What's exciting about today? Well yes there's Easter and bunnies and plenty of chocolate but also the long awaited season 3 of Game of Thrones!! I for one am a huge fan of this show, the story, the script and the character development are just brilliant - and then there's all amazing work by the makeup and art departments. The White Walker makeups are especially fantastic - when I first saw them I was convinced it was CGI so was absolutely overjoyed when I discovered that it's actually the amazing work of the prosthetics team. To celebrate the release of season 3 I decided to spend some time playing with my paints and emulating the King(?) Walker using brush and sponge. I had an old white wig lying around with a knotted lace front that I made waaaaay back in my first year of uni - so whacked that on and used some cotton wool for the beard. As I didn't have contact lenses I used my limited photoshop skills to borrow the real Walkers eyes and the background. Hope he doesn't come and get me....

After yesterday's little experiment I decided to have a play with another of the photos and add in some extra stars around the portrait to try and make it a "whole" image. My Photoshop expertise aren't exactly up to the standard I'd like them to be but think it works ok none the less :)

Today I  found myself experimenting with my paints again and this time decided to play with a recent idea I had for a shoot. Things ended up looking a bit starry which is fun - I really like the sections right at the bottom of the photos as the paint on the neck blends away into the dark. Hopefully I'll have the development to show you next time Donatella and I have a play day :)

So today I spent many hours engulfed in a personal project and decided to integrate a some day of the dead imagery into it. I couldn't help it - I may be verging on obsessed.... and after all it's good practice for this summer which might just have quite a lot of Dia de los Muertos imagery slipped in - but more on that later.
I wouldn't be sharing this with you all yet but I decided that actually I didn't quite create the look I was going for as I got a little flustered and neglected to put all the detail in....so as a result I'll be doing it again tomorrow but reworked and hopefully much more exciting!

I've been a busy little bee this weekend working on my little tester animation :) I've had a rather long break from it but now thanks to a (very much needed) friendly little shove from my friend Break Theory it's back to business and dare I say it getting close to being finished! Finished in the loosest sense of the word may I add... still have plenty of editing to do before handing it over to Break Theory to add some skrinkly little sounds to it - but I'm getting there! In the meantime, here's a cheeky little snippet that I've done some post editing on to make it an image all of it's own rather than just a still. If you haven't already guessed it's an homage to Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis, a truly amazing film from the German expressionist era. If any of you haven't seen it yet I strongly recommend you find yourselves a copy as it's a true classic and a visual masterpiece. The sheer scale of the film and the ingenuity of the set design and props is just brilliant - especially when you consider that it was made all the way back in 1927!

Yesterday's play day with the wonderful Donatella Parisini was such a joy - The Silver Lining in Mullumbimby and the wonderful Satya James lent us a nice pile of gorgeous clothes and accessories and Donatella found us four wonderful models to transform into various creations. It may be a little while before I have the photos though I've had a sneaky peek at a couple as well as the ones from Satya's shoot last week and am buzzing with excitement!!!!

In the meantime here are a couple of photos from a recent experiment I did to create a cracked surface texture on the skin - so much fun, I love love love playing with different textures!

I've been playing around with a couple of ideas and this afternoon they materialized themselves in a happy friendly clown character. The results aren't quite what I was going for and areas definitely need work and development, but still it's always fun to have a play! Which brings me to some exciting news - the gorgeous Donatella and I may be collaborating for a day of fun and play next Tuesday, I am SO EXCITED!!!!

Yesterday was spent in the company of some truly wonderful women (and men), collaborating to capture some shots of Satya James's latest divine collection. This time we were working with Byron based photographer Donatella Parisini at her gorgeous studio in Suffolk Park, with Satya and the lovely Rohini as models and me on hair and makeup. 

We started out with simpler outfits, gradually adding more textures, colours, layers and accessories with each wardrobe change - and I tried to reflect this with each different look for hair and makeup by starting off fairly simple and gradually going a bit crazier. The new collection draws from a gorgeous colour palette of black, white, gold, wine red, coppery burnt orange and turquoise so I had plenty to work with and tried to bring elements of each outfit into the makeup. We also utilized some of the custom head pieces that I made Satya for her launch last year to add some extra drama - very exciting as I'll finally be able to share them with you!

Satya is always wonderful to work with as she's so encouraging and gives me plenty of freedom to play with looks and ideas. Both her and Rohini looked stunning and sumptuous in front of the camera - and Donatella was just amazing! I have such a huge appreciation for photographers who are confident in what they're doing and bring professionalism, creativity and energy to a shoot - it makes a world of difference. All in all a great day and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of all our work :)

It looks like I'm going to be leaving Byron Shire for a while - which is a bit of a shame as now that I've found Donatella I'm itching to do more work with her, alas c'est la vie! Have to fund my return to England this summer somehow.....

Today is an amazing day that will go down in history as a serious landmark in the fight for animal rights. The European Union has at last banned animals testing for cosmetics in Europe :) Finally an end to the horrific inhumanity that has been conducted in the name of 'beauty' - the ban means that any new product wishing to find a place in the European market is not allowed to have had any of its ingredients tested on animals anywhere in the world.  Now we just have to keep pushing and get the rest of the world to follow! I just hope all those poor bunnies are going to good homes - something worth looking into I think.
 
Thank you to everyone who has made this possible - the wonderful folk over at BUAV and leaping bunny who have been pushing for this for decades, everyone who spread the word, signed petitions, spoken out for those who have no voice and supported cruelty free products - you are all damn amazing and have helped to make this planet a better, kinder place.

Just spent a lovely Sunday in battling through an intense American Horror Story Asylum marathon (which was amazing by the way) & assembling a few little buddies that will be accompanying me on an upcoming project. Aren't they sweet?