Rick Baker's Fabulous Studio

Last Saturday I got to go and see makeup extraordinaire Rick Baker's studio. Nobody special, just a winner of 6 Academy Awards and designed creatures for movies like The Grinch, Men In Black, Planet of the Apes, Wolfman, and the Nutty Professor.  It was better than Disneyland (OK, I've ever been to Disneyland, but I'm pretty sure this tops it).

His studio is an enormous area full of creature creating cubicles, make-up rooms, Gothic inspired architecture and a graveyard. Yeah that's right, a graveyard! There also was a mini-museum area where the creatures he created were on display. Naturally pictures needed to be taken to document everything.

Eyebrow Gluing: You know, just a normal Thursday night...

Gotta love studying costume design. We get random but fun homework assignments like this week's "blocking eyebrows" task. Last night I blasted a Queen/David Bowie/Abba mix and got to work. 

The formula extraordinaire is:

- Brush and coat eyebrows with Elmer's stick glue -

- Using a brush, powder and glue again -

- Repeat gluing and powdering until eyebrows are completely smooth and flattened -

- Apply an extremely thick concealer over glued brows until fully covered -

- Blend into make-up until brows are invisible -

***Drag makeup optional**

This was my first attempt but it seemed to go relatively well. My brows are narrow but are dark and super dense making them difficult to camouflage. I had to coat and coat and coat them to discover that no matter what I tried you could still see the eyebrow ridge around the section by the bridge of my nose.  With practice I'm sure this wouldn't be a problem..... or it's because I'm just abnormally hairy.  ;)

I've sewn a costume to her face...

Here's a sneak peak on where I'm at with my oh-so-fancy Ascot dress I stitched last night while watching Titanic. I'm a little bummed because the stripe is too small to see except close up *sniff*.

Ideally I wanted wider sized stripes but ended up not finding the right size anywhere. Sheesh, who knew perfectly striped silk would be impossible to find?! I kinda wish I went with the silk polka dot fabric I would have chosen if it was period correct {darn those nit-picky project rules!}. Even though I'm suffering from fabric remorse I know everything will turn out fine in the end. It just needs some big ol' trimming and it will be fabulous.

my first zombie

Aw yeah, it's zombie time! Behold my first draft of zombie makeup I'll be doing at the end of the quarter.

I'm still working out the specific disgusting details but this is my initial look for a frozen zombie. I want to have patches of frostbite and possibly frozen snow or frost encrusting. Naturally, being dead and all, there also needs to be some flesh decay but I'm not sure how much. I've been watching some really gross youtube videos on zombie makeup. There is some crazy, crazy stuff out there.  Even though a lot of it is really nasty, it's still really amazing to see everyone's tricks. I watched waaaay too many of them last night.

As much as I loved watching those gory how-tos, I don't think I want to go that. Just because I'll be the living dead doesn't mean I still can't look good. After all, true beauty never fades.

Turandot - All Finished!

I finished my Turandot renderings this weekend! I had a bit too much fun designing this show and I'm actually a bit sad to be moving on from it.

The play is set in China, however it's more of a western idealization and a fairy tale. I chose to focus on the mythical elements vs. period specific. While I did do research on Chinese dress, clearly I did not set this production in any specific period and borrowed from multiple dynasties and regions adding a more eerie look.

The design concept is that the "evil" princess Turandot is polluting the country and the everyone around her by her defiance and chopping off princes' heads and publicly displaying them on stakes to mock their defeat. The costumes would be made out of textured metallic silks, synthetics and leathers in dirty yellows, blacks, silvers and blood reds. I really wanted to give off a sickly-ness that is slightly disturbing but draws you in. Hopefully I achieved my goal. ;)

The Kentucky Derby

I do love an excuse to dress up and wear a fancy hat. When I lived in NYC, my friends and I would to the Easter Parade {another traditional hat wearing festivity}. The actual parade is nothing like the Judy Garland/Fred Astaire film Easter Parade, but it's still fun to get dressed up and look at other people. And when followed by a picnic in Central Park it's even better.

Sadly, I'm not in Kentucky {but my sister is - Hi Esther!} so I'll just have to enjoy these dapper derby folk via the internet. And there's the added bonus of jockey uniforms, which I love!

BTW - How fantastic does Johnny Wier look in his enormous hat? I think he pulls that look off better than most of the ladies.

 

{All images via KentuckyDerby.com}

Boop! Boop!

One of the very first movies I remember seeing was a stop-motion version of Wind in the Willows. Naturally, when deciding on a make-up oriented fantasy character for a class I had to go for motor car enthusiast Mr. Toad. Boop! Boop!

Masks and Deep, Deep Thoughts

An assigned project was to make a mask that represents the character Turandot.

I'll admit it: I'm not a fan of these projects. I feel that you end up just making something that you like then you bs how it represents the character during the presentation by saying something like. I'm much more interested in working out the design itself rather than getting sidetracked on these mini-projects.
All that said, I actually enjoyed this one. By working on my "abstract" mask I was able to figure out certain stylistic elements that represent Turandot which I will (surprise!) actually use in my design.

Note the spikes stabbing through the soft fabrics representing the depth and layers of the character. Her prickly nature is what stands out the most but there's more to her than that. There is also the element of an ugly and dangerous growth being presented, depicting pride, bitterness and anger. Left untamed will slowly engulf her until that will be all that's left. (I know I'm just blowing your mind by this deep and thought provoking depiction of the Turandot within *grin*)  

It's the Opera, Daaahling

Lord have mercy, today was pretty amazing. I got to go on a mini-tour of the LA Opera's hair and make-up department and see took a close up look at all the wigs and a couple of the costumes. I took a bunch of pictures but unfortunately they're copyrighted so no posting them here. =*( The show is designed by Achim Freyer (costumes/hair/make-up/set/lighting) and it looks phenomenal. It's very impressionistic and is is absolutely crazy, weird and beautiful - in a way only ze Germanz can be (Freyer being Deutsch and all...of course Wagner was one too).

Because I can't show any images of the wigs, here are some of the studio. Not extremely interesting but I enjoyed the wall of drawers full of hair pieces.

I only recently learned that a great deal of wigs are made of yak hair, which I'm still getting a kick out of. Meryl Streep's grey wig in The Devil Wears Prada was all yak.

Here's my favorite row of drawers, because you never know when you need a filler piece of pink fantasy yak hair??

Field Trip

{Image via WagnerOpera.net}

Woo hoo! Going to the LA Opera tomorrow to visit the hair and wig department. Right now they are doing The Ring Cycle which let's face, it doesn't tempt me at all to see even if it is German. I mean, its sooo long and I'm not a big fan of Greek tragedies. However I am excited about the costumes (natch) / sets / hair & makeup. I can't wait to get there and pester the wig people with questions. Who knows, maybe I'll bring my camera and take some photos?

Black & White - Construction Project

I'm building this 1901 gown from for a class am I'm really excited about the final product. Although it's not from the same period as "My Fair Lady," I absolutely love the scene at the races where everyone is dressed in black, white and grey. I'm using that scene as inspiration. I think the whole gown will be a white satin with a black stripe with a black net bolero that has pin tucks on the sleeves. The trim on the bolero and the skirt will also be black and white.

Next step is to scan in the sketch and play with some colors and patterns before I go and buy fabrics. There's nothing worse than spending a lot of time, effort and money on something that ends up just looking tacky.

I have a blind spot when it comes to stripes because I love them so much. I went through a phase where I wore stripes nearly every day causing a friend of a friend to start calling me a pirate. My best friend Lori really enjoys reminding me of that incident (thanks Lori, always a pal!)

Of course, when I wear the gown I will have to lean dramatically like the lady in the front. I think it really completes the look, no? *grin*

 

Here's a close up of the front and back of the bodice and bolero. Not sure how much I like the flower placement...

 

Here's where I am so far. Yeah.... I've got a loooong way to go.