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Bruce Grayson: Beyond fancy brushwork

As one of Hollywood's makeup aficionados, Bruce Grayson certainly knows the secrets of perfectly covering imperfections, picking the right makeup colors and making clients' faces sparkle

Dian Kuswandini (The Jakarta Post)
Bali
Sat, January 16, 2010

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Bruce Grayson: Beyond fancy brushwork

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s one of Hollywood's makeup aficionados, Bruce Grayson certainly knows the secrets of perfectly covering imperfections, picking the right makeup colors and making clients' faces sparkle.

As his kabuki brush swung, bent and curled at the model's flawless face, Grayson seemed to show everyone in the workshop that morning that he was doing more than just playing with cosmetics - he convinced them that he was actually creating high art.

"There's no right or wrong about makeup," he said after the workshop, which was part of P&G's Beautisphere event recently in Bali.

"Makeup is like painting skin. Painters don't have rules or laws. it's what works for them," added the brand ambassador for P&G's skincare Olay.

So when it comes to his own brushwork, Grayson, who is behind many celebrities' dazzling looks, plays freely with his imagination. He captures all beautiful elements around him - from the urban jungle of New York to the exotic Bali.

"This once happened to me - I was driving down the street in New York and saw beautiful makeup on a woman," he said.

"I asked the taxi driver to go around that block so I could see that woman again. I wanted to capture *her look*. So I said: *No. no. turn around! We gotta come back!'"

Capturing one's look might sound easy, but to make imagination a reality is a challenge especially when you have famous celebrities and public figures as your "canvas". And Grayson knows this very well that he has to fit his fancy imagination with his clients' satisfaction and self-confidence.

"These *celebrities* are brands," said the head of makeup department at the prestigious Academy Awards and Emmy Awards.

"I might take one or two elements to make them look on trend. make them look hip and modern. but I can't change them so much and take them out of who they are. It's important for them to look good in their own brands."

Grayson's clients include former president Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Brooke Shields and Richard Gere.

But making these people look good is not enough. In fact, Grayson does more than just fixing foundation mishaps - he's always trapped in situations where he has to fix these people's moods.

"It's not always about makeup when you work for fashion shows or red carpets," he said.

"It's also about making your clients comfortable and feel as good as they can possibly feel."

Being celebrities or supermodels, Grayson went on, "is both a blessing and a curse because people look at you all the time - and that's very stressful".

"We, makeup artists, have to help them get over their fears. so we're like *psychologists' to them."

And it's not only recently that Grayson realized this "extra duty". An early bloomer, he began to understand celebrities and the entertainment business at the tender age of 11.

At that age, he already loved to tag along his father Dave Grayson, a top Hollywood makeup artist, who was responsible for many television productions.

This exposed him to the art of beauty makeup and later led him to a passion for the art when he helped his father perform his magic on celebrities like John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. He grew up considering celebrities not as stars, but as family - and this helped him a lot in pursuing his dream as a makeup artist.

"Having a father working for celebrities is probably a gift because most people freeze when they deal with celebrities," said Grayson, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, and is married to a TV writer.

"But I don't freeze - they're people like everybody else."

After graduating from Hollywood High School, Grayson continued studying at several schools and a makeup academy. He apprenticed several top makeup artists before landing on a prestigious job as the head of the makeup department at NBC.

"I had three different educations. I spent six years in school before becoming a real makeup artist," he said.

"Well. now people do it in six months, though," he sighed.

This instant makeup education disappoints him.

"I think it takes a lifetime to learn about makeup," Grayson said.

For example, he reasoned, "It's so hard for uneducated eyes to see the differences in skin tones. Just in yellow-based skin, there are medium yellow; dark medium yellow; dark-dark medium yellow and yellow."

"It takes years to educate those kinds of eyes."

Another disappointment, Grayson said, was to learn that today's makeup artists are so heavily dependent on digital retouching when they work for printed media and advertisements.

"I think the makeup artists today don't really learn as much as I know and do because the digital industry makes them lazy.

"They know whatever mistakes they make can be corrected in digital photography. I think that's a shame."

Grayson has been very critical about his own work.

"I think any good artists have to be highly critical of their own work. And I don't mind working with people who are picky and have a high level of excellence, because they make me become professional and self-critical."

Being self-critical, he pointed out, also means he must learn from other makeup artists. The world of makeup artists, after all, he said, was about sharing and giving ideas.

"We're a small community. A lot of us know each other - we admire each other's work. If we don't know each other, we see each other's works in magazines or on red carpets.

"That's how we are inspired by each other," said Grayson, who admires Hollywood makeup genius Pat McGrath, who's also P&G's makeup expert.

So, does he only get inspiration from makeup artists that are on the same level as him?

"Well, I'm mentoring young makeup artists, but on the other side of the coin, I've also received some great inspiration and techniques from them."

And this way, he said, he could continue learning from as many makeup artists as possible.

"You know, as a makeup artist, you don't stop learning," Grayson said.

"The minute you stop learning is the minute you should throw away your brushes."

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