Evaluation

Wow what an amazing 2 years, it’s been the hardest and most stressful time of my life but also the most rewarding. It’s amazing to look back through pictures of my work and see the progress I’ve made without really realising. From a Gibson girl to a London bombings victim to Marilyn Monroe, I feel as if I’ve covered so many different styles and genres! Some yes I could do better if I did them now but overall I’m really proud of all I have accomplished over the two year period!

My favourite lesson has got to be period hair with Sam, when I first joined the course I was adamant that I wanted to do special effects and now after finishing the two years with the amazing teaching from Sam I have fallen head over heels for hair (not knotting though!). I love everything about it all the ways in which you can manipulate it, all the techniques both modern and old fashion, and of course all the styles over the years. I feel I have a natural flare and love for it which makes it not feel like work for me, I become really relaxed as I do it.  I have surprisingly enough despite the never ending logbooks enjoyed period hair and makeup the most and hope to be able to practice it in the industry!

Fashion in first year was amazing also, that really helped me with achieving different bases for different skin types, and also knowledge of the colour spectrum was great in this lesson, which is a must to learn, and its one of those things that once you know you can never forget. I really enjoyed the freedom and creativity of the fashion classes; I would say they really helped me in gaining more self confidence when it comes to free styling which is something I definitely needed!

Theatre and special effects were both incredible, being able to learn and design character makeup is something I’ll never forget, the lessons were also so much fun, like who doesn't want to make themselves look 80 years old one day and look like their dying the next?! These particular lessons were the ones that helped me so much in gaining vast product knowledge as well as insider tips and tricks that you would never think of! I thoroughly enjoyed creating burns in particular, the shock factor of people thinking they’re real is great!

Even theory lessons I enjoyed which I thought I would hate I found so interesting, I think Fiona has an exceptional way of teaching that really draws you in and makes you want to know more. I could tell you all there is to know about the Victorians and its all down to her!

The class I struggled with the most was body painting, I don’t have a natural flare for it so found it really difficult to do, although saying that I thoroughly enjoyed the group project and working as a team to produce a final design!

The thing I found hardest was time management when it came to theory work as I work full time and my days off were at university so there were many sleepless nights, I think if I could give anyone advice doing the course it would be to not work full time hours if they don’t have to and to write up the lesson and its evaluation after each class, it makes it far easier when going to do a log book, as often when it comes to writing out your step by steps and lesson evaluations you can’t remember exactly how you were feeling or what you thought you could’ve have improved on at the time.

As for our final project I thought it went amazingly for everyone the final show was incredible! For myself personally I found find a reliable model (emphasis on reliable) very stressful, I had 3 models cancel on me before the shoot so had to use a classmate! As my brief for a model was very specific (I had to have a ballet dancer) it was a lot harder! I had to sacrifice doing a ballet inspired photo shoot as my classmate had to stand in which was a shame so I decided to make my photo shoot more editorial so made a swan out of the hair used my handmade hair headdress and applied a striking, clean, makeup. I decided to focus more on the actual ballet for the show!

So show day arrived very quickly! I managed to get a beautiful model/dancer who has been practising Ballet among other styles since she was 2! We went through timings and choreography that was appropriate for the show. Changes I made from the shoot in terms of the makeup and hair were I didn’t do the swan in the hair as it wasn’t stable enough to maintain its form with the dancing. So I did a slicked back up do with a beehivesque feel to it, I then dressed the bun with black feathers and a grey feather hair accessory at the back, so the swan theme was still very much part of the look. I kept the face makeup the same as it was so striking and I thought it brought the theme and music choice together perfectly! I put my model in a black sheer, high neck leotard and customised the cuffs of the sleeves with black feathers to tie in with the hair. The skirt remained the same but had to be trimmed as this model was a lot shorter than my original model I had planned on using and whom the skirt was made to fit. The disappointing thing was that I couldn’t use my headdress as it was made for my original model that was blonde, whereas Claudia is a brunette!

Overall I am extremely happy and proud of myself and all my achievements over the two year period at West Thames College. All the lessons and lecturers have more than prepared me to put myself out there and become a full time working makeup artist, and I couldn’t be more grateful.