THUNDER BAY – Zombies ruled the day on Friday at Westmount Public School.
Students in the south-side school’s fine arts academy class spent much of the afternoon learning the finer points of artistic make-up, first shown how to apply it for a realistic look, then test it out on a fellow classmate.
Grade 8 student Liam Nicholl said it was a pretty cool way to spend the Friday before Halloween.
“We got to learn a lot about make-up, which isn’t something you’d normally learn about in school,” said the 13-year-old, who plans to leave his zombie look intact after school, to see how long it takes his parents to realize their son has a bit of a different appearance.
“It’s not really a career option you’d normally be seeing or trying out, so it’s good to be trying that. It also lets you try out a new thing. It’s very interesting to do all the different things with the blending of the face. It’s hard to make it look realistic.”
Classmate Rachel Rojik, 12, said it was a fun subject to learn about.
“It teaches us how to do make-up on people and it teaches us how to do special effects on people,” she said, promising to try out her new skills on her four-year-old brother.
“It gives us good ideas for make-up for Halloween.”
Make-up artist Carly Hughes was brought to Westmount to lead the lesson and said she leapt at the chance to teach the class.
“It’s just a fun opportunity,” she said.
“It was a good way to get ready for Halloween, get the kids excited for Halloween and kind of show off that this kind of job can be a real job and inspire them to follow their artistic passions in the future.”
Hughes, who said she was not very good at make-up when she went to school to learn the craft, added the students picked it up rather quickly.
“A lot of them said they’ve had a little experience with either make-up or special effects make-up from after school or extra-curricular activities,” she said.
Laura Bizjak, the teacher in the split Grade 7/Grade 8 classroom, said some of her students are interested in Hughes’ career path and it fits in perfectly with the arts curriculum.
The timing was great too.
“We’re starting a haunted classroom project. Students have been working on creating a haunted classroom art piece and we’re creating a haunted exhibit on Wednesday,” Bizjak said. “My hope is they’re inspired to continue on with their talents in high school and also in post-secondary.”
