This is what I’ve been working towards for the past 2 years – my how time flies!
The brief for this project is “To prepare and present a project, based on a practical assignment at an organised event. The finished piece of work must take the form of a live model displaying a full ‘character’ look (added hair, makeup and costume) incorporating advanced techniques.”
Mine’s Superman, impaled on the spike at the top of the Empire State Building. Ooooh gory! My advanced makeup technique is bodypainting, but there will be plenty of blood and guts involved too. You know me.
If you’re interested in seeing my work (plus that of the other 80-ish makeup artistry students from West College Scotland), get yourself along to The Arches on Thursday 14 May from 6-9pm (free entry) for a swatch.
These photos are by the amazing PHOTOSHOP KING Ross Baker, taken at Summerlee (The Museum of Scottish Industrial Life in Coatbridge) – fantastic studio facilities and the most helpful staff, I highly recommend ’em! My model is Aron, who really is a superhero – not just when I bodypaint him. Enormous thanks to all involved!
unedited Photo credit: Ross Baker/XLM Photography
edited (before and after) Photo credit: Ross Baker/XLM Photography
Another belated update for ye. College is busy at the moment; ugh. It’s really cutting into my free time. I actually dusted one of my David Bowie books the other day, which tells you a lot about the state I’m in; not only is my obsession with the great man being starved out of me by other demands on my time, but I was CLEANING. Which means one thing and one thing only, if you are Imogen Maxwell. PROCRASTINATION.
And I’m nothing if not a productive procrastinator. As each deadline stalks me mercilessly, swooping out of the shadows when I quite literally least expect it, I pinball about the house, panic-napping, organising, dusting.
You’d think – once the Bowie library is gleaming and catalogued – I’d be flogging prolifically, whacking up product reviews, creating madcap transformations, inscribing the magna carta on my nails in fancy rainbow colours. Let’s just say my laptop hasn’t been cooperating …
damn you
… but I’m here now so let me tell you a beautiful story in pictures.
I was up on the Isle of Lewis at the end of April, ostensibly to do the makeup for a short film being made by Edinburgh College of Art student director Gordon Napier. Makeup was a minor feature of my week, I must admit, but I did my best to get involved with all there was to do.
I stayed with the lovely lovely cast and crew of 18ish, in a blackhouse village near Carloway. Blackhouses are for people 3’8″ or under.
where I spent all day bent double, wincing as other people brained themselves on 4-foot thick concrete beams
They had been converted into hostel-type accommodation; our lil house had 2 x 6-bed dorms and one (or two?) 2-bed room. There was a big kitchen and room enough for everyone to have meals together sat at a long table. There was a living room too with a fire place and couches.
Kitchen wizards Elspeth and Pola, without whom we would have turned cannibal
Being the backpacker queen that I am, I’m a pretty swift and harsh judge of this type of accommodation, and I was well impressed.
our neighbours
Each day of filming was long, but that ain’t no thang when you’re surrounded by good-natured professionals.
There were indoor scenes…
… and hero production designers Lottie and Lola had gone all out in decking that place out, let me tell you.
where did they find this wall art? Shhh. Just enjoy.
baked trout dinner, for throwing to the floor in a rage.
There were outdoor scenes …
… but there was no internet.
only one itty bitty scrap of 3G in one corner of the set
Apart from movie-making japery, I was kept entertained by practicing some special effects …
… and whooping it up at the Callanish standing stones.
We met the locals…
… we ate the locals….
… and we waited around a lot, cos that’s what you do.
With good company…
… and perfect weather and scenery….
… it was a pleasure to be involved 🙂
nothing to see here
I’m very much looking forward to seeing the finished product, and feel free to head on over to T I D E’s Facebook page to keep on top of updates!
Here’s some unrelated Motley Crue to sing you out. Don’t forget you can stalk me over on Facebook and Instagram, both of which get a hell of a lot more action than this flog. Gi’us a wee ‘like’, go on.
I’m not being rude, that’s the name of the last Insane Championship Wrestling show that Angie and I did. Get your mind out of the gutter, you dirty depraved flogstars!
Or at least, if you’re in the gutter, I hope you’re looking up at the stars. Free makeover for whoever gets that reference first.
Anyhoo, today’s flog post brings a rare how-to. I guess I shouldn’t even be calling this a beauty blog in the first place, since how-tos and product reviews are so few and far between. WHATEVS, my flog, my rules 😛
So, Show Me Your Lizard. We did a bit of touching up and other misc makeup backstage, but the real action began when we had the bright (vodka-induced) idea to get in amongst the audience and offer our facepainting skillz.
we practiced on our arms first 🙂 photo by Chelsea Cochrane
That involved yelling “facepainting! Get your face painted! Show me your LIZARD!” at the punters as they entered the venue. Which for some reason, was extra-hilarious in an Australian accent. Here are some shots of what we did:
… and now for the how-to part. You will need green cream makeup and a paintbrush or foundation brush to apply it with (don’t use anything precious as it’s a pain in the ass to clean off a nice brush), an orange bag…
yep
…yellow facepaint and a sponge to stipple it on with.
Whack the green on first, give it a moment to dry, place the orange bag over the top (take the oranges out first dummy) then carefully stipple the yellow paint over the top. Lift the orange bag away, and voila, scales! Easy.
Here are some more backstage pics for your amusement. Commentary from me not required. Until next time, flogstars! xX
… was for a comedy show about the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence, to be held in September this year. Exciting times – the referendum AND my makeup work being on telly. Yippee!
The show’s called Blethering Referendum and will be broadcast on Monday nights on BBC2 at 10:30pm, starting this Monday coming. Tune in! My hands are also in it, not sure if that scene will be in this first episode but look out for me pretending to shampoo someone’s hair.
what my paws looked like at the time
Speaking of filming, I’ve been away for a week up on the Isle of Lewis, helping make a short movie called TIDE for Edinburgh College of Art film directing student Gordon Napier. I also hit the Insane Championship Wrestling again this weekend just gone, so stay tuned, absolute BEASTS of flog posts coming up shortly!
Now sing yourselves to sleep with some Aussie rock.
oh hey there flogstars, how’s it going? It’s been sunny here in Glasgow for a few days in a row now, which had me optimistically removing all but 3 layers of thermals. I even cheekily wore a t-shirt for approx. 10 minutes too, thinking that the bright clear sky signified warmth, but as the wind started to strip the skin from my bare arms I lost my nerve.
I’ve had 2 weeks off college and in a moment of uncharacteristically organised and motivated action, found myself doing 5 photoshoots in the first 3 days of the break. Yeah, if you’re wondering, that’s fuckin’ crazy.
3 of those photoshoots were for my college graded unit. The brief was for us to produce 3 professional-quality, publication-ready photographs, fully styled in the, err, style of a fashion designer or makeup brand that we chose. We were to organise it all ourselves, find a photographer/model/location, brief everyone, keep a diary of how it all came together, full costing for each look, moodboards, the whole shebang.
I think the idea is to teach us how much work actually goes into producing the pretty pictures.
So, we were to choose a fashion designer or makeup brand and get busy pulling our ‘looks’ together. Naturally, I chose David Bowie, but unfortunately as my lecturer firmly pointed out, he is neither a makeup brand or a fashion designer. Hmm. Not to be discouraged, I Googled around to find out about the designers of his more iconic costumes.
If, for example, I chose Kansai Yamamoto as my designer, there is no way I would be able to do a photoshoot that WASN’T all about the D.
That’s the path that lead me to Alexander McQueen, although as you’re about to see in the photos below, the end result isn’t Bowie at all. WTF? Am I expanding my horizons?
First photoshoot was with Finnish mega-babe model Johannes, who stepped in at the last minute (hero) when my original model had to cancel. We got down and grungy in the Kelvin Bridge subway station in front of a purple skull graffiti mural. Here are the (kinda Clockwork Orange-esque) snaps from that shoot:
That’s a (faux) McQueen scarf tied over his face, which was part of the original styling and not just me being lazy and only wanting to do half a face of makeup.
That afternoon I did my second shoot, which was the ‘moth lady’, inspired by McQueen’s SS 2001 collection (and perhaps his most-bonkers catwalk show of all – YouTube it).
… and here’s what I came up with. The mad hairdo is the handiwork of my college friend Angela Sinclair, who is also caretaker of my mullet these days. I could never have done this myself so I am forever in her debt! Mega-babe model is the stunning Ieva, who is represented here in Glasgow by Model Team.
The next morning was the fastest photoshoot in the world, on board the Tall Ship at the Transport Museum, where we were most not-welcome to take photos so we had to be quick. Here’s mega-babe model Victoria Wheelan sporting a glamorous pirate eye-patch I created with black eyeliner and black sequins glued on top with lash-glue.
All these photos are by Bryce Powrie, who I have worked with quite a lot now – good ole Bryce.
So yes, the whole exercise was quite the adventure. After feeling so organised and ahead of schedule, there were so many last-minute curveballs! It all turned out alright in the end but there are always things that are (a) out of your hands and (b) you’d do differently with the wisdom of hindsight.
I also think I might have been TOO organised; if I had given myself a little more time to get everything together in the first place, the styling/outfits etc might have been more impressive, for example. Oh well. I am happy with the photos but I don’t know which ones to submit; I am also worried that while they are (to me) clearly McQueen-influenced, they are nowhere near as dark as a typical McQueen campaign. Does that matter?
I am really really grateful to the folk who helped me get this all together – the models, my photographer Bryce, Angie for doing the hairstyling.. they all did it out of their own free time and it is a huge favour that I truly appreciate.
What do y’all think? Would you pass me?
Here’s Ingrid Michaelson bringing her transformation A-game in the music video for Blood Brothers, while you ponder.
This week has been an extraordinarily busy one in the Imosphere, so I hope you’re keeping an eye on it all – I’m putting up the finished pretty pictures of my makeup work on my Pinterest board and there’s plenty of behind the scenes banter over on Instagram and my Facebook page too.
I don’t put makeup on myself or other people because human faces are so gross that I can’t deal with them bare. I don’t spend money I don’t have on £40 lipsticks because I believe on some level that it will transfer some of Beyonce’s magic onto me, and nor should you. My own laziness – ie NOT my self-loathing – dictates how much makeup I (don’t) put on in the mornings.
I think we’re all aware that the media and the fashion and cosmetics industries are evil giants blah blah blah. I can’t speak for everyone obviously; perhaps you DO sob in the mirror every morning, applying your lipstick, heart heavy with the sheer misery of not looking like Emma Watson.
Just saying, I really like makeup and I don’t think it’s because I’m insecure. I enjoy the art of makeup, I am intrigued by the craft and the science of it too. I don’t paint Ziggy-Stardust style makeup on myself because I want to swap my face for David Bowie’s. I just really like the creative, transformative, expressive nature of it. ‘Sfun.
It’s my big-girl version of how I used to tie a towel around my neck as a cape and pretend to be a superhero (I actually had a Superwoman colouring in book as a kid, and one of the super things she did was cleaning. I’m not even kidding. Obviously this attempted brain-washing had the reverse effect.)
Anyway. Makeup. Not expensive self-harm. A creative expression, with a temporary nature. Actually, that’s my favourite thing about makeup – it comes off.
On Sunday night, Angie and I had our first shot as official makeup artistes for Glasgow’s Insane Championship Wrestling. It took place in the ABC…
… and the show was sold out.
We didn’t end up doing that much makeup to be honest (hopefully for future shows, once people realise that’s what we’re there to do, we will be put to work a bit more), and as you well know, flogstars… the devil makes work for idle hands.
Which means we had plenty of time to gawp at lots of fit, oiled-up bodies and take billions of selfies.
We arrived around 4pm and had a bit of time to kill while everything was set up. So we sniffed around. Access All Areas means precisely that.
the only thing stopping me from trying the belt on was the fear that I would be thrown in the ring if I did
We saw lots of stretching, massaging, greasing-up and rehearsing…
There were lots of opportunities to meet-and-greet…
flanked by Leah Owens and Carmel Jacob. Grr!
Michelle McManus and me. My tooth isn’t actually missing, it’s just a shadow.
… and even more time for crazy japes.
As the venue filled up, it was time for the performers to get in the zone. This involves a lot of pacing, pumping up of muscles by dropping suddenly to the ground and doing really fast push-ups, and muttering while mentally rehearsing signature moves. Last-minute application of extra oil is optional.
… And then, it’s SHOWTIME!
It’s not pretty, but it is spectacular. Already counting the seconds til the next one at the end of April. Giddy up!
A few weeks ago I went to the AHT UK Trainee competitions at Coatbridge; I entered the ‘team bridal’ event, myself doing the makeup and my classmate Rachael doing the hair. Our classmate Sophie was our model, and what a good sport she was.
It was a long day with lots of competitors in various events…
…and some truly talented folk about.
Rachael and I were up against I think 19 other teams, and the standard was HIGH – I was happy with my work but also not surprised we didn’t place, against some of the others.
Others in my class placed, in the bodypainting and the vintage makeup category. Here’s Saoirse who came 3rd in the 1950s makeup category.
This weekend I was supposed to be going to Blackpool to compete in the national competition for colleges (this time doing drag makeup) but I’ve withdrawn this time round… I just have way too much on with college work. Next time 😉
digital imologue 