Maggie McGovern didn’t touch a makeup brush until she was a senior in high school. Since then, she’s trained extensively in makeup designing and uses her own drawings to inspire makeup looks that she creates for her Instagram account.
“I never did any costume makeup in high school. I started doing beauty makeup on myself and other people,” McGovern said. “Then I started getting more into face painting and really trying to manipulate my face. Within the last year, I started to get really into it.”
McGovern blames her sister for her expensive hobby.
“My sister used to like watching makeup videos on YouTube, which I would give her a hard time about because I think a lot of those people are just product pushers,” McGovern said. “Regardless, I got into it because of her and started learning different techniques.”
Determined to become more than just a product pusher, McGovern draws upon inspiration through both what she draws on paper and by noticing what other artists do with their makeup designs.
“A lot of people on the internet have cool and creative stuff,” McGovern said. “They’re not just trying to sell a product. That’s the realm that I got interested in.”
McGovern has created looks inspired by Annie from “Attack on Titan,” a pop art zombie, a frostbitten Elsa from “Frozen” and even ice cream.
“Painting my own face is definitely harder than painting other peoples’ faces just because you have to do everything reversed,” McGovern said. “Drawing really intricate things in reverse, like in a mirror, is hard to do.”
To use as a guide for her own makeup looks, McGovern draws out a face in a notebook and adds the design to it. The drawing’s colors are reversed to what McGovern’s finished product is.
Inspired by makeup legend Ve Neill, the Oscar winning makeup artist known for films like Edward Scissorhands and Tim Burton’s Batman trilogy, McGovern likes creating cartoonish and abstract characters.
“I recently did a zombie flapper, and that was just because I saw that I had a lamp in my house that reminded me of the Tower of Terror in Disney World,” McGovern said. “It kinda made me think of doing something old and creepy.”
McGovern trained over the summer in a makeup boot camp with Kerry Herta, the department head of an Emmy award nominated department, where she learned how to complete a variety of makeup styles and techniques.
“The differences between aging someone for stage and aging someone for film are totally different,” McGovern said. “On stage, you have to be able to see it with lights and everything from the balcony; versus with film, you have to be really close to someone and they have to look old but in HD.”
After the make up course, McGovern had the opportunity to work as an assistant make up artist in a TV show pilot. McGovern has also worked for the New Orleans Opera on their 2016 production of “Macbeth” as well as Loyola University Opera’s “Street Scene.”
“With film, it has to look so authentic to where it’s kind of disturbing,” McGovern said. “I’ve been doing more theatre stuff. That kind of stuff I might like more. I like the environment more. It’s just a different energy.”
McGovern hopes to work on more theatre productions in the future.
“I feel like its [her makeup] just changed because I’ve practiced so much,” McGovern said. “I feel like when I look at my own portfolio [from] when I started one or two and a half years ago to now, I see an improvement.”
If you would like to view more of Maggie’s artwork, check out her instagram @magemcg.
