Term One - The New Elizabethans

Previous to the first term at Solent, my knowledge of the Elizabethan era was restricted to what I had been taught throughout school in History. Therefore my knowledge of the makeup and style throughout that period was restricted. As a result of this I really enjoyed the seminars as well as the practical lessons and learning so much new information providing me with an insight into how life was for elizabethans and the extremes they went too to achieve the perfect hair and makeup looks.

Throughout this unit I really enjoyed experimenting with different hair and makeup styles until finding which designs I wanted for my final piece. 

The biggest problem I had with my own designs was the hairstyle. My hair was very long so to try and create the rounded look at the back of the hair at the bottom and make sure it was secure took a lot of practise outside of class, eventually we found a way to secure the hair in the correct style so it looked effective. My makeup look was pretty straightforward and basic so there were no issues there after we'd practised a few times.

My partners hair design was also quite complicated, so again took a lot of practise in order to achieve the desired affect. The makeup took a bit more practise as it included a lot of bright colours which had to be blended. This took me a while to get to grips with as blending is not one of my strongest points. 

Over the summer this was something that I tried to practise on friends and family and fell that it has improved slightly, therefore for the second year I want to continue to develop this skill to a higher standard as I feel that will improve my confidence to branch out to more extreme makeup looks that will show my skills of to a better standard.

Technical Skills

Previous to starting my degree at Solent I had limited experience studying make-up. I had completed two evening courses at The London School of Make-up, one in basic make-up training and the other in special effects makeup. I enjoyed both these courses which is what confirmed my choice of degree for me. However due to the lack of practical experience it meant it was a whole new world when it came to learning all the practical skills throughout my first year on the course.
However learning about health and safety, hygiene when applying make-up, how to match foundations to skin tones, blend, contour/highlight, create different lip and eye make-up styles etc. was all very interesting and a lot of fun.
My favourite part of the technical skills we learnt last year was the theatrical and special effects techniques, for example theatrical ageing; it was amazing to see how effective it was to use makeup to make a person look completely different and decades older! In addition to this I loved learning about how to create cuts and grazes using makeup and special effects equipment, as i was considering choosing the special effects unit as my option for this year it was really beneficial to see what kind of things we would be doing, that part of technical skills confirmed and made me a lot more excited to start the special effects unit this year.
Throughout this year my targets are to perfect some of the technical skills I feel I struggled with last year, such as contouring and smoky eyes. I would like to develop my blending skills as I feel this would benefit me greatly in accomplishing these technical skills.