Last week I was asked to do some Bodypainting for a Doritos Advert Competition Entry. This involved bodypainting three actors in the colours of Doritos Cheese, Cool Ranch and Chilli Heatwave. As luck would have it I was able to get the exact colour match from Make-Up Forever on Clarendon Street. I used their Color Creams in Orange, Pearly Blue and Cold Red.

I love it when I don’t have to custom blend a colour, because this makes for a much quicker process and bodypaint.

Bodypainting for film is alot more complicated than for still photography. I came up against a number of challenges. I wanted to paint them with a product that would be easy enough to remove, but would last under the lights and for the duration of the shoot. I opted for the color cream because it is really easy to apply, non toxic, easy to remove and gives good coverage.

I had to be on hand to repair any spots that had faded from sweat or friction against the clothes.

All in all I was really pleased with the finished make up and I gave the director exactly what was in the brief.

Chris Eubank and I

I did the Make-Up for Chris Eubank recently, he was really please with the Make-Up and said “you are really good at this you know”. Nice to get some positive feedback. However when he went on the show he said: “I don’t know what the Make-Up Artist has done, but she has made me look bald”. He is such a funny guy! I didn’t do anything to his hair…he doesn’t have any!

He was really impressed with the finish that an airbrush gives and is thinking about getting one. I use the Graftobian walk around system.

It is a water based make-up that gives the skin a flawless naturally matte finish. It is particularly good for television as a lot of the cameras are HD and pick up every detail!

Sorry that I haven’t written in so long, but I have been sooooo busy! Guess that is a good complaint. I have been working non-stop with no days off for three weeks, between doing freelance work and also working on a new television programme called “The Guards”.

I can’t really say too much about it, but it will be shown on TV 3 in February of next year. It is a television drama starring

Emmett Scanlon

Chris Patrick Simpson

and Steve Aldridge

“The Guards” is directed by Graham Cantwell. His independent film “Anton” did very well at the Irish Film and Television Awards.

For more information go to www.theguardstv.com, but be warned, this is only a temporary website. It will be redeveloped when all the footage has been shot, which should be at the beginning of November.

There has been a good bit of press attention already, this is an article from The Tribune. It is funny, people have already started slating the show, even before there was any footage! Here’s an article from The Dubliner. Even the actors have been getting a hard time. The reference to Zoolander was Tres funny and very clever, I think Ben Stiller is great and so is Emmett!

I guess even bad press is good press! Hopefully we do enough to please everybody even the most cynical! A lot of blood sweat and tears have gone into the production, so I hope so! If all goes well perhaps a few more episodes can go into production

I really feel like Irish people should be supporting homegrown projects that use Irish talent and Crew. There is way too much imported stuff on Irish television even though there are plenty of talented, educated and experienced Irish people in the Film and Television industry here. Thankfully TV3 have seen this and are starting to cultivate this creativity as stated in this article in The Times.