My makeup artist friend, Ella from beautybyella.com, referred me to an actor friend of hers. He was participating in a very extravagent event at the Shaw Conference Centre on Saturday, January 21st, 2012.
I got a hold of the event coordinator, Barbara Day, and she said she was looking for a makeup artist that could paint 3 guys into "horses".
Uhhh...wha...
Yep...one white horse, one black horse, and a zebra.
With the advice from Ella, I used Kryolan Aquacolors in white and black to paint their upper body and faces with some synthetic paint brushes that I bought from Michael's craft store. It covered their bodies pretty fast, and the faint streaks left from the brushes gave an illusion of "horse hairs".
Then, I airbrushed any remaining splotchy areas with Createx airbrush paints. I didn't paint under their armpits because...well...who would want their pits painted with the brush and then brush the paint all over their face! Yummy! So I airbrushed areas like that. These products were water-based/water soluable so it was easy to scrub off in the shower.
With the zebra (1.5hrs), I used the MAC Pro Acrylic black paint because the Kryolan water based black would mix with the white so I had to use a different base. Note to self: If you ever use these paints, make sure you have some sort of oil based remover. I had to ask the Shaw Conference for a bowl of canola oil to take off the stripes! Poor zebra.
With the white horse (1hr), I airbrushed a brown color (Temptu foundation in S/B 007) to enhance the shadows that muscles would create...then went over it with a grey (black and white Createx) to enhance it even furthur.I tried to hollow out the cheeks and temples to imitate that of a horse. When I was snapping picts, I told him to flex! He was like "I don't have to flex much because I already look like I am!" bahaha
With the black horse, I airbrushed the black Createx to enhance muscles... these guys were the sweetest student drama/theatre kids...It turned out pretty well for my first horse painting experience, I thought!
After 3.5 hours, they were ready for show time! They strapped on their horse ears (actually bike helmets that were decorated by the creative, Barbara Day). They pulled this Cinderella-like carriage with some dancers in it around the room. It was so cool when it lit up!
