Pro Tip
Dispense mascara onto artist's wax paper. Using the wand from the tube of mascara, pull off mascara onto the wax paper. This allows you plenty of product to do both eyes by using disposable wands or a mascara fan, and keeps the tube of mascara sanitary.
No double-dipping of the wand into the tube! Disposable wands come by the dozen.
Bring subtle definition to the eyebrow by grooming the eyebrows and, if needed, adding a touch of color for shape and fill. Care must be taken when adding color to the brows in the “natural look.” Use short brushstrokes (or pencil strokes) in a 45-degree angle for similar hair growth. Trick: Paint the eyebrow hair instead of painting the skin in this look. Using a mascara wand, apply color directly to the hair and not the skin. This is great on men. It will not work on someone's brow that is in need of filling because of lack of hair.
Try: Roux (Tween Time) Stick by Revlon, StaColor, Reel Color. Taupe and soft browns work well and do not photograph too dark. Medium to dark browns will photograph darker than they appear to the eye. Too much color and your makeup will not look natural.
Keep the mouth looking healthy by using just enough color to blush the lip. Use lip stains, tint with a matte or sheer lipstick, or use a lip pencil with a lip moisturizer to get the color and attention needed without looking too “lipsticky.” There should not be too much gloss for this look. Do not use lip gloss or heavy shine on men or children. Keep the focus on giving the individual the appearance of good health. Your technique needs to be subtle and clean without the obvious enhancement of makeup. Again, it's the “natural look” (Figure 7.2).
Figure 7.2 Young Women with Natural-Look Makeup
Spot Painting
If the actor's skin tone and condition are good, then no foundation or makeup base is needed for the “natural look.” Instead, you will choose to “spot paint” the face and not apply a full application of foundation or makeup base. Spot painting is the technique of literally painting out unwanted color from the face or body. Any spots or unwanted marks are painted out with a concealer, Dermacolor, StaColor, or even foundation. The product you choose depends on what is to be covered. Spot painting is a part of concealing and correction, but in this case, we use it to replace foundation or base.
Example: You are instructed by the makeup department to “just spot paint” your actor. They do not want makeup base applied. They want you to just spot paint correction on clean skin, and only in the needed areas. This is widely used on men, children, and for all situations where you do not want to see any makeup. It has become an industry standard.
StaColor and Reel Color can be used in spot painting when the makeup needs to be waterproof, sweatproof, or friction resistant (such as for necks so color does not come off on shirt collars).
Working with the individual's clean skin, apply a sunblock first if working outdoors, concealing only where needed, and matching the concealer to the skin tone. The concealer or makeup is concentrated only on the spot or area that needs correction. Blend or feather out onto the skin, being careful not to over-paint or bring the edges too far onto the surrounding skin. You just want to paint the specific spot. Dermacolor (by KRYOLAN) works well with spot painting. It is non-comedogenic, and gives you full coverage (or camouflage) that you can feather or blend onto the surrounding skin with your brush. Choose a makeup brush that is small in size to prevent over-painting. Set the makeup with very little powder. Too much powder on bare skin is dry looking. When spot painting a face, use Face to Face Supermatte Antishine by Make-Up International (an industry standard) to reduce shine on the skin. Because the skin is basically clean, with the exception of the “spots,” do not use powder to cut shine. Powder needs something to stick to, so on clean skin, use Supermatte Antishine, available in light, medium, and dark tones.
You can also use spot painting to correct broken capillaries, blemishes, birthmarks, and tattoos.
If it is obvious to the eye, it is obvious to the camera.
Steps to Spot Painting
It is recommended that you always use a sunblock as part of your prep when working outdoors. Depending on what you are covering, you have a choice of single-layer, double-layer, or triple-layer applications.
Single-color application:
1. Prep skin (if need) for all applications.
2. With a brush, apply concealer or Dermacolor to the discolored area, matching to the skin tone. Choose a makeup brush that is appropriate in size for the area you are correcting, and check to make sure it is blended. Lightly powder.
Two-color application (for stronger color correction):
1. Prep skin.
2. With a brush, apply concealer using the opposite color on the color wheel to cancel out (neutralize) the discoloration (see Chapter 3, Color).
3. Layer second matching skin tone color on top, over the neutralizing color.
4. Lightly powder.
Three-color application (for birthmarks, port-wine stains, tattoos, or gray tones):
1. Prep skin.
2. Apply first neutralizing color, the opposite color on the color wheel to the discoloration.
3. Apply second neutralizing color by layering or stippling a mauve (red) or orange over the first neutralizing color. This cuts any gray that is bleeding up from the first layer. Inks, gray undertones, and intense colors will have a tendency to “go gray.” This gray tone “bleeds” up through the correction colors. You will see it with your eye and in the mirror. Cut it with a mauve, red, or orange.
4. Layer the third color in a matching skin tone over colors one and two. Check your coverage in the mirror. Is the gray gone?
5. Lightly powder.
The stipple technique is an up-and-downward motion of application using a brush, sponge, or textured sponge. This up-and-down motion prevents the removal of any layers of makeup that are being applied. It is needed in spot painting, character makeup, effects, and prosthetics, but can be applied to most applications.
We want to stress how important it is to master the art of natural makeup and spot painting before moving on to beauty makeup. Practice on your models, your friends, and family. Practice until you believe it. Take photos and critique your work.
In film, beauty makeup is character makeup. Every makeup begins with the text. Makeup is simply one of several languages used to elaborate and illustrate text. Based on the text, we make all sorts of decisions: the character's physical well-being, social and financial status, level and condition of vanity, and inclination to spend time in front of the mirror.
—Richard Dean
Beauty Makeup
Beauty makeup in film and television has many layers to it. You are accentuating the face as well as adding character and background. We discuss designing characters in greater detail in Chapter 8. Beauty does not have to mean symmetry for film or the camera. The camera and the lens love irregularity. There will be jobs where you work for symmetry, and an equal number where you do not. This does not apply to video, HD, theatre, or to the retail world. These are media that will require symmetry. You will adjust your makeup designs and application for the medium you are working in.
Unfortunately, some individuals will look in the mirror and want symmetry. If you are working on a film, sometimes a gentle reminder that the camera loves irregularity will help, but often you will have to accommodate individual insecurity and vanity. Every situation is different.
Beauty makeup should accentuate and not overwhelm. It is not a mask, or unnatural looking. Accentuate the positive, without re-creating the face. In the beginning of film, the custom was to blank out the face and to paint back in the desired features. This is no longer the custom or trend. Reality is the accepted beauty aesthetic today.
We no longer do makeup by the pound.
—Randy Huston Mercer
Beauty does not stop at the face. You also have to do necks, hands, arms, legs, and—if needed—the full body. The skin should appear healthy—in some cases, glowing. Bring attention to
the eyes, define the eyebrows, and add color to the cheeks and lips. The eyes can captivate, and are generally everyone's best feature. If you cannot see the eyes, the audience loses interest, so eyes play an important role in all media.
Richard Dean's Tips on Beauty
1. Begin with a foundation primer and any eye shadow primer. Apply with a sponge. Areas of the face have uneven oil distribution, and will accept and hold foundations irregularly. A primer will have moisturizing effects in that it retards water evaporation from cells, and will create a more even surface for foundations and color cosmetics.
2. Liquid or oil foundation applied with a foundation brush. To keep a more natural look to the skin's surface, use foundation sparingly, do spot coverage (spot painting), and add pinker tones to the foundation with cream rouges as they naturally occur in the skin.
3. Cheeks are typically a bluish pink, never brown. Think blood vessels, the source of color. For a natural cheek, drag cream blusher down slightly toward the jawline and add a touch to the bridge (not tip) of the nose. This may be very subtle or quite heavy, depending on the situation. Example: Approximate the palest Irish skin with flushed cheek.
4. Powder with a yellow-based powder, then add powdered blush on the surface. The pink-yellow-red layer imparts a sense of depth, and therefore reality, to the foundation's finish. As the day progresses, try to blot before adding more powder. Remove as much natural oil as possible with blotting paper. Natural oil production plus powder creates another layer of a kind of foundation that gets heavier throughout the day if never blotted.
5. I use eyelashes for character effect.
In beauty makeup, the amount of attention brought to the eyes and eyebrows will depend on character and situation. There is a range to work from, but save the “smoky eye” for the glamour makeups that are more stylistic and dramatic.
Practice eye treatment and combinations of colors with as many models with varieties of eye color and shape as possible. Your eye and hand need the practical experience to develop your talent. You need to make mistakes as well as get it right to have the ability to deal with the uniqueness of each person.
Practice the art of eye shadow. Start with applying an eye shadow primer all over the lid. Try Paula Dorf. This preps the eyelid, helps the shadow last, and gives a smooth finish for eye shadow application. Using an eye shadow brush, apply a base color of shadow in cream, pink, beiges, all over the lid. Next, define the eye structure by applying browns or grays or blues in the eye crease. Placement is key; color choice is open to what looks good on the person. Start with browns until you have mastered placement. Have your model look in the mirror to check and correct placement. This is “working off the mirror.” You will do this to correct and check your work in all situations. Does the eye look open and balanced, or drooped? Is there enough definition? Is the application smooth and consistent in color, or muddy? Is there too much color in the inside corner? Too much of a straight line in the crease? Take photos to critique placement and style (Figure 7.3).
Figure 7.3 Close-Up of Natural-Look Eye Makeup
(From Shutterstock)
Beauty in Print
By Daniela Eschbacher
For fashion or beauty shoots, there are no limits. It is important to ask photographers about the image they want and how they are going to work the light. Do they want contrast or sober, or luminous and mild? For example, if photographers use artificial light with an emphasis on strong contrasts, the makeup needs to reflect well in the light.
Natural colors work best in most beauty makeups, from creamy white to chocolate brown. Warm colors also work well—pink, rose, peach and oranges. In beauty makeup, you want to look for textures that could be interesting. Your goal is to have smooth, shiny, and elegant skin. Glosses on the eyes create a very fresh look. On the cheeks, eyelashes, and eye brows, glosses will attract light.
Black-and-White Photography
In fashion, you do not always know if the job is going to be in color or black and white. Sometimes during or after the shooting while the photographer is working with Photoshop, looking at both color and black-and-white images, that decision is made then. For jobs when you know in advance that you will be shooting in black and white, you need to work more with contrasts and exaggerate the intensity of colors and shades. There is a lot more “graphism” in black and white than in color photography. We concentrate on the contrasts, shadows, and lighting instead of color. Graphic lines and structure work very well for the makeup, such as strong eyebrows, eye liner, and nicely colored, matte lips. Still it's important to ask the photographer exactly how the light is going to be worked. For black-and-white photography, it's important to have a good balance between warm and cool tones to make the skin look beautiful and alive.
Prep
I start with prepping the model, cleaning the model's face with mild liquid cleanser (Crealine), and depending on the skin, applying an appropriate moisturizer. I am not a fan of heavy creams or moisturizers. Natural oils and vitamins work well without affecting foundations. Nuxe Multiusage Dry Oil hydrates very well and won't make the model sweat. Check the model's lips for dryness, as models tend to have dry lips. Take the time to prep the lips properly. Sometimes I do a soft peeling to take off the dead skin, and afterward apply Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, a must for every Makeup Artist. I also check the hands and nails. Nails should have a good shape, no old or chipped polish, and no dry skin. Apply hand cream if needed.
The Makeup
Let the oils or moisturizer absorb before applying the foundation. Use eye products that are moist and creamy in texture, with soft eye pencils to work your shape for the eyes, blending and adding as you go. Purples and chocolate colors work well for this. To increase the contrast, use a powder shadow in gray or black only in areas that need contrast. Apply mascara and individual false eyelashes to the outside corners of the eyes to add drama and depth. Foundation is applied next. Follow with loose powder to set. I like Chanel. Use bronzer to sculpt and shape the face. Remember: Creating depth and contours is important on a shoot when the photographer wants contrast.
Shape the brows using three colors: brown, black, and gray. This mimics the different colors of the hair in the brows and you will adjust the colors depending on your model. I work with an airbrush, using Temptu products mixed with an SB solution.
On Set
Always check your makeup in the light of the studio. The makeup room is always bright and the light can be quite yellow. The studio might be completely opposite. Ask the photographer to do a test photo to see how the makeup comes across. Most photographers work in digital so the image can be downloaded right there to a computer and the results shown right away. Photographers appreciate your taking charge of knowing when it is a good time to touch-up lips, add some gloss, brush the eyebrows, and powder the skin. It is so much more interesting to participate in the entire process of making a good photo.
Pro Tip
To glue anything to the skin or eyes, use a transparent eyelash glue. When you glue anything to the skin be sure to clean the area afterward. Any glue remaining on the skin tends to shine in a photo and can be obvious in close-ups.
Pro Tip
Do not over-powder the face, especially for close-ups! This is really difficult for the photo re-toucher to correct afterward. Powder only certain areas—around the nose, forehead, and chin, and at the last minute.
Makeup Removal
For makeup removal, I normally use Crealine, which is easy to use and good for all skin types. Be prepared with makeup removal pads too; they are fast and efficient. Some models prefer to remove their own makeup, especially around the eyes and lids. Some will have their own products with them that they wish to use, preferring to avoid mixing skin-care brands. This is understandable given the amount of makeup they wear and remove.
Brow Shaping
Brow shape conveys a number of emotions and expressions, and is a focal point on the face (Chapter 1, Shapes). We use brows to draw att
ention to the eyes. Shaping and changing eyebrows is a great tool in character design and altering a look. The level of intensity and style of the brows will come from the character or situation. Brows should have a natural, unpainted look when doing a “beauty look” or “natural look.” Glamour makeup has all the drama, with a precise shape to the eyebrow that is obviously drawn or painted on. There are several ways to shape brows using various products, including brow pencil, brow creams or shadow, eye shadow, temporary hair color, StaColor, or Reel Color.
Choose colors that are close in shade to the eyebrow or slightly lighter. Remember, browns photograph darker. For a realistic brow, use two colors, to fill in or shape.
You can use brow pencils or brushes. If choosing brushes, pick a brow brush with stiff bristles that are cut at an angle (try Cargo's brow brush).
The Makeup Artist Handbook Page 11