Elina Parins

One sure way to improve your skills is to learn first-hand from the experts.

For students like Elina Parins, who is studying make-up design in New Zealand, that means being able to have direct access to and personal tuition from highly skilled and knowledgeable teachers such as Sean Foot.

Sean is a world-renowned prosthetic make-up artist who has been involved in numerous feature films, including the multiple Oscar winning ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy where he conceived the hairy hobbit feet and simultaneously handled the make-up for 175 different characters. Sean’s creativity and attention to detail have earned him Oscar and Bafta awards for the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia – the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.

“It’s fantastic having someone of Sean’s calibre involved in teaching us,” says Elina. “Where I was studying in the UK, no-one had this level of experience, and the difference is enormous. Sean knows the right techniques and the pitfalls from hard-won experience. He’s very detailed but he’s also inspirational and you can’t ask for more than that in a teacher.”