During our most recent program session, we had a slew of guest speakers and owners of our favorite makeup companies stop by for a visit to The Art of Makeup School! Students got to take advantage of the opportunity to ask questions of these top industry experts, and got the inside scoop from their personal experiences. They received expert advice on working in the industry and using top notch supplies. Here are some of the guests they got to meet!

Sara Beukers, head of the makeup dept. for The Oregon Ballet Theater and Portland Opera as well as other large scale theatrical productions in New York and San Francisco, also stopped by and spoke to students about her life long career working in theater doing makeup, costumes, and wigs, and in television doing hair and makeup. She also talked all about I.A.T.S.E., the union that provides for makeup artists and other production crew members. We are currently planning a theater makeup workshop with Sara!

Corinna Woodcock was also a guest speaker.  She spoke about her many years working as a full-time makeup artist in the film and television industry and how to become a union member, the dues and benefits. Some of her credits include working on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Dead Man’s Chest, The Amazing Spiderman, CSI, and Mad Men. We look forward to having Corinna teach some classes in the near future too!

Chris and Lucinda from Accu-Cast (Bend, OR) delivered our Alginate order and gave a presentation and Q&A to the students about the history of alginate, life casting and how it is used in the movies, labs, etc.  They are one of the biggest suppliers in the US and considered the best product in the industry.  They watched a student, Molly Clark, do a life cast and gave excellent praise on the special technique taught by FX master, Thomas Surprenant.

J.D., owner of Alcone, also paid a quick visit.  He offered The Art of Makeup students pro membership at Alcone, so they can get discounts on all kinds of brand name makeup supplies.

Diane Trapp was a guest teacher for the sculpting portion of the Character & Special FX program.  Diane has been working for over 30 years as a makeup artist, instructor and mask sculptor for New Orlean’s famous Mardi Gras.

Lastly, we took a trip over to the headquarters of Make-Up Artist Magazine and IMATS, The International Makeup Artist Tradeshow, and met founder and C.E.O., Michael Key who also answered a lot of questions about a career in makeup artistry and gave students their pro cards.

All of these guests were seen just during the last program!  We also had many other guests come the rest of the year too, including a makeup designer for Cirque du Soleil, Eleni Uranis.  It was such an exciting year of guests, but we have so many more planned for this year too! I am overwhelmed by so many gifted artists that want to visit The Art of Makeup that I still haven’t scheduled everyone, so make sure and keep your eyes open for announcements soon.  The visits are often also last minute and unexpected during program sessions as well.  Of course, we love those too!