Suzanne Patterson – Creative Artistry FX

Two -Time Emmy Award Winning Makeup and Special Makeup Effects Artist

Suzanne’s interest in makeup was strongly influenced in childhood by her world famous rodeo clown and stage/film actor father. His iconic clown face character, “Jocko”, was painted with theatrical greasepaint colors that she would often play with in his makeup case. Growing up around her father’s famous western film and TV star friends, she was particularly encouraged by close family friend, Academy Award winning actor Ben Johnson, to pursue her budding interest and talents in the makeup arts.

Suzanne drew inspiration from the signature styles of two legendary makeup giants in the industry. The renowned British makeup artist, Mary Greenwell was famous for creating the clean and natural cover girl look in the 80’s supermodel era; and veteran Italian makeup artist, Francesca Tolot, revered for her renaissance style artistry. She soon developed a strong interest in makeup special effects and was fortunate to be mentored by the iconic legendary Academy Award winning special makeup effects artist, Dick Smith along with two other industry legends: Emmy Award/Academy Award nominees, Marvin and Monty Westmore of the famous Hollywood Westmore brothers makeup dynasty.

Suzanne’s 40 plus years of professional experience in hundreds of productions include beauty and special makeup effects, hair, and costume styling for movies, television shows and specials, sports programs, commercial ad campaigns, PSAs, documentaries, stage productions and print work. She has worked with some of Hollywood’s major stars and celebrities, sports stars and other high profile clients. Formerly based in Metro Washington, DC her professional grooming expertise was frequently sought after to provide services to the Presidential Staff, National politicians, famous personalities and top corporate executives in and around the Nation’s Capital.

Suzanne is recognized internationally as one of the leading authorities, educator and consultant in Ultra High Definition (UHD) format makeup science, technology and technique for film and TV production. She developed some of the makeup application principles and techniques used by many other professional artists working in the industry today. She created the popular High Definition Makeup University (HDMU), along with textbooks and videos as an educational protocol to instruct and guide the novice and pro artist in achieving top notch UHD tactical makeup expertise and skill in performance.

She has been a Keynote Speaker and educator for the International Makeup Artist Trade Shows, The Makeup Show, and Beauty Expo South Africa. She has taught courses to organizations such as Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the IATSE Local 706 and 798 Makeup Unions. She has also taught HMDU courses internationally to TV network and film studio personnel in Great Britain, Germany, Canada, South Africa, and Belgium. Her reputation as a master artist and instructor has been continually demonstrated through her workshops and seminars over the decades with hundreds of students attending from all over the world.

Besides heading her own freelance company, Creative Artistry & FX, Suzanne is also the Director of Education for the prominent US based Graftobian Makeup Company and has assisted in developing and creating cutting edge makeup products and instructional videos for beauty and special makeup effects used by artists all over the world.

As a veteran magazine feature article author Suzanne's previous editorial experience includes Associate Editor of 1st Hold Magazine, Airbrush Editor of Face Painting International Magazine, and West Coast Contributing Editor for FilmCrew Magazine. She continues to write independently as a makeup industry subject matter expert with feature articles and blogs.

On a personal note, Suzanne is passionately committed to the mission of saving the lives of newborn abandoned babies and orphaned street children in South Africa though her tireless fundraising work for Babyhaven.org and African Havens.org. In 2006, she created the internationally respected cosmetics company, Paint and Powder Cosmetics as an income stream dedicated solely to providing for these worthy life-saving organizations, and continues to support the effort through various other projects.