Evaluation

My two years spent studying specialist makeup at West Thames College has been harder but more rewarding than I thought.

 I began studying the basics of fashion makeup, which I thought was imperative to building my skills as a confident makeup artist in the different aspects of makeup varying from fashion to theatre. These lessons enabled me to broaden my knowledge of the fashion industry and its ever changing trends in hair and makeup. It has left me with a keen interest in fashion makeup and I will continue to research the different looks to keep my skills and makeup applications fresh and up to date.

Period hair and makeup was a challenging yet rewarding learning experience and I am grateful to have been taught the technicalities of period hair by Samantha Smart, who made each hair style look easy! I struggled the most with period hair but plan to utilise my time once I have graduated to practise all the styles more, as Britain is known for its period dramas in TV and theatre.

Another challenging makeup technique learnt was theatrical makeup, suitable for the stage. This very specific type of makeup application ranged from ballet makeup and aging makeup to making and applying bald caps. My passion for theatrical makeup as well as amazing teaching by Tanya Noor, enabled me to enjoy and pass this unit of work!

My favourite skill learnt and unit of work completed was learning all of the different aspects of hair and makeup suitable for TV and film, as it varied so much and encouraged me to look at time periods in depth to really capture a character and portray them accurately to the setting, time period and use application techniques suitable for the screen.

Other engaging units of work included body painting and special effects makeup. They both required knowledge of anatomy and health and safety, which is imperative when working in this industry, as the models as well as my own safety, is paramount in getting good results. West Thames were always very adamant that health and safety was top priority, which has disabled me from picking up any bad habits and has allowed me to apply health and safety checks naturally.

I felt I excelled in most units as I enjoyed leaning about them all so much. I am most proud of my character design projects from theatre and film and TV hair and makeup lessons the most and I am so proud of the characters I created not only through hair and makeup but from in depth research of time periods and other productions. My theatrical character project saw me create a character suitable for the stage incorporating a bald cap. I decided to incorporate theatrical aging techniques too and recreated the character of Dr Coppelius as I saw him, after in depth research. Another character I created was for TV and film. I created Fanny Wagtail, a prostitute from the 18^th century. I believe both character makeup’s were marked as distinctions due to my in depth research of character traits and time periods as well as learning application techniques learnt in class.

West Thames has given me the chance to work at London Fashion Week and on the set of Mr Selfridge, which were not only amazing experiences but allowed me to gain an understanding of what to expect including early starts, call sheets and etiquette.

From here, I would love to begin working as an assistant on set of a drama series, sitcom or soap and feel prepared for this due to work experience and lessons in understanding call sheets and filling out continuity sheets. I am also interested in adding more artistic images to my portfolio and gaining work experience in the theatre. I believe my ongoing passion for creative makeup and broad teaching of industry techniques will ensure a successful career within the industry that I am so ready for.

I would like to thank my tutors Emma Croombs (who was always so helpful with tips about working on set), Magdelana Sprenger (who taught us all about sfx products and the  importance of realism when creating wounds), Samantha Smart (who is a hair wizard), Branka Vorkapic (who amazed me with her brush work), Denise Delaney (who was always so encouraging and passionate about all of our designs) Tanya Noor (who made the hardest theatrical makeup applications look easy) and last but not least, Fiona Heath (who spoke about art in all forms so passionately).