4 x 6 Doll Dreams Swap

I joined this online art class more than a month ago. The address is www.dolldreams.ning.com. It's run by the lovely Adriana Almanza and her style of drawing is very unique. I first noticed her through SuziBlu - who also runs online whimsical mixed media art classes. Adriana's drawing is very doll-like and she teachers those who sign up, how to draw just like her! She is an amazing teacher and you get a lot of bang for your buck. She is continuously posting video tutorials - more than the course stated.

I joined a 4 x 6 doll swap hosted by Mary. There are 10 particapants. How it works is we all send our 10 dolls to Mary, who then puts together 10 lots of dolls, each lot having a different artist. So I'll get back one picture from each participant. How great is that! Can't wait to see what everyone'd drawn. Sign ups were about 1 months ago, but I only started it two days ago, and finished yesterday (it needed to be postmarked by today - talk about last minute. Seems to be the story of my life). With uni, my photoshoots etc, I just wasn't able to practice drawing or get 10 dolls drawn up for this swap any time earlier.

Do I like the dolls I drew? I have never used copics markers before, and obviously wasn't able to practice using them, until I drew my dollies. OMG. It is a lot harder than it looks. Ady makes it look so easy but damn, I could see lines everywhere, the colours weren't blended like I assumed they miraculously would. But not bad for a first attempt. So these 11 dolls (I made an extra one for Mary) are my first ever attempts at using copic.

So here they are:

My favourite ones are #8, #9, #10

These are the backs of the drawings. I've included little inspirational quotes just to fill up space. Lol.



HAM 317/318 LITERATURE MEDIA PROJECT

JOURNAL ENTRIES

Friday 18^th March

One of the compulsory units for final year students doing a Life and Social Science degree is Literature/Media Project A. The aim of this unit is to extend skills acquired during the 3 years of studying and applying it either in a work experience of choice or an independently developed project. I chose to do the project component as it would give me a degree of control over what I want to do. It was pretty obvious to myself what my project would be. As I’m starting out my freelance makeup business, after having just completed my diploma of Makeup Services last year, I thought combining the skills attained during university and my passion for makeup make for an interesting project.

My statement of intention was as follows:


“I am currently completing my Bachelor of Arts, with a major in Media Communications, and a minor in Marketing and Italian. On the side, I am also starting off as a freelance makeup artist and it is something I am passionate about. I plan to organise a series of photoshoots to add to my portfolio. This would mean collaborating with photographers, models and hairdressers. In any industry it's about who you know, then what you know. This networking will hopefully benefit me in the future. To add to this, I also plan to blog about my experiences.


Since the due date is Friday 27th May, it gives me plenty of time to start organising times and put out casting calls for interested parties and get the ball rolling.

Monday 21^st March

Today I put through a casting call on ModelMayhem. This is an online site where makeup artists, photographers, models, hairdressers,  stylists, retouchers and more get together and collaborate on projects. So I put through a casting call for interested models who wanted some beauty shots for their portfolio. I explained that it was a Seasons Inspired Shoot (winter, autumn, spring and summer) and that whoever was interested MUST be reliable.


The problem with ModelMayhem are some of the models. Most of the models on the site either do it as a hobby, as a part time job and some are aspiring models. Many girls are promo girls. I have gone to shoots (organised by either the model or photographer) and the models have not shown up, nor did they extend the courtesy of letting everyone else involved know that they wouldn’t be able to make it to the shoot.

So I stressed the fact that whoever I choose for the shoot must be reliable, and show up on the assigned day.

Tuesday 29^th March

I emailed my supervisor for this unit – Esther Milne. I wanted to know how to arrange a meeting with her to discuss my project and if my Statement of Intention met the requirements of the unit.

Wednesday 13^th April

I met up with Esther today and she seemed really excited about the concept. She explained that this is exactly what the university wanted – for students to do a work experience or do a project that is in the field of what they wish to do after completing their university degree.

She was interested about how I was going to get models and photographers. I explained how ModelMayhem works and how most of the collaborations are free. Every single party involved puts in their time and expertise and everyone benefits from it afterwards. As a makeup artist, I get a model that will do the poses, and a photographer to shoot the photos. The model gets a makeup artist to do makeup for free and she gets prints for her portfolio. So in the end, everyone gets prints for their portfolio. That is the great thing about this website. However, a negative is that due to the amount of people willing to exchange services for free, charging for services is not always a viable option, since people would find someone else willing to do the same job for free – mostly students who want the work experience.


I also explained how I got into makeup, what I’ve done so far and where my interests lie in this industry i.e. Beauty, fashion, Special effects, Bridal.

Sunday 24^th April

By this stage, I have gotten replies from about 30 models who responded to my casting call and were interested in the theme shoot. I am looking at 4 models who I think fit the profile.

I already have a photographer lined up. Sharon is someone I’ve worked with a few times, one on a grunge photoshoot and to date was one of the most enjoyable shoots I’ve done (this shoot can be viewed further down in my blog). I approached her and inquired as to whether she was interested in doing a free photoshoot and she was keen.
  

Tuesday 3^rd May

I received an email from Rami through ModelMayhem. We’ve had a few classes at university together and have become mates. He told me he was an amateur photographer so I recommended he set up an account on ModelMayhem and start doing shoots to get photos for his portfolio.


So I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had seen my casting call and wanted to know whether or not I already had a photographer on board as he thought this would be a very interesting shoot. I already had Sharon lined up but decided to go with Rami instead for two reasons. Looking through his website, I noticed that he is a very talented photographer – especially for someone who says he’s an amateur and number two, it is just a lot easier to get in touch with him since we can meet up at uni.

Tuesday 10^th May

I met up with Rami at the quaint little coffee joint just in front of Glenferrie Station. I brought along my laptop and showed his photo references of similar looks I was hoping to emulate. I also showed him photos of the four models that I wanted to work with (at this stage I haven’t yet contacted any of these models).


He was very excited about this shoot. We discussed times that he’d be free to do the shoot which I noted down in my diary. We also discussed studios since Rami does not have a studio of his own. He said he’d look and inquire with a few studios around and see which ones have the most affordable rates.

Tuesday 17^th May

Rami emailed me rates of a few studios and to me they seemed way too pricey. One studio was charging $275 for use of their studio for 4 hours. Another one quoted $95 per hour, with a minimum of 2 hours. I’m actually not making too much money these days and could not justify spending this much for a project I’m organising for uni.


I contacted another photographer who I’ve worked with several times and her rates were a lot more affordable. For 8 hours, she was charging $180 and also let me know that she’d be more than happy to help out on my shoot for free if I needed her assistance (which I thought was very sweet).


To cover all bases I asked Rami to inquire about renting lights instead and using one of the rooms at my house as a studio. We have a lounge room that is quite large, lots of natural light filters through and white wall.

Thursday 19^th May

Rami found a studio that charges $120 for use of their lights for a whole day. We both agreed this was the better choice. I can justify spending $120 for use of the lights for a whole day. Sometimes it’s so hard being short on funds lol.

Friday 20^th May

The Media Project is due in next Friday and I still haven’t set a day to do the photoshoot, nor have I contacted the models yet. The main reason is for the past couple of weeks I’ve been saving enough money to buy some supplies needed for the shoot and the cost all adds up. I need materials, fake eyelashes, eye shadows, props etc and have been buying them off Ebay and I hope they all come in time for the shoot which definitely will happen next week.

Saturday 21^st May

I knew Rami was free Wednesday after 10.30am so I contacted a model and asked her if she was free to do an all day shoot. She was my top pick of all the models. I have decided to just go with one model and get her to do all 4 looks. I think it’d be interesting to see the four different looks on the one model. Another reason is it’s a lot easier to organise a shoot with one model instead of trying to see whether all four models are able to come on the same day. Starting off with this project, I had originally planned to stagger the photoshoots and do a model per day, but after realising how much it costs to hire a studio, and only being able to afford lights for a day, I was left with the conclusion that one model is the best course to take.


What I liked about Ana Kingsley is that in every single photo she looks different. In some she looks very masculine, some feminine, some edgy. She has a lot of variety. What a lot of models struggle with is looking different in every photo. I think she’d be absolutely fantastic.

Monday 23^rd May

I contacted Esther and asked if it was okay to hand in the hard copy of the prints next week. I’d be able to put up shots from the photoshoot on my blog by Friday but wanted more time to print out the photos, and give the photographer a bit more time to retouch the photos. Plus, I need to save up the money to print out the photos. It has already cost me about $500, excluding the cost of renting the lights, on the props and makeup. I ran out of makeup and needed to buy a whole supply of foundation and they don’t come cheap.


Rami contacted me tonight and asked if I’d be able to pick up the lights tomorrow since he doesn’t have a car. Since I am picking up the lights, I’m the one that has to pay for the lights. So I asked him to go halves on the $120 which he was happy to do. What he also explained in the email was that the company wanted a guarantee of $500 and I’d get back that money once the lights were returned.

$500!!! I had a heart attack reading that. I understood that I’d get the money back but my main concern was if anything happened to the lights, it’s my money being taken out of the bank, because I’m the one picking up the lights, and paying with it on my card. I had already spent more than $500 on supplies so I didn’t have too much left on my card.

Tuesday 24^th May

I picked up the lights today. I said I’d pay $400 on my card and the rest in cash. So he asked one of the other guys working if it’d be okay to only charge me $400 for the guarantee as opposed to the $500 as stated in their policy. In his receipt, he wrote a note saying ‘She’s paying a deposit of $400 since she is a poor student’ which I found absolutely hilarious. That’s a $100 less that I could lose if anything happened to the lights, which I am going to make sure won’t.

Wednesday 25^th May

What a wonderful day it has been!!


Ana arrived right on time at 9.00AM. We got straight into the first look. I started off with the summer look as it was the easiest to do. She had brought along her laptop which we connected to the TV and had ‘America’s Next Top Model’ playing in the background the whole day.


She is an absolutely lovely girl with a great personality. We had a ball watching the show whilst putting on her makeup. She had great skin which always makes the life of the makeup artist just that much easier.


Rami arrived at 10.45AM and proceeded to set up the lights. There were three main lights which took a while to set up.


I started working on her hair. I’m not a hairdresser or hair stylist and absolutely hate doing hair, which is the common consensus among most makeup artists. I will probably do a hair course in the future since it’s another set of skills that is useful and I’d be able to charge more for my services. But it is definitely something that I do not enjoy doing.


After finishing my first look, Rami proceeded to do a few test shots to get the lighting perfect and started shooting. He is such a talented photographer and all the photos looked amazing.


Ana is a chameleon. She had so many poses ready, needed no direction and kept firing out great poses one after the other. A lot of aspiring models struggle to find different poses but she was so amazing to watch. She knew her face and body perfectly and knew what suited each look.


I did different looks and hairstyles for each season and kept checking the time to make sure everything was on track. We had to return the lights before 5.30PM and if we didn’t make it in time, I’d be charged another $120.


For the autumn look, I glued on these skeleton leaves on the model’s neck. It was painful to watch her ripping off the glue as it pulls on the skin. Her skin got all red and I had to conceal the redness for the next look but eventually her skin cooled down and the redness went away.


My most favourite season of the shoot was winter. It was the most dramatic of all four looks and I used fake snow which just made the photos look great.


All in all, we stuck to the time, managed to complete all four looks by 4.30PM, and was able to return the lights by 5.30PM.


The three of us made a fantastic team and managed to pull everything off and the photos are going to look amazing. What a rewarding experience it has been!

 SUMMER

SPRING

AUTUMN

WINTER

REFLECTION

For my Literature/Media Project A unit this semester, I decided to organise a photoshoot and blog about my experiences. As an aspiring makeup artist, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to demonstrated skills acquired from university and complement it with something that I am passionate about.


This was the first time that I have organised a photoshoot. Previous to this, I have always responded to a casting call arranged by either a photographer or model. The great thing about this shoot was I the fact I was in complete control of every aspect, from choosing the model and photographer and had creative license to do absolutely whatever makeup designed I wanted. I have done many shoots where I was not happy with the quality of photos taken, thereby making it useless for my portfolio, to models who struggled sell the look.


I am completely satisfied with the team I put together. Ana Kingsley is an aspiring model that hopes to make it big internationally, and hopes to be overseas next year doing what she loves. Rami Yahya is also an aspiring photographer but who already shows so much potential and talent that I had no doubt that he will do very well in this industry. All of our personalities complemented one another to make the shoot a success and I would work with either of them again in a heartbeat.


The original plan was to have four models, each one sporting a look of one season. Due to time constraints, I decided to do all four looks on the one model, and this turned out to be the right choice. Since I was only able to afford to hire photography lights for a day, having four models, with varying degrees of confidence with posing would have meant more time would have been needed during the shoot. Ana was such a professional which meant the photographer needed less time taking photos and getting the perfect shot.


What I have gotten out of this experience is that it is a lot harder to bring all the components of the shoot together than I had originally envisioned. Funding and having the money to buy makeup and supplies caused the shoot to take place a lot later than I wanted. Finding a time where both the photographer and model were free required quite a few emails back and forth and improved my organisational and time management skills.


One of my flaws is that I feel too relaxed during a shoot and take longer to apply makeup than is necessary. Knowing that we had time restrictions caused me to be more aware of time management and I am pleased to know that I can complete looks in a short amount of time without compromising the quality of workmanship.


Whilst I feel I have improved my organisational skills, it is still an area that needs more work. The shoot ended up taking place two days before I needed to submit the project. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money to purchase supplies any earlier and that was one of the reasons why the shoot took place later than I had planned.


I felt it was a very successful shoot and I am happy with how everything turned out.  It has been an amazing experience, very rewarding and has validated my desire to stay in this industry.

Update on Audi

I thought I will just do an update on Audi. It's been about 5 months now since we've got him. And I just adore him. He can be annoying at times, always doing what I tell him not to do but at the end of the day, he is such a cutie.

Like I mentioned in my previous posts, caring for parrots is a LOT of work. I have to wipe down his cage daily, reline the cage bottom everyday with newspapers, do a deep clean of the cage once a month, prepare his meals twice a day (fresh fruit and veggies) and provide at least 4 hours of play time with him. Not to mention toys. Oh my goodness, how quickly he goes through his toys - demolishes them or gets bored of them. And bird toys are not cheap!! I get them from the Parrot Rescue Centre online store (they are a santuary that looks after parrots that can't be rehomed due to behavioural problems etc so most of the money they make from the toys, goes into caring for the parrots) and also MyParrotShop.com (they are quite pricey). And fruit and veggies aren't cheap either. Audi is partial to pomegranites and passionfruits - and considering they aren't in season, it all adds up. Went shopping for pomegranites the other day. $5.60 each!! What a spoilt birdy. My boyfriend complains that the bird gets fed better than him. It's true.

But he's my little baby and worth all the effort. Some of the antics he does cracks us up.

When he's out he want to be on someone. He likes to perch on our shoulders as it makes him feel like the top dog. And he likes to rest his toys against our heads whilst chewing chewing on them.

"What cha looking at?"

He just looks so gorgeous here

He loves looking out the window

"Roar"

"Yep. I think I'll just perch on these books. Because I can"

Here he is enjoying his fruit and veggie kabob.

  

Just chilling and chewing on my bag 

Audi and I :)

Photoshoot

I am quite proud of this look. This shoot was done in March. I was supposed to do a barbie inspired shoot with three models. The girl organising the shoot was a bit disorganised and two of the models pulled out so I ended up doing makeup for her and a friend she brought along. The photographer asked me if I would also be willing to do a look on his girlfriend as they had bought a mask and wanted to try it out. I was happy to help them out.

This was what I came up with. I just love airbrushing! It makes the skin look so even and flawless!

Audi my eclectus parrot

This is Audi. And yes, he is named after the car. Audi's are my boyfriends favourite type of car and I personally think it's a great name for him. He's sleek, fast and just plain sexy.

Isn't he beyond cute?!! I'm biased and think he's the most handsome eclectus I've ever seen :). You can check him out on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/vivaciouslyvi.

I've had him for about a month now and while it is a lot of work to care for him (eclectus need a very specific diet, playtime, cage needs to be constantly cleaned and more), it's very rewarding and I am falling in love with the lil terror. He is extremely mischevious and likes to push my buttons and see what he can get away with. He does get spoilt though. Owning a parrot is a massive responsibility. People usually don't know how much care they need. They live past the age of 50 and usually outlive their owners.

I'll be updating on his progress. I will start clicker training more seriously soon (I've done a little bit of targeting and he's caught on pretty quick).

This is his first step into his cage. I placed his carrier in the cage so he could step out once he felt comfortable. It's never good to force a parrot to do anything and they should be allowed the choice of whether or not they want to do something. It makes them feel more empowered. Well the little tyke pretty much stepped out straight away and climbed up onto the perch.

I started encouraging recall early on. That's my cousin in the picture. I try to socialise him and he's pretty calm around lots of people and even strangers. Before I took him home, the breeders had told me he was a VERY good flier for his age, better than his siblings. He was around 5 months when I got him.

This was him on my shoulder yawning... yes birds can yawn.

2010 Makeup

2010 was a busy year for me. I was doing my diploma in makeup, photoshoots, short films and makeup for friends and family. Most of this was TF (trade for) which means I did the makeup for free in exchange for prints for my portfolio. However this year I've decided that I am no longer going to do anymore TF as it doesn't cover any of my expenses and I'm losing money in the long run. It was good for the experience but now that I am a qualified makeup artist, I need to start earning the moolah!

This was one of the looks I did in my makeup course. It was a sugar skull inspired look. The Mexicans have a holiday called the Day of the Dead which is celebrated November 1st and 2nd by the central and southern Mexicans where they honor those that have passed away. And the sugar skulls represent departed souls. Our task for this class was to incorporate airbrushing and stencilling and come up with our own designs. For those interested in how I did the eyes; I airbrushed the black eye using a stencil, then placing lace over that area, I proceeded to airbrush on the different colours. Simple really, but effective.

This photoshoot I did early on during my course. It was super fun. The photographer Shanah was after the grunge look and this was my interpretation. The models were gorgeous girls and very nice. I've only come across a couple of models who thought they were high and mighty but thankfully they're the exceptions.

One of my classmates was the model in this photo. We had to age our model using creams. This look would be perfect for theatre and I've actually used this technique in a theatre show and it looked great on stage. The bright lights on stage means that everything needs to be exaggerated, otherwise the audience won'tt be able to see the makeup.

This is ageing with latex and this technique would be used for TV, especially wit close up shots as the lines and wrinkles look more life-like and natural. Latex is amazing. It stretches and then bunches up to create the wrinkled effect. The difficulty with this is the blending, so no one can see where the latex ends and starts since each part is done in sections. Not to be vain, but I was one of the best in class :)... "a natural" my trainer said. Be warned, latex is a b**** to get off. People with sensitive skin might experience redness. My asian skin is tough and showed no signs of distress, but I was screaming inside. The sides of my face particulary hurt, and the eye area. My model, who later worked on me, had to stop every couple of seconds whilst removing the latex around those areas as I couldn't handle the pain... and I have a high pain tolerance!!! Once the latex is removed, the wrinkles actually stay put on the skin for about 10-20 minutes but don't worry, your skin will eventually even out. My model is 26 years old and I think I made her look like a young 40-50 year old. She would have looked older if I had time to put in age spots and whiten her hair and eyebrows. We settled on the wig as it was faster. It was a fun exercise but time consuming.

As you can probably tell, this is a greek inspired shoot. I got to try out the gold-leaf which I had been dying to use. I was happy with how this turned out. I also styled the hair which is saying something as I don't particularly like doing hair at all. I will eventually do a short hair course aimed at makeup artists so that I'm more confident styling hair for shoots. It'd be very beneficial once I start doing bridal. However I'm not looking forward to it... sigh.

This was one of my favourite looks of the year. This was inspired by an export model Kat Valentine (who is gorgeous!! I think she's half french/asian but I'm not sure) and my model wanted a similar look. The model here is Maryanne "Showpony" and through her I got a couple of jobs (TF) including a music video of an up and coming rapper/singer from Melbourne. She is one of the most upbeat and energetic girls I've ever met!! I love her and she's always fun to be around. She is also a go-go dancer. I also become the resident makeup artist for the asian modelling agency that she started up. She's terminating the agency this year to focus on herself and freelance modeling. I'm sure she'll do great (she already has quite a following) and it's perfect timing as I also wanted to move on.

Obviously I've done lots more looks, including short films, pilots, even a fashion show (where one of my closest friends was the head makeup artist - uber talented that chick). This year I want to do more crazy looks, more short films, and get into bridal as that's where the money is. Wish me luck!