The makeover master
- posted: 09 Oct. 2007
- scrollarts@byui.edu
Most of us, when we think of fashion or make-up, picture glamorous females who spend long hours in the salon or in front of a mirror; but what about the guys?
When it comes to the theater, even the most handsome prince needs a little extra pizzazz to liven up his features. And who would be better for the job than a male make-up expert? Andrew Martinez, a sophomore studying photography, is one such fellow.
Before being invited to visit BYU-Idaho’s professional make-up class with Andrew, I never even knew that such a class existed on campus.
Andrew asked that I come for an hour of the class, and I was told that I would be his practice dummy during that time.
I was thrilled with the opportunity, but also curious to see how well a man would measure up in applying make-up to a woman’s face.
Thursday morning I showed up at 11:30 a.m. in the Eliza R. Snow Center for the Performing Arts basement.
We watched a video – a fabulous relic of the eighties – and learned how to take a person’s face and give it some “punch.”
The audience needs to be able to follow the eyes, mouth and general facial expressions of the actors and actresses on stage, even though the bright studio lights will wash out any natural complexions.
In order to counter this effect, it is the duty of make-up artists to brighten the cheeks with rouge, accent the cheekbones with a darker color, add highlights near the eyes, line the lips and eyes and so forth.
The trick of all this is to make the finished face look as natural as possible once on the stage.
After the film, it was make-over madness. Since Andrew had the “guy kit,” he had to borrow from some neighbors, but he had me polished up in no time.
The job took him 25 minutes, an impressive time for attending to all the details associated with his craft.
The teacher graded Andrew’s work on my face, and my adventure was at an end (except the part where I got to look terrific for the rest of the day). I had so much fun, and I’m not even in that class! 
