[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
Watch this video where I explain the whole theme of the class in the weirdest way possible:
Grab a mirror and start making faces. Don’t be shy, go for it!:
Think that I’m telling you to do something I don’t do myself? WRONG!
Then watch this video and start to feel your face to find the bony bits:
So, now, feel your face, and the bones and muscles as you move your face. Find the indent near the back of your jaws, find the subtle ins and outs of your forehead, the edges of your eye sockets. Feel the bone and cartilage of your nose and the location of your brow ridge in relation to your eyebrows. In the next few days, whenever you feel tense, pull out a mirror, flex and massage your face and start looking at the interesting component parts. It is relaxing, and will help you in the coming weeks!
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
I am very pleased to have you in my class. Really, I actually am. You student people are fun! If you are in doubt check out 10 years of photos of how much fun my DVC makeup students are. Some facts about me:
Born in Northern California.
Went to a California Community College (College of Marin).
Transferred to San Francisco State University and got a BA in History.
Got a MA in Theatrical Design at CSU Fresno.
Got a Ph.D. in Theatre History at the University of Georgia.
My dissertation was on Fashion Shows, Strip Shows and Beauty Pageants.
I once presented papers at two conferences on the same weekend in Los Angeles. One was a UCLA Conference on Burlesque, the other a Strippers Convention!
I worked as a Professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks for 18 years.
I’ve been teaching stage makeup classes since the early 1990s.
I took a year off to live alone in St. Petersburg, Russia in the mid 1990s as a hippie theatre artist.
I don’t speak Russian. I can’t do times tables. I will likely be unable to remember your name or connect it properly to your face. (This is part of why I take your “mug-shots”.)
As my mother was dying in 2007 and her vision was messed up, I read her all 7 Harry Potter books out loud, including doing all the funny voices.
I obsessively collect 1860s-1920s men’s detachable shirt collars.
I watch MSNBC while I cut up my old soda bottles into flowers like this:
I have been working at DVC as Costume Designer for the Drama department since 2008.
If you need to contact me you can always text or call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX 11am-11pm, but if you just want to visit at my office half “hour” this is when it happens: Tara Maginnis Office “Hour”Mondays & Wednesdays 1-2pm in PA 121 (cubicle off the Greenroom with giant wooden scissors in the window).
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
•Monday January 23: Pick up the Syllabus. Explanations about makeup kits & have me take your class “mugshot” photos.
•HOMEWORK: READ THE SYLLABUS, FIND A KIT, MAKE FUNNY FACES IN THE MIRROR, TODAY AND EVERY DAY THEREAFTER.
•Wednesday January 25: Split into two groups to watch the Short Makeup Videos in the Men’s Dressing Room, and then do Practice Drawing Makeup Renderings on Face Outline Sheets in the Make-up room by turns.
So, while I’m primarily a costume designer/tech, I’ve been teaching intro to stage makeup classes since the early 1990s. In 2005-6 I filmed a bunch of videos (or rather Kade Mendelowitz of the Theatre and Film Department of UAF and owner of Multimakers) filmed me while I made up my face and talked), so when I moved to a place where they wanted makeup classes of 20-30 people enrolled at DVC, and two 1hr 25 minute sessions weekly but the makeup room is crowded with anything over 15, It was handy to split the class into two groups that alternated watching me do the demo by video in the men’s dressing room (or eventually at home online) and doing the makeup in the makeup room.
However, if you are a teacher who uses the Canvas learning system, you can also go to Canvas Commons and search “Tara Maginnis” and find a bunch of class pages that go with these videos that explain to my own students how to do the assignments that go with the videos. Additionally, I inserted a bunch of YouTube videos of other folks how-tos on people of other genders and skin colors than a middle aged white chick (what I was when I did the videos), so students who needed advice from a male or non-white perspective could easily find these.
However, if you don’t use Canvas, or are a student who has been locked out of it at the end of the semester, I’m going to copy and paste a bunch of this stuff here as a mirror. If you are a teacher feel free to copy and paste anything you want (That is why it is on Canvas Commons) but do please remove my phone # from pages and insert your own contact information in it’s place, since every single semester I get a lost student who thinks I’m their professor and phones or texts me, and it typically takes between 30 minutes to an hour to track you down for them… I’m going to try to remove my info on these versions, but I may miss one.
So this image above is a screencap of the first page which has the usual recommended distance delivery stuff:
Introduction to Stage Makeup
Salutations!
This is your teacher Tara Maginnis (contact info below). I am pleased to welcome you to my introductory course in theatrical makeup. “This course presents the study of the aesthetics, materials, and procedures of stage makeup. Including “corrective” makeup, aging techniques, makeups which are in line with a play’s given circumstances, character makeup applications, makeups which accurately depict historical eras and cultural demands, and abstract/linear makeup design projects will be covered.” —DVC catalog.
By the end of the course, you’ll learn (and execute) a wide variety of types of stage makeup and finally build a portfolio of your work! If you need extra help or information at any point in the semester you can contact me by text, email or phone XXX-XXX-XXXX . I am also at DVC after our class on Mondays and Wednesdays till 8pm most times, and also come in Tuesdays and Thursdays (In Spring semester only) for teaching my Costume Class 12:45-5:35 and work after Dinner from 6:30-8pm those days . So, Monday-Thursday, text or phone me to find where I am hidden in the vast PAC building if you need me. When you can’t get here to see me, I’m usually conscious for phone or text 11am-11pm, though I won’t be texting while driving, in a meeting, or the shower…
You already have all you need right here…
Lots of what you want to know is right here though. Because Covid forced all of us to go online, nearly everything you need for class information-wise is right here on Canvas. Get sick with Monkeypox (or just a cold), and miss class? It is all here and you can catch up. Even before 2020 most of this class was also mirrored online and I’ve always allowed students to do work at home when they need to, or watch class videos online instead of watching them in the Men’s Dressing Room. You can come in and play in our splendid makeup room and have me do my personal photo shoot of your makeup (SO MUCH FUN!!!), or you can mess about with your face on the weekend and turn it in online. This is not advertised as a “Hi-Flex” class, but you can mostly treat it like one.
However, to begin, you must start somewhere, so I suggest you go each weekend to Modules even if you are coming in to class for every session so you are prepared for your class work. Go step by step through through the weekly assignments in order. Or you can just go to the silly “Magic Button” to be taken directly to the Modules:
Tara in a Pool Noodle 18th Century Style WigActors in DVC’s The Wedding Singer as the Vegas Impersonators (Tina Turner, Billy Idol, Mr T, Cyndi Lauper, Imelda Marcos) wearing wigs made with ethafoam:
Read the tutorial down below these steps for an 18th century “Pouf” wig from pool noodle and hair curler foam onto a baseball hat base.
Make a lightweight wig/headdress of your design out of any variety of foam you have on hand. You can also use craft foam, expanding foam, mattress pad foam, polystyrene bead board (usually incorrectly called styrofoam), actual Styrofoam, or insulation board foam (aka “Pink foam”, “Blue foam”) Ethafoam or EVA foam, or foam core. The idea is to make something big, weird, fun and lightweight at relatively low cost. You may decorate the surface with paint, fabric, glitter, fake fur or any other insanity that occurs to you.
The Tutorial: Steps for making an 1770s Marie Antoinette “Pouf” wig from a $1 baseball cap, 3 pool noodles, some foam curlers and hot melt glue (on a cool setting).
Tara Maginnis in her Pool Noodle Wig Creation in her room at Costume College 2014:
This wig was partially based on images from this book 18th Century Hair & Wig Styling: History & Step-by-Step Techniques by Kendra Van Cleave which I used as a reference for the pool noodle wig. Even when making such a fantasy object as a pool noodle “Pouf” work is made much easier by sourcing a book with good research. Kendra’s book, while dealing with wigs and hairdos made with real or realistic hair, is relevant to this pool noodle project because it #1 documents real styles from the 18th Century, and more importantly, #2 she shows them from all angles, providing an easy blueprint for arranging your foam “curls” in a way that will look “right” from all angles.
Some random fake flowers, ribbons, decorations, etc to taste (and for convenient hiding of mistakes.)
Making of the Wig: Begin by de-billing a baseball cap with your craft scissors leaving about 1/8″ of the brim in place for added hat stability. Do NOT cut into the stitching that sandwiches the bill between the internal headband facing and the front of the cap. It is easiest to avoid this by doing the cut while the hat is held upside down.
2. Lo-temp hot glue the bill down the back of the cap by either side of the back adjustment flap to make an adjustable “wig cap” base. NOTE: Hi Temp Glue will slow down this entire process, make it extra difficult and make for less satisfactory results. If you only have a Hi temp gun, try plugging in, and unplugging repeatedly to get a lower temperature, or stick your gun into a lamp dimmer and turn down the heat that way.
3. Slice half a noodle into lengthwise thirds with a thin utility knife, extended out 2″. Do remember to wear your non-dominant hand glove for all this.
4. Shave the ends down (with the knife extended 3″) as shown.
5. Low temp glue the shaved ends of the 1/3 noodle pieces to the center front of the de-billed cap. Do remember to wear your non-dominant hand glove for all this so you are less likely to get burns.
6. Check the back of the “wig” and see where you can taper the noodles towards the center back. Here the center noodle strip is shaved to the length needed to make the height of the “pouf” curve.
7. Then the two side 1/3rd noodles are glued together on their edges to form a wide strip. (Links to an external site.)Then the strip is shaved and glued to the former “bill” that has previously been made into a back piece. (Don’t glue the piece to the little adjuster strip that is in the back gap as this prevents adjusting the wig for comfort, and makes the back of the wig dimple, and be even warmer than it is normally.) Then the center strip is glued on top of the broad strip.
8. Begin adding the remaining parts of the 1/3 strips and the 1/4 strips to the sides of the wig to complete the “pouf”. Tuck ends to the inside of the original band of strips as you go from the top down.
9. After you get 1/2 way down, roughing out the basic shape of the pouf, you will need to add smaller shaved bits to the sides to bridge the gap from the edge of the cap to the middle of the pouf. This is where it really helps to have an historical reference to help you decide the way to sub-slice those pieces and place them into the design. This is really just a matter of eyeballing the gaps, slicing, gluing and filling in as best you can. Each wig is a little different around here depending on height and overall design, so I can’t run you through the “steps” since they are just random, go as looks best, filler. Remember also, if you know your design is going to have curls covering a section, this is where you can fill in with the ugly little leftovers of the noodle for putting in structure that lies beneath like lathe in a plaster wall.
10. Here I add bits that go down over the “sideburn” area of the face. If you ever want to make one of these with a more realistic look on the hairline, after completing the wig to the level I have done, then slice lots of tiny strips of the foam, and carefully glue (with Ultra-Cool melt glue & Gun) them to the edge of the wig while it is sitting on the actor’s head, covering and blending over the natural hairline. DO NOT get glue in the actor’s hair. While Ultra-cool glue wont burn them, pulling off the wig if it is glued into their hair will please them less than a bikini-wax.
Note: You are not hallucinating by the way, there are two different colored yellow pool noodles in this wig. It keeps the look more interesting, but you must be careful to use your noodle colors symmetrically so you won’t have a wig that is mainly one color, with a clot of a different color in just one area. Blend the different color throughout in symmetrical streaks for best results, or use the lighter color for the outer most “high” points like a highlight.
11: Now for the really fun part. (Not a joke, this is fun and easy unless your blade is dull.) Do remember to wear your non-dominant hand glove for all this. Set your knife at 1.5″-2″ depending on noodle thickness, then spiral cut a curl into a section of noodle. Do this by holding the knfe steady, and twirling the noodle into it. This is not only safer, but easier. If you are having trouble doing this, the blade has got dull. Snap off 2″ of blade and move down to a section of fresh blade and it should cut easier.
12: Stick on some curls:
13: Put in more filler where the bigger curls will hide the rough “lathe” structure:
14. Spiral cut your big curls:
15: Stick on some big curls:
16. OK, weirdly this is the tough part: Pull out your bag of little foam curlers. Remove them from the plastic bits, and carefully snip them into spiral ringlets with your craft scissors. They will fight you, but don’t try the utility knife unless you want lots of cuts in you, and really nasty ones in the curlers. Just slowly snip them into a spiral with the scissors.
17. Now you can use them as filler in between gaps in the big curls where needed, where your design requires small curls, and in places that are looking a bit “off” where a curl would effectively hide a flaw.
18. Inevitably, some place will visually need either disguise because of some minor visual “ooops!”, or simply need visual punctuation with flowers, ribbons or other decorations. Glue them on as your final step.
Optional Step on The Finished Wig. Note you also see on here a whiff of colored hair spray which I used in my CoCo 2014 demo on Dollar Store Costume Accessories in order to not poison my class with using real Spray Paint indoors. Using a little bit of carefully applied spray paint “shadows” in orange or pink to a foam wig gives it that extra dimension on stage, and can stop the color of the noodles looking so flat.
Steps for an Ethafoam wig on a buckram base for a Reagan impersonator in The Wedding Singer:
Cyndi Lauper Ethafoam Wig from DVC’s Wedding Singer by Eden
Thursday August 23, 2018, 10:00am-11:30am Diablo Valley College, PAC 3 (Faculty Development Workshop)
In the workshop we will interactively demonstrate using your cell phone camera to improve your own learning of student’s names, provide one on one interactions that build their confidence, easily collect coursework without taking it home, provide students with free “portfolio” shots of their work, and make grading simpler and more accurate.
