Body Makeup, Varicose Veins

Summer is here for most of us. I'm in San Francisco so we wear coats to the beach until Fall. That is the true hot weather. But regardless, as a makeup artist you will be asked to refine and enhance that buffed beautiful actor or actress for a shoot. I only cover what is exposed or what might be exposed. Therefore check with wardrobe to see what you actually will need to do. Less work I always say!!!!!!!
All kinds of situations come up when working on a body. Common ones are bruises, acne, and lovely body art. Oh on tattoos, body art, etc will be another blog but be sure you know where all the art work is located on the actor and what you would do to cover it before that day they are shooting a love scene with bare bodies. Not a good time to figure out. Today we will give you a few tips on how to cover and then create Varicose veins.

Varicose Veins: Weak vein walls which can no longer move blood effectively towards the heart. Symptoms can be swelling, pain, bulging,spider veins and heaviness in the legs. There are treatments.A drug called Asclera will be available in the states in June.(Catherine Saint Louis, New York Times, New Help to Free Legs From a Web).

Makeup Artist Steven Anderson's Makeup Tip:

Coverage: I would approach covering veins like tattoo's or a bruise. I would use an Airbrush.An Airbrush can lay down multiple thin layers of makeup without a lot of touching to the skin.Start with an Illustrator color that can remove blue. Lightly airbrush over the area to cover. Make several passes until you get the coverage you want. Follow with a flesh tone Silicon Makeup to blend your work into the surrounding areas of the body. If you have several Airbrushes on hand quick release the one you used for Illustrate and attache a different Airbrush for the Silicon Makeup. Both products are long lasting and should hold up with minimal touch ups.

Create:
I again would use an Airbrush. My Fav for this is the Iwata HP Hiline. Start with Illustrator Capillary. Dilute the color 20% with 99% Alcohol. Spray random snake like patterns, with a low pressure staying close to the skin.The color and pattern will come out pixilated and translucent. Follow with Illustrators Vein tone at full strength turning up the PSI to full to limit the trigger pull back.(That's the knob at the back end of the Hiline). Remove the forward crown cap(That's at the front) to create a very fine line over the capillary color. Match the patterns yet vary the density of the vein width. Take a clean orange stipple sponge slightly dampen with 99% alcohol, randomly daub over the top of your work to lift a little bit of the paint, helping to make the vein pattern not look so regular. Lastly spray a hazing coat of an appropriate skin tone.

As Steven has demonstrated painting skills goes a long way. Whether to cover or apply painting skills come up on a daily basis.