Bill Corso at Cinema Makeup School

by Abby Woodman

On February 26, Emmy and Oscar award-winning makeup artist Bill Corso came to impart some wisdom on Cinema Makeup School, and Uncover Magazine was sure to catch the event. Corso had a big year, adding an Oscar nomination for Foxcatcher to his impressive list of nominations and wins, including his 2005 Oscars win for A Series of Unfortunate Events. Bill Corso started off his demonstration by recapping the beginning of his career, and the incubation of his skills as a makeup artist. Corso always dreamed of studying under the great Rick Baker, who was a pioneer of the makeup world at the time. When he finally got some face time with Rick, Corso explains that it didn’t go so well for him. A bad attitude held him back for a while, and he had to work twice as hard to nullify the bad reputation his premature cockiness had created for himself. Bill will be the first one to tell you that word spreads in this industry, and how important it is to conduct yourself gracefully. Once he had built his reputation back up as a hard worker and a great painter, his career was off and running. Bill went on to show students the tricks and secrets of his signature multi-dimensional paint job. Corso had preselected a student-made prosthetic to apply in his demonstration, which he decided to turn into a Mad Max-type character. The secret to the Bill Corso magic paint job is really the underpainting, as he shared with students. It is incredibly important to incorporate the tones of blue and red that occur naturally under the skin, so as to create a look that seems like it has many layers. Corso was extremely generous with his use of the color red, and created a swirling pattern in bright red Skin Illustrator over the entire prosthetic surface area.  He then went in with finer detail and painted veins in an ashy blue shade. Before he even began incorporating skin tone, the face looked exactly how it would if one were to take the skin off of someone’s face. Bill Corso’s attention to detail reminded us that just because something isn’t seen directly, doesn’t diminish its importance to the final product. Finally, Bill began covering the underpainting with a base skin tone, and using a chip brush to add in different skin tones to break up the color. In the end, we were left with a frighteningly convincing Mad Max character, complete with guyliner. Bill Corso left Cinema Makeup School with some really valuable pieces of information, but the most valuable tip he gave to students is to always remain humble. There is always more to learn and you should never act as though you know it all, but Corso is a testament to how you can turn things around if you do make mistakes. If you haven’t seen it yet, go check out Foxcatcher and Corso’s Oscar-nominated makeups!