Pigmon the Demon Pig

Pigmon the Demon Pig

by | Jul 10, 2018

‘Pigmon’ the Demon Pig

Roxanne

July 5th, 2018

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to take a workshop put on by The Hollywood Makeup Academy in San Diego taught by Drew Talbot. The class went over the application and coloring of foam latex prosthetic pieces, bald caps, and hand laying facial hair. It was fantastic getting further training and guidance with these techniques. I had done some very simple bald caps prior, and some work with prosthetics, but having hands on practice was so wonderful. I’m so excited to practice more and create new characters in the future. From when I first got into makeup, creating unreal things has always excited me and pushed me to learn more. I loved fantasy and sci-fi as a child and dreamed of escaping my day to day life and to be surrounded by the surreal. And with makeup I’m able to bring the far off worlds into reality.

I had been given the pig nose and horns on the second day of the class and decided to try and keep my ‘pigmon’ based in reality by giving him a more realistic paint job. Initially he looked too “sweet” so decided to make him appear a bit creepier by adding in the eye shading and adding some maroon tones. I decided for the facial hair to give him some “pork chops” (if you didn’t chuckle at that there is no helping you), and the goatee so he would have a kind of biker feel to him. You can click through the gallery to see some of the various steps and the final images too. ( my model took selfies whenever he could to document the whole process)

I would have loved to had also given him som ears and tusk teeth, however they weren’t available in the workshop (next time though, that’s so happening!)
And I of course need to give a huge thanks to my long time friend and former roommate John Beers for being such a fantastic model! He drove with me down to San Diego and back, and even wore the prosthetics all the way back so we could get these great images. Sitting through this process is long and not super comfortable. But he did it like a champ and was cracking jokes the entire time!

Hello LA!

Hello LA!

by | Jun 12, 2018

Hello LA!

Roxanne

June 11th, 2018

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been living my life in transit between Austin and Los Angeles. Austin was home base, however I began booking work in LA and started going there more and more. So much so that in 2017 I spent close to 80% of the year there working. With that in mind, it was time to make a change. It was time to make the leap. It was time to really persue my passion. It was time to move.

So hi LA! I’m looking forward to creating amazing things with the people I already know, and with those I’ve yet to meet. I’m so excited for all the opportunities to grow and expand in a city that is all about film. I’m looking for any and all opportunities from assisting other artist for both fx and beauty projects, department heading, photo shoots, music videos, commercials, anything and everything needing makeup or fx, I’m there.

Austin is an amazing city, and it will always be my home, however I just was no longer growing my business there and wasn’t getting the kinds of opportunities I was wanting. It’s sad to leave, but I don’t plan on cutting my ties completely. I still plan to come back to Austin as much as possible to visit my friends and family, and with any luck continue working in productions too when the opportunities present themselves. For my film family in Austin, thank you for having supported me and helping me to have become the artist I am today. I’ve joked around that indie film in Texas is the Wild West of filmmaking where there’s little rules and it’s a lot of flying by the seat of your pants. It’s lead to some great adventures and memories I will always treasure. Our shoots were intense, but it made for some great footage. You are all so wonderfully talented and I’m looking forward to when our paths cross again.

For those in LA, let’s talk projects! My calendar is open and I’m ready to start working immediately. Feel free to message me to talk dates and details.

The Case of The Gilded Lily

The Case of The Gilded Lily

by | Dec 22, 2017

The Case of the Gilded Lily

Roxanne

December 21th, 2017

Below you will find ‘The Case of the Gilded Lily’, a short made by Shipwrecked Comedy that I got to work on earlier this year. I can easily say it was hands down the most unique project I’ve been on and one that I am absolutely ecstatic to have been apart of! If you want to skip my thoughts on it/me being sentimental, now is the time to scroll down and press play. If not, then continue reading.

When I was studying film at UT Austin, one of the areas I focused in on was was old movies and film history. I loved the topic so much, that for a while I planned on leaving makeup behind me and was going to go all the way for my Phd in media studies to become a film historian. (If you had questions on how nerdy I was, I think they were just answered) So a black and white, period, film noir, set in 1939 Hollywood was an dream project to do! The trailer they put together for the film I think sums it up better then I ever could:

When I was first contacted about working on the production, I was sent a link to the Kickstarter page, and I was in love with the project within minutes. This was something that was right up my alley, and yet completely out of my usual realm and challenging in the best possible way. The makeup designs I got to create on this were so fun. Working in black and white is such a different medium then color. If you go too subtle it won’t show, but at the same time you can’t go too heavy or else it looks like a stage play. All the guys had to have their lips darkened in order for them to be defined, everyone was contoured to make such their face still had dimensions and wasn’t too flat. And then there was also that we were doing period hair and makeup, plus multiple shoot days involved the majority of the cast. (Huge thanks to Cortney Heiser for coming in and assisting me on the crazy days!) Even on the most simple of shoot days, there was still a tremendous amount of work that went into it. But my goodness it was worth it! 

(Here’s some production posters that they have been releasing on the @ShipWreckedComedy Instagram)

Everyday I was exhausted by the time I got home, however everyday was such a creative joy. All the members of the production put so much heart into it, it was magical. On top of that too, everyone was so humble, and kind, and friendly. The Shipwrecked family are all so funny and talented. They created these great characters in this very defined world that all just mesh together perfectly. Beyond the work I got to do on this, I’m so grateful to have met all these people who I have now gotten to work with again since, and also now consider to be my friends.

 

I could go on for longer and get more sappy, but instead I gonna cut it short (as i look back over this post I see I may have missed my chance for that). I leave you you the funny and brilliant ‘Case of the Gilded Lily’.

30 Day Hair Challenge

30 Day Hair Challenge

by | Dec 9, 2017

30 Day Hair Challenge

Roxanne

December 8th, 2017

Primarily I use this blog section of my site to talk about projects I’ve done and such. But today’s is slightly different!
If you follow me on instagram (@Roxanne_McDanel), then for all of November you got to see take part in the 30 Days of PinUp Hairstyles challenge that Pinup Model Angelique Noire (@theblackpinup) was running. For everyday of November there was a different prompt to follow to complete a pinup hairstyle. The prompts ranged specific accessories, style icons, to particular hair techniques.
In my day to day life, I love pinup and retro style. While I may not do it every single day, I try and do it as much as I can, or at least do elements of it (you will rarely see me without winged eyeliner!) Initially was didn’t intend to do all 30 days, since I knew I was traveling and also working in that time frame. However, I surprised myself and did ever days challenge. Some days it didn’t get done till 10PM, but hey it still counted.
As cheesy as this is to say, I really did learn so much doing this. Several of the styles I did, I had never done before and had been very nervous to pull off. During the course of the 30 days I had to do a lot more research and found solutions to have of the issues I had previously encountered. I’m now really excited that I can execute so many new styles and some of the styles I had done in the past I can do better and make look more flawless.

I did also discover a couple of specific items that made such a difference with achieving some of the vintage looks.
Firstly a Denman Brush. Wow, this made such a big difference with getting beautiful brush outs! I had always felt that the basic brush I had would be fine, but really my curls just would disappear and I would be left with just a subtle wave. The brush really does matter, and now can’t live without it.


Small bobby pins. I did not even know bobby pins came in different sizes until an actor is was working with handed me this lil baby sized bobby pin. I was obsessed with the idea just because, honestly I love mini versions of things. (When you go to the makeup store and they have the small sizes of products as you stand in line to check out, yeah my shopping bag instantly doubles in size!) When I was getting my Denman brush, low and behold I also found my mini bobby pins. When I got them home, it dawned on me to try and use them when pining victory rolls. It was so much easier to hide the pins! This maybe wouldn’t work as well for someone who has thicker hair, but for my fine hair the smaller pins just worked wonderfully for holding the curled hair but not sticking crazy far out. (They are especially good if you are pining from the side to anchor them down)


A good heat protectant and a working curling iron. Okay this one may seem really obvious, and it is, but I’m brining this up because well…..the last week of the challenge I traveled from LA back to Austin for Thanksgiving. And I forgot to pack my thermal protecting spray (I’ve been using Redkens Hot Sets spray). But decided to do my hair without because I didn’t feel like going to the store and buying a new one. (Don’t be lazy kids) Well it also turned out my inexpensive curling iron was malfunctioning and overheating. The results of both of these things lead to me literally burning off a few sections of my hair! 😭 thankfully they are all underneath sections, but it was still devastating when I discovered the fried sections of my hair falling out. As such, with the conclusion of the challenge I’ve been giving my hair a rest, and doing deep conditioning treatments to try and reverse some of the damage. I also got a new (and better curling iron) and promptly trashed the old one.

Final thoughts:

I love looking like a pinup doll, and really want to make more of an effort to do more styles more often.

Certain tools really do make a huge difference of the final look.

Treat your hair well, and don’t take it for granted.

 

My Heart – Ya Albi Academy Push

My Heart – Ya Albi Academy Push

by | Nov 27, 2017

My Heart – Ya Albi Academy Push

Roxanne

November 27, 2017

 ‘Ya Albi’ is a project that I got to work on in the spring of 2016, that will always stick with me. It’s one of the few productions that really I feel made me more aware as a person of an issue that is such an important topic both in our country, and in the world. Predominantly I’ve worked mainly in thrillers/horrors, romances, and comedies where social issues of the time tend not to be a huge part of the narrative.
When reading the script that director Christine Chen sent me, I was on board right away having worked with her numerous times, and having very much enjoyed working on the short ‘A Birds Nest’ that we had previously also shot in Shreveport. But I will admit, I only knew a small bit about the refugee crisis in Syria and was very naive about it all.
Through the course of researching during preproduction, seeing the characters beautifully materialized by our talented actors, and suddenly listening more when the topic was talked of on the news, I suddenly felt myself becoming so much more aware and sympathetic to what was happening. And that is the power of film, and why films like this matter. Because they make you connect to things happening on the other side of the world, to people that you have never met, but suddenly you are able to on a human level empathize that these are people. People who just want to live a life, and have their children live a life without fear.
I like to think that we live in a world that more and more people are opening their hearts and minds to what is happening. And then someone will leave a comment comparing these people to snakes, saying that ‘they want to kill us all, kill our children, destroy our way of life.’
And once again, I’m reminded why this story matters. That we still have so far to come with this, and that there are still people who have such hatred towards people trying to escape a country where their lives are threatened.
With everything that has happened in the past year, this little film that I had the honor of doing makeup on has been trucking along, going to scores of festivals, winning award after award, and being seen now by countless people. It warms my soul to know that it has hopefully broadened some many people’s minds. ‘Ya Albi’ has been doing so well, that it is now Oscar Qualified. So now along with wanting this story to be spread for telling the story, we have a little extra motivation to get it out there! And the best was for that to happen is to get as many people to know about the film. Below you will find the trailer, all I ask is that you watch it, comment on, share it with others, if there’s a screening near you go watch it and bring a friend (for updates on screenings check out the Facebook page).
Directed: Christine Chen
Cinematography: Alex Walker
Production Design: Kellie Penna
Makeup Artist: Roxanne McDanel
Production Company: Moth to Flame Films
To all those who have already seen and spread the word, thank you so much from the cast and crew. And to learn about the film, and its latest screenings and awards please go to: www.mothtoflamefilms.com/film_projects/ya-albi/

Pin It on Pinterest