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!