Metamorfik

Lucky You, Lucky Me - Bringing you Two New Editorials in Two Days!  Unfortunately, after this one I'm going to be real there won't be anymore "new" work for a bit b/c I'm just busy doing weddings and things like that but don't worry obviously I'll still be writing fun and interesting entries.  Plus I think I am going to do a little video about the layout of my portfolio so you guys can see it all printed and maybe understand a bit more about portfolio flow and stories and all that stuff!

So here is the FINAL story from my epic shoot day w/ photographer Adamo de Pax that I've written so much about these past couple of mths.  Originally, we were trying to get this published but no one was biting :(  I still think it's gorgeous!  To be honest I don't always get magazine editors and the stories they pick up b/c sometimes I see some really boring or crappy stuff published.

Anyway, Adamo and I agreed it's better to just release the images and put them up on our sites then have them published in a subpar magazine.  Truth is (and I'm not trying to brag here) I've had a lot of stories published and the majority of stories in my book are published so I don't really care if I have some pics that aren't published in a magazine b/c to me it's better to have a book full of strong stories then to really concern myself w/ the fact of whether or not a couple of stories weren't picked up by magazines.  Plus having a story published in a crappy magazine doesn't really mean anything or get me any farther ahead this point so who cares.

I love this story b/c it is a progression of one idea and Andrea (the model) did an amazing job of capturing the mood which is sort of like the makeup is possessing or spreading across her like a disease and turning her evil.  Of course Adamo did an amazing job as per usual too!  If anyone is curious I mostly used OCC pigments and the Gold is from my MUFE Flash Palette.

I really love that you can see the texture of the makeup in these pics and I esp. love the bit of red that landed on Andrea's eyelashes lol!

Enchantment

You may remember a couple of mths ago me sharing some behind the scenes photos from an awesome beauty shoot I did w/ the amazing Sian Melton and Vienna (our gorgeous model).  Well I can finally show you guys the final product!  I think they look really gorgeous and have this beautiful light and airy other world sort of feel to them.

The story was actually picked up by this new magazine called Veux.  Overall, considering it's the magazine's premier issue it looks really good and will hopefully only get better from here on.  The pics looks good in the magazine but I have to be honest I hate when magazines try to fit more than one pic on one page b/c it just takes away from the impact of the pic but that's just my personal opinion.  Plus they cut out most of the makeup credits which doesn't really make sense considering it's a beauty story.  I mean yes cut out the repeats but to cut out almost all of them isn't cool.  On a positive note my name is spelled right...and we all know that has been a prob in the past ;)

Anyway, here are the finished pics...I'm including my favs. from the shoot not necessarily the pics featured in the editorial  just an FYI.

FYI I went to Pikto today w/ Adamo de Pax to print some pics for my portfolio and they all look gorgeous!  I may be old school but I still LOVE seeing my pics printed...so much better than just seeing them on the computer screen IMO.  I might do a little video showing you guys the layout of my portfolio and flip through it for you if you think that might be something that would interest you.

Amanda in Wonderland

Finally yesterday all my hard working and LONG planning w/ photographer Dexter Quinto all paid off! Dexter and I had been planning a creative together for literally MONTHS! So long in fact my makeup concept had to switch from Fall/Winter looks to Spring looks lol. Sometimes this happens when you're working w/ a really good photographer and you want a really strong team to get really strong images...it takes awhile for all the pieces to fall into place.

I take creatives VERY seriously! I'm VERY picky w/ them and basically only do them for three reasons 1. Fill a hole in my book 2. Amazing Team and Concept 3. Editorial Submission (which should include an amazing team and concept lol).

Truthfully, I needed this shoot for more then just the pictures. For the past few mths I've been sort of in a creative funk for various reasons. I just wasn't getting the opportunity to do any cool shoots w/ good photographers and the few shoots I did do were just not living up to my expectations. The creatives being offered to me were totally not worth it and the ones I was trying to set up for myself were just taking a long time to fall into place. It was a big difference compared to what I was use to in the past when I actually had quite a few editorials coming out. I was actually beginning to doubt my abilities and creativity...it was kind of depressing :(

Because of the mths of talking and things getting postponed and what not I was actually pretty nervous to shoot w/ Dexter b/c there was so much build up. I've worked w/ him quite a bit before but it was really clean head shot type stuff. I knew he was taking this A LOT more seriously and b/c of all the talking I knew his expectations for everything were high...I was just hoping I could live up to them. To say that I spent a few hours lying in bed thinking about the shoot over the last couple of wks would be an understatement.

Thankfully, yesterday the makeup and hair Gods were w/ me and things went Fantastically! Truthfully, I'm really happy w/ everything I did hair and makeup wise. Plus the stylist we got - Annie Lam w/ Plutino Group must have been reading my mind b/c all her outfits were PERFECT for the colour palette I had picked out!

Our model Amanda w/ Elite was gorgeous and so nice! Seriously, a real pro! It was a LONG day and she was totally there and kept her energy up the whole time and from what I saw just yesterday I know it will be worth it!

I seriously CAN'T WAIT to see these pics! Veronica, Dexter's assistant took some amazing behind the scenes pics. If she sends them to me I promise to post a couple.

P.S. Also want to do a shout out and thanks to my great assistant David Smith yesterday. He really helped me out a lot!

YABY!!!

So yesterday I met w/ the lovely and talented Liz Yu. Fellow MUA, friend and creator of Yaby Cosmetics. Liz is not only an amazing makeup artist but she is also one of the most generous ppl I know right now...not just w/ product but also w/ industry knowledge and time.

Yesterday we spent literally 5-6 hrs at her Yaby office just catching up, gossiping and me picking her talented brain. As some of you may know I've been meeting w/ stylist agencies the last wk so I was just getting some info and opinions from her about everything from assisting (actually terrifies me) to portfolio layout - which btw she helped me w/ tremendously! Seriously my book looks a million times better now...sometimes you just need an outside industry eye to help clear away the crap you know. I'll talk more about agency meetings tomorrow after I make my final decision...EEEKKK - Fingers and Toes Crossed People! Although I do have to admit so far the agencies have been very receptive to my work which has been nice.

Anyway, what was also AMAZING about my meeting w/ Liz besides all the amazing tips she gave was the GRATIS I got :)!!! I mentioned Yaby in a couple of editorials and I know I'll definitely be mentioning them in the future (b/c half my kit is probably Yaby now lol).

Liz was beyond generous and I can't wait to try out the products she gave me on a shoot. I did try a couple out today on myself and let me tell you they were a DREAM! I got some powder foundation palettes from her as well as a highlighter palette and they are beyond gorgeous! The powder foundation (can also be used wet) is really smooth and great for both men and women. It's great for men b/c it's great at evening out their skintone w/out making them feel like they are wearing "makeup" and for women if their skin is great just a light dusting might be enough or if their skin is "less than great" layer it over the other foundation for another layer of coverage w/out making things look cakey. The highlighter palette has highlighters and bronzers for all skintones and it's the perfect amount of light shimmer w/out making things look like a 70's disco ball.

Liz's line is also great b/c it's small and compact. I'm all about keeping my kit small and as light as possible. I walk and take public transportation and I just use and over the shoulder MUFE pro bag for my kit (no rolling wheel kits for me) so it's essential I keep everything to a minimum. Yaby is great for not only condensing their products w/ her amazing palette system but there are also empty palettes which you can purchase and fill w/ your other makeup brands. I did this w/ my lipsticks actually. I bought an empty Yaby palette and some of the Yaby empty lipstick pots and cut and smooshed my lipsticks very neatly into the little empties. Now instead of going through a million tubes to find the right container I just open my very small Yaby palette and there are 35 (I think) lipsticks right at my disposal...and they look so neat and pretty too. All the models always ooh and aww over my Yaby stuff and how cute and small it is!

I also have A LOT of Yaby eyeshadows and pearl paints from before which are amazing b/c they are small but SOOO pigmented...seriously it will take forever to go through them...and really how many times do you actually get a chance to use that lime green eye shadow you used once for a shoot anyway. Everything is also really reasonably priced esp. for the quality and she offers a pro discount and usually has bi-annual sales.

To let you know how much I REALLY love Yaby I should just say I think I mentioned to ppl more than once at the CMS Toronto trade show this yr to go to the Yaby booth...umm did I mention I was working the Face Atelier booth at the time lol...don't get me wrong Face Atelier is another AWESOME Canadian brand (and not just cuz they give me gratis too ;) ). Seriously, they have some great foundations and I love their shimmers and lip glosses.

Btw any beginner MUAs - a great tip for when you actual start to do editorials try to use brands that offer gratis for editorial credits ie. Jessica Jean Myers using Yaby Cosmetics. A lot of times editorial pays very low to zero so a great way to make something out of it is to mention a cosmetic brand that you featured heavily in the editorial and at least get some free product from it!

Portfolio Printing

So yesterday I met up w/ the wonderful and talented Sian Melton in Toronto's beautiful Distillery District to print pics for my portfolio. First off what a perfect and gorgeous day yesterday. We started w/ some yummy lunch at Cafe Uno...my treat for her taking the time to help a computer reject like me print stuff. Great to catch up and gossip ;) w/ other artists about work, life and all that jazz.

Got my pics printed...lots of double pagers so it ended up being like 18 new pages for my book. On a positive note they look fabulous and on a negative note I NEED a bigger portfolio lol...not really that negative but I don't have the money right now to get one from House of Portfolios like I want :(

If you're in Toronto I highly recommend Pikto for your printing needs. You can rent a computer station for an hr to print your pics and make sure they are sized right and all that (if your pic order is over $25 the hr is free..reg $15/hr for station 1). See when I first started I was naive and I was getting 9X12 which I could actually print from the downstairs computers which were easy to use. Now I know better and I'm printing the professional size pics 11X14 but unfortunately the easy to use computers don't offer that size...damn them! So it's either bribe my computer savy friends w/ lunch and have them help me or pay almost $20/print to have pikto do it...btw if you print it yourself using the computers upstairs it's $4.75/print AND you get the pics that day...can't beat that!

Unfortunately for Sian she saved her pics wrong on her CD so she couldn't print yesterday...this sucks for her but actually works out better for me. I have like 3 editorials that I'm getting in pdf format next wk so I can just go w/ her again and she can help me again (maybe this time I can actually learn how to do it on my own so I don't need to harass my overly generous friends lol). Now the big problem is where the hell am I going to fit them in my book!?! Right now I have 40 pgs but I think in the next portfolio I'm going to move it up to 60 pgs...or I could start separating my Beauty from Editorial work...we'll see.

Next on my to do list - meet w/ agencies and get a new business card (kind of waiting on this one till I know about the agency thing so I could put them on the card ;) )

P.S. Someone commented about Todd wearing the same pants for all the shoots lol! Trust me this is an on-going joke between he and I regarding his "uniform". Just so everyone knows he has several camouflage cargo pants...it's not the same pair lol. As many of you may have noticed he really likes to get on the ground a lot when he shoots so you know he has to keep it practical and comfortable.