An entire year (and then some) has passed since I last updated this blog...and I have gotta say, it just flew by. I'm going to attempt a very tricky thing which is- to sum up my life since my last post. So let's begin with Halloween, shall we?
Once again Halloween was a tremendous undertaking which kept me more than busy, but I'm very glad to say that it was successful and even better than last year. For Howl-O-Scream I made more masks and prefabbed some pieces which made a huge impact both scare-wise and in terms of saving me time and maintaining the quality of the event. Here are a few of them below, for more check out my instagram: @rachelagilmour
I would be lying if I said the success of this Howl-O-Scream was due to these masks alone...
The truth is I also had the great pleasure of learning under Nix Herrera (@NixBodyArt) who not only vastly improved my airbrushing skills, but helped me come up with some great new designs for some of our characters. This resulted in me airbrushing way more performers in half the time it took previously (thank you European Body Art!) ...and not to mention the overall improved quality.
Aside from some obvious shenanigans, we did a lot of work improving designs and challenging my freehanding. Our new Jack is Back show was able to experience a myriad of designs until I settled on some hybrids which mixed Nix's concepts with my own (as seen below).
My creativity was amplified at least 10 times thanks to his direction. Needless to say I couldn't be more excited to get ready for Howl-O-Scream 2016! Which is why I suppose I was given some other exciting news:
I was named Team Member of the Month for October!
I got to take a picture with the wallaby I made a pouch for a couple of years ago, and I also had lunch with the park president, Dan Decker!
From my nomination:
"Rachel...has impeccable sewing skills however she really shines during our Halloween event. Rachel has acquired a knack for make-up design, application and construction. She is primarily self-taught and has continued to hone this skill over the years. It is because of Rachel's willingness to step into this role during HOS that our event is as successful as it is."
To say I'm flattered would be an understatement, but I'm afraid all other synonyms escape me. I am so honored to be recognized. I will admit I work hard to achieve the highest quality of anything I do, but that's just working out of passion.
I could end the post there...but there's more!
In addition to my "9 to 5" so to speak (yeah right, I hardly ever work those hours! LOL) I had started practicing face painting pretty relentlessly (I even did a 31 Days of Halloween challenge) but anyway here's a peek of a few things that I did:
I was also able to do a couple of freelancing gigs during the insanity of October. One of which was on my longtime family friend Kyli:
Well, this particular paint resulted in a group in San Antonio called Death From a Brush catching wind of me and reaching out. So... I'm pretty excited to announce that I'll be joining them and entering the world of body painting! I'm always up for a new challenge and an opportunity to improve my skillset and broaden my horizons...so onward and upward my friends!
My first event will be body painting a villain character...dum dum DAAAAA
(to be continued...)