MUA Journey

Started Doing more and more Makeup Art in quarantine. Now I have a pretty good setup and getting more pieces everyday. I'd like to share what i've learned and what I gathered when I gather it.

[futurevalkyrie]

[futurevalkyrie]

This one took upwards of two hours to complete. It was a very very long process and I think I’m just at the point where I don’t know what I'm doing and I'm struggling to make it better.

I have spent awhile looking at videos and trying to incorporate them into my stuff but honestly it gets really hard. This was supposed to be an owl and I hated doing my whole face for it to come out looking like this lol. When I wiped away the makeup I realized this was one of the things I should’ve done on a small portion. Once I master the little things I’m going to try full face stuff like this again. 

It is honestly disheartening to do something and it be meh in my mind, so I’ll keep at it, and just hopefully don’t run into a string of these where I hate them all. It would be nice to feel like I'm progressing a little bit in this, especially since I really enjoy it. 

[futurevalkyrie]

Valkyrie Look

I spent a lot more time putting this and gathering pieces for it than any of my other looks. Honestly, I think it fell flat. When I posted this to another account the feedback was I needed more runes and things on my arms, and maybe more feathers in places.

I can agree with all of that. I was super excited to finally be able to do this look and I wasn’t able to do it justice. I really would like to revisit this one again at another time. 

The first thing I did was my makeup, and after a few pictures with the heavy makeup I decided I really didn’t like it. I had tried several looks before and none of them felt right, so I went back inside and took most of the black and red off. It was a rushed job so you can still see a lot of the red in the later pictures. I was honestly uncomfortable, and the smoke here in CA has been absolutely insane. We couldn’t get good lighting inside or outside. It was kind of driving me crazy. 

[futurevalkyrie]

Dragon look. Did this one because two people said to do it. Thought I had. The stuff for it but after looking at it I need so much more to make it look how it is in my head.

I really want to make or order some horns. I’m definitely lacking some prosthetic ears. I want some large pointy ones for this look. I started out with just the idea to do the scales on the forehead. I honestly wished I planned this one out a bit more but for a first attempt at this I feel it came together pretty good. The theme was suppose to be a gold dragon but it turns out I lack a lot of stuff to make the few ‘gold’ things I have pop out. I’ll need to focus on what I can do to really make my gold shine without gold leaf. Or maybe I can get gold face paints…..hmmmm. Now the gears are turning.

Sharing these pieces and reflecting on them and what I want to work on and what didn’t work how I wanted it to is really making me take strides forward instead of baby steps. My only hiccup I ran into this time was I had zero backdrop for this look and nothing I could’ve done on the fly for it. Luckily my landlord kept her gold curtains and I was able to use those. Next time I’ll really need a spot for me to take pictures even if it is against a black backdrop. That was at least we can focus on the makeup and not the world going on around me.

[futurevalkyrie]

So as I was working on this one today. I had a spectacular realization. I have been doing ALL my looks with eye shadow and liquid eyeliners and primers. For some reason getting actual face paints doing all of this never even occurred to me.

I have ordered a set of oil face paints. I remember one Halloween using one that felt chalky and activated with water but for the life of me I couldn’t find any on Amazon. I will have to look for those as I know the oils will really mess up my face.

I am also getting a webcam. Better than my one in my laptop so I can record these. I will also need a better mirror so I can do my makeup. I sat in front of my wall mirror in my room and did this look because I wanted to get the finer details on the butterfly.

I had really wanted to put in leafs and better details in the branches but the more I tried to make those work the more I realized it would be a job for the face paints. Eye shadow doesn’t always get the fine line I really want. I’m excited for my face paints to come in so I can try more paintings like this.

[futurevalkyrie]

Test two makeup for Valkyrie look. I’m definitely going to lean towards this than my last one. Will keep most of this but the Valkyrie symbol will stay as well as the runes. #runes #valkyrie #viking #makeup #makeuplooks #vikinglooks #norsepagan #me #makeupartist #art #death #deathmessenger #altgirl #model #gothgirl #goth #alternative #test #makeuptest #nyxcosmetics #nyx https://www.instagram.com/p/CEc3DJanitW/?igshid=1ovfm44mmxkz8

[futurevalkyrie]

Hair and Makeup test for Valkyrie thing I’m putting together. #makeup #me #altgirl #valkyrie #viking #sirenhair #greyeyes #mua #makeupartist #makeuplook #godzillashirt #vikinglook #mermaidhair #braids #red #fierce #warriorwoman https://www.instagram.com/p/CEcZpEiHIaB/?igshid=lfqd8mwijaxp

[futurevalkyrie]

Testing hair and contacts for my next look. Going to do a Valkyrie theme but I’m guessing I’ll need to tease my hair and make it bigger and more in your face. #me #testrun #greycontacts #valkyrie #makeup #makeuplooks #makeuptest #braids #greenhair #mythicalcreature #cosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/CEZwezFH7BO/?igshid=1rfgy29sgo52f

[futurevalkyrie]

I planned this look. Started researching face crystals. I looked to see what other people were doing with their mermaid looks. I didn’t want to do a full skin change and go blue, but I was highly tempted. I ordered contacts to enhance my eyes, and body glitter to help with the look of scales.

This was my first time using glitter in a look. I did a little bit of research on how people incorporated it into their look but I had assumed that it was more like a gel you slathered on and it dried in your face. While ordering the glitter and face crystals from amazon I noticed a “Nyx glitter primer” my only thought was it helped the sparkly factor. 🤣 I added it to my cart, and a good thing I did since I needed that to add the glitter to my face. The pure glitter lips was because I was playing around with the primer before I actually started the rest of the makeup. It worked out.

At this point I think I’m leaning towards full cosplay and costume work. My next look is a Valkyrie and I only thought it was possible because of how this one came together. Still have a lot to learn about getting things right. The biggest challenge for this one was I had the makeup and half the outfit but it still felt incomplete. I honestly enjoyed doing this one and at my current level have no idea what I would change. I will revisit this look when I know my skill is on another level and do a comparison on what I know then versus where I’m at now.

Mermaid look. #cosplay #cosplaymakeup #mermaid #mermaidmakeup #mermaidmakeuplook #makeuplooks #siren #sirencosplay #ocean #mermaidlife

[futurevalkyrie]

Cheshire Cat makeup. This is me putting it all together. I now, after four months of gathering items plus a birthday, have four makeup pallets, a whole lot of different makeup brushes, lighting, and various other stuff from before. To make the cat fur I actually used some wet makeup like the white eyeliner and the black eyeliner and took the mascara brush from my new set and created the fur lined. I also draw and one of my favorite artist says you always have to create texture if you want your 2d drawing to come to life. So that was my goal was to make the fur texture on my face without actual fur. I think I got it pretty good. The whiskers I have debated actually getting fishing wire and making some for the face but since I was just going for a full painting on my face and not extra stuff I opted for the white lines like I would on a drawing. Challenges I encountered was “holy crap this takes forever” I was standing in front of the mirror for a few hours planning and making adjustments. I actually had the other side of my face lined for makeup and where the smile and stuff went but decided half way I honestly didn’t want to spend all day on this. When I get faster in the application and I don’t need to experiment as I go with the blending I think I’ll do more of these cool full face looks. The mouth I’m having problems with but I’m guessing it’s more of an editing thing. Editing was all done in my phone so I think if I want to make it look dark and like a mouth I’ll need a black screen and editing software. Baby steps and learning. Any suggestions would greatly help. 🥰

[futurevalkyrie]

For my birthday friends and family gave me makeup brushes and lighting lamps for my birthday. I’m a huge world of Warcraft player so I decided to do a blood troll look. Testing out the new professional brushes and lighting. I had watched a lot of other makeup artists do their makeup and noticed they added shading on their own to certain sections of their makeup. I definitely tried my hand at it here with my eyes and the lines where the white meets the red. It made a huge difference.

[futurevalkyrie]

Dryad makeup. With the new brushes I was able to get better lines and do more with the forced lighting and contour on my face.

[futurevalkyrie]

Again, I didn’t have a lot of stuff here. Trying with white eye primer and liquid eye liner again. Taking shading into account and adding more than just one red to my image. I also encountered my first problem with lighting as I did this look late at night when bored. Quickly discovered you need natural light or lighting for these looks. I started planning out my actual looks from here so I could have natural lighting.

[futurevalkyrie]

This was my next attempt. The only things I had purchased from the last attempt was fake eye lashes, liquid eye liners, and a white concealer. This made me realize if I was going to do fancy looks outside of just traditional makeup I needed actual makeup brush set, lighting, and research. I hated this look because I couldn’t match what was in my head.

[futurevalkyrie]

This was my first try with makeup that went beyond the normal. I wanted to be able to express myself a little more since the confined space was getting to me. I had a Disney Princess (Mulan) pallet that was gifted to me forever ago, and one brush. Eye Liner, and mascara. After completing this look I knew I could do more so I started looking at other things like makeup brushes and pallets that would help me get where I wanted to go. This is from Apirl 4th 2020.