Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475069
34 • THE ARTISAN FALL 2022 Winkler-Smith, has done an amazing job with her unique looks. I wanted everybody's make- up to tell the story according to their character. Will's girlfriend, Lisa, is 16, so I didn't want her looking like she was 27. Then with little Ashley, I wanted her to look young so that we had somewhere to grow from. With Aunt Viv, I wanted to keep her make-up elegant and radiant because that's the character that she's portraying as a strong Black woman. Matching the foundation with the correct undertones is also key and so this was something my team and I paid a lot of attention to for all our actors. How did you collaborate on these charac- ters? Araxi: Denise and her team really enhanced a lot of the styles that we had with the make-up that she and her team put together. With the grooming of our men, a lot of times with barber- ing, there's what we call a lineup that a lot of barbers do on clipper cuts and Denise doesn't go over that. She actually enhances the hairline of someone's face. And if there are edges of a woman's hair style, she doesn't brush that away. She keeps everything soft and natural. It's almost like you're looking at it in 3D with the dimen- sions that she gives you. It's a soft light touch of a feather that you don't always get with other make-up artists. Denise: Yes, I make sure that I pop the line the barber has already established and just make it extra sharp, crisp, and clean. We respect each other's work and design. It's a team thing. It's not one of us trying to outshine the other. We're there to make sure that we're telling the story the way the director wants us to tell the story. We understand the vision of Morgan and our showrunners Rasheed Newson & TJ Brady and they look for us to bring that to light. That's what Araxi and I do together as a team. The series filmed in both Los Angeles and Philadelphia. How did you approach differen- tiating the styles of these two cities? Denise: We started shooting the first episode in Philly and it's slightly different from Cali style, although a lot of women definitely have natural beauty looks there too. We kept Will's mother 'Vy' who is a nurse—never looking over the top with her make-up. It's very pretty and clean. And we had some fly girls walking down the street, but they're a little differ- ent from the fly girls in Cali. I had to do my research to get it right. Araxi: I always like to look at today's women, everyday people you see walking down the L-R: Cassandra Freeman and Adrian Holmes