Daisy's News - July 2021

COVID obviously had a massive impact on my university work because I wasn’t able to do any practical work for nearly a year, so although I learned so much academically about prosthetics for film, I wasn’t actually able to do any of the physical side of it. It was a real shame as the university had just finished building a prosthetic suite for us to use and to get used to because it was designed to be like a real prosthetic workshop with air benches, a dust room and foam latex ovens. Up to that point I'd been doing a fair few work placements as well, mainly in theatre, but just before the pandemic hit I did a placement at Keele university, creating trauma simulations on models to help train their medical students which was really fun.

My final year has mainly been focused on my final project which I set, designed and carried out myself, but I also had a postiche module which taught me how to knot hair onto lace to create fake facial hair. I had to base it on a cultural group of my choice so I chose the Amish. The photo to the left is the beard attached to a chin block. It was very time consuming to make, as you can imagine, knotting each individual hair onto 20 denier lace but I really enjoyed it (I got a 1:1 for this piece of work) and its a good skill to have.

I also had a character design module which looked at how a make-up artist would go about designing a character make-up for tv, film or
theatre, taking into consideration the director’s style, cinematography etc. We had to choose a character and then re-design it in the style of an auteur. I chose The Cat in the Hat in the style of Guillermo Del Toro.

Here are two of the final digital drawings I did on photoshop. I don’t think they particularly look like they’re from a Del Toro film but I was really happy with the drawings themselves, especially as it was my first time doing proper digital drawing, and I also got a 1:1 for this work so that was good.

My main work this year has been my final major project which counted for a large chunk of my final grade. I created four characters based on Greek Mythology. Because of all the lockdowns, I ended up only having five months to
create all my moulds, run test and final pieces and apply the make-up to then print and create a portfolio for hand-in, so stressful doesn’t even describe it!

I ended up making eight two-part moulds (which I'd never actually done before and pretty much had to teach myself because we didn’t have any guidance for the project), two flatbed moulds, an eye made from polymer clay and resin with an iris that I made on photoshop, and horns made from expanding foam. Below are the final images and I created a main character which in the film would be fighting the creatures - a cyclops, a minotaur and a gorgon (like medusa).

I’m actually moving to Cornwall in July to do a masters degree at Falmouth University in Prosthetic Effects! The course was created by a really well known industry professional called Neill Gorton. He did all the make-up for Doctor Who and he has a prosthetics studio in Cornwall. I'll be taught by him and some other really amazing professionals, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I also might have my first IMDb credit at the end of next month because I’ve been asked to work on my first feature film! I got talking to a TA who ran my university workshops and we became quite good friends. She now wants me and my other two friends to help on a film she’s designing the make-up for at the end of August/beginning of September. Shows how important networking is!

Lots of exciting things in the near future so hopefully it will continue on like that.

Examples of Daisy’s work are included below and more can be seen on her portfolio website at: www.artistrybydaisyreid.co.uk