With the dawn of a digital age and the fact that the world and her wife have access to the internet, free website makers, url's being at an all time low price etc etc it can often seem like the universe has been flooded with "creatives" who woke up one day and thought "Oh I have loads of makeup already and I can do a mean smoky eye on myself...I must be a makeup artist!". Actually it doesn't seem like that, that is exactly how it is.
Like anything this has pros and cons for our industry. Pros being raised awareness of what we do, more market choice and my favourite, the freedom and availability of information to do with our trade. The cons are so numerous I almost feel sick thinking about it.
What happens when lots and lots of unqualified, inexperienced people suddenly decide that what we do isnt really that difficult? Well the biggest thing I see is that ethics go out the window. Morals disappear. The hunger for a tiny slab of success or the ability to say "oh I became a makeup artist once, it was easy" literally make people go insane.
With all this in mind I thought I would write about the top "no no's" that I see on a daily basis. They started when the internet became the most viable and instantaneous way of marketing ourselves and our work. It is not exclusively reserved for makeup artists either. I think most of these faux pas apply to freelance creatives as a whole. Its a community issue!
Number 1: Image theft.
Here's the scenario. Someone leaves college. They don't want to have to graft to the top like the rest of us because you know, that would mean working. So they get themselves a web designer, hand over a load of photos that they have plucked from different artists and photographers sites and get them to make a pretty little portfolio for them. A portfolio which contains absolutely none of their handy work. When caught out, said web designer provides them with a cover story. "It wasnt me, my web designer did it and it went live before I could stop them!" Yeah...thats not how things work.
The sad thing is that the first part of that last paragraph is inaccurate. Its not just newbies that do this. Over the course of 10 years I have come across top level, serious award winning artists that have thought a good way of filling a gap in their portfolio was to simply take it from another artist. The most recent was a woman who has half the internet (including professional organisations) convinced she is some Lisa Eldridge level celebrity makeup artist who has worked on everyone from the Spice Girls to U2. Done every event, award ceremony, festival. You name it. She even has a show reel full of clips from films she never set foot on. Before myself and another artist uncovered her lies, her whole online portfolio and professional branding was chock full of stolen work. Estee Lauder campaigns, magazine covers and celebrities she has never so much as glanced at from across a room. The scariest thing is that people believe her because "the internet" says so. You put up a website, throw the word celebrity around and gather some pictures up from wherever you like and people will buy it. Terrifying huh? This particular person now has no online portfolio. Once the relevant artists were informed that she had stolen from them and she was flat out told to remove the work she literally had nothing left.
This is NOT ok. There is such a thing called copyright and intellectual property rights when it comes to the legal aspect but what about the moral aspect? Ripping people off for what? Once these people get found out their reputation never recovers and their career is over. Simple as that.
Number 2: Lying on your resume/CV
I can keep this short and sweet. If you claim to have been published in "Vogue" or say you have worked on a number of celebrities and you haven't people can tell. They can tell by the quality of your work. So you look ridiculous and you can bet your life that people will be talking about you behind your back for all the wrong reasons.
Number 3: Constant tweeting and retweeting of praise...(includes facebook and blog posts)
Now don't get me wrong, blogging in any form always has a certain level of self involvement. The very act of starting a blog usually means you think someone is going to read it. The difference lies in the content. I will skip over the sheer horror of the grammar I see on some popular blogs and just concentrate on what I like to call "Ego Bloggers" or "Daily Mail Bloggers".
I love seeing people succeed. Especially when they are lovely, and talented and generous and humble. What I don't like is people who do nothing but gloat and brag and retweet sycophantic tweets ALL day and night. Why do these people think we need to read it 20 times in the space of an hour? We get it, you've done something mediocre that the world MUST know about or human kind will die out.
What these people don't realise is that real working, jobbing artists don't have time. People who are successful and working simply cannot spend that much time on social media. These little things called actual jobs get in the way you see. Real, working pros also think that the above type of people are hilarious pillars of amusement. They might not come out and say it. They may even follow these people because its funny but behind the scenes we pass them off as amateurs who are in it for an ego boost. Don't believe me? Go and look at the twitter pages of the top top artists. Alex Box, Val "The Queen" Garland, Alex Babsky, Jane Bradley etc. then compare that with post for praisers and you will get my point.
Can I also just add that if you ever see me doing any of the above, please stage an intervention. Thanks!
Number 4: Sticking the word "celebrity" in front of makeup artist when you have done one Z lister/reality star.
NO. Just stop it. Its embarassing. If you actually look at the artists who work on celebrities for 99% of their career, even they dont call themselves that! STOP IT.
This post has turned out far more ranty than I orginally intended but its better out than in. I would LOVE you to share some of your industry pet hates in the comments! Let it out guys and dolls...let it out.
