Make Up Master Classes with a Ghoulish Difference!
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
As someone who has been lucky enough to attend some of the country's most glamorous events and fashion shows, I have witnessed the genius that is Paddy McGurgan! He takes ladies and transforms them into beautiful goddesses, however that is only half the story.........
Make up maestro Paddy McGurgan is no stranger to the beautiful people of Ireland, and has painted the faces of well-known models, actresses, singers and TV personalities for almost a decade now; however, this September Paddy is taking his art to the extreme and hosting a series of master classes in the exciting, and at times ghoulish and garish world of special effects make up.
As the film industry has grown within our small country (I myself have been lucky enough to film on the likes of "Your Highness" and "Game of Thones" the demand for highly skilled make up artists has grown making a course such as this even more relevant!
Together with seasoned professional Christian Kotey, who has worked extensively in the TV and film industry as well as on live performance projects such as Cirque du Soleil, Paddy’s hugely successful academy, which he runs in conjunction with his commercial work, will train artists in fantastic new creative talents which are in big demand by the burgeoning film industry here. In addition, interested students may be eligible to get funding for the course from Northern Ireland Screen. And the bonus is, they’ll also ready to paint fabulously ghoulish faces just in time for Hallowe’en!
Paddy said: “After six years of running my academy courses for commercial, bridal and creative make up, I wanted to help meet the current high demand for special effects make up artists here in Northern Ireland. With productions such as Game of Thrones and the new Dracula movie being made on our doorstep, it’s important that we have a pool of artists trained in advanced techniques - and to an international level - so I’m really honoured that Christian would come to Belfast and do this course at my academy over ten weeks. He is in demand by film producers and make up teams from Hollywood to Bollywood and has made several prosthetics for Game of Thrones among others. His course is one of a number that I’m running this winter and I’m excited to be working with world class experts to deliver training at a local level. It will be interesting to see what our local make up artists can achieve under the experts’ guidance, as we’ve had some really intuitive young students come through my academy and go on to do great things in their own right.”
Christian Kotey added: “I started out working in the entertainment industry developing make up, costumes and special effects looks for performers all over Europe. But since then I have been working in various disciplines in the TV and film industry for over 15 years, and enjoyed vast experience in many roles as a make-up artist, director, concept artist and even camera man, but always specialising in sci-fi or horror, which I love.”
Truly artistic and creative, Kotey has also worked as a comic book artist drawing regular covers for prestigious companies such as Marvel comics - including influential characters such as Judge Dredd, Batman and various other European titles. In addition, Christian designed and storyboarded the Oscar nominated short film ‘New Boy’ as and is currently storyboarding for a number of films in production as well as designing computer concept art for video game development.
The Special Effects course will run on Sundays for ten weeks beginning on 29th September, and will cover areas such as face painting, air brushing and stencilling as well as creating casualty effects – everything from black eyes to bullet holes and surgery wounds to scarring. Students will also learn first hand how to master the mechanical and technical aspects of creating casts, prosthetics & silicone moulds as well as working with these on top of human skin. All students will also take part in a professional portfolio-building photoshoot with live models as well as self-constructed prosthetics.
For more details regarding the course please ring the Make Up Pro Store on 028 90434 007.
Massive thanks to Tamara Duncan PR & Events Executive at CMPR for Press Release and all relevant imagery!
