Artistic Inspiration

Let's cut to the chase and lay it all out on the table: I'm a Makeup Artist. It may seem odd that a makeup artist would also call herself a "fake photographer" when clearly both artists work with two different mediums. Although I myself am strongly skilled in the area of cosmetics, I am also building my photographic eye to become a better photographer much like Mathu Andersen: my biggest inspiration.

Mathu Andersen is from Australia, and is best known for his work as a fashion and celebrity makeup artist. He had been going to school at the University in Autstralia when he decided to move to the United States to be with his high school sweet heart in New York. It was in the east coast where he was fully immersed into the world of theater and fashion. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he worked primarily with celebrities such as Gwen Stefani, Janice Dickinson, Nicole Richie and many more.It was also in Los Angeles where Mathu met RuPaul, with whom he developed a wonderful working relationship and now works as RuPaul's makeup artist on the hit show "RuPaul's Drag Race". All while Mathu was working with cosmetics, he was also building his skills as a photographer and often took his own photos to create his own portfolio.

Gwen Stefani 

(makeup and photographed by Mathu Andersen)

Ad for a limited collection for MAC cosmetics 

(makeup and photographed by Mathu Andersen)

RuPaul as Michelle and Barack Obama

(makeup by Mathu Anderson)

I also follow Mathu Andersen on Instagram where he often takes pictures of himself in either makeup, drag, or even as a character such as "The Bearded Lady". I love perusing through his photos for I am always completely astounded by the way he is able to transform the face without plastic surgery and simply through the use of cosmetics. Although he did admit at a keynote workshop he had spoken at (Makeup Show L.A. 2013) that photoshop does help a lot in his process, for he knows exactly what he can and can't get away with when applying makeup to a model; I still feel that he is an artistic genius. 

With the whole idea of transformation through cosmetics, I myself have started a project of my own that requires me to use both mediums of cosmetics and photography. Recently, I have been taking portraits of clean faces (without any makeup or piercings) so that when I print the picture, I have a "blank canvas" where I will then apply makeup to, and transform the face into something else. So far I have only had time to apply makeup to the faces for "beauty shots", but I would soon like to try changing the faces into different characters, or make them up with different looks through the past decades like the 20's, 30's, 40's etc. This is what I have so far:

Focus Feature: Eyes

Full Face

Rough Drafts

The prints of the photographs were printed on matte fiber paper in black and white, and then I added color to it with the use of cosmetics. The result was interesting, however, it was odd for it almost looked like I was trying to apply makeup to a deceased body. I am going to try this again, but this time in color and with digital prints. As my skills with makeup improves with the practice of application on paper, so will my photographic portraits; with it I'm hoping I can create my own portfolio as Mathu Andersen has, and put it to use as a makeup artist working in the film industry one day soon!