Tips for Applying Stage Makeup: Shading and Highlighting

To improve or alter facial structure for stage or screen, you must understand the principles of shading and highlighting and how they work under lighting. Shade a feature to make it less noticeable; highlight to draw attention to it. Shade with dark colors, and highlight with very pale colors. It is best to shade first and then highlight. Simple improvements can be done with powder shaders; use creams or grease liners for precision work. Grayish-brown tones are best for shading white skins, and dark browns and black for brown skins. Apply shading with a brush, using a little at a time, but blend with fingertips. Highlighting is done with creams or grease liners. White alone is too strong unless you are using a very pale base or an unusual color, but do not use too much. Without highlights, shading has little effect.•

Shading

1. Shading under eyebrows makes the eyes look bigger, except with naturally large eyelids. Under the cheekbones it adds structure and slims the face. Shading the dotted area improves square jaw lines and broader faces when done with a softer color. Shadows across the point of the chin and over the end of the nose, curving up slightly in the center, shorten long faces.	2. The position of cheekbone shading is vital --- in the wrong place, it looks like a dirty mark. Take it from directly in front of the ear (feel for the knotty bit) along the hollow under the bone to where the bone starts upward. Dot a little color at this point and aim toward it. The shadow is curved, with its widest point just in front of the ear. Blean back toward the hairline with a finger.	3. Blend all the shading softly with fingertips. The shading under the eyebrows covers the whole bone area --- lift the brows to feel for the right place. Avoid the eyelids. Blending it too close to the nose gives a shifty look. Practice shading the sides of the nose. Don’t blend the color too close to the cheeks; it makes the nose shapeless. Cover the nostrils, or you will get a very odd effect.
Highlighting

1. The basic positions are on the eyelids, in tiredness shadows under the eyes, over the cheekbones, down the center of the nose, and on the point of the chin. (Feel for the bones under the chin to guide you.) It should only be used for receding or small chins. Put the highlight on with a medium-sized, flat, square-ended brush.	2. Blend the highlight carefully with a sponge tip or fingers, covering the whole lid, smoothing back to the hairline on the cheekbones, filling in between the shadows on the nose and patting it gently to soften the color on the tiredness shadows. Keep the chin highlight close to the crease. There should be no hard edges when you have finished.	3. The completed shadows and highlights after powdering. The aim is not to change the face dramatically, but to improve its features. The amount used here is suitable for stage work. For film and TV you use less, as the makeup needs to be very subtle.
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