If you are going to
be a make-up artist, you will need a place where you can
practice. Even if you go to a school, you'll need to practice
afterwards and prepare appliances, etc. for jobs. A small area with
a worktable, chair, adequate lighting and a sink as near as possible
is minimum. A basement, empty room or garage is fine but you may
have to use your bedroom. I remember a young make-up woman who built
workbenches on three sides of her small bedroom and slept in a
sleeping bag under one of them! Now that's dedication!
A lot of your equipment can be bought
at Home Depot and art stores. In particular, you'll need an OHAUS
Triple Beam Balance with an extra weight set costing about $160 from
Polytek Development, 610/559-8626 (In the east) or Burman
Industries, 818/782-9833 (in the west) for weighing out foam latex.
Also a Sunbeam Mixmaster, about $175 for beating up foam latex. But
if you check out appliance repair shops, you may find a repaired
used mixer for $20 or $30. If all the speeds work, grab it. Of
course, you have to bake foam latex. You can do that in an electric
kitchen oven if you can keep the heat down to 200 degrees. It does
make an unpleasant sulfur smell. If that is a problem, you can buy
a convection oven that will hold a mold the size of a whole facemask
for about $250 and find another place to run it.
You also need a good digital camera with at least 5M (or 35 mm
film camera) that can focus sharply on the subjects’ face from their
Adam’s apple to the top of their head. Never use flash, it flattens
the image. If using film, use Kodacolor 800 indoors and Kodacolor
200 outdoors, or their equivalent.
For makeup material and supplies:
| Alcone Co. Inc., 5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island
City, NY 11101 |
(800) 466-7446 |
| Burman Industries, 14141 Covello Street, Van Nuys, CA 91405 |
(818) 782-9833 |
| Get both catalogs. Also subscribe to Makeup Artist Magazine |
(360) 882-3488 |
