I don't think I've ever had an assignment quite this big. Sure, I've had some big ones - like the short script with costuming, set design & makeup that I did for my TEE (finals) in '99 - but nothing on quite this scale.

( Bigger than Ben Hur... minus the wrist watch & the sneakers. )

So our ITEC folio is to be made up of 30 characters.
It must contain ballet/dance, high fashion, Old Age, pantomime, fantasy, animal (facepaint), prosthetics, oriental, 5x period makeup, crepe hair (1 x beard, 1 x stubble), fairytale, cuts bruises & scars, & 4 x special effects (casualty).

∋ = probably in portfolio (unless someone talks me out of it)
♥ = received merit certificate for the makeup (which means my lecturer wants it in my folio.... so its going in there)

( table of makeups & links to images under the cut )

Friday 13th November was more red than black out west in Scarborough this year.

The Australian College of Beauty Therapy's Diploma of Fashion, Theatre & Media Makeup students hit the popular tourist beach; armed with sunblock, brushes, latex, adhesive.... & a few bottles of stage blood! Council & surf life savers forewarned & at the ready, the girls & their models trekked from as far as Toodyay, Rockingham & Roleystone to Perth's best-known beach with the sole plan of doing some gore-some makeup & having fun in the process!

Heads turned & questions were asked, the students assayed the public's fears & let them know it was all makeup. A couple of friendly boarders were willing to join in one makeup shoot & pose as the rescuers (right), all the while yelling, "Help! Life guards! Shark!" & waving their arms.

The Diploma girls proved that no one was safe from shark bites when they didn't stay between the flags; victims ranged from a 6 year old boy, through to adults in their mid twenties - even a washed up mermaid!

Working covered by shirts, hats & numerous reapplications of sunblock, they remained working under the shade of the gazebos until each makeup was complete but for the final, location reliant, touches. Preventing burn & staying hydrated was forefront in everyone's mind.

After a hearty barbecue lunch, complete with a variety of salads, the girls packed up, cleaned up & headed home, their presence at the beach no more than memory & captured photographs.

Thank you very much to the Rangers & to the Surf Lifesavers at Scarborough for making the day possible!

To view the full set of photographs, click here or the class (photo above) to be taken to the gallery album.

So today was our theatre practical application exam, & the day that our portfolios were due (minus the spfx we haven't covered yet).

As the second group were going through our exams things got.... I want to write interesting, but it wasn't. It was just f***ed.

3 students ended up in tears.

We all asked at the beginning of the semester what our folios needed to be presented in. I got told by the heads of the school to ask my lecturer. She told us A3 & that we could choose the type (book, display file, ring binder, other), so long as it was that size. We were told to be creative, that we have serious marks reliant upon the presentation of this folio, to make sure the photos were good, the written parts were typed & the headings were all present & clear.

Now, take into account that mine is unfinished & that the cost to make it is sitting at the (aus)$400 mark. There are 121 photos in it, worth $280 cost to print (I don't print these at home, I'm totally a lab-only snob with photos). I've still got about 10 special effects characters to go, which is about another 50 photos. The research images & text have just had me install my 3rd set of 4 print cartridges for my printer (which is $90-$120 per set depending on which shop actually has them in stock). My folder is a black A3 3-ring binder. I have clear sleeves with the white reinforcing on the inside edge. My sheets are black paper; 120gsm rather than the standard 80gsm & not the 300gsm cardstock. I've used 5x7" photos so that the makeups are clearly visible. Natalie, our lecturer, said to keep each makeup to 2 pages but I don't want to squish it as I want to have a finished product I'll be proud to keep in our studio to show clients. Mine are 3-5 pages, depending on the makeup (some of them go down arms, chests & backs & have ridiculously hard to explain in a sentence hair).

We got told today, after we have handed them in & after a fortnight of bringing them in to make sure everything was going to plan with them & their layouts, that the folio had to be an A3 ringbinder, with black cardstock sheets. Most of the girls were told that their photos were not big enough & they hadn't used enough. Only two of the other girls had 6x4", the rest were business card sized at best.

Well over half the class haven't done it that way & have been told to do it again. This weekend.

Our lecturer sat there in shock as the principal changed the requirements. She says there is nothing she can do.

ITEC supply us with a book, of 50 or so pages, detailing what we have to include & how. Chris, the principal, has decided she wants more things added; feedback forms, profiles & lifestyles & medical histories of the models etc for makeups that were done as far back as August.

I refuse to change mine. I'm not adding unnecessary information nor am I changing the paper to cardstock (especially not at $1.50 per sheet when there's at least 120 pages). If they try to tell me I fail the folio because of reasons they've made up later & given us verbally after the due date I will throw the book at them.

Possibly literally.

There is so much involved in putting this folio together for ITEC.
It has to include 30 characters, each with a consult form for the model, research images, research data, face chart (PLI), step by step instructions, before & after photographs, reflective practice & overall conclusion.

Figured I'd share one of them.

( I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another )


In other news, I got a Certificate of Merit given to me yesterday for my baldcap application & exposed brain makeup, & another for my Fairytale; Queen of Hearts makeup. [feels proud]

I'm trying to put my 30 character ITEC (international accreditation board) portfolio together at the moment for my diploma. I've gotten to a point where I need to make a list of what I've done & cross reference it against what I have to include for ITEC & what I have to include for ACBT (school).

Thought I'd share it.
Red is required for ITEC as well as class, Green is required for class.
** means that I haven't yet done my version of these.

( Foundation & Empire )

I had so much fun doing makeup on Friday.

Actually, scratch that. Rewind.
I had masses of fun Friday evening doing makeup. The day itself was mediocre at best.

But the outcome?! Holy hell I loved it... & so did the model, who then wore it out on the town. [snerk]

Latex bald capping is not just a matter of wack on a pre-made cap & paint to your heart's content. It's actually made up of a long winded, drawn out process of measuring the model's head, making a pattern (from cling wrap & sticky tape), setting up a mould & then making the cap. Layer by layer, powdering as you go & standing there like a twit, holding a hair dryer set to cold to make the latex (which, btw, smells like very well used cat litter) dry so that you can do the next layer. 4-5 layers & a reinforcement band later, you can then slick & stick back the model's hair & apply the cap (hoping you don't snap it), glue it down & blend the seams as flat as possible.

I had a wonderfully patient model who has been in so many times for our classes now that he might as well book in to sit the exam with RPL (recognised prior learning). Even though I'm the one that brings him in, it was the first time I've actually done his makeup for a class piece (he got me to do his makeup for his birthday party recently), so it felt even more new & exciting (other than the standing around blowdrying a latex cap for 30 mins per layer parts).

I was extra specially happified (to the point of MAKING UP WORDS) when my lecturer told me my bald cap was not only the best made in the class, but also the best applied. I'd missed Wednesday's class when the others had all learnt all the theory & made their practice ones, so I was rather chuffed at the praise.

So here's the finished piece.

WARNING: exposed cartoon painted brains, fake blood & exposed painted jaw/teeth, Josh without his silken curls.

( Bwaaaaaaains... )

So what happens when you have two makeup artists in a house getting.... inebriated? XD

Erin came over for dinner last night; Pete made roast turkey stuffed with cranberry & apple, wrapped in bacon, with roast parsnips, carrots, pumpkin, onion & potato. God damn it was good.
So Erin & I started on the white wine. Then moved onto gin & tonic. Pete had beer, until the spirits came out & then he joined us.

But we were discussing makeup, application & styles; reading books..... we started with an old c1985 Guide to Perfect Makeup (which is all amounts of hilarity for how wrong most of it is by today's standards) & reading Bobbi Brown's newest book, Makeup Manual, which is fantabulous. Then out came the sketch book & the coloured pencils.

Two sets of Derwents laid out across the table & we picked a base colour & 4 complimentaries each.... for the other person. Then we each had to design a makeup PLI Chart that used the 5 colours chosen by each other.

( Colour me your colour baby, I know who you are. Come up off your colour chart.... )

So I had a couple of body painting sessions on the weekend. They were fun.

I've only processed one of the two so far. Mainly because I took less shots, finished earlier & had the time to spend chatting with the model while I worked through them.

Thought you might be interested to see how it came out. Well... those of you not on DeviantArt or StalkFacebook.

( Prelude to Foundation )

College is.... yeah? It's full on & there is a lot of paperwork, but there's something else too. Something isn't gelling with me. I'm pretty sure I know what it is, & I'm doing the best I can to alleviate &/or ignore the cause. I'll stick it through & take my diploma. Then be glad as hell I survived & I'll have the piece of paper to justify the scarring.

Mmmmhmmm. So much for my daily posts. Between school & work I've had no time to scratch myself, let alone post for fun. But today I do have the time! Yay!!

I bought a new liquid eyeliner this morning....

( Purple Fusion )
As for college?

We're doing theatre makeup in class at the moment. Standard through fashion makeup are done, as is hair (though I failed the hair practical exam so I need to redo that). On Friday we did transgender & OMG that was hilarious fun.

( not who you think )

I BEAT THE SWINE FLU!!!

Yup! That's right, me & my immune system had it up against the wall crying for its mother.... after eleven days of it kicking my arse. 9 fever filled days of being stuck inside the house, unable to go to class - hell I missed my first godsdamned exam!! [snarls at H1N1]

But my doctor gave me a signed letter today to say I'm welcome to rejoin society again. Or, at least, co-exist with it. XD

Meanwhile, I have some shots for you guys for my Makeup Course related post for the day.
Mwahahahahahhaahhaa
Mine is an evil laugh.

( & this little piggy cried wahwahwahwah all the way home... )

Hey Jen.... What is our theme or colours for tomorrow? I'm better enough to paint faces XD

Go see lemon_lime35 & javabean_dreams for their drawing per day posts!!

Lately it seems almost everyone I know has at least one pair of "Chucks" or a fake.

I still have my first pair of One Stars that my dad bought me for my 14th birthday (a long time ago) because the shop stuffed up & ordered them instead of the All Stars I'd wanted. I still have them.... worn almost to death & loved nearly into pieces. However now I also have 2 legit Chucks, 3 genuine fakes, & 1 pair of lookalikes from Cambodia. I also have a belt buckle in the shape of a red Chuck boot & pair of undies that have a pair of blue Chucks printed on the back.

[shifty eyes]

"The point?" you ask. I'm getting to it.

For my shoes book (you've read about it here before & no doubt if you know me outside LJ you've heard it talked about or been at shoots for it) it's starting to look like the good old Converse Chuck Taylor All Star (or "Chuck" for short) are going to take up a chapter to themselves. Now, believe me, I don't mind that at all... but I figured if there's going to be a chapter on them, then I want serious amounts of words strewn in there amongst them too.

So tell me if you will...

( How many Chucks have you got chucked in the corner? )

Yeah I've been really ill lately. Haven't been able to go out, including & especially to class for fear of passing it on. I was diagnosed with H1N1 Influenza (aka Swine Flu) on Tuesday night.... had 7 straight days of a high temperature, 9 of dizziness, nausea, difficulty breathing etc etc. But I don't qualify for Tamiflu treatment so I'm relying on my own immune system to pull me through it & out the other side. [sigh]

Anyway. Here are a three shots of my Case Study folder & a before & after shot of some makeup I did on Fleur to fill some of the gap from me not posting.

( Hiding out under here )

So I'm leaving for the hospital soonish (the moment Pete's work let him finish so he can) so I'm posting early & essentially cheating - I'm using a shot I took of makeup I did last Wednesday.

So the theme today is.... kitty.

( Hello! Meow! )
Also go check out the v365 posts by lemon_lime35 & javabean_dreams.

I did the photograph, but failed to upload or post yesterday. Day three was a fail - that's really bad. [sigh]

( Pretty in pink )

NB: Rachel messaged me this morning from Fiji & said her ears are being assaulted by Celine Dion & its really hot there & she's boiling. She sends "HULLO I LOVE YOU I MISS YOU" to everyone. =)

So.... yesterday had a cupcake theme... today's theme is blue & brown.

I had this awesome idea for eyeshadow, & i seriously love my cool pallettes so mixing them with the warm that the college prefer us using had me rather stoked... but then we went shopping for ink cartridges so that I could get through the boring theory sections of my case studies & I got myself rather a brilliant piece of proof to my black belt in shopping.

( Put on my blue suede shoes & I boarded the plane. )

[Hops on Bandwagon]

I've been doing a heap of research for my current studies (Diploma of Fashion, Theatre & Media Make Up) & some of the best shots come from FlickR blogs. So I figured, that's a good little challenge to make me push myself to get out different stuff for class; a daily photo blog on makeup.

Then I thought, "Hey, why go through it alone?" So I challenged Jen (lemon_lime35) to join me & she accepted. Being the artist she is, she's doing a drawing each day & uploading those.

( I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush )

A while ago I mentioned I was working on a couple of books. The shoe's book is still coming along, slowly but surely. I'll be collecting some more photos during May while I'm in China, watching my mother attempt to beat the record of how many pairs she can buy in a single day (currently thats 24 pairs of shoes & 13 handbags).

While I was in Cambodia in late 2007, I spent some time at the village of Chong Khneas on the Tonlé Sap lake. I've finally finished putting together the book about the village & its life.

The book, Life on the Lake, is 10"x8" (25cm x 20cm) which is not quite A4 in size, landscape in orientation & hardcover. There is no dust jacket, the cover itself is directly printed onto the hardcover with a durable matte finish. There are 60 pages & around 63 photos (though I can't say I've counted the exact number of photographs).



Front & Back covers, including spine


( Preview of 'Life on the Lake' behind the cut )

[grins]

Yup, that's right - recordings.
Well, only the one is online for the moment.... & it's rather dodgy.

Yesterday was the weekly jamming day for the band &, due to outside influences like work & uni, we were missing the_toclafane & Lex. So it was just br1de, myself & Anthony (Benn's laptop that the drums, keyboard & synth run through).

( Tin whiskers in the wind, bright eyes catch the light... )

Dear Jessica,
Oh how I love thee. Let me count the ways;
One onethousand, two onethousands, three onethousands...

Wll rats to the toons, here's one of the reasons I couldn't do less than love Pete:

Let me set the scene.
It's coming up on midnight. We're curled up on the sofa & have just finished watching Mean Machine (you know; prison & football). Shadow is curled up beside us snoring.

"Hmm. I want chocolate," he says.

I, of course, mistook it for 'Should we watch another one?' so I said, "yes, go on you're awake. You know you want to."
He had no idea what I was talking about & figured it was another one of my obscure references.

I follow him to the kitchen to see if he's found anything & he comes from the pantry area with eggs, butter & a block of cacao.

He's baking chocolate cake. Enough for 2 tins.
& he gave me the beater to lick. I didn't even have to ask XD

Midnight snacking at its finest.