AGING MAKE-UP

This week at the Joe Blasco Make-up Artist Training Centers, students are learning the techniques necessary to execute the effects of old age.  From age spots, to vein work, and accentuating highlights and shadows, the students begin to transform each other into their future selves for better or for worse. This is often considered by makeup artists to be one of the most difficult tasks in their craft.

Our students work mainly with paint & powder and stretch & stipple techniques to begin replicating the effects that environment, heredity, psychology, and many more elements have on the aging of a person.

There are many considerations to take into effect when approaching an aging make-up.  How old is the performer?  How old is the character they are to be playing?  What environment did they live in - farmer vs. businessman?  Were they happy or bitter?  Did they suffer any illnesses or addictions?

All of these questions, and more, will play a part in shaping the final look of the character.

Becoming a master of the aging technique takes a lot of time, practice, patience, and research.  You have to observe people around you, study the differences between males and females and how the aging process differs between the two, understand which features illustrate age the most. One of the most difficult things to understand and appreciate about aging makeup is how it's the subtlety that makes it believable.

A couple of artists who have become well known for their abilities to execute a realistic aging make-up include Greg Cannom and Matthew Mungle. Cannom is responsible for the Academy Award winning aging makeup on Brad Pitt in the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and along with Mungle, the Academy Award for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Cannom recently appeared on this season of SyFy's reality show, Face Off, as a consultant and judge for the contestants' aging make-ups in the episode "Triple Threat."  Groups of artists had to age triplets 50 years, 75 years and 100 years.  (View the episode here: "Triple Threat")

Fans of the hit show, "How I Met Your Mother,"  may recall an episode where the Barney character was disguising himself as an older man in order to win a bet in the episode "Intervention". Mungle was hired on on for this episode to do a realistic aging makeup.  (A glimpse of his work can be found here "Intervention.")

Both Cannom and Mungle are featured on the Joe Blasco Online Professional Make-up Seminars Website, The Make-up Space, sharing their knowledge of aging make-ups.

• Matthew Mungle - Aging Make-up Using Stock Gelatin Appliances
• Greg Cannom - Old Age Make-up Using Encapsulated Gelatin Appliances

Now here is a challenge for you:
Try to think of five films in which the aging make-up was incredibly subtle and believable.  Now check out this slideshow at Celebrities in Old Age Make-up to see how many of your favorites made their list