So, last week I took an advanced airbrushing seminar at Kett Studios, and as they warned me, it kicked my butt. I do have an airbrush and I do know that it could be useful...did that mean I used it? Um, no, it did not. But SVU is on hiatus currently and so I used some of my free time to improve my skills with the airbrush. Let me tell you, it was harder than I thought it would be!
Airbrush makeup can be used to many results. For beauty, it is a technique to give a smooth, even and minimal application of foundation/contour/what have you. The micro-droplets of foundation float from the gun through the air and disperse themselves, settling gently and evenly on your skin. You know, that "airbrushed" look!
While I was there to learn that, I was particularly interested in learning some of the less pretty aspects of airbrushing: veining for corpse makeups, creation of freckles/sun damage/age spots, covering large surface areas with makeup quickly, and tattoo covering (Sheila, one of the artist/instructors/Kett founders, utterly vanished a tattoo, armed only with a knowledge of color theory, some amazing foundations and her airbrush).
Even the retail beauty industry is trying to market it for personal use at home as evidenced by this New York Times article.
The class began with a demo where Roque, my other artist/instructor/founder, did a full beauty makeup combining traditional makeup techniques with airbrush, all the while explaining how to control the gun and application. It seemed so easy!
Then onto learning the "dash and dot" technique - methods to control the dispersion of the makeup from the gun. You can't just hold that gun up and shoot! Once we had some control, it was on to face charts. Again, Roque demonstrated...piece of cake! Um, not so much: as evidenced by some of my earlier charts (see above), it is gonna take me a few more days (weeks? months??) to get those techniques down comfortably. Airbrushing skin tone makeup on skin is more forgiving than onto white paper. It really let me see when I was getting it right and when I had done that chart wrong.
Just when I was beginning to feel like a total hack, we moved onto doing actual makeup on one another. There was only one other makeup artist in the seminar with me and we both got a little more confident once we got going.
All and all, it is a skill that has a wide range of uses which I am very interested in continuing to develop and I really enjoyed the class. It also taught me that it is OK to not know everything - someone else might know it and might be willing to teach it to you!
Thanks Kett!
When I saw that photo on Facebook. I thought you were working on doing a humanoid alien! Admittedly, I was tempted by the infomercial for this type of makeup but if YOU had trouble then forget it. I'd end up making myself look like ET's tanned cousin.
ReplyDeletecannot wait for your next post...thanks for the insight
ReplyDeleteI was in the class and agree that it looked sooo easy but presented a challenge to me as well. However, they were very welcoming and the gift of makeup artistry is abundant with the artists from Kett. Yes, it is true, I am gleaning a wealth of knowledge from others in the industry and am grateful for the opportunity to network with such talented people.
ReplyDeleteHi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteI have an indelible smile on my face. I am glad to have offered you an experience that kicked your butt and you enjoyed it at the same time. Roque and I both thank you for your support.
Hi Rebecca, It was a pleasure working with you! I wanted to follow up and see if you have any questions... Anytime you need anything please don't hesitate to ask. I hope to see you in the neighborhood this summer. All the best.
ReplyDeleteIn spirit, love and unity,
Roque
Thank you for writing about this. The NYT article, like so many write-ups on beauty products, had the attitude of "using this product is wonky and time-consuming, but worth the experience!" My reaction was, if air-brushing is the future, I'm going to have to get up earlier in the morning. Anyway, I'm grateful you are exposing air-brushing as the tricky skill it appears to be.
ReplyDelete