It’s Christmas time 🎄. I hope you had a good one. A few pics from ours are below. And some of my reflections are detailed and in longer form than usual.
With it being Christmas, I’ve been reflecting on how similar tools are used between artists and those performing in other fields.
I started noticing the supply links between various trades when I did the 14 day CSM course. At CSM, we used paraffin wax as a medium to create a ghostly effect on the painting. I told the CSM teacher that we used the same paraffin wax as a moisturiser for hands and feet in my early beauty training (I used it when I taught at LCF). I mentioned how interesting it was that the university might be ordering paraffin wax for many different uses.
Another common tool I noticed that artists and hairdressers use this time is hairspray. Hairdressers use hairspray to fix the clients’ waves and curls. Similarly, in the courses I’ve been on for painting, we finish the painting if it’s done in charcoal with hairspray; if we use pastels, chalk or charcoal. It stops the marks from spreading so that it doesn’t get smashed when we roll up our work.
I mentioned in an earlier blog an insight about choosing your flesh colour and the right kind of mixing paint to get the right skin tones. I noticed how the class agonised about mixing reds and yellows to get the right kind of blue to get the right skin tone for painting a portrait. Then I realised I could be more effective if we did a shortcut by going straight to an industry that already had the skin colours right. My makeup artist instinct/ training is linked to these common artists’ dilemmas. The difficulty I faced in painting a life model’s portrait with acrylics is what I recall from trying to find the right colour for the model’s skin for a magazine’s front cover (BTW, I only did a couple of MUI gigs, for now, obsolete magazines, so don’t bother riffling through vogue to find me listed as the makeup artist). I asked the art teacher if she recalled any big cosmetic brands working with artists. Or if artists are working with cosmetic brands.
The discussion generated our ponderings over projects like how reusing old foundations is useful because we’re trying to find the right skin tone to match this person’s skin. It’s a universal question between these artistic spheres.
My art teacher said she was unaware anyone was doing it and agreed this was a missed opportunity for some big brands to showcase and do some interesting work with the wonderful big range of colours they now use. She said she thought the problem would be getting the darker tones, and I said that now, big brands like L’Oreal are doing darker tones these days. , it will be a much easier thing. It was weird for me to struggle to find the right blue to turn yellow and red into skin tone colour varieties. The conclusion was that it could be more of an oil painting if I tried it.
So all this made me realise that the next course I need to take would be an oil painting class. So watch this space.
In addition, all these musings gave me this idea about collaborating with other trades doing paintings, doing both of them figuratively. I’m not a fan of figurative paintings (not yet sure why- it might be about labour intensity), but I’d like to experiment and see where I go with doing some portrait paintings using foundation instead of its traditional watercolour and your traditional acrylic. How ironic that it might be the very traditional oil painting class I might need to go on to bring forth a painting that is more meaningful and interesting for me.
It is Christmas time and I’m wishing you and your family every good wish for the season, no matter what kind of artist or creative person you are.
Home Office Charm 
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