Special Effects and Prosthetics Makeup Class

So this past year I have been taking extra classes in makeup and advanced prosthetics through Ryerson's continuing education program. This past month I finally finished my last course and received a certificate in Advanced Makeup Artistry and Special Effects. This in no way means that I am an expert, merely that I have completed my basic training! >:D

Having no background in makeup it was a bit of a challenge learning all the necessary foundation skills (no pun intended) in order to advance to special effects. I definitely learned a lot!

(My fangs pictured above broke not 3 hours after I took that picture because something heavy fell on them! D; So sad! I will have to make another pair...)

My favourite part was definitely the sculpting, molding and casting from the advanced prosthetics part of the course. If I were to pursue a career in makeup later on in life (after much more practice!) it would definitely be in lab-work, rather than on-site application.

I'm pretty excited to start incorporating what I have learned into future costume projects! Though technically speaking I have already begun using my improved knowledge of basic photographic/beauty makeups for my costumes this past summer.

I documented some of my progress through instagram. I won't go into details, but I will show a bit of my work.

This was my face cast and sculpt for my prosthetic pieces I designed. It was an aquatic-fish-elf-character. I also cast some flat prosthetic pieces for neck gills.

These were the pieces after I cast them.

This was the final result. Unfortunately I am not too happy with how it turned out. I really should have patched my edges as some of them didn't blend down at all, particularly on the center for the face. Also I was going tropical fish, but ended up looking more reptilian. Next time I will pre-paint up my pieces, I think I would have better success that way.

In any case, it was a learning process and it is safe to say I learned a lot!