Unleashing creative potential

Like many other young creative students, James felt that academic studies weren’t for him.

James says: “I have a passion in creative make-up, artistic make-up, all special effects, everything you see on films and tv, and I thought that is something I want to pursue.”

James is now on his journey to pursue a foundation degree in artistic make-up and special effects at Leicester College, saying that it “provided the facilities that I wanted”.

Standout moments on the course

James continues: “I think what I have enjoyed the most and what I have learned is just being myself because in school, it is very limited. You all learn the same things but when I came and did this course, it was super open ended. We got to pick our negotiated brief and we could all really express ourselves through our own projects, so I found that beneficial.”

Recommending the course

“I would recommend the foundation degree in artistic make-up and special effects to creative people, people that have a passion in make-up and hair, because it pushes the boundaries,” says James. “It doesn’t just limit you to doing typical glam make-up or photoshoots, you can do prosthetics, you can do wigs, you can get work experience working with theatres locally - things like that.

“People think that you can just learn things yourself, but it really helps with hands on knowledge, actually going through the experience itself, working on people - I had never done that before going to study.”

Future plans

James concludes: “In the next few years, I would like to see myself getting a foot in the door, working with people, either assisting or even getting my own job. I would like to be freelance, working for myself so I can kind of take the gigs that I think would suit me personally, with my skill set.

“In the distant future, I would like to see myself working behind the scenes on sets of tv, film or theatre, or I could be making prosthetics and shipping them off, working alongside someone.”