It doesn’t get more hands-on than this: Makeup Design for Film & Television students not only learn by doing but also have the advantage of seeing firsthand what their instructors have spent years perfecting in the industry.

Recently, instructor Felix Fox – herself an Emmy-nominated makeup artist – gave a class of students a demonstration of her technique, transforming model and current VFS Makeup student Tegan Colby into a menacing leprechaun character. The entire process from sculpting to application took 10 hours.

“[Tegan's] fascination with the Leprechaun horror film series provided me with inspiration for the character creation,” Felix says. “She has such a great energy and willingness to participate in the makeup effects process. She was the obvious choice of models.”

Tegan was game, but the choice of model presented a challenge for Felix. “I sculpted the prosthetic on a stock face cast – of a VFS Makeup alumni – and not on Tegan’s life cast. This made for a more challenging situation, as the face structure of the face cast I ended up using was not very similar to Tegan’s face structure. Years of sculpting prosthetic appliances for films and TV series made it possible for me to know how much and where the clay needed to be on the cast, to allow for proper motion and mobility of the final prosthetic when applied to the Tegan’s face.”

The process, as Felix describes it: “The prosthetic is first sculpted in an oil-based clay and then molded with a plaster called Ultra-cal 30. Once the mold is completed and the clay cleaned out, foam latex components are whipped on various speeds in a kitchen mixer then poured into the mold and finally baked in the mold for about three and a half hours. The end result is a soft, fine-celled foam prosthetic that can be glued to the face.”

“The look is completed by painting the prosthetic and surrounding skin, painting the model’s teeth with various shades of tooth enamel, to create a ‘rotten’ effect, and then a wig and wardrobe are worn.”

Ultimately, it was a chance for Felix to impart her knowledge – gained on such productions as The Butterfly Effect, Scary Movie 3 and 4, Elektra, and many others – to students who are preparing to begin their own careers. “I hope that the students got a true sense of how much work goes into creating a ‘completed’ character in a tight timeline, and also how satisfying it can be when the finished look is pulled off!” she says. “I have had a lot of fun over the past year with this class and wanted to give them a special demo to send them off – to graduation and the ‘real’ world.”

“I also hope they get a sense of how to work really hard on creating a character all the while having a great time. I sure do!”

Enjoy this photo gallery with highlights of the entire process and the jaw-dropping finished result:

And here’s a video montage of the process: