I took Foundry in the Spring Quarter of 2012 and I have the privilege to take it a second time at DAAP. This course teaches how to create bronze and aluminum sculptures. We learn how to vent our wax pieces, create the molds, assist in the pour, grind the metal pieces and use patinas. I will be posting a "How To" guide for the ways of the Foundry because I often get so many questions about the process when I tell people I'm in the class. But before I post the full guide, I wanted to share my first piece that will soon become bronze! I have several narrative concepts for my art in this class. The first is the story of the iconic super hero and the child who looks up to him.
Here is the wax sculpture, which is the first step in Foundry.
For over a year, I have been fascinated by society's obsession with superheroes. The super hero character seems ultimately flawless in skills, intelligence and resources. Unlike every single person on this planet. There is no real super hero in the way that Superman, Batman and the like are depicted. Like boys grow up reading and watching superhero comics, wear the underwear with the superheroes emblems and play with the action figures. These heroes are depicted as flawless to children. As an adult, I read a comic that took place many years after the typical Batman and Superman scenarios and both protagonists were older, with grey hairs and imperfect morals. It was shocking to see these infamous heroes with traits of mortality and humanity about them. This piece is my tribute to this idea of imperfect heroes. When this piece is finished, the "superhero" will be wearing a blindfold as well as a cape. I am unsure about what colored patinas I will use but I am very excited to begin this process and will be sharing with you very soon.
This past weekend, I was given the opportunity to once again assist with an Indian Hill School musical. This time, it was the middle school's production of Disney's The Little Mermaid and I had the chance to apply Ursula's makeup. I was asked by Robin, the mom of the 8th grader playing Ursula if I was available to do the show. Robin had worked with me on Pirates of Penzance and they were looking for one person to be dedicated to doing Ursula's makeup and she thought she'd see if I was willing to help. Of course, the answer was a huge yes!
Immediately I began contemplating how I was going to pull this off. I asked what hue the director wanted Ursula to be, such as purple, blue, green, etc. Robin told me they wanted Ursula to look just like the one on Broadway; The Ursula in this video:
(To watch the makeup application, fast forward to 3:16.)
Once again, I thought to myself, "Challenge accepted." After watching the Broadway youtube video multiple times and a sketch that was essentially a map of Ursula's makeup, I felt a bit more ready than I did for Pirates. My stomach wasn't in knots, but I was definitely anxious - but a happy kind! Having no professional training and still making choices based on common sense and my personal knowledge of makeup, I began the application with my own personal makeup palettes and some makeup I bought at Target. Basically, nothing fancy. I started the base with some white foundation the makeup chair got from a Halloween store, but it wasn't blending easily and clearly wasn't going to work so I had Nella (Ursula) wash that off and we started over with normal liquid foundation. This approach made me nervous but I had hope. After the foundation, I applied a layer of pale shimmery eyeshadow. It was meant to be, this combination gave Nella the perfect translucent glow of Ursula's skin. After that, the rest was smooth sailing.
An In Depth Steps of Makeup Application for Ursula:
1.) Apply a layer of foundation with a makeup pad to the face and neck
2.) Using a large makeup brush, apply a white shimmery eyeshadow to the face and neck
3.) Apply teal eyeshadow accents to the temples, cheek bones, chin, nose, neck and inside corners of both eyes using a small brush.
4.) Apply black eyeshadow at the inside corner of the eyes and the outside edges of the eyes, fading as the meet in the middle, leaving the center of the eyelid plain.
5.) Add blue eyeshadow to the center area of the eyelid blending into the black, then create a vertical line down the center of the eyelid with green eyeshadow and then add yellow on top of that.
6.) Using a small eyeliner brush and liquid eyeliner, paint eyebrows above the actual eyebrows on the lower part of the forehead.
7.) Apply with a small brush purple and pink eyeshadow above the black eyeshadow, covering up the real eyebrows, blend evenly.
8.) Apply thin liquid eye liner to top lid.
9.) Use white eyeliner pencil and apply to the lower eyelid and brush white eyeshadow on top of that.
10.) Now add thin liquid eyeliner to bottom eyelid
11.) Option to apply a beauty mark with the same supplies used to create the eyebrows.
12.) Put on red lipstick and then use the black liquid eyeliner and brush used for the eyebrows to outline the lips and create a better shape of the mouth.
13.) Apply liquid sparkly, silver eyeliner to top of eyelids right above the eyelashes.
14.) Brush on a silver sparkle eyeshadow to the temples and cheeks.
15.) After costume and wig is adorned, apply foundation to the chest, back and arm area that is exposed.
16.) Brush on the shimmery eyeshadow to the areas you just applied foundation to with a large brush.
17.) Add teal eyeshadow accents to the collar bone, back, both elbow creases and elbow joints.
The before, the in-between and the after
Selected photos from the makeup process for Ursula
You may notice that I drew Ursula's eyebrows above Nella's. A very exciting outcome of this choice was that when Nella made expressions with her own eyebrows, Ursula's eyebrows moved as well. This was another fantastic experience with makeup and an Indian Hill school theater group. This makeup and photos are from the second dress rehearsal. By the last show, Nella and I had a perfect system of application down. I would also like to state that Ursula required more application time than the Pirate King and Major General combined, I think. I am sad that it is over but I look forward to the next show with Indian Hill.
For the past two years I have interned with Indian Hill High School for their drama POW WOW productions of Footloose and Pirates of Penzance. I began interning with the focus of scenic painting under the guidance of the school's hired set designer Matt Evans. I enjoyed painting the set and learning new techniques Matt was kind enough to teach me but this year I had a curious feeling about the makeup department. I decided that I wanted to try my hand at stage makeup and asked to assist with the makeup for the show. Indian Hill's amazing director, Lisa Harris, generously agreed to let me help. I had assumed I would follow the directions of the head of the makeup department and apply makeup to the general cast, nothing super specific and that I would be learning from someone hired. Boy, was I wrong. I received a mass email shortly before the 16th, the day of the costume and makeup parade (the first time the actors would wear their costumes and makeup for a rehearsal) informing the cast what time to show up for makeup application and that a couple professionals would be there to assist them. I soon realized after talking to the person who sent those emails that I was included in the group she called "professionals." That's when I got super nervous. I kept imagining showing up and attempting to apply someone's makeup and then getting flustered when it wasn't what they wanted or if I was asked a question that I most certainly did not know the answer to... what was I going to do?????
Needless to say, my stomach was in knots at 7 am on that Saturday morning. However, I attempted to act as cool as a cucumber in the freezer when I arrived. I went to the makeup room and asked what I could do, the director turned to me and said that she would like me to start working on Will, the Pirate King. My stomach did a flip. Lisa had informed me a couple weeks before that she wanted the Pirate King to look like Johnny Depp, but I didn't realize that he would be my project. I turned to see who the Pirate King was and I find myself staring at this tall, pale, reddish brown haired teenager. I thought to myself, "Challenge accepted!" but simply said, "Alrighty." Let me just say that morning was pure experimentation and common sense to achieve the desired look that they wanted. As I applied the makeup and the transformation began, I watched Will's reaction and the other cast members to what I was doing. With each surprised exclamation of, "Will! Is that you?!", I knew I was heading in the right direction. Once his wig was set and braided and after the addition of a bandana, I had created a new Jack Sparrow. I could hardly contain my joy at this success! After that morning, I drove to my parents and told my mom that it was official and that my grad school application would be for a spot in CCM's masters program for makeup and wig design. (I may or may not have teared up a bit at that moment... okay I definitely cried but because I was so happy and it felt so natural that I couldn't imagine doing anything else for the rest of my life!)
Before and after of the Pirate King
Steps of Makeup Application for the Pirate King
1.) Foundation (face)
2.) Bronzer (face)
3.) Cheek definition
4.) Eyeshadow
5.) Eye liner/ Mascara
6.) Eyebrows
7.) Mascara beard
8.) Foundation (chest)
9.) Bronzer (chest)
10.) Mascara chest hair
11.) Stippling (chest)
12.) Wig and bandana
Come the following Wednesday, I returned to Indian Hill for another full dress rehearsal. That's when the Major General got added to my list of characters to make up. This job consisted of making an eighteen year old boy look like a sixty-five year old man, yeah, no biggie. I'm joking. Again, I experimented with what I'd seen of his makeup from the Saturday before and used my fine arts knowledge of the human figure. Another success! Mind you, the only tools I had for aging were eyeshadows, eyeliner, q-tips and brushes. But I did my best and was happy with my work. I applied makeup for these two actors while occasionally assisting with other cast members and giving suggestions and guidance. Both of my main characters took a good 45 minutes to an hour each between the many steps of makeup application, costumes, adding microphones and wigs and final touches. So naturally, I spent my time bouncing back and forth between the two as well as drawing and touching up two tattoos on the arms of the first mate, Samuel. I applied makeup four more times after that afternoon and I loved every minute of it. I even noticed that my application process became an easier pattern and that after watching the actors on stage I changed little details here and there to achieve the best effect. For example, I added shadowing to Major General's neck to help the aging look more natural.
Before and after of the Major General
Steps of Makeup Application for Major General
1.) Foundation
2.) Eyeshadow
3.) Cheek definition
4.) Age lines
5.) Blending
6.) Blush
7.) Eyeliner/ Mascara
8.) Define/ Blend neck
9.) Wig
10.) Facial hair
11.) Eyebrows
12.) Touch up blending
That week was one of the happiest of my life because it was such a surprising success! I now feel confident in my career path that I am on my way to great things! I plan on spending the next year and more working on every Indian Hill performance and makeup gig that I am able, in order to build my resume and experience for my grad school application and for my future. I still can't believe how quickly everything just clicked and fell into place. God's doing, I'm sure.
I took over 7,000 photos of all four performances combined. Here are a few of my favorites of the Pirate King and Major General.
My thanks go out to Lisa Harris, Liz Hook, Jason Hauslein, Will Jaroszewicz, Zach Wittington, Robin Schwanekamp, Cheri West, Anne Jaroszewicz, Jake Rhoad, Animaesh Manglik, all the cast and crew members from The Pirates of Penzance and to all their parents who were so kind and supportive of me. Without all of you, this experience would not have been the same.
From left to right: Zach (Major General), Me, Will (Pirate King), Jake (Samuel, the first mate)
And with this post, I am thrilled to announce that I will be doing Ursula's makeup for Indian Hill Middle School's production of The Little Mermaid this coming weekend. And I will be sure to post about it.
