What I've been up to

I’ve been pretty busy over the last couple weeks with CATS make-up test sessions and working on the wigs and the usual stuff like housework, day-job, dealing with the insurance claim on the house damage, mom…

Most of the make-up designs have been done… just have a two coming tomorrow, and there are a couple of stragglers that I hope to get over here sometime during the week.

I have to get all the wigs styled/neatened up – they are all pretty messy.

The test process is proving very useful as I am working through the process repeatedly and improving things as I go. For example – first day I used liner pencils for the black details but used almost an entire one on 7 cats, AND made a huge mess on my floor (on the drop cloth thanks goodness!) with the shavings from the sharpener… which I walked all over in bare feet, and ended up with feet covered in black make-up. Next session I switched to a liner brush and used black cream make-up (which was my old stuff so I had to thin it out with some moisturizer to make it spreadable). It worked well for the fine lines and points but was slow on the larger spots. Then I switched to a small “shader” aka a rounded filbert… which is way better! More coverage and I can do good edges with it. Also, the NEW black make-up doesn’t require the addition of moisturizer to be spreadable.

I’ve also been improving my speed – the first one took 45 minutes as I am designing as I go so the first one I was continually fiddling with and talking. I am now able to get a simple, not too detailed one that doesn’t require blending, done in 10-15 minutes. However, most do require some blending and a couple a lot of details. And my crew has watched but not practiced yet – that will happen next Saturday.

I have to take the photos I’ve taken and make the charts – with front and side photos, a list of colours to use, and notes of things to watch for, for each of 31 cats (they added a couple more characters in…ack!)

I’ve had a few of the women asking about false lashes – I’ve told them they aren’t necessary as their eyes are outlined in black and I am actually drawing lashes on some. I think there are a couple that still want them. Which is fine – they just will be doing it themselves as we will not have time to fiddle with the lashes.

The photos are a bit muted due to the powder being used. It will sink into the make-up once the actors start warming up and it will brighten up to how it looks in the pot. There are also tricks to get rid of the powdery look – spritzing with water and blotting will take it off right away, but… I think the powder should be left as these guys are going to be doing warm-ups and the powder will be needed to soak up the sweat!

I am sharing this photo from this morning - another teaser! You can’t see the make-up full on… so …