Just stuff

On Saturday I face painted at the local Cineplex Odeon theatre, the Grande Prairie Grande, for a couple of hours for their Community Days.  It was a national event where Cineplex Entertainment ran free movies and provided, in many locations, free face painting and balloons, and concession items were $2 with all proceeds going to Starlight Canada, their foundation for seriously ill children.

A lot of professional face painters across the country were hired for these events which is fantastic.

When we (mom came with me to wash brushes) arrived at 8 a.m. to get set-up there was already quite a line of people waiting.  They opened the doors at 8:30 and I was immediately slammed.  The line did not end… even after all the movies had started.  I was shutting down just as the first movies were ending so there was a lot of “sorry, I’m done” happening as I packed up.

This was one of the few times I didn’t paint my face to work.  We were up so early, and I had to get mom up and ready too, that I just didn’t bother.  I thought I might do something once we got set-up, but there wasn’t any time.

Last night I spent sending out confirmations to all my weekend bookings.  Everyone responded – no cancellations.  Got some more information from some of the customers about what they want.  I will be spending part of Friday pre-making “skin” for the zombies and corpses to speed up the application process.

This year Zombies and Frankenstein are the most popular.  I’ve already done one Monster so far this season…

I also was booked for a party on Sunday night.  As it was October 30 I assumed it was for a Halloween party. But when the customer came by to drop off the contract and down-payment I realized she was Muslim, so I asked her if it was a Halloween party (didn’t want to make any assumptions).  It isn’t.  It is a celebration party for the freedom of her country –  a party to celebrate the freedom of Libya.  So I asked if there were any restrictions as to what she wanted me to paint – said no, some kids will want flags others tigers.

So… I got on google to make sure I know which flag is the right one to use!! Red, black, green horizontal stripes with a white crescent and star in the centre black.  Simple graphics and colours.

I’ve also got bookings for early Monday (actual Halloween Day)… and I mean early.  I have one for 6 a.m. yes, that is 6 A.M. in the morning!  He wants to go to work as a bloody corpse.

Spooky….

I can finally show you photos from the project I was working on for Don Zwicker.  These are photos I took, Don will be giving me images soon, but I can’t wait!  When I get copies of his “final” shots that were entered in the show I will post them.

Don was participating in the 5 Alarm Photo Project.  Five photographers were chosen to participate, each of them drew five models each from a hat, then had to shoot five different themes using a different one of their models in each one.  The themes were Horror, High Fashion, Scenic, Romance, and Movie.

These are the photos I took at the Horror shoot.  Don took a campy view of the theme and it was great fun.  My backyard is the setting and Don spent most of two days pulling the set together.  He borrowed a coffin and all sorts of Halloween decorations from a lady in town who goes crazy at Halloween.  He had “food” for the guests – eyeballs and fingers… and normal food for the normal person.

I supplied the decapitated head (I had made if for the play Dracula several years ago) and did the monster make-up.

The featured model in this shoot is Ashley Berteotti – she is playing the straight character in this scene, which if you can’t tell, is the blonde girl.  Cyril Cook is Frank, Stewart Loewen is the Wolfman, Amy Retzlaff is Vampira and the crew were Mark Shpur and William Vavrek.

Frank… the patriarch of our little group.

Uncle Wolf… Frank’s brother-in-law (was married to his sister).

Couldn’t narrow down a name – Vampira/Elvira/Morticia/Lily… pick one.  Amy rocked it.

The odd one out – sweet innocent Ashley.

The set – my backyard.  To the left my rhubarb plant, and to the right my apple tree.  I got 31 apples off it this year!

Mark, Cyril and Stewart chatting between set-ups.

Amy and Ashley chilling on my deck… the bugs were HORRIBLE on this evening and their hair/wigs are crawling with them… well, not really crawling as the hair spray was acting like flypaper.

The picnic… two shots with slight different arrangement of the cast.

Don used a smoke machine for some of his shots.  The shoot lasted a few hours… right through sunset into twilight… appropriate for the characters.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Here’s a Valentine’s Day design for you!  One of my favourites on my favourite model Naomi.

It is simple and easy to adapt to any shape face… add, subtract, move parts around… still works!

zombie spotted driving the streets of Grande Prairie!

 

 

They can drive!!!

Had problems with getting into the blog last night… and ran out of time to get the directions written to accompany the step-by-step photos… but here it is now!

My model Naomi is great… she came over during a break in her split shift and then went back to work as a Zombie… she works with kids (were they in for a thrill or what?!).  Her teeth are way too nice for a real Zombie…

Here is the step-by-step for how I created this: