The profession of make-up art has some kind of mysterious secret to it.
In ancient times, people tried to get connected with magical powers
thanks to stamps and ritual decorations. In theatre, the mask provides
the same connection with magic. For an actor, the mask is a ritual
which takes place in the small room for make-up backstage. There, the
first step of reincarnation takes place-heroes from different periods
and different personalities receive physical features. “Sometimes, when
I change something on the face, I notice that the actor’s behavior and
movement also changes. Often the actor says what did you do? I am
talking totally different now,” says make-up artist for theatre and
cinema Emma Movsisyan. Today the actor is a king, the next day-a pirate
and the next day a forest preserver. In order to get in the hero’s
skin, the first thing that needs to change is the face. The face is the
center of man’s composure, and in order for that center to liven up,
breathe and change its character, you must know all the resources and
ways to change the face. Make-up art, with its magic stick (in this
case the brush) is placed on the face a couple of times, underlines or
hides something, and it turns out that the actor can become a totally
different person. According to Emma Movsisyan, that magic is called
“knowing how to do make-up”.
One has to know how to make a person younger or older, thinner or
fatter: “There is no secret to this profession. There is technology
which needs to be researched,” says the one and only professional
make-up artist Nelly Khachaturyan. How can there be no secret? What
about making an old actor look young by using some make-up colors, or
“beautify” the face with horrifying scars and wounds, make a man with
big hair and thick hair to look bald, make the actor have no teeth or a
puffy face? Isn’t this some kind of magic? “No, that is not magic,”
says Nelly, “I see no difference here. You either paint on paper or the
face. In order to get a scar, wrinkle or wound on the face, we pour a
special liquid that dries so we can then paint the face. First of all,
you must be an artist and then a make-up artist. The name of our
profession is make-up art. It is wrong to call a make-up artist a face
lifter. I was the first to translate make-up artist to face lifter, but
now I regret doing that. The make-up artist is not a face-lifter, but
rather, an artist in the first place.” “We are not face-lifters,”
continues Emma, “we do not face-lift, we make the actor look older,
have wrinkles, make him look dirty. Recently, a director told me to
make the actor look extremely poor and homeless. I asked for him to
leave me alone for a while and I started to work. Then when the
director saw the actor with the make-up, he said in amazement ‘I
thought I saw lice. Did you really mix lice in his hair?’ I was so
happy at that moment”.
How does the work of a make-up artist start?
The character can be created in a matter of minutes, or after long
searching. “You have to read the plot beforehand, analyze the character
with the director. Then you can understand what is needed for the
“future” character. Now, after making 53 films, I can honestly say that
I can tell what kind of make-up I should do at first sight. There can
be an actor who changes when I take off the eyebrows, or becomes
totally unrecognizable when I put a beard on him. The quality of the
make-up depends on the material and the hand, as Armenians say “from
the hole of the nose”, meaning the brains,” says Nelly Khachatryan.
The Armenian saying “hole of the nose” is probably the psychology of it
all. The make-up artists take a few minutes to talk with the actor to
understand what kind of actor he or she is and see what the mood is.
This way, the make-up artist is assured of what do to.
“There are faces that don’t change no matter what you do”
If the make-up artist is just an artist, then it is better for him to
work with a piece of white paper rather than to deal with faces that
don’t express anything. The make-up artist can not totally clean or
wipe all the lines on the face and make a new face. They make the
person’s face look fatter or thinner by using a mixture of black and
white colors. They change the oval shape of the face by sticking a
beard and mustache to the face, or by changing the positions of the eye
and eyebrow. “There are faces which are hard to make. When we have to
do make-up on complex faces, we try to at least make the eyes express
something by changing the style and position of the eyelashes. We can
make the cheeks more round to cover the circularity or shorten the
sharp nose”, says Emma. That comes with experience. The make up artist
can add a trait to the character, thus changing the character. Rafael
Kotanjyan highly appreciates the work done by the make-up artist. “When
I watch Robet De Niro’s films, I get amazed at how a person can change
his character when one little sign of make-up either gets added or
reduced. I think that the make-up artist’s mastery is in changing the
actor’s character with a touch.”
The make-up artist has to be educated in several fields. In order to
get the type of wound or burned look, the make-up artist has to be a
doctor. During a taping of a film, Emma Movsisyan had wanted the neck
to be cut to get the illusion of blood slowly coming out. She cut
taping of the episode and said that the blood was spurting out like a
fountain, not flowing. The episode was taped again by doing it the
correct way. At first, the blood spurted out at the mirror and then the
hero appeared with the blood flowing from his neck, just like the
director wanted it to.
The make-up of theatre and cinema are different
The make-up of theatre and cinema is different in that lighting is
different. The person’s face may seem pale and not express anything in
the theatre. There is no such thing as a “large plan” which emphasizes
all the flaws on the face. That is why the make-up in the theatre is
harsher. “The make-up put on in theatre is done so that the people
sitting in the back rooms can see. If you see the actor a couple of
minutes before the play, you will say that there is too much make-up on
him. But on stage, 60% of his make-up will appear,” says Emma Movsisyan
who currently works at the theatre named after Stanislovsky.
The make-up is put on more elegantly in the cinema. The camera can not
miss a thing. Nelly Khachatryan, who has studied the secrets of make-up
art in the cosmetology department of Odessa’s culture institute, says
that in the cinema every detail must be taken into account. “If a wrong
“tone” is selected, then all the features of the face will appear.” The
make-up art of the cinema has to be cold and very delicate. The make-up
artists themselves find and buy the unique and expensive materials.
They mainly buy it from Germany. During the years of the Soviet Union,
“HyeFilm” used to purchase the materials from Moscow. The factory
producing make-up closed ten years ago and now the make-up artists
understand that the most important thing is for people working in the
same field to help each other out.
Professionals with holed fingers
The make-up artist’s work is to also make a wig, mustache and beard. In
order to make a wig, the make-up artist must work for 10-20 hours, even
a couple of days. They sit and make the hair. “During the years of the
Soviet Union, we used to get the hair from Siberia. The hair was very
ugly-dirty, knitted. We used to wash it, clean it up, knit, braid and
paint it. At that time, there were 10-12 people working on the wig. Now
there is no one to make a wig,” said Nelly. Today that profession,
which has a beautiful name-pasting-is fading away and there is no big
hair. If they are even making wigs, the hair is bought from the barber
shops.
Emma Movsisyan remembers: “Mrs. Marlik (Arusyak Baghdasaryan), who was
the make-up artist at the Sundukyan theatre, used to demand that I give
her two ready made mustaches every week. She did this for one and a
half year straight. I used to bring it to her; she would cut it with
scissors and throw it away. One side of the mustache was crooked, thick
or the colors did not correspond. That made me cry and I was thinking
that it would be better if she gave it to me as a gift. She used to
reply: ‘No, you don’t need the bad one. You must do a good job.’ Today,
many young people refuse to learn due to the difficulties in making a
wig.”
Where can people study?
There has never been an institution for teaching how to do make-up.
Over 20 years ago, “HyeFilm” conducted an experimental course in
make-up art and all the graduates of the course now have great memories
with the professor and master of make-up art, the legendary Poghos
Armenakich (Poghos Aschyan). Today, if any of the youth wishes to
become a make-up artist, he or she asks the old professionals to be
their teachers. Poghos Armenakich and Mrs. Marlik are not around
anymore, but their students are. They have a desire and enough power to
pass their knowledge on to the youth. It would be nice for that
profession to not fade away and find its place in the educational
program of one of the art colleges.