pick out my favorites and so far I can't so here a lot for your viewing pleasure.
