Halloween 2015 Treetops Facepainting

Just a little post to list a few pics I snapped of my work colleagues as we appeared to the general public last Halloween (I realise I'm only posting this in February..). 

Apologies for my delay in posting on time, and no time for pics as I went, so here are some of this finished results - all of this was boshed out in about 90mins I think.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a close up snap of Stu as a pirate and Jack's overly wide bloody grin. May update if I find any at a later time. Still lots of fun freestyling to be had!

Halloween 2015 makeup commission

So I was asked by a handsome local DJ to do his makeup for his Halloween night gig like this image he'd found:

Having looked into this extremely detailed piece I discovered it was a makeup test photo, designed to show what spectacular things it can do. 

Clearly I was very intimidated given this was done by professionals, with a vast array of fancy makeup and time on their side...

I (an amateur) had to replicate it as much as possible in about 45mins, on a busy man, with Snazaroo facepaints...

So this is how Dave normally looks:

A rather happy chap who is painted very seriously, stern skull face biz.

Needless to say, I'm still quite pleased overall, given those factors. It's very much a humble nod to. There was no time or assistance to take pics as I painted and as he had to rush off, there was no time to snap any then, but I managed to find the following pics of him throughout the night, taken by various people I'm afraid I don't know (I claim no copyright, I just wanted to show my painting efforts):

Obviously by the time these were taken, more than a few hours eating, drinking and dancing have taken its toll, but the overall effect is there. Unfortunately I couldn't find any pics in colour that showed the washes/tones that got whiter in bonier places. 

Deatbeats Gig Make-up: House of Vans Party, London

So this project was born out of need to produce gig makeup for my samba punk drumming band for a comic-book themed private party we'd been booked to play at the House of Vans venue in London.

Concept: Sin City/comic 2D/Frank Miller/Greyscale

So the closest source image I wanted to base it on was this:

But a little bit less Roy Lichtenstein..

So I'd had to freestyle a last minute template for the dot work, so it would appear more uniform, from some back-to-backed coloured stationary stickers (or rather, their edges, not the dots themselves.) swiped from work due to forgetting the one I'd made earlier...as I'm a doofus.

Also in another dramatic turn of events, our coach driver, it transpired much later, had suffered a heart attack on his way to get us, so in waiting for so long, we managed to rustle a couple of vans up and drove ourselves, but that meant significantly less time in doing everyone's makeup. Therefore the method had to be adjusted and simplified to be done in half the time so it's a little slapdash - but all things considered I managed to turn out a few good ones with the help of a team I bullied into helping (the stars!!).

Here's the results: (There was NO time to snap picks in the frantic rush to get the paint on ASAP)

I did Janes makeup (below, on the left)

Would like to revisit this one again with the band, but with significantly more time of course! I do think the concept was achieved nonetheless, though not to a standard I was happy with. Still, it's all a learning curve!

 

Floral gig/festival make up / spot/partial facepainting

So I was simply in the mood to facepaint one night a while back and my housemate Lou expressed an interest in being my volunteer, so we cracked a bottle of wine, put some tunes on and faffed about with some facepaint.

My starting concept was simply "Paisley" (the print, not the town)

I wanted to make sure it was colourful- complementary tones but with highlights, so I picked out a bunch of colours I thought I might use, which on retrospect were a tad too many, but it was fun and open still at this point, I didn't have a clear idea of what it would end up looking like, just a rough starting point; a curved teardrop shape around the eye.

So I began free-styling on my model and housemate Louise. Presented here in all her bare-faced glory (pretty much)

I had to keep tilting her head up as my light source was ceiling spotlights - rather than trying to affect a classic flattering pose, but still, win win I guess..

So the free-styling began:

It was interesting to see where the lines I painted lay on her face, particularly above or below the eyebrow, it looks re-contoured.

It helped a lot that Lou's eyebrows were so pale and fine when it comes to painting over them, I really will have to get a better method of covering thicker ones down!

At this point I couldn't help feel that it was missing some stronger tones but wanted to be car full with how much black I introduced. 

The answer was re-lining Lou's eyes.

And as she's a performer and partygoer that meant the finishing touch: glitter. Glitter Everywhere!

Think she was pretty chuffed with the overall result!

Given the talking, drinking wine and music-listening casual tone of this facepainting episode, I have to say it must've taken a good 45mins to do, but I think if I went back to do it again, could probably bosh it out in half the time?