Razor Sharp

I guess this photo shoot has been in the making for some time now. This past October I was the Makeup Manager for Louisville Halloween's Ultimate Halloween Fest. At the beginning of the season I assigned all of the makeups to the artists. Zoe Hall was one of my artists and she had worked with me before so Zoe knew what I expected. I was more than comfortable putting her at the other end of the makeup trailer. I also assigned her all of our circus performer's makeups.

The above image is my good friend Mary Proctor modeling my Circus Test Makeup.

The idea was to make the circus makeups look like they were in weather stage makeup. Not the prettiest but effective. Having assigned the makeups before the season sight unseen I had no idea who was getting what performer. One of the performers was an Aerialist named Olivia Storment. She was very impressive to watch and kind of intimidating to me atleast. I was disappointed I didn't get to do her makeup because I would see her at the opposite end of the trailer getting makeup and I really liked her look. There was one night we were short an artist and I had to reassign a few makeups and pick up slack. Needless to say I took that as an opportunity to do Olivia's makeup.

The above image is Zoe Hall doing Olivia Storment's makeup. Shot by Bret Griffeth

I remember vividly how Olivia was very quiet as I was doing her makeup. With her quietness and me being intimidated I was nervous to start conversation. I did what I thought was a very pretty Vee Neil/Tim Burton style makeup. I was super happy with it and it was the makeup I wanted to keep and probably should have. The directive was weathered stage makeup, which was my directive in the first place. Even though it pained me I added the poorly drawn on brows, heavy blush and the weathering. The makeup still looked cool for what it was and Olivia pulled it off. I was worried this would be the only opportunity I'd have to do her makeup and it was a "haunt" makeup, I didn't even get a photo.

The above image is Olivia Storment performing at Louisville Halloween's Ultimate Halloween Fest.

Fast forward a several months I had decided to redo and improve my Venom body paint. Danny Alexander had agreed to shoot the look as he shot the first one. I wanted to find the perfect model. Danny and I bounced models off of each other for a couple days. Olivia kept popping up in my head but I didn't think she'd be into it, plus she intimidated me. With Olivia being an aerialist having her model a spider-man type character body paint just made sense. I am so happy she agreed to do it and the photos came out amazing. We talked more during the body paint so I wasn't as scared of her anymore. Olivia has a beautiful face though so while it was a cool body paint, it still wasn't the beauty makeup I wanted to do on her.

Now fast forward several more months. I completely skipped over asking her to model a beauty makeup to asking her out on a date. I fully grasp asking her out was quite the leap from asking her to model but I am so happy I did. I honestly thought that would fall flat but I had to at least give her the opportunity to reject me, or say yes to be nice and then just be friends. Lucky for me she said yes. Things have been amazing since that first date and we are very happy. Well,… I'm very happy and I hope she is too. After spending a lot of time together I felt it was time to finally do a beauty makeup on her. Since Danny had shot the Venom body paint with us and knew Olivia from that I asked if he would shoot the makeup. Not to mention Danny is just a kick ass photographer.

In Olivia's words; This was my first time having more of a beauty style makeup done by Matt. All I can say is that I couldn't have been more elated with the outcome. To have that done by someone who's not only an artist to me, but also my boyfriend. It really means more than words can describe. To say I'm lucky is an understatement. He did such a beautiful job and I absolutely loved the soft-dark vibe this makeup portrayed. When I was told what the color scheme would be I got really excited. I loved the red/purple tones and really like red colors in general. I'm so glad I got to model this look for a person who means so much to me.

I originally set out to do this really dewy ethereal makeup with soft colors. A couple days before the shoot I saw a reddish eye makeup that changed my mind. Olivia has beautiful almost sage colored eyes and I knew the deep reds would make them pop. I added a subtle but razor sharp deep red wing and under that a soft wing to add some drama and contrast. It's a different feeling doing makeup on someone you love and I’m sure we will do it again sometime. I love how the images came out, it's fun creating with the one you love. Danny did a killer job as usual though and I am happy to share them.

"Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears."

-Edgar Allan Poe

VENOM 2.0

With the passage of time we often look back at past projects. One of my favorite body paints I have done has to be my Venom body paint. If you are unfamiliar you can check out the blog here ( http://mattgoodlettmakeup.com/blog/2018/5/25/venomiss ). I was really proud of it and people seemed to really like it. Not just because of the body paint but the great model and amazing photography. It also doesn't hurt that Venom is such a beloved villain who has amazing character design to draw from.

All that being said looking back on it nearly four years later I knew I could do it better. Except for the tongue and teeth I pretty much used all black and white paint with some high lights here and there. The more I have looked at it over the years I knew I could do it better. I have a real issue however with revisiting things I have done in the past. I thought this would be a great way to show growth however.



I contacted my friend Danny Alexander who had shot the first Venom body paint I did. I knew if I was going to redo it I wanted and needed him on board. I have worked with Danny a lot in the past and he always captures my body paints perfectly. Not to mention he is a bit of a nerd like myself so he is familiar with the subject matter more than most. He and I started thinking about models that could pull off the look. We talked about several different people then it hit me, I knew the perfect person.

Olivia Storment

First image by Alex Bays and the rest by Kyle Kozinski

The Halloween event I worked this past year had this fantastic aerialist by the name of Olivia Storment. As Venom swings through the air it only made since to have a model that did the same. When I met Olivia she came off as very shy, soft spoken and reserved but watching her perform she was anything but. I wasn't sure if she would be interested in being painted as a comic book character but I had to ask. She had just modeled for a body paint show I hosted for another artist so I had hope. I am so glad she agreed to be a part of this project.

Like the last paint I started on the mouth, tongue and emblem first. I paint sketch it all out in white first to see how the tongue and emblem would meet up. I wanted to cover the spider a bit with the tongue but I didn't want to obscure it too much. This time instead of white then yellow I started with a nicotine color for the teeth with some brown to give them a dirtier look. I didn't use white for the emblem this time around either. I used a mix of a color called tainted flesh, tendon, and light gray. The biggest change though was the "black" of the symbiote that is Venom. Basing in black last time didn't leave me a lot of room to move for high light and low light. Instead I based in dark blue. This gave me a lot of room to move with highlight and lowlight to make for a much more detailed look. To punch up the gnarl factor I added some green slime to the mouth elements. I almost didn't add the slime but I feel like that little bit of green added so much to the overall look. To finish it off I added some white highlights to really pull out Olivia's musculature as well as other details and to make some things look wet.

In Olivia's Words, “Going into this I was beyond stoked and excited. I had only been body painted once before and was thrilled when Matt asked me if I could be a part of this. I didn’t know much about the Venom character, except for only having seen the first movie which I loved. I’m obsessed with all things demons and monsters so I was super ecstatic to be turned into this famous villain. The day of I was a little nervous, but when things got started I could not stop smiling. I was probably having too much fun. Looking in the mirror when everything was finished, I was in disbelief that this amazing, super detailed piece was on my body. Saying I felt cool is a huge understatement, and I was honestly pretty sad when I had to take it off. I feel so lucky that I was able to participate with such talent in this awesome project. I can’t stop thinking about it!”

Danny was pretty much able to match his lighting set up from last time which I felt is what really made my original venom paint look so good. The way Olivia was able to hold her body was awesome. She really brought strength to the character. I was nervous to go back into this character because I was afraid I couldn't make the changes drastic enough to make it wort it. With the help of an amazing photographer and model I think I was able to achieve and showcase the growth I wanted to in the past 4 years and I hope you think so as well.

NAHA: Primary Function

Matthew Tyldesley is one of the best hairstylists I know. I have known him almost since the beginning on my makeup journey back in 2014 and we have become great friends. I have worked with him on several projects over the years and he has always been supportive of my career. That being said some years ago he started telling me that I needed to enter NAHA. I had never heard of NAHA but I found out it stands for North American Hairstyling Awards. I had to look it up because I didn't want to ask and look stupid. While it does definitely say hairstylist in the title they also have a makeup portion and just being nominated it quite the big deal.

NAHA felt like one of those words you've never heard before but as soon as you are made aware of it you start hearing it everywhere. Working in the industry I started hearing NAHA brought up a lot by other artists and stylists, even models and photographers. Artists put a lot of thought and planning into the collections they submit for judging. In December of 2017 I worked with Friend and Photographer Chelsea Marrin on a makeup collection passion project of mine. There was a ton of emotion involved and a lot of planning and thought that went into the pieces. Chelsea had also been saying that I should do NAHA for a bit. When I saw the amazing photos from that December project I thought if I was going to do NAHA this is how I'd want to represent myself.

No Evil

Photo: Chelsea Marrin

Models L-R: Alex Hepfinger, Katya Estes, Portia Greene

There were a couple reasons why I didn't submit them to NAHA. "No Evil" as I named the project was so full of meaning and I thought they looked best in black and white to portray the right mood. I didn't think black and white would play well to the judges as they usually like color from what I have seen. Chelsea and I talked about just desaturating the color a bit to find a middle ground between color and black and white. This left the concern for me that there was still a color issue or lack thereof in the makeup. The only makeup that was used was black and white and again all of the pieces I had seen win were very colorful. This is why you usually have a plan when doing NAHA. These were all excuses I was constructing in my head to not submit. My main reason I didn't want to submit "No Evil" was because I wouldn't be able to share the images until nominations were made in the spring. With the collection being as emotionally charged as it was for me I couldn't wait that long to share.

(You can read the blog on “NO EVIL” here, http://mattgoodlettmakeup.com/blog/2018/1/10/no-evil-nwxge )

Fast forward to this past summer which was just a few months ago really. Matthew hired me to come and help do the makeups for him and two other hairstylists' entries. With Covid, submission times had changed which is why we were doing them in the summer. While I would be doing makeup for their collections these would not be considered entries for me. The Models started rolling in from the agency and as it turned out they had hired one too many. Matthew pulled me aside and told me I would now be doing a NAHA collection of my own. I think he saw me give a look of freaking out and concern as my jaw hung slack. He explained that we had one too many models and that I could pick one to do a three image collection with. So many concepts started flooding my mind that I couldn't separate them. Most artists take weeks or even months to plan out their collections; I had 20 minutes to come up with something.

After some thought the concept that kept coming back to the top was my old "No Evil" collection which was based on Hear no evil, speak no evil see no evil. That was an incredibly dark concept built on black and white, but I thought, “What if I used color". Once I had that very simple revelation the title of "Primary Function" came into my mind. Knowing their needed to be three looks and that I wanted to use color while still keeping each image monotone it only made since to use the three primary colors for each. The primary functions being Listening, Witnessing and Speaking while doing all of these from the heart where the design points.

LISTENING

Photo: Kory Easterday

Model: Alyson Power

Hair: Matthew Tyldesley

I knew unlike "No Evil" I wanted the eyes open in the "Witnessing" look that focused on the eyes or in previous collection, the lack of. Looking at the models Alyson Power had the most expressive eyes. I knew I wanted to work with her and her striking features. Unlike the previous collection Alyson would be my model for all three images which complicated things only slightly.

WITNESSING

Photo: Kory Easterday

Model: Alyson Power

Hair: Matthew Tyldesley

This meant I had to use products I knew she could get off easily and not damage her skin with all of the removal between looks. I used Mehron Paradise Paint AQ. With it being a water activated makeup I knew it would wash off fairly easy. Certain pigments can stain certain skin types however. I knew doing a full face foundation was a must to limit any staining as a protective barrier almost, especially with strong pigments like red and blue. For that I used Mehron's Celebre Cream foundations. All of the paint was then covered with a matching iridescent powder. Extra attention was given to the yellow by adding a bit of orange as to not lose the hard edge in her warm skin tones. Did I mention I was also helping the other hairstylists with their collection all the while?

SPEAKING

Photo: Kory Easterday

Model: Alyson Power

Hair: Matthew Tyldesley

As I write this it is November 9th. Nominations will happen tomorrow at 1pm est so I have no idea if I will be nominated or not. If I were a betting man I would lean heavily towards not. From the beautiful winners I have seen in the past they tend to pack in a ton of color in each makeup. For me, monotone felt more powerful for these images and more my style. The amazing Kory Easterday who photographed them really knocked it out of the park. I couldn't be happier with how these images came out and I wouldn't change them for anything. I wanted to do something that was very me with no compromise and I feel like I did that.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS

Photo: Kory Easterday

Model: Alyson Power

Hair: Matthew Tyldesley

Update: As predicted I was not nominated. However my friend Isidro Valencia who was part of our team and working right next to me was so huge congratulations to him, it is well deserved!

Star Wars: Then and Now

Every journey has a beginning and I guess this was mine. About 7 and a half years ago October of 2013 I subbed in as a makeup artist at the Devil’s Attic Haunted house. I later became the makeup manager from 2015-2020. Before they let me on the makeup team full time I had to prove myself and show more in my portfolio than zombie makeup. I knew if I was going to prove myself I needed to do something different. I decided to go in more of a sci-fi direction because I thought horror would be expected.

My mind immediately went to Star Wars for inspiration. I knew I couldn’t really replicate what had already been seen on screen with the limited experience I had 7 years ago. Mainly for fear of it being ripped apart by fan boys. I decided to create my own character that I thought could live in the universe Lucas had created. My friend, and at the time my roommate Chris Humphreys was also a photographer and offered to take the photos for me. This later turned into three makeups instead of just the one. All these years later I have decided to go back and improve these looks and reimagine them.

The first look in what became a series was based on Zam Wesell which was the assassin in Clone Wars Episode 2. Zam was sent to kill Queen Amidala. The makeup I ended up with looked nothing like Zam on our model Olivia Emmaline, which was the point. I wanted to create an assassin class kind of what the Madolorians are to bounty hunters. I used water activate makeup and grease paint. Chris Later edited her eyes totally black. I knew nothing of contact lenses nor did I have the budget for such things. I was pretty happy with how it all turned out at the time and Chris Killed it with the edit.

Then

Photo: Chris Humphreys

Model: Olivia Emmaline

Attacking these looks years later with my Friend and Photographer Misha Kidewell my main objective was of course to do them better but also to try and stay true to the original vibe. With the Zam inspired look I knew I wanted to keep the painted on mask as it was the main focus of this assassin clan in my head, which I called the “Aikoat”. Model Tia Kinser and I talked about wardrobe and how the character would want to cover up her skin and probably wear black so she could remain under the radar. This influenced doing the painted on “mask” in black rather than a bright purple. I feel like I used bright colors originally because I thought it was showing off when in reality it made no sense. The all black we decided to go with may not be as in your face impactful but it makes for a way more stealthy look. Having the eyes being all black for this would have been too much though. I went with a more organic looking contact lense from Primal called Jinx.

Now

Photo: Misha Kidwell

Model: Tia Kinser

The second look Chris and I did was a surprise. Initially. I was just supposed to be doing one look but we had another model there that day named Beth Beck. It was suggested that we go ahead and knock out another look since we had time. I agreed but was totally unprepared. I think I had been watching a lot of Doctor Who and the first thing that came to my mind was the Cat People from the David Tenant years. Out of the three looks I ended up doing I never really liked this one. Chris did a great job on the edit and Beth looked amazing. The issue I had was that the makeup didn’t look like it belonged in the Star Wars universe.

Then

Photo: Chris Humphreys

Model: Beth Beck

When thinking about how to reimagine this look with Misha and model Ve Reibel I had a hard time getting past the feline look. Chris had edited the original looks eyes to have that cat shape. I had ordered some Amazing lenses from Primal for the vertical pupil look actually modeled after the Eye of Sauron. I made the decision to of course keep the eyes but to let that inspire a more reptilian look. To me this felt more like it belonged in some strange bar on Tatoine.

Now

Photo: Misha Kidwell

Model: V Reibel

The day after the initial 2 makeups Chris came to me saying it didn’t feel right doing just those looks, that we need one more for it to be a series. Unlike the feline look this gave me a few days to plan a makeup. I called in actress and model Caitlin Clemons who I had worked with at the haunted house. I went with a much warmer pallet on this look for contrast. I added some blue speckles to her forehead and her shoulders. Caitlin had her own contacts from working at the Devil’s Attic haunted house which we used. The lenses didn’t really fit the character but it’s what we had and saved Chris on editing her eyes.

Then

Photo: Chris Humphreys

Model: Caitlin Clemons

Rethinking this look with Misha I knew I wanted to expand on the blue speckles and make them more of a focal point. I love how alien looks in the Star Wars universe play with color so I wanted to do something bold and really play with color theory. Melanie Smith had this amazing emerald green hair that was a beautiful contrast with all of the warm tones. I also picked some more fitting lenses from Primal to go with the character.

Now

Photo: Misha Kidwell

Model: Melanie Smith

For those being the first non-zombie makeups and on top of that the first makeups I ever did for photos I am still proud of them. Given all these years I am so happy I had the opportunity to go back and revisit these. I am so happy with how these new makeups look. Maybe in 7 years I will update them again. Thank you so much to all involved, then and now. This has been a really fun project.

All of the lenses used from www.primalcontactlenses.us

Give'em hell!

The Devil’s Attic has been my home haunt since 2013. I remember getting a text from a friend to come in and take over playing the Priest character. As an “actor” I had never worked in a haunted house so I wanted to give it a try. I have to say it was a far bigger challenge than I had ever anticipated. Every weekend I blew out my voice and had scrapes and bruises all over but I loved it. Acting in a haunt was one of the more physically taxing things I had ever done and my hat goes off to all haunt actors.

Towards the end of the 2013 season I was brought into the makeup room because they had lost a makeup artist. I had minimal experience doing terrible greasepaint zombie makeup which at the time I thought were good. I really enjoyed being in the makeup room and was told if I wanted to continue to be in the makeup room the next season I would need a better my portfolio. This gave me the nudge to explore different types of makeup and work with different types artists. Over that next year I built a portfolio of SFX, beauty and Avant-Garde makeup. In 2014 I joined the makeup team full time. It was the exact push I need to find my passion.

In 2015 I was made the manager of the makeup room. Working with different artists had exposed me more to beauty makeups which I really enjoyed. I think that had some people questioning my ability to take over the makeup program at a haunted house. This wasn’t helped by the fact I wanted to add beauty elements to certain characters, get rid of blood where ever I could and give our vampires some shimmer highlight. I really like the idea of being drawn in by something oddly attractive to have it bite off your head. At first this was not received well but I felt it gave us an edge and set us apart. Our owner Jason came around to the idea and started to trust me with the makeup room which I couldn’t be more grateful for.

Without the Devil’s Attic I would not be where I am today with makeup. The Devil’s Attic drove me to be a better artist and try new things and learn new techniques. I wanted to absorb everything I could to bring back to our makeup team which I named Team Demon Fabulous. The name to me said “beautiful monsters” which was my original idea for our style. I wanted to keep brushes in my hands all year long to sharpen my skills and hopefully set an example for the team. I tried to do my best to let my team create makeups and make cool stuff (within the confines of the characters). I wanted to empower them as well. They were not my assistants; they were artists in their own right and I wanted them to feel as such.

As Team Demon Fabulous we started to get some recognition. When I took over the management position one of my goals was to bring home some honors. Having our makeups mentioned in reviews was cool but I wanted awards. In 2018 this finally happened with our first of several awards which continued in 2019. This would not have been possible without an amazing team and support from our owner Jason. We were given a lot of control over the makeups we created and all the support we could ask for.

All of the above it why this decision has been such a hard one to come to but I feel it is time. Some times in life you have to just take the leap and get out of your comfort zone. I will be stepping away from the Devil’s Attic after the 2020 season. Nothing negative has happened at all and I couldn’t imagine a better experience at a haunted house. I want to try and explore other opportunities during haunt season. Jason has entrusted and empowered me as his makeup manager and I sincerely hope I did him and the rest of the crew proud. It has been such a major part of my life and a point of pride as I believe the Devil’s Attic is the best haunt around.

I have made some of my best and lifelong friends through this crazy wild place. I know come September part of me is going to miss that musty building and all it holds. I would be lying if I said part of me wasn’t afraid to leave. I will never forget all of the great times and challenges and amazing memories from the Devil’s Attic. Not to mention the vibrant, eclectic, beautiful motley crew that inhabits the DA family. There is nothing like working in a haunt and I will miss it. I am confident whoever takes my place will kill it and continue to help make the badass monsters that the Devil’s Attic is known for. With that I say; Give’em Hell!

Photos by: Antonio Pantoja, Misha Kidwell, Danny Alexander and Tate Chmielewski.

Spooky Bang Bang!

I have always gotten a lot of my inspiration for music and imagery dealing with music. I am not the hugest fan of Die Antwoord but I have enjoyed their music over the years. Their energetic music comes in quite handy when you have seven haunted house makeups to do in less than 2 hours. Along with their music comes some pretty dark imagery. From Yolandi’s blacked out eyes, drastic hair styles, smeared makeup and blood. It’s all very bold but minimal at the same time, which is what I love.

There is an image of Yolandi in body paint that I was always drawn too. She is painted white with very simplistic designs drawn on her in black. I have wanted to do something similar for a while but wasn’t sure how to tackle it. First of all I didn’t want people to see those types of remedial designs and think that's all I was capable of. I would like to think I have done enough body paint over the years to put that thought to rest so I decided to move forward. Once I set myself to doing it then I needed to figure out what to paint. It’s no secret that I love Halloween and I thought that would be a good basis for the designs. I wanted to do simple things that could be achieved in a line drawing.

From there I needed a photographer. I wanted to work with someone I hadn’t worked with before. Jeff Lohne came to mind but I hadn’t seen him work in a while. I really liked his work though and wanted to see if he was interested. I knew this wasn’t really his style but he decided this would be a good way to show back up on the scene and I was happy he agreed. From there I had to find a model. I have worked with Jasmine (Jazz) Shank before and she was super easy to work with. I knew she would have the right playful personality for this too and luckily she said yes. 

In Jazz’s words, “This was my second time working with Matt and my first time working with Jeff. I loved every second of the vibe as we just listened to music and basically hung out. I even created tiktok vids while Matt painted this masterpiece on my body. It was just a really fun and chill experience and I really loved working with both of them. I’d highly recommend both of them to anyone and can’t wait until our next collaboration.”

On the day of the shoot I styled Jazz in boots and striped athletic socks. I thought this would help give it the fun but edgy look we were going for. I knew like the inspiration I wanted to keep the pallet limited with the addition of a third color instead of just two. So with our Halloween pallet of black, white and orange we were ready,…almost.  Jazz had bright blue hair which posed an issue with or three color pallet. While I liked the blue hair it really threw off the color scheme. I had a dark grey knit cap in my bag that we threw on her and it kind of worked for a spray paint tagger look.

I first painted her black with Mehron Paradise water activated body paint using the “Mark Reid” brushes that Mehron had sent me. I didn’t paint her feet or lower legs because I knew the socks would cover. I also didn’t paint her right hand for two reasons. I knew I was going to be painting it orange to make it look like she spray painted it. I also wanted to leave her with her right hand free until the end so she could continue to do her TikToks and use her phone as you can see above.

Painting the simplistic symbols was harder than I expected. I wanted to add detail to them but kept having to stop myself. Keeping them simple was a challenge for me. The white Mehron Edge body paint made it easy technically though because the formula lays nicely on top without mixing and turning gray or muddy. On Jazz’s face I used a heavy orange eye shadow and a black lip. I outlined the lip in white to resemble the line drawings on her body.

This team did an amazing job and I love how this makeup and body paint came out. For this not being Jeff’s style really and not having picked up his camera in a while I’d say he nailed it. Jazz as usual killed it with the posing and really showed off the work and kept it fun. There were so many good images to pick form. I really hope you all enjoy them because we had a good time making them.

Final Photos edited by Chelsea Marrin

The Jester

Let me start off by saying I am not a huge fan of clowns. Working in the haunt community I am sure I will catch some flak for that statement but that is just my opinion. Having worked in the haunt industry since 2013 I have seen them to be very effective scares. To me it’s always just felt too easy, just the sight of a clown scares people. That is not to say there aren’t a ton of great haunt actors out there that don’t kill it in clown makeup or masks. They love their clown characters and they are terrifying. I have done makeups over the years that were based on clowns but never a straight up clown look.

Photos: Danny Alexander

Models: Amanda Terry, Katya Estes, Kenyatta Desha

Clowns and clown type makeups have been very popular over the years. Some of the most notable examples of clown makeup in my opinion are Twisty from American Horror Story, the Joker and Pennywise. I have really enjoyed the variations in those makeups. Many of those makeups have become iconic in the makeup world.  The common denominator in those makeups being a white base which is what I wanted to stay away from.

There is a makeup artist I follow on Instagram named Fatima Ruiz. She is an amazing makeup artist and so inspiring to me. She did a makeup that I fell in love with that I thought would translate perfectly as a clown in my style. It was a straight black makeup with bold yellow eyes and lips. Now, Fatima’s didn’t really read clown to me but I could see how I could make it work. I knew this was very much something I could make my aesthetic.

I knew immediately who would be the perfect person to photograph this look. Lucky for me Tate Chmielewski agreed to shoot the images. My friend Portia Greene with her neon green hair was perfect for my makeup model. I wanted to keep the same typed of black makeup but change the eye and mouth color to match Portia’s hair. Knowing that black in a very over powering pigment I wanted to do the green first. I started by placing white cream makeup where I knew the green was going to go. Clown makeup is always so symmetrical so I kept my shapes very asymmetrical. I knew the white would make the Mehron ( https://www.mehron.com/ ) iNtense lime green eye shadow almost glow. We then used Primal’s ( https://www.primalcontactlenses/ ) Jurassic II lenses which almost matched the green perfectly. The Mehron water activate Edge makeup made it easy to refine the shaped of the eyes and mouth.

I am super happy with how this came out. I wanted this to give the idea of a super edgy fashion clown look reminiscent of AlexanderMcQueen without screaming clown.  We walked the line and I feel like we met the idea I had in my head. Tate always does such an amazing job. I really love how these came out!

Louisville Zombie Walk 2019

With the Louisville Zombie Walk (LZW), spooky season comes a bit early in the city of Louisville Kentucky. For a lot of people the Louisville Zombie Walk, hosted by the Devil's Attic ( http://thedevilsattic.com/darknessfalls/ ) is the Kickoff to the Halloween season and us at Team Demon Fabulous couldn't be happier to be a part of that tradition. Every year for LZW Team Demon Fabulous is tasked with coming up with the Devil's Attic's signature zombie looks and this year was no different. I wanted to do something completely different this time around.

I had this really interesting prosthetic that I had picked up from Woochie ( https://www.woochie.com/ ) this past spring. It wasn't quite human but definitely had some undead elements to it. To me I saw a lot if Geiger esque Alien aspects. I have seen zombie movies ie: Wild Zero where the zombie contagion came from aliens rather than some chemical or other earthly sources. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do something different and hopefully something no one had seen before. I like for the team to be able to do their own thing so I didn't want to push the issue but I asked if the wanted to go with a unified theme and make it look as if all of our human zombies were turned by the Radioactive Alien zombie. They seemed to like the idea so that is what we decided to go with. We had a color pallet we were going to use, slightly pulling colors from the alien but not to much as to keep them human.

Given that stereotypical alien sightings are from people off the beaten path and country folk being abducted by aliens that somehow turned into a unifying theme as well.  All of our zombies ended up in overalls instead of the zombies risen from the dead in suits and ties. Primal ( https://us.primalcontactlenses.com/  was pretty clutch in getting us matching lenses for all of our zombies to pull them together. For the Human Zombies we went with the White Walker II lenses. Not exactly your typical undead look but very cool and unique.

Makeup Artist Mary Proctor and Taz Ball teamed up to create our Bubba zombie. Taz always goes as some variation of his Bubba Zombie character and for this theme he fell perfectly into place. As these zombies were turned by alien radiation, Mary didn't really have to worry about any bite marks.

Photo by Misha Kidwell

Photo by Lauren Hughes

Phoebe Conrad came back home to Team Demon Fabulous after going to Cinema Makeup School. Having done so she wanted to do something extra on actor Kristopher Thompson. She had Kris wear overalls with no shirt so she could really highlight his skeletal frame. Making his ribs and other bone structures really stand out helped give him that emaciated undead look and made him a very memorable zombie.

Photo by Misha Kidwell

Photo By Lauren Hughes

Zoe Hall is the newest member of the makeup crew so we teamed her up with Ame  Ross. With Ame being a little smaller in stature it was decided to make her a little kid zombie. Dressed in capri overalls and over the top sneakers they topped her look off with a huge colorful lollipop. Something about seeing a little kid as a zombie is very unsettling and Zoe did a great job for her first make for Team Demon Fabulous.

Photo by Misha Kidwell

Photo by Lauren Hughes

A couple of days before LZW I decided to pre-paint my prosthetic to give myself more time for the application process to make sure I could get it all laid down seamlessly. I wanted him to have a very dark, almost black skin tone with bluish undertones. I had never pre-painted a prosthetic before but really enjoyed it. Once I got it all roughly painted I became a little worried about how dark it was and having to blend it. That said I left a lot of room for blending and detail work to pull it all together.

Spray-Painted Prosthetic

My actor Jeff Howell looks forward to this every year and in preparation he shaved his head and face so that the pros-aid skin adhesive wouldn't pull out any of his facial hair. This also saved me from having to use a bald cap. Once I got the prosthetic applied I painted his entire head black and then got to blending. I airbrushed on bluish white veins that mimicked electricity. From his eyes, mouth, nose and temples I built up a bright orange, pink and white to make it appear to almost be glowing with radiation from those orifices. I used the cuttlefish lenses from Primal to give him an other worldly look. to top it all off I brushed on castor seal to give his skin a bit of a shine. Our head costumer Lauren Perry killed it with an amazing alien costume that really brought the whole look together.

Photo by Misha Kidwell

Photo by Lauren Hughes

I want to thank Misha Kidwell and Lauren Hughes for taking these amazing photos of our zombies. With two different photographers we were able to get a different perspective on the same looks. I am so proud of this team. Everyone showed up and did a great job. I can't wait to see what this 2019 haunt season holds for us because I know we will kill it.

Photos by Misha Kidwell

Samhain Jane

I find inspiration everywhere. Usually I get ideas from music which leaves things wide open for me when it comes to creating a makeup. Sometimes I am inspired by the artwork of others though which can be fun when paying homage without out recreating it exactly. I can’t remember who posted it on Instagram but it was a cool line drawing on a pretty but creepy girl. The color pallet was limited and it looked like maybe they used water colors and the for the lines ink. I am a fan of creepy girls and limited pallets so I had to check out more of this artists work. Believe it or not but for a long time I fought against embracing the spookier side of beauty make for fear it would alienate. That said I have recently felt I have been watering my work down to be more palatable, and didn’t realize in doing so I may have been watering myself down.

Some of Justin O’Neal’s Art

The artist that caught my eye is Justin O’Neal (http://justinonealart.com/ - @justinonealart ) and before I knew it I had scrolled through all of his work. His art is amazing, macabre, simple and has an eerie beauty. They scream Halloween and horror but in an almost story book way. I came across two of his pieces that stood out to me because they were a different color pallet than the rest. Like me, I see O’Neal use a lot of black and red but in these two pieces he used Black and Orange. When I saw them I knew I wanted to translate them somehow into makeups.

Inspiration art by Justin O’Neal

The first photographer I thought of was Tate Chmielewski. Tate is a great photographer and like me has a love for all things creepy so I knew he would be the guy. In both drawings the subjects appear to be brunette to black hair. I didn’t want to copy the artwork exactly and I wanted to bring in more of that orange feel. Ali Garey is a model I have wanted to work with for a while. She has such a unique face and jawline. With her fiery red hair I knew she’d be perfect. I hadn’t seen her ever do anything spooky in her portfolio so I thought for sure she would turn this project down. I thought I would go ahead and ask and at least give her the opportunity to say “no”. I guess it was more a case that she had never been asked to do anything ghoulish before because she agreed without hesitation.

For the second model I wanted to stick closer to the art and have a dark haired model. With her strong features I knew Blessing Selby would be great. I have worked with Blessing before and knew she’d be game for weird stuff and her facial features were perfect. Blessing is also just awesome to work with and have in studio.

 I do a lot of makeup shoots where we are only shooting head and bare shoulders. After casting the models and thinking I had everything in place I was working on another photo shoot with photographer Steve Squall and the amazing model Lauren Hughes. We were also working with stylist, Tia Kinser and the idea struck me. Tia and I get along well and have a lot of the same taste. It struck me that it may be good to have a stylist on this shoot. At first Tia didn’t think there was enough for her to style on a beauty shoot. That said by the end of the shoot we were working on she was already showing me ideas which were perfect. She picked up on the vibe immediately as I knew she would.

We decided to do two looks on both models with the first being the more subdued version.  Basically I would be doing alternating Orange/Black eyes with the opposite color on the lips. Tia had this awesome Wednesday Adams style dress with Planchette and Black Cat pins she had put on the collar for Ali to wear. With the Orange shadow on Ali’s eye her natural blue eyes popped.

For Blessing’s first look Tia had this really cool pentagram bra top for blessing to wear which looked so fitting and cool on her. I did a heavy, sharp black shadowed eye lined in the same orange I had used on her lips. With Ali in the Wednesday dress looking like a Witch from “Sabrina” and Blessing in the Pentagram it looked like she was the demon that Ali was summoning which played perfectly into the second looks.

For the second look we wanted to really push things a bit. For the piece that inspired Blessing’s look the girl’s head is severed and is dripping with orange blood. I didn’t want to do a severed head but still wanted that feel so I dripped the orange down her throat.  Not in this drawing but in several of O’Neal’s pieces the foreheads appear painted which I thought would look cool with the inverted cross and the flames raising from the eyes.   To mimic the eyes Primal ( https://us.primalcontactlenses.com/ ) had sent me a pair of their Jurassic II-903 lenses. They looked really red in the packaging but once we got them in her eyes they were the perfect shade of orange. Since I dripped paint down her neck Tia couldn’t really put her in any clothes or anything. Inspired by the drawing Tia did bring these awesome pair of horns that she had gotten at a renaissance fair. 

Ali’s second look wasn’t as out there as Blessings but it still left us some room to play. Tia actually made this amazing bat wing collar for her to wear. After I added a heavy orange blush on her cheeks and the tip of her nose I topped all of the orange with a tangerine Ben Nye Lumiere powder. This gave all of the orange a nice luminescence. I then drew an X on one cheek and little bats to elevate the look a bit. To really make her look like the drawing Primal sent us their Subzero – 933 Lenses. It was a shame covering up her beautiful blue eyes but the lenses looked so cool and her eyes almost seemed to glow. The lenses really helped complete the look.

I am so happy with the way these images turned out. Tate killed it as I knew he would. I know I say it every time but I am so lucky to be able to work with such talented people. It still blows me away that I am able to work with people at their level and that they were all my first choices. I think we were able to do our own think and still maintain the ideas that the original artwork was trying to convey. I hope that Justin O’Neal sees these and loves them as much as we do. If you like these go to his Etsy and buy a print! 

"I think being able to inspire other artists, even if they don’t necessarily work in the same medium, is one of the most rewarding things about doing artwork." -Artist, Justin ONeal

( https://www.etsy.com/shop/JustinONealArt )

New Branding

As an artist, knowing who you are is important. it helps you hone in on your vision and create things in your voice. Finding that voice takes a while sometimes but once you do people will start to see your vision and it will become your brand. Branding isn't always about your logo but a good logo can go a long way.

When I first started makeup 5 years ago let's be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. I really wanted to push the idea that my focus was special effects and pay homage to the old school. Jeremy Richie ( https://dribbble.com/jeremyrichie ) designed me an amazing logo. I told him I wanted it  to look like a silent film card.  They would use these cards to give titles and dialogues between scenes. It made me think of Lon Chaney who was an actor that always did his own monster makeups during the silent film era in movies like "Phantom of the Opera", "Hunchback of Notre Dame", "London After Midnight", etc. The amazing logo Jeremy came up with mirrored that perfectly and served me well but as I grew into other styles of makeup it started to not make sense for what I was doing and the direction I wanted to move.

I downloaded some applications on my phone and worked up a logo that I thought would work as an umbrella for all the different types of makeup I wanted to do. I wanted something that when you saw it you knew from it's configuration it was mine. I remember hearing Stan Lee say that a good comic book character was recognizable even in just a silhouette which I thought worked for logo’s text as well, like Metallica, Marvel, and Vans to name a few. Basically something that you could plug different letters into and parody but it still looks the same and recognizable. I finally got it close to where I wanted it but having made it on my phone it looked a bit rough. My good buddy Antonio Pantoja ( https://www.antoniopantoja.com/ ) offered to help me clean it up. He suggested a few changes in the font of the word "Makeup" which was originally cursive and we dropped the word artist. It was clean and concise and worked for really any type makeup I was doing and I can’t thank Antonio enough for helping me fix it up.

Photo By Danny Alexander

After spending 3 years with that logo as awesome as I still think it is it didn't really speak to who I was. This was no one’s fault but my own. I had wanted a brand that was palatable to all and didn't really think about it saying anything about me as an artist. Antonio had done an amazing job helping me sharpen it all up and refining the branding. At the time we made it I just wanted a catch-all logo that covered all the bases. I had no idea how to make a logo or branding that spoke to who I was. Starting from scratch the elements I wanted added were all over the place. They were everywhere from ravens, to David Bowing. I also knew I wanted something that would work independently of my name like a symbol similar to Nike's Swoosh or the McDonald's Arches.

Photo by Donovan Cole

Models, Myself and Olivia Duff

Styled by Andie Kaye

No, I am not comparing myself to huge companies like that but I just feel like my name can be a bit clunky and wanted something that could maybe stand alone from my name. I knew I was asking a lot of my Friend Matt Niehoff of ThoughtFly ( https://www.thoughtflystudios.com/ ) who agreed to help me. He would send me some designs and I would send some notes back. I felt like I was being way to picky because everything he sent me was great. He invited me into his studio where we could work on it together. When I walked in there it was, up on his monitor. Not exactly what we ended up with but pretty close. We tweaked the Bowie inspired lightning bolt and he gave it some feathery brush strokes on one side which not only brought in the raven in a way but my style of painting. Hard lined and graphic makeup on one side mixed with loose brush strokes, It was perfect.

Photo by Danny Alexander

Models Mallory and Avery Grant

There are so many Matt's (2 in this blog alone) so we also decided to drop off my first name. I am so happy with how this new logo looks and have the different ways in which it can be displayed. I am stoked to have a clean concise logo that I can look at that I can use across SFX, beauty, fashion, runway, body paint, etc. and still see elements of myself within the logo. I can’t thank Matt Niehoff enough for putting up with my insane artist mind and helping me create a brand identity.

Photo by Donovan Cole

Model Moriyah McShane

Billie Eilish: Team Demon Fabulous Makeup Challenge

On my friend and team  member's birthday we went out for chips and margaritas. We were  talking about music and about the type of music I had been into lately. I had  been listing to things that were basically pretty dark in subject matter but  that if you didn't really pay attention to the lyrics sounded kind of innocuous.  She lit up and started telling me about Billie Eilish and about how her songs were often beautiful but the lyrical content could be a bit gothic in  nature. When we parted ways that evening I pulled Billie up on Spotify and gave  her a listen on my way home. I really liked the breathiness of her often times  haunting voice and lyrical content.

After listening for a couple days I got this idea.  Team Demon Fabulous, the makeup team from the Devil's Attic ( http://thedevilsattic.com/darknessfalls/ ) hadn't had a makeup  challenge in a while and I thought a Billie Eilish theme would be a good one. I  have always been inspired by music in my art and I wanted to see how the team  would interpret her music. Billie  herself has said she doesn't like to explain her songs too much because she  wants the listener to be able to make up their own narrative which was perfect  for us. The only rule I gave was a time limit and to just be inspired by Billy  Eilish. After issuing the challenge to the team I quickly realized I had no idea  what I was going to do.

The songs I had been listening to I loved but  they didn't speak to me visually. That said I had been listening to the same 5  songs on repeat. I opened up my playlist to all of her music and found my inspiration song  almost immediately. When "All Good Girls go to Hell" came on I knew that was the  inspiration for me. I saw a dark demonic figure plainly standing with a very  sweet and innocent looking girl in my head. I didn't really have more than that though,  but that was enough to get started. The next day scrolling through Instagram it  really all came together.

I saw a painting by an artist named Natalie  Shau titled "Wendigo". The painting was amazing and was a heightened version of  what I already had in my head. I posted the image to my Instagram story simply  saying "Vibes". I didn't want to give to much away as it was for a challenge.  The painting got me thinking about the story of if all, and the seduction of the  devil. The painting "Wendigo" was a good first step but the story needed more.  Days later completely unrelated I came across another image titled "Secret Date"  which played into the whole seduction idea but also the resistance. As it turns  out that painting was also done by Natalie Shau. The third painting I was using  for inspiration was "American Gothic" by Grant Wood. To me that image speaks to  them being equals and living long lives together and embracing the temptation. 

Inspiration image by Natalie Shau "Wendigo",  "Secret Date" and Grant Wood's "American Gothic"

Now I had to build a team for this photo shoot to  create these images. The first person I asked was photographer Donovan Cole. He  shoots a lot of fashion and editorial type stuff and I knew that's how I wanted  these images handled. He is young but has been churning out a lot of amazing  work. Given the demon makeup I knew I'd be doing I didn't want it to look like a  monster photo shoot and a photographer without vision may have taken them in  that direction. I knew Donovan could keep the images on track. I kind of figured  I would be the model for the demon makeup especially since in past challenges  most of the team has been their own models so I figured it was time for me. For the "Good Girl" I needed a model that  could really pull of the sweet and innocent look as well as the demon's equal.  Working on Steve Squall's film "Mujō" I met actress Olivia Duff who plays the  lead Meta in the film. My job when meeting her was to paint tattoos on her that  are specific to the character. I knew she had the perfect look and as an actress  would be able to pull off the story in these photos.

Mujō promo photos by Steve Squall featuring Olivia Duff with Tattoos by me.

With my team in place I was ready to get started,  or so I thought. As I was doing makeup for a fashion show designer Andie Kaye  came up to me saying she had seen the Instagram story where I had posted the  "Wendigo" painting and she wanted in on whatever I was doing. I never posted I  was up to anything but somehow Andie knew. When she referred to the image as  Persephone I knew I had to have her involved. In Greek mythology Persephone is  the wife of Hades and they ruled the underworld together. With that I knew Andie  got what we were doing and I brought her on as a stylist.

Before I get into our actual photo shoot lets  look at the amazing work of Team Demon Fabulous;

Being the go getter that she is Kelsey Eisenhut was the the first to turn in her look.  Here is what she had to say about her makeup,  "When Matt announced we would be having another challenge I was so excited. I always love the interpretation aspect of the challenges and I might be the tiniest bit competitive. However, I found myself thrown for a loop when the genre of the challenge was announced. I had no clue who Billie Eilish was, what her music sounded like, what her personal style was, or what she looked like. I have never gone into a challenge before so ill prepared so I found myself in a very uncomfortable position.

My first step was to take a deep dive into the music, videos, and interviews of Billie. As I was researching the other team members were quickly reserving the songs that they were going to base their looks around. Although it is not a rule that two artists cannot use the same inspiration, I like to keep myself away from the pack. All the big hits got scooped up quickly so I found myself going further and further down the rabbit hole until I hit the song “Hostage”.

From the opening scene of the video and the first few beats I knew I had found my inspiration. I listened to the song and watched the video around 40 times over the next two days letting the words, music, and feelings sink in. The song has some obvious visual characteristics called out that I knew I wanted to use, gold leaf and gold fingers, but I also wanted to make it mine. About the 35th time I listened to the song and idea started to form.

The thing I found most striking about the song and video was the internal struggle, a struggle I myself have felt. She describes the struggle to want to love and be loved but in the process being self-destructive by being mean and pushing her lover away. I wanted to create something that at first glance was beautiful but upon further inspection showed signs of a fight. At first look you see the gold and the beauty but if you take a closer look you see the busted lip and the bruised eye.

Although I had no idea who Billie Eilish was coming in to this challenge I dug in deep and found something I could truly feel to create this look. Plus I came out with some great new songs on my Spotify playlist!"

Photo: Gingerkat Photography 

Model: Jacy Inskeep

Makep: Kelsey Eisenhut  

Lauren Bradley didn't pick a specific song,  well... I'll let her explain, "I was inspired by Billie as a whole for this shoot. these are a few of the photos that turned out. it was done with film so we don’t know what happened to the black and white pics of pancake (the tarantula) on my face. if those didn’t turn out i’m gonna do a different shoot with her bc she deserves to be a star. Danny used expired film for a moody creepy effect and that’s what i was looking for."

photos by Danny Bloom

Model and Makeup Lauren Bradley  

 With having a 4 person team of all very busy  individuals it was hard o find a date we were all available. There was literally  one day that we could do the photos on so we got it all pulled together pretty  quickly. We debated on having a floral backdrop for extreme juxtaposition but  decided against it due to it being a bit distracting. Billie uses a lot of flat  color back drops in her music videos so we opted to barrow a nice pink back drop  from my good buddy Danny Alexander. Given the subject matter pink was the  perfect color which also made the blues in the makeup and Olivia's blue eyes  really pop. Andie pulled a few things from her wardrobe for Olivia to wear  including her own prom dress.

Sketchy Tank design 

As far as the makeups there is nothing wrong with red devils or demons I just didn't want to do what was expected. I wanted something dark, very dark. The original idea was just to paint myself all black with black contacts, black horns and a black hood. After some thought I just felt that was too much and a lot of the details would be lost. First I scrapped the black hood for a black suit playing off of the phrase "Trust no Suits", based on a Sketchy Tank design meaning to not trust corporations or really anyone in power. I started off applying some Woochie ( https://www.woochie.com/ ) latex horns to my forehead. I still painted my face all black using Woochie water activated makeup as a base. I then airbrushed EBA Performance ( https://performancemakeup.com/ ) makeup starting in purple and then building to the lightest blue before white to give it a glowing effect. I used a chip brush to flick on some EBA alcohol activated makeup from their encore chrome pallet to break up the color and also give it some glints of shine. I used the Anastasia Beverly Hills Aurora high light pallet on the super light points and my horns. I pre-painted my nails the night before using EBA's Autopsy pallet. I applied the nails after my face and neck makeup were completed. I then added wax around the cuticles to give them a more monstrous look.

Prepainted Nails

I had originally planned on using a pair of  lenses from Primal ( https://us.primalcontactlenses.com/ ) that were mainly black  with some blue accents. with the makeup already being so dark I changed my mind  last minute and went with Primal's White Walker Lenses. The lighter lenses  really popped surrounded by all of the darkness in the makeup. With the way the  makeup seemed to glow the contacts looked amazing and almost took on a glow  like the Night King in Game of Thrones. Ideally I should have done Olivia's  makeup first. Unfortunately Olivia couldn't get to the shoot until a bit later  so waiting to do her makeup first before I did mine would have put us getting  out much later. Due to the timing of everything I had to have all of my makeup  applied before Olivia got there which I'll admit caused a few  issues. Not Olivia's fault at all, this was just the only day we could all make work. Getting us all there around the same time was like threading a needle in a hurricane.

When Olivia arrived I had a bit of a problem  applying the makeup not just because of the nails but the wax around my cuticles. Because of where  my brushes would rest when I used them they kept sticking in the wax. I  couldn't paint the wax yet which would have cut down on the tack due to fear of  transfer of black paint on Olivia's face which was suppose to be a clean look. Looking back I probably should have powdered them. Once I found my grove working with the nails I was able to do a clean  understated makeup. The idea was to make her look very sweet and innocent. I  really wanted to play up the pink blush on her cheeks and even added a bit on  her nose for a bit of whimsy.

Doing Olivia's makeup in nails and wax cuticles.

Wearing a white dress shirt the nails caused  another issue. I didn't want to wear the white dress shirt while I was painting  myself black. The problem was with the nails on I couldn't button my shirt or  tie my tie. Andie pretty much had to dress me which wasn't embarrassing at all.  This also made using the bathroom impossible which once everything was ready I  had to do and couldn't. Using the reference images we worked through the story that fit with  the idea and lyrics of the song. The first look was more her introduction to  Lucifer. Olivia was wearing Andie's vintage looking lace prom dress which was  perfect and soft for this uneasy introduction. From there we moved to more of  the forceful seduction. Not necessarily being seduced by the Devil but more the  idea of being bad and giving into temptation. Andie had Olivia wear the dress  off her shoulder to denote the idea of giving in. For the last look she has  given into the darkside but we still wanted her to look like "the Good Girl".  Andie had her in a darker dress which was still sweet looking and I darkened the  eye makeup slightly. Olivia posed as an equal to the demon, accepting her  darkside having given in.

I showed Andie the unedited images and she pointed out from a story telling perspective it would make more since to flip the first to images.  She thought that Lucifer would start with a forceful seduction which would lead to their reluctant embrace. I respect Andie's opinion so I wanted to give it some thought. After thinking about it for a bit I started to see that she was right. I flipped them and I give you "The Persephone Switch".

Donovan really knocked it out of the park with  these images, making everyone's hard work shine. I believe in getting people  involved for the jobs that they do. What I mean is to get people for what they do,  not what you want them to do. Everyone really did a great job on this and not  one of them could have been replaced. I am also very proud of Team Demon  Fabulous. It is so cool seeing different interpretations on the same subject matter. I am pretty sure this is why Billie and other artists like  her don't like to spell out exactly what their songs are about. Everyone  consumes art differently and it's not really up to the artist to tell you how  it's suppose to make you feel.

So Billie, what do you think?

Illustration by J. Lopez @jdotcreative

Vulture Eye

This all started in the early spring of 2017. I have always been a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe and I wanted to pay homage to him. I decided that doing a body paint based on one of his most famous works, “The Raven” would be a fitting tribute. I assembled and amazing team and did what I thought would be my first and only Poe themed body paint. It was spring time and up until that point it had been warm for weeks but the night before the body paint the weather broke cold. We were doing the body paint in my studio at the haunted house where I manage makeup, The Devil’s Attic ( http://thedevilsattic.com/darknessfalls/ ). There is no heat or A/C there so our model Rebecca Bien was freezing. It was everything our assistant Tia Rogers could do to keep all the space heaters pointed at every point of her body.  You can read all about and see all of the behind the scenes images from “Lenore” here http://mattgoodlettmakeup.com/blog/2017/3/6/lenore .

Model: Rebecca Bien

Asst: Tia Rogers

Head Dress: Velvet Rose Vintage

Now fast forward to December of 2018. My good friend Lauren Albert had talked about doing something together for years but with her living in Los Angeles it wasn’t really possible. This past holiday while she was home we decided to make it happen. We had always talked about doing some dramatic beauty looks but that changed over time. As it turned out she is a huge Poe fan as well and loved my “Lenore” Body paint. Her favorite poem is “Annabel Lee” so we decided to do a body paint based on that. It was an interesting Piece to interpret into a body paint but I think we did a pretty good job. We called it “Kingdom by the Sea” and you can read out it here, http://mattgoodlettmakeup.com/blog/2018/12/26/castle-by-the-sea-1 .

Model: Lauren Albert

When planning my second Poe body paint with Lauren I knew I couldn’t have just two and there would have to be a third. For one, I hate even numbers and I also felt you need at least three pieces in order to call it a series. My all-time favorite Poe piece is “The Tell-Tale Heart”. I love how the narrator in telling you the story is talking about how a insane person would never take the “ingenious” measures he has gone to but in actuality telling you how insane he really is in his meticulousness. I knew I wanted that to be my final Poe body paint.

I wanted the heart to be anatomical and really stand out but didn’t want to spend half the body paint doing just the heart. My friend and model Max Osborne had seen an earlier call for a model I put out to do a test makeup for a short film I was working on. I had already done that test makeup but when she told me she was coming to town and asked if there was anything I wanted to test I thought it would be a good opportunity to test the heart. From doing this test I knew I wanted the heart to be black and white so that it would stand out from the colors. I screwed up the heart on Max by leaving out some of the ventricles among other things. I have to thank Max because I did learn from this test. I learned that I knew I wanted to do some greyscale airbrush shading before I did the sketchy black lines to give a bit more depth,…and to not forget all parts of the heart.

Max Osborne in my test makeup, photo by myself

I have followed model Jenn Davis on Instagram for years. She is no stranger to nude modeling so I knew she’d be comfortable which is important for body paint. She also has this amazing face and almost somber eyes. I knew given the nature of the story her face and eyes were going to he just as important as her body. I have tried to work with her many times over the years to no avail. I can’t put my finger on why but she intimidated me slightly. That aside I knew she’d perfect so I asked.  Lucky things came together for this project and we were able to work out scheduling. There was also no reason for intimidation because she was so sweet and warm. Jenn was a real pro and pleasure to work with.

Speaking of people that are a pleasure to work with, Danny Alexander has been there every step of this process.  He has been able to bring something new to each of these images and still kept them in the same universe as a series. The way he lit Jenn’s face for this final piece was perfect. Even though this was a body paint Danny understood that given the old man’s eye in the story and Jenn’s one eye that the face was also very important and lit her accordingly.

This has really nothing to do with the body paint but I thought I would mention it. The chromed ceramic skull was used in the first two body paints as a unifying feature. The skull was not just used for obvious visual reasons but to force the same pose. I came home a couple weeks prior to find it smashed on my tile floor.  One of my black cats (Poe and Beelzebub) or a combination of the two decided it would look better on the ground. It was a decoration I got at Walgreens in tha Halloween section so I had no idea where to find another one. Luckily I was able to find all of the pieces and glue it all back together. 

In the story the Narrator talks about how much he loves the old man but can’t stand his one pale blue "vulture eye". After looking at this eye day after day the narrator decides the old man has to die. Through his overly tedious planning he ends up smothering the old man with a mattress. He then cuts him up, somehow spilling no blood and places him under the hardwood floor.

Model: Jenn Davis

The hash marks on her shoulders and neck represent the marks I imagined he made, at least in his crazed mind when dismembering the corpse. I decided to do her arms in a lighter blue to resemble a dead skin tone like in the original Day of the Dead film. Not my favorite zombie makeups but they are iconic. I know the old man hadn’t been dead for more than a few hours and that skin doesn’t ever really turn that blue anyhow but it was an artistic choice. While he states that no blood was spilled I painted the hands in red to signify metaphorical blood on the narrators hands and guilt in his mind.

There is of course a black and white sketched heart on her chest mentioned earlier to somewhat mimic the etching prints you’d maybe see in papers and books in the 1800’s. The blackness around the heart represents the hole in the floor created when he removes the three floor boards to confess to the police. I created a knot hole on Jenn’s  other breast to not only mask the nipple in the black paint but to have the pale blue eye peeking through the the floor boards where I imagined the head was under the boards. The white out contact I used on Jenn from Primal Contactl Lenses ( https://us.primalcontactlenses.com/ ) allowed for a little bit of her blue eye to tint the lens. To really make it stand out I shadowed that one eye with heavy blue shadows to really drive the point home and add to the creepy factor.

Model: Jenn Davis

I love the way this last body paint came out and how it fits with the other two in the series. I want to thank all of the models for their patience and trust. Being a body paint model isn’t easy. There is a lot of standing still, it is often cold and then in this case there is being nude with some weird dude for hours. All of the models in this series were great and a joy to work with one and all. I of course want to thank Danny because without him none of this would have been possible. Last but not least I need to thank Edgar Allan Poe for the endless inspiration.

Myself and Jenn Davis

Kingdom by the Sea

Almost 4 years ago in  February 2015 we started Filming on "Loss Prevention" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX3nagLvQj0)  with ThoughtFly Films. It  was to be a fun action movie with some tongue in cheek comedy elements. I was  part of the makeup department as well as being an extra in quite a few scenes.  We were all doing different actor's makeups every day, and we had photos of all of  the actors to maintain continuity. We weren't doing anything crazy but I still  wanted someone that when I watched the movie I knew in any given scene I did  their makeup. When I saw Lauren Virginia Albert I knew I wanted her to be the  actress that I did makeup on every day.  Lauren said "I first met Matt on the set of a movie we filmed 4 years ago. He exclusively did my makeup and I like to think we formed an unspoken bond over the course of the shoot."

Lauren has a very pretty and had unique features. I  was lucky enough to have her sit in my chair the first day and we hit it off. I  suppose we worked out an unspoken understanding and everyday she came and waited  for my chair and or I angled to do her makeup.

The makeup was fairly simple as she was the female action lead of the film. With her face I knew I  wanted to do more makeups on her but with her living in Los Angeles and just in  town for filming I didn't know how that would be possible. Her and I kept in  touch over the years and talked about doing her makeup someday for a photoshoot  when she came to town to visit family. This past holiday our schedules finally  lined up and we were able to put something together.

The plan was always to do some  kind of Avant-Garde or beauty look on her. However with all the body paints I have done  recently her interests started to lean more that way. With only having a month  to plan and so much going on around that time of year we started talking ideas  and pieces of mine she liked. She really liked the "Lenore" body paint I did with  Rebecca Bien and Danny Alexander based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem, "The Raven" (You can read that blog here http://mattgoodlettmakeup.com/blog/2017/3/6/lenore ).  Come to find out Lauren was also a huge fan on Poe with her favorite poem being  "Annabel Lee".

"Matt and I share a mutual love for Edgar Allen Poe. I knew he had done a body paint inspired by “The Raven,”  so we decided to go a similar route and do one inspired by my favorite Poe poem, Annabel Lee.  Annabel Lee was the first poem I ever came to love so I was more than thrilled to be the canvas for such a beautiful piece of poetry. It’s a harrowing tale of love gained, and in true Poe fashion, love lost.  It’s the only poem I have ever memorized and has been ingrained in my brain since I first read it when I was 8 years old.  So in a sense it’s been a near 20 year journey for me, to be able to physically express and be a visual for a poem that has always been so close to my heart." Said Lauren

That said the imagery with Annabel Lee is not as easy to work  into a body paint as "The Raven". I am not a fan of painting the images of  people on to people so painting Annabel Lee as a human with her "narrating lover" was not an option for me.

First rough sketch.

​Most people when reading the poem would assume that his love Annabel Lee had died. I am not saying they are wrong and in fact given Poe's own history they are correct. Most say it was based on Poe's wife Virginia who died two years prior to him writing it. That said I read it a bit differently. I read it as more an unrequited love. As he sees it her family took her away and made her love for him go cold. In my interpretation he has built up all of these monuments to her in his mind and the perfect kingdom by the sea he writes about is not an actual kingdom at all. I see the kingdom as him and as he seas what their perfect relationship could have been.

I knew I needed a castle as my  center piece. I didn't want it to be this bright beautiful castle that you would  expect in this kingdom by the sea. For inspiration I looked to the Castle Gray Skull for color and scope. I made the windows in the castle glowing orange as if  he was leaving the lights on for her to find her way back to him. The coffin  shaped hole represents the hole she left in him as she floats above the  castle/him as this idealistic angel with her halo of gold the way he has built her up in his  mind. I painted the clouds above the castle and the sky getting darker as it got  closer to Lauren's jawline. The sun and moon on her shoulders were inspired by  the Ouija Board but represent that she is on his mind day and night. Below the  castle we have the charred earth of hell to not only represent the demons he  speaks of in the poem but also where his foundation lies. On Lauren's arms I  painted the representation of choppy waves for the sea. In my interpretation with  her leaving him I didn't see the waters being calm. Lauren is also wearing  Primal Colored Lenses (https://us.primalcontactlenses.com/) in "Supernatural" To give her  an other worldly idealistic look. Since the narrator sees her as dead to him I paled out her face to give her a slight corpse look while still keeping her pretty.

Doing a second Poe body paint I  knew I wanted to make it a series. Lucky for me Danny Alexander (https://dannyalexanderphoto.com/) who shot the first Poe body  paint agreed to shoot this one to maintain the same style. To maintain  consistency I had Lauren hold the same chrome skull as in the "Lenore" body  paint which could not have been achieved without Danny. I am so happy with how this body paint came out and how it works as a  companion piece to the previous Poe based body paint. That being said to me two body paints doesn't constitute a series and Danny has been amazing enough to  agree to photograph a third Poe body paint. Stay tuned in the coming months for,  "the Tell-Take Heart" which is my favorite piece by Poe. I will let Lauren wrap this up, "This makeup project has truly been 4 years in the making and I’m so grateful we finally found the time to collaborate, especially now that we live on opposite coasts."

Here is a fun bonus image of Danny trying a really cool lighting technique  

Tattoo Gone

One of my best friend's  Kelsey moved away over 2 years ago. Anytime she comes to  town I try to take every opportunity to hang out with her. On this particular  trip she was doing makeup for a photoshoot with our good friend Danny Alexander  and model Amanda Terry, among others. Knowing everyone onset I was able to tag along and hang  out. I am lucky to work with Danny all the time and I have worked with Amanda a  good handful of times. it was a great group of people and were able to talk  about past projects and things we wanted to do in the future. With the down time  that you usually experience on photo-shoots it was good to have like minded  people to chat with. Amanda who is heavily tattooed  said she wanted to do a photoshoot where all of her tattoos were covered up. I  jokingly told Amanda to invest in a good turtle neck.

I have done tattoo cover up makeups for weddings  but nothing as extensive as Amanda's tattoos. The first tattoo  cover-up I did was for a client named Sierra Thompson. Sierra is a beautiful woman and there was really nothing wrong with her tattoo but she was unhappy with  it showing in her brides maid dress. With her dress being dark I knew alcohol  based makeup would be the way to go. Once alcohol makeup is dry you don't have  to worry about transfer. I first covered her black tattoo in a light brown  alcohol airbrush paint from EBA Performance makeup (http://www.europeanbodyart.com/professional-makeup/) to  neutralize the dark ink. I then used their alcohol based SKT Light to Dark  Encore Palette. I used a chip brush switching between dark and light colors as I  flicked the makeup on her back building up a natural blend and breaking up the skin tone. I felt painting it  all one color would look fake and it would be too obvious something was being hidden. Her  arms and chest weren't getting makeup so to make the skin over her tattoo all  one tone and flat would have looked off. 

Sierra Thompson in her Bride’s Maids dress before and afters

After talking a bit more with Amanda it became clear this was  something she really wanted to do. I thought that this could be a good way to  market tattoo cover ups for weddings. If I could cover up Amanda's tattoos I  could cover up any bride's spring break tattoo mistakes. Amanda then roped Danny into shooting it so then the planning began. We knew we wanted to do a good  before and after photo in pretty much the same lighting. The plan was to do a  simple but edgy before makeup to show off Amanda's tattoos. Then I would do a very  soft and warm beauty makeup suitable for a bride. The makeups were one thing  but the tattoo cover up was going to be a challenge, more so than I had realized.

I learned a lesson on this makeup, a lesson I  already knew but had reinforced. I learned that if there is something you need  that is imperative to the makeup you need to make sure you have it with you. The  SKT palette I use for tattoo cover ups that I mentioned early was nowhere to be  found. I forgot that I had let someone use it months prior and never gotten it  back. With all of the encore palettes I have I picked one that had the closest  colors I needed to achieve the cover up. While the Joel Harlow Signature FX Contour Palette had several of the  colors I use I was missing a lot of the darker tones and had nothing really with  red or yellow undertones. I ended up airbrushing on some red with some yellows and bone  white which has yellow underdone to give me a closer base to work with. It took  a lot for layering but I was able to get to where we needed to be to cover the  tattoos. I then threw on some gold highlighter to give her a nice glow.

Working with the wrong materials I am super happy  with how it all came out. Danny did an amazing job capturing her image. Take  away the fact that it was an extreme tattoo cover up it was a very simple  looking clean beauty makeup. Danny was able to make something so simple look  almost extra ordinary. It was very strange seeing Amanda with no tattoos. It was rewarding seeing Amanda's astonished face when she kept looking in the mirror and I am glad I took on the  challenge.

The Nirvana Project

I ran into friend and model Kassandra Johnson at Sephora of all places over Christmas break. She moved away a few years ago so I haven't seen her in a while but it reminded me of a project we did back in the summer on 2015. I never wrote a blog about it because I didn't even have a website at the time, let alone a blog. That said, this was the first passion project I put together. I was in a mood that summer and wanted to pay tribute to one of my favorite bands.

Nirvana was the first band that made me interested in music that I felt any kind of connection to. I knew I wanted the photos to have a certain look so I reached out to my good friend and photographer Rebecca Rose. Lucky for me she was into the idea so we started planning. We looked through a lot of different reference photos for ideas and settings. We quickly came to the conclusion that these would all need to be separate photo shoots. Doing it all in one day with the different settings and different models would just be to much not to mention a scheduling nightmare. We wanted to take our time so over the summer we made the Nirvana Project

I am big on authenticity which you will see more of especially when it comes to Heart Shaped Box. For Lithium Though I knew I wanted a real straight jacket. Luckily I had a friend that knew a magician named Tricky Ricky that did an escape routine with a real straight jacket that he somehow procured from a mental institution. knowing that we were going to be covering her figure with the jacket I picked a model with great legs. Alicia Carper who I had not met before was cast for this shoot. Alicia was such a trooper letting our hair stylist Pamela Ann cut her bangs in a very choppy and frantic fashion. Alicia also has great lips and eye which is funny because given the subject matter we smeared her lipstick and gave her a pair of sunglasses that Kurt Cobain was famous for wearing. At her feet are pill capsules filled with gold glitter with one side painted black. I knew given how we were shooting the images that the pills would not show up but I knew they were there.

Lithium:

I'm so happy because today
I've found my friends
They're in my head
I'm so ugly, but that's okay, 'cause so are you
We've broken our mirrors
Sunday morning is everyday for all I care
And I'm not scared
Light my candles in a daze
'Cause I've found god
Hey, hey, hey

I'm so lonely but that's okay I shaved my head
And I'm not sad
And just maybe I'm to blame for all I've heard
But I'm not sure
I'm so excited, I can't wait to meet you there
But I don't care
I'm so horny but that's okay
My will is good
Hey, hey, hey

I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack
I killed you, I'm not gonna crack

I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack
I killed you, I'm not gonna crack

I'm…

I'm so happy 'cause today
I've found my friends,
They're in my head
I'm so ugly, that's okay, 'cause so are you,
Broke our mirrors
Sunday morning is everyday for all I care,
And I'm not scared
Light my candles in a daze
'Cause I've found god

Yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah

I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack
I killed you, I'm not gonna crack

I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack
I killed you, I'm not gonna crack

Pamela Ann and I putting the finishing touches on Alicia as Rebecca looks on.

For “Pennyroyal Tea” we actually had to reshoot it which worked out better. To Rebecca's credit she wasn't happy with the lighting so we decided to reshoot it. In the original shoot the model was sitting which made sense per the song lyrics but visually with the other images we decided it would be better to have her standing. Alexxandria Richter was our model and she agreed to come back in for the reshoot. In the song he talks about anemia so I gave Alexx a nasty bruise on her leg. Tea generally has steam so I wanted it to have a surreal look to it so we used dry ice so the "steam" would flow down instead of up. given the anemia I used fake blood instead of tea knowing it would show up on the tea bag. With the way the dry ice bubbled it splattered blood specks all over her hand and arm creating a really cool effect. I gave her a very dark smoky eye and dark burgundy lip with some hard contour to give her a darker look. We even used my great grandmother’s antique tea set.

Pennyroyal Tea:

I'm on my time with everyone
I have very bad posture

Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty

Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld
So I can sigh eternally
I'm so tired I can't sleep
I'm a liar and a thief

Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty

I'm on…

I'm on warm milk and laxatives
Cherry-flavored antacids

Dry Ice in Fake Blood

Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty

a selfie of Rebecca, Alexx and I

Heart Shaped Box was the first image we imagined and shot. The lyrics are strange and all over the place so I picked and chose what I wanted and what I felt would portray the song. Since it was no where near Valentine's Day we couldn't find a heart shaped box anywhere. Rebecca actually made the heart shaped box for the shoot. I bought a bunch of night crawlers to fill the box with to represent the worms eating away at decay after death. Kassandra did great with the worms and we found out that they would ball up on themselves so she kept having to mix the worms up to cover the bottom of the box. I gave her a really clean beauty look using a lot of golds so that the black "cancer" crawling up her arm would appear that much more sinister. Kassandra agreed to go full nude to display the vulnerability we need for the look. After the shoot we released the earth worms into Rebecca’s garden

Heart-Shaped Box:

She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnetar pit trap trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice, your advice

Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet
Cut myself on angel hair and baby's breath
Broken hymen of your Highness, I'm left back
Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in…

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice, your advice

She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnetar pit trap trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

Earth Worms for the Heart Shaped Box

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice, your advice, your advice, your advice

Kassandra, Myself and Rebecca filling pretty good after the first shoot of the project. 

It is really interesting to revisit old shoots but this one holds a special place in my heart. It was amazing getting to colobarte so much with Rebecca which made us become very close friends and understand each other better. This is now over three years ago so of course I look back and see things I would do differently now. These photos are a moment in time though, like the music they are based on, like the things I was feeling and the colabortion of the summer on 2015 and I am still proud of them.

Holiday Treats: Team Demon Fabulous Makup Challenge

"Success is never owned, it is rented and rent is due everyday" -Rory Vaden

Our makeup team at the Devil's Attic, (http://thedevilsattic.com) "Team Demon Fabulous" won several awards this past haunt season. That being said I do not want us to rest on a laurels and fall behind on our skills. I read the above quote on some silly Instagram post but it really rang true to me. Makeup challenges are a good way to keep skills up and test our creativity beyond horror based makeups. We have done challenges in the past so I thought it was time to do another. I opened up the challenge to all members of the makeup team, past and present.

 The makeup challenge we came up with was Holiday Treats. No rules other than a due date were handed out which gave everyone over three weeks. Artists could do anything as long as it was inspired by holiday treats in some way. For anyone that has seen or followed my work I don't really ever do bright and cheery things, not even in beauty makeup. At least doing bright and cheery things is not what I am known for. I could have turned the holiday theme on it's ear and made it something dark but I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted my makeup to screamed "Christmas"!

 The idea I came up with was a gingerbread person and peppermint with a day of the dead twist. Adding in some day of the dead elements I thought would live'en it up a bit, pardon the pun. I had to be careful not to go to far into "Day of the Dead" and loose the look of the Holidays. Doing more of a beauty eye and a more circular shape to the nose would keep it from going to far in the direction of a skull. After sketching it out I was able to see how to execute this look.

Rough Sketch of my Makeup

(artist portions)

Before I get to my makeup I first want to showcase the amazing makeups of Team Demon Fabulous. Kelsey Eisenhut had been with me since the beginning when I first started on the makeup team. When I took over the makeup team in 2015 she quickly became my right hand.  I was sad to see her leave when she had to move to Indianapolis after the 2016 season. She is still a member of the team and she never shies away from a challenge.

Here is what Kelsey had to say, " When we were issued the challenge of Christmas Treats I was so excited and immediately a thousand ideas started dancing around in my head, not unlike sugar plums.

Often I find that my main problem when designing a makeup is too many ideas, making it hard to create continuity and cohesion in the look. In this particular situation I was able to find a solution that allowed me to use as many different ideas as I wanted because what is more open concept and eclectic than a gingerbread man.

I knew there was a possibility that another artist would pick the same theme so I wanted to make sure I made it my own by bringing in not only makeup but also 3d crafted elements as seen in the gum drop buttons and candy cane bow. I also wanted to make sure I brought in enough different candy elements to make it recognizable without overcrowding the canvas.

I was lucky enough to find a photographer that was willing to photograph my look, the wonderful David McKenna and the final product is something I hope Santa would be proud of!" Kelsey also used a pair of Primal Colored Contact Lenses in "Lizard King" to make her look pop.

Photo: David McKenna

Model and Makeup: Kelsey Eisenhut  

Photo: David McKenna

Model and Makeup: Kelsey Eisenhut

Phoebe Conrad was with Team Demon Fabulous for the last two years. She was the youngest person we've ever had on the makeup team and was a great addition. Phoebe was always eager to help out when needed and kept the haunt in healthy snacks. She is leaving us to go to Cinema Makeup School and to live in Los Angeles.

We wish Phoebe all the luck out in California and this is what she had to say about her makeups,  "My 2018 holiday makeup challenge submissions are Crisp Kringle and Reba Ribbon! Inspired by the classic holiday candies Crisp Kringle chocolate bar and hand made ribbon candy. Two of my favourites growing up!

Model: Alicia Carper

Photo and Makeup: Phoebe Conrad  

Model: Kyle Howell 

Photo and Makeup: Phoebe Conrad

Lauren Bradley was with us for the 2016 season. She was such an asset to the team and we were all upset to see her go. She always added a bit of her own flare to her makeups and her snarkiness always added a nice dry sense of humor to the team dynamic. We were all sad when she left. 

Lauren doesn't usually like to talk about the makeups she does but had this to say, "I’m closing at work and I literally have no time to write why I did what I did in a nice manner but I chose the sugar plum fairy for obvious reasons. My team was fantastic. I made the bodysuit with rhinestones, holographic glitter, and puffy acrylic paints. I got glitter all over Clay and Alex's house and I felt pretty bad about it but they didn’t seem to care. I made the sugar plums with some recipe I found online. They were pretty cute and tasted like apple pie, but unfortunately contained no plums because I didn’t have any and was on a time crunch. They also had edible glitter, so that’s neat I guess. Andrea also let me borrow her bioglitz for the eye makeup and I’m in love. Enjoy."

Photo: Andrea Gabriel 

Model: Alex Hepfinger

Makeup and Costuming: Lauren Bradley  

 Photo: Andrea Gabriel

Model: Alex Hepfinger

Makeup and Costuming: Lauren Bradley

I have wanted to work with Kesley Moorefield as a photographer for sometime now. I have done her makeup as a model but her beauty photography is some of the best I have seen so I was excited when she agreed to shoot this look. Kesley brought in model Kerragan Fleming for this look. I started off by painting Kerragan's face brown in the shape of a half skull. I then airbrushed in some highlights and lowlights and adding a light dusting of metallic gold airbrush paint to give that golden brown look. After doing the eye makeup I still felt it needed some shimmer so I added a lot of gold and bronze highlighter. I then roughed in some white around the border of the gingerbread to mimic icing then topping it with iridescent highlight to give that sugary look.

Photo: Kesley Moorefield

Model: Kerragan Fleming

To give the makeup and extra ordinary look I cut out the teeth and peppermints on her cheeks from glitter card stock. The peppermint design on her lower jaw and neck probably took the longest getting the lines all straight measuring it out using my knuckles for spacing. I then hit the white with silver metallic airbrush paint and the red with a metallic lilac to highlight it. EBA Performance makeup (http://www.europeanbodyart.com) makes a ton of really great metallic airbrush paints if you are in the market. I capped off the bottom of the peppermint with a spider web like scoop pattern to subtly bring in the traditional spider webs used in day of the dead designs. The finishing touches were an awesome green wig courtesy of Lauren Bradley and red out X-Ray lenses from Primal Contact Lenses (https://us.primalcontactlenses.com/) to mimic the look of red hot candies and maybe add a slight bit of creepiness. I even added some gold flake for a bit of holiday flare.

Photo: Kesley Moorefield

Model: Kerragan Fleming

I am supper happy with the way my makeup came out and the amazing job Kesley did. Team Demon fabulous also turned in some amazing work and I am super proud of them. Going forward into 2019 I am excited to hopefully keep these challenges going, keeping brushes in our hand and pushing our creativity. I am looking forward to the challenges the 2019 season will bring us and meeting those challenges with this amazing team of artists head on. We don't own our success but we have signed the lease and are ready to make payments!

Happy Holidays to All!

Matt Goodlett

SFX Makeup Manager, Team Demon Fabulous

Spider-Woman

This past February my buddy Katya Estes and I went to an art and fashion show. She is a model but neither of us were there to work the show. We were there just to have a good time and a good time we had. The drinks were overpriced but our tickets were free so we felt that offset our cost enough to get a decent buzz. The trouble is that Katya is an amazing model and when one of the designers found out she was there they wanted her to walk in the show. Mind you this was after both of us already had several drinks. The other problem was all of the makeup artists were all done doing makeup and wanted to enjoy the show themselves. A makeup artist by the name of Kayla Maxey let me work out of her kit. At the time the makeup looked good to me but I was more than a few drinks in. Looking at the photos the next day I was a bit embarrassed. Luckily Katya can make anything look good.

There are very few people I would let work out of my makeup kit, especially unsupervised so I was very appreciative to Kayla and we have kept in touch. It turns out Kayla is also a model. After seeing some of her work I asked if she would ever be interested in body paint. It’s always a strange question to ask someone but she seemed to be excited about the idea. All I had to do then was figure out what to paint. I really enjoyed doing my Spider-Gwen, and Venom body paints so sticking to the Spider-Verse seemed the way to go.

Spider-Gwen:

Photo: Alexandra Lee Brumley

Model: Melanie Smith

Wig: Matthew Tyldsley

Venom:

Photo: Danny Alexander

Model: Rebecca Rhodes

I knew I didn’t want to do the traditional Spider-Man suit or and of it's derivatives. Spider-Girl's suit is way to similar to the red and blue webbed Peter Parker Spidey suit. Turns out there are a lot of characters in the Spider-Verse but the one I kept going back to was Spider-Woman. Her suit is bold in color with its Red and Yellow/Gold color scheme. The over all design however was a bit simplistic which is why I couldn’t settle on it. The comic book design just looked too easy and flat which felt pointless to do as a body paint. It looks good in the comics but as a body paint it did nothing for me.

Then it struck me how Miguel Mercado ( @merkymerx on Instagram ) did the Spider-Gwen suit design I ended up painting. He is amazing and I love his work and how he reimagines the characters. Not to mention he’s just an amazing artist. If Norman Rockwell painted comic book characters they would look like Miguel Mercado’s work. After looking through his work I didn’t see a Spider-Woman suit. I sent him a message asking if maybe I over looked it. He sent me a design that I hadn’t seen anywhere else and it was badass! I showed it to Kayla and she agreed.

Miguel Mercado’s Design

In the original design she wears a mask that only covers her eyes and forehead. The mask has the traditional Spider suit eyes with the addition of a triangle in between them. Miguel’s design had her in Aviator Goggles which made sense seeing as how she’s not a webslinger. She actually has flaps under her arms she uses to glide or fly. I looked all over for goggles to see if there was a way I could modify them. Everything I was finding looked a bit too steam punk. I decided I would paint the triangle on her forehead and do a beauty makeup on her eyes that brought in colors of the suit.

As I said before Spider-Woman has underarm flaps. I tried to think of ways to do it but they would only look good with her arms outstretched otherwise I couldn’t think of a way to not make it not look sloppy in other poses. Instead of painting the yellow portions of the suit yellow I decided to go with a very yellow gold to stay away from the green undertones of most gold but also not use rose gold which wouldn’t contrast as strongly against the red. I was then able to high light and low light the gold to make it look raised a bit.

There were a lot of linear panels on the suit which were fun to work out in different shades of red. I then went in and added some high lights to give the high points a bit of a shine. No super suit would be complete without some texturing either. Using my favorite hexagon stencil I popped in some mesh texturing. When I finished the body paint I gave Kayla’s body a light dusting of gold shimmer powder to bring it all together. Miguel’s design even had some pink trim to really make things pop. Given the symmetry super suits have they are always fun to paint and look great if you can get it right. I was really happy with how this one turned out. Danny Alexander did an amazing job as usual capturing the body paint just right. As I said before, Spider-Woman doesn’t shoot webs but she actually shoots these green blasts from her hands which Danny actually added in post. Danny always makes me look good and I couldn’t be happier with how they came out!