Jillian 2010--The New Model

Wow, it's been far too long since I have posted here! I've been working but either haven't gotten all my images back yet or haven't had anything interesting enough to warrant posting. However, with this shoot, that is not the case!

My dear friend, Quavondo, approached me a while back about doing a shoot together. We used to work together quite frequently until he moved to NYC to delve more deeply into his photography career. However, we still kept in touch and discussed the option of doing more shoots. This past month, I actually had the privilege of working with him on two occasions in the space of one week! One is a top secret project, to be revealed at a later date. The other was a shoot with Jillian Rabe, Quavondo's muse. I had seen Jillian all over Portland but had yet to work with her so it was fun to finally meet her.

Going into the shoot, all I knew was that we would be shooting with a mannequin in a warehouse with cardboard boxes and packing peanuts. Poor Jillian knew even less--all she knew was to show up and that she would not be requiring any wardrobe! A few days before the shoot, Q told me he wanted Jillian to be bald and to look like a mannequin herself. All the places in the Portland area I called did not have bald caps so I frantically ordered one from a supplier I often order through based in Manhattan. I put a big, fat rush ship on it and hoped for the best. Well, it got to be the day before the shoot and still no bald cap even though they assured me it would arrive in time. I nervously informed Q that it had not yet arrived, fearing that he would have to cancel the shoot. He talked to another makeup artist in town who knew of a place to get a bald cap and drove furiously across town in rush hour trying to get to the store in time before they closed. He made it in the nick of time and the shoot was back on track!

This was my first attempt at a bald cap and it was a typical learning experience--make it up as you go, hope for the best, don't be afraid of trial and error. All in all, between the makeup and some photoshopping, I think the final images turned out beautifully! Q is a master at editing; I can't even begin to know how he made all of this possible. The shoot is so seamless and perfect!

To research, I did an image search on mannequins and studied the mannequin Q brought with him to the shoot. He wanted me to highlight Jillian's large, beautiful doll-eyes. I went to work with lots of pink, a little purple and silvery-grey, and some white-gold to highlight. I also used a lot of highlight on her face in addition to a gloss to give her skin a plastic look. All in all, I think it turned out great!

Side note: my bald cap finally arrived, 3-4 days later. So much for that rush shipping! At least I'll be well prepared for the next time I need to make someone bald!

Photogapher: Quavondo Nguyen
Model: Jillian Rabe
Makeup: Amy Gillespie










Amy Gillespie, professional makeup artist, special effects makeup, beauty, fashion, editorial, mannequin, Portland, Oregon, Pacific Northwest

Mariel Zagunis

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.

makeup - Amy Gillespie
photo - Benjamin Reed





Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, film, commercial, editorial, fashion, Portland, Oregon, Pacific NW

48 Film Project

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?

Enough of my jabbering; on to the film!




Many thanks to the awesome team!

Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, film, commercial, editorial, fashion, Portland, Oregon, Pacific NW

Not as pretty as a test but it pays the bills

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





Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, commercial, editorial, fashion, Portland, Oregon, Pacific NW

Persistence can pay off

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.










Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, fashion, beauty, style, editorial, Portland, Oregon, west coast

Kyle Goldie is golden

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of working with the talented Kyle Goldie. I have long admired his beauty work and was excited to add some of his images to my body of work.

We knew pretty much from the start that we wanted to do a campaign style series using bulky sweaters, blankets, scarves, etc. I was on board to do styling in addition to my usual duties of hair and makeup so it was up to me to find these articles in the middle of summer. Our first thought was to do neutral makeup with bright colored clothing. However, it was too early in the season to find a great variety of anything along the lines of outerwear. After much frantic shopping I finally struck gold with a few clearance racks and some yardage at a fabric store; the shoot was still on track! I will say, though, this was probably the cheapest shoot I have ever styled. I was able to purchase everything for under $30 and I have some great knit pieces to boot. Stay tuned; I'm sure they will be making an entrance in my wardrobe once our wonderful, crisp fall days arrive.

Since we were working with a much more neutral palette in terms of styling Kyle wanted bright, bold, editorial style makeup. We ended up working with 4 basic color schemes and color placement, some more bold than others but all equally beautiful and artfully blended.

All hair and makeup by Amy Gillespie, Photos by Kyle Goldie, styling by Amy and Kyle, Model Kelby from Heffner.






Amy Gillespie, makeup artist, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, beauty, editorial, fashion, commericial

Some new favorites

I'm slowly starting to get some pictures back from a week in May when I worked with the ever fabulous Peter Van Beever again. Check out his work at www.petervanbeever.com at your first possible chance. Do it. I promise you won't regret it.

We went for a flower child feel with Kirsten from Q6. A lot of work actually goes into making it look this minimal! Enjoy.












We also spent a few days at the beach and were joined by Anna and Sam of Option Model Management for one of the days. Since these shots were for their portfolios the styling was a little more basic but the pictures are still awesome. This married duo is as sweet as sweet can be and one day will be parents to the world's most gorgeous children.







All makeup, hair, and grooming - Amy Gillespie, photos - Peter Van Beever


Amy Gillespie | makeup artistry, Portland, Oregon, makeup artist, beauty, fashion, editorial, commercial