Shoot day had arrived and i was excited to get all my hard work into a final piece. I was shooting in a studio I had booked out in Wales (As i was friends with the owner i didn’t need to pay a fee). As well as organising the makeup, i also had to set a schedule, a time plan of the whole day, as i needed to look after my model by picking her up and travelling to the studio. I decided i wanted to do the makeup at home as it was comfier for my model, also the studio was only a short drive (3 minutes) down the road so i thought this would be better to apply the body paint at home where i also made for space, i then could do final touch ups at the studio if needed. My model was free from 5pm and i was allowed in the studio for as long as i needed so i didn’t have any time limit at all which made my feel a lot more relaxed.
Before I started the makeup, i set up my working area. As i did the application at home I wasn’t able to have a makeup assistant in which i think i would have benefited a lot from having. As myself and my photographer had a clear idea of the kind of look we wanted after discussions. He was able to set up the studio as needed which great lighting. For the background we decided on a white background in the end as this brought out the makeup a lot more than we had thought it would and it looked really good in my opinion. As i have no idea with taking photos and the skills needed, i left all of this aspects to my photographer.
Being neat, tidy and organised worked well for me within this shoot as everything was at hand if i needed it as i had set up a little station for myself, i also had packed a smaller travel case with all the essentials i needed for when we moved location to the studio. This made me work a lot faster, as everything i needed was at hand. I had many extra pieces of latex animals all ready painted, on stand by just in case anything went wrong or needed replaced (if theres enough money in the budget left over, it is always great to make extra pieces just in case something goes wrong).
As i applied the body paint my model was able to take a few photos of how i applied and painted. I used prosaide to apply the animal pieces, i first started with painting the face with multicoloured dots, following a pattern that was related to tribal symbols. Then went onto colouring the arms, painting these in a zebra print, starting off with the white paint and then painting on the black lines. Next step was to colour the torso of my model i first applied an orange colour all over, after this was dried I then went on to apply the latex pieces, applying glue to the pieces then placing it on, fitting it to the nicker line then i took it off, before putting more glue on the transfer area, and then on the animal pieces again and waited until it dried and went tacky. I then placed then back onto the body and it stuck, this created a tight bond between the skin and the pieces. To finish the look I also needed to paint the legs, i started off by painting top of the legs in a leopard print. Where i first painted gold randomly in uneven circles all over the top half of her legs, then went over the outer side of these circles with black, but only drawing to random black lines. I followed this process with little black, white and gold dots all along the top half of the legs as well. For the bottom half of the legs i finished off with applying more zebra print. I took photo reference with me as well so i can use to work from which helped a lot, i also had my sketches and designs of how i would apply the makeup.
As my model moved the prosthetics moved with her a little, this was a bit of a pain as i had to keep reapplying the pieces (For some reason the glue wasn’t sticking properly to the paint). Eventually we got the shoots that we needed as i was very happy with the outcome. The overall makeup (body paint) application worked well within my ideas and seeing it all come to life was great. I would go in quite often to touch up a few areas i thought needed my attention through out the shooting process.
This shoot tested my ability to work in a team, model, photographer and editor. The photographer was great to work with, who knew exactly what i wanted a got to work on it straight away. As he also wanted to build his portfolio, this was great project to work on so both of us shared the same interest which drove the shoot forward.
My model, Jema was brilliant, she was cooperative and easy to work with, ready to help or move at any time. Which was lovely. I believe this made the time a whole lot better as i didn’t have to deal with any problems with her. The timing of the shoot went well. As the makeup took just over 4 and a half hours to apply i had to make sure my model was comfortable and made sure she had breaks and moved about quite a lot for this process. I believe i kept within my time plan as i was organised and made time for everything to run smoothly.
I took a few photos of the application, close up of the body paint as it was being shot, along with evidence of how some of the pieces was coming off along with areas needing to be touched up during shooting. These weren’t my final images.
Looking back at these images and the shoot day along with the final pieces i am delighted with the outcome. Although if i was to do the whole look again, i would of course change and alter a few things to make it look better. I would probably make stencils and draw patterns on the arms rather than using a zebra print twice, there is a few things i could change as any makeup artist would say about their work. But now that i have done this piece i can develop my skills further this into the future. This application really tested my skills as a makeup artist, as i took on something i hadn’t done before and working on the whole body was defiantly a new for me as i have no worked on smaller areas at a time. This was very similar to other shoots that i have done before, but rather than just concentrating on one area of the body i had to think about the whole lot this time so i couldn’t have an area to hide of anything as everything was on show. As I’m not a photographer I wasn’t sure what exactly to do on this shoot day or tell the model what to do so i decided to let the photographer take control, this taught me a lot about the experience as photographer showed me a few different shots and angles that worked best with the lighting. I feel i really did achieve this makeup to my best ability and would develop my skills within the area as i have an interest in body painting and would help me develop into the industry.
Specialist practice 