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Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance
Apply makeup to performers to reflect period, setting, and situation of their role.
Also Known As:
Commercial Makeup Artist (Commercial MUA)
Hair and Makeup Designer
Makeup Artist (MUA)
Prosthetic Makeup Designer
Special Effects Makeup Artist (Special Effects MUA)
Special Makeup Effects Artist
TV and Film Makeup Artist (Television and Film Makeup Artist)
Wages
Annual wages for Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance in United States
Job Outlook
Bright
New job opportunities are very likely in the future
United States
2034 Projected Employment
7,600
8% Change From 2024
Explore Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance video
Tasks you might complete in a day.
- Establish budgets, and work within budgetary limits.
- Design rubber or plastic prostheses that can be used to change performers' appearances.
- Examine sketches, photographs, and plaster models to obtain desired character image depiction.
- Demonstrate products to clients, and provide instruction in makeup application.
- Apply makeup to enhance or alter the appearance of people appearing in productions such as movies.
- Assess performers' skin type to ensure that makeup will not cause break-outs or skin irritations.
- Requisition or acquire needed materials for special effects, including wigs, beards, and special cosmetics.
- Cleanse and tone the skin to prepare it for makeup application.
- Analyze a script, noting events that affect each character's appearance, so that plans can be made for each scene.
- Demonstrate products to clients, and provide instruction in makeup application.
- Confer with stage or motion picture officials and performers to determine desired effects.
- Advise hairdressers on the hairstyles required for character parts.
- Duplicate work precisely to replicate characters' appearances on a daily basis.
- Clean supplies such as makeup brushes.
- Select desired makeup shades from stock, or mix oil, grease, and coloring to achieve specific color effects.
- Wash and reset wigs.
- Provide performers with makeup removal assistance after performances have been completed.
- Study production information, such as character descriptions, period settings, and situations, to determine makeup requirements.
- Evaluate environmental characteristics, such as venue size and lighting plans, to determine makeup requirements.
- Clean supplies such as makeup brushes.
- Write makeup sheets and take photos to document specific looks and the products used to achieve the looks.
- Create character drawings or models, based upon independent research, to augment period production files.
- Alter or maintain makeup during productions as necessary to compensate for lighting changes or to achieve continuity of effect.
- Attach prostheses to performers and apply makeup to create special features or effects, such as scars, aging, or illness.
Subject areas you may need to master.
- Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
- Telecommunications - Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
- Foreign Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
- Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
- Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
- Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
- Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
- Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
- Philosophy and Theology - Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
- Chemistry - Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
- Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- History and Archeology - Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
- Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
- Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
- Administrative - Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
- Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
- Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
- Physics - Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
- Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
- Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Strengths you may need in this role.
- Operations Analysis - Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
- Management of Financial Resources - Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
- Management of Material Resources - Managing equipment and materials.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
- Critical Thinking - Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
- Persuasion - Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
- Equipment Selection - Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
- Instructing - Teaching people how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
- Systems Analysis - Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
- Mathematics - Using math to solve problems.
- Quality Control Analysis - Testing how well a product or service works.
- Complex Problem Solving - Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
- Negotiation - Bringing people together to solve differences.
- Installation - Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
- Troubleshooting - Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
- Monitoring - Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
- Systems Evaluation - Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
- Social Perceptiveness - Understanding people's reactions.
- Technology Design - Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
- Equipment Maintenance - Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
- Repairing - Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
- Active Learning - Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
- Programming - Writing computer programs.
- Speaking - Talking to others.
- Science - Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
- Learning Strategies - Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
- Service Orientation - Looking for ways to help people.
- Operations Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
- Coordination - Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
- Operation and Control - Using equipment or systems.
- Time Management - Managing your time and the time of other people.
- Reading Comprehension - Reading work-related information.
- Active Listening - Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
- Writing - Writing things for co-workers or customers.
- Category Flexibility - Grouping things in different ways.
- Wrist-Finger Speed - Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Oral Comprehension - Listening and understanding what people say.
- Mathematical Reasoning - Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
- Spatial Orientation - Knowing where things are around you.
- Visualization - Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
- Gross Body Coordination - Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
- Speech Recognition - Recognizing spoken words.
- Trunk Strength - Using your lower back and stomach.
- Static Strength - Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
- Depth Perception - Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
- Speech Clarity - Speaking clearly.
- Dynamic Flexibility - Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Sound Localization - Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
- Control Precision - Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
- Deductive Reasoning - Using rules to solve problems.
- Written Expression - Communicating by writing.
- Fluency of Ideas - Coming up with lots of ideas.
- Number Facility - Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
- Far Vision - Seeing details that are far away.
- Auditory Attention - Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness - Keeping your arm or hand steady.
- Rate Control - Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
- Extent Flexibility - Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Visual Color Discrimination - Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
- Response Orientation - Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
- Information Ordering - Ordering or arranging things.
- Flexibility of Closure - Seeing hidden patterns.
- Reaction Time - Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
- Problem Sensitivity - Noticing when problems happen.
- Dynamic Strength - Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
- Inductive Reasoning - Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
- Speed of Closure - Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
- Stamina - Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
- Gross Body Equilibrium - Keeping your balance or staying upright.
- Glare Sensitivity - Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
- Hearing Sensitivity - Telling the difference between sounds.
- Time Sharing - Doing two or more things at the same time.
- Near Vision - Seeing details up close.
- Peripheral Vision - Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
- Multilimb Coordination - Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
- Finger Dexterity - Putting together small parts with your fingers.
- Written Comprehension - Reading and understanding what is written.
- Oral Expression - Communicating by speaking.
- Memorization - Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
- Selective Attention - Paying attention to something without being distracted.
- Perceptual Speed - Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
- Originality - Creating new and original ideas.
- Explosive Strength - Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
- Speed of Limb Movement - Quickly moving your arms and legs.
- Night Vision - Seeing at night or under low light.
- Manual Dexterity - Holding or moving items with your hands.
Average Education Attained
Highest level of education earned by people in this career.
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Content sourced from United States Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration ("DOLETA") and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development ("DEED")