Had a few hours of chill time with photographer Sean Armenta….so we played with some OCC lip tars. :D

The joys of hosting studio workshops at Studio400 are being able to see industry friends who have become good friend’s over the years, and being able to be involved in the workshop in some manner whenever needed. When Sean came to town he was in need of a makeup artist and hairstylist for his lighting demo. Sean Armenta is a photographer for beauty and fashion/commercial clients including Paul Mitchell and Wet Seal. He came to Studio 400 to teach his beauty lighting and retouching techniques. While he stayed here with beautiful model Jade Corinne with Q Models in LA, we were able to play around in the pool for a bit. We only had an hour or so of sunlight when we started this venture but we did get some fun stuff out of it. Here are some of the pictures of what went down the “Prep2Post” workshop weekend.

When the ideal of a community photography studio came to our minds year’s back, my husband and I decided we wanted to provide local Washington DC photography industry artists with advanced education that they would normally have to find in major US markets such as LA and NY. It was a very normal thing to have to travel back and forth to NY if anyone desired to get this type of education and if we could do anything to help further aid the community in bringing big names down here then we wanted to help. 

Shortly after opening I ran into a friend’s post announcing all the tour date’s of The Powder Group’s “American Beauty Tour” with Billy B. Not surprisingly, Washington DC was not included in the list of stops even though I had already known a number of Washington DC based artists were traveling back and forth to continue their education in NY. We joked we would protest. We DID end up writing! Next thing you know, the official launch of Studio 400 and it’s workshops were born and Billy B. (recently known as the look of Lady Gaga) leaded this new phase by teaching a workshop to a packed studio of local Washington DC makeup artists.

(Billy B. signing Studio 400’s makeup door.)

Jump to present time and we’ve had the likes of editorial artist DeShawn Hatcher, Emmy award winning makeup artist, Suzanne Patterson, who held her HDTV airbrushing seminar in studio, and have held a number of photogaphy workshops  including LA Beauty and Fashion photographer Sean Armenta, whose client’s include Paul Mitchell, Wet Seal, and more!

(Photo by Sean Armenta at last Prep2Post workshop at Studio400. Makeup by me.)

Now we are happy to focus on bringing even more top notch education to the DMV area by presenting multiple Emmy award winning artist Kevin James Bennett. Kevin has been an educator for many many years and even runs an industry website that some of us artists treat as the “bible of makeup product suggestions”, www.inmykit.com , where he breaks down what industry artists have made popular in their kits and why. If you have been to ANY of the industry shows such as The Makeup Show or IMATS in any recent years, you will have recognized Kevin as the lead artist of education for Make Up For Ever where he commanded huge audiences and taught everything from the importance of proper HD Makeup to teaching “Bullet Proof Bride” techniques to what he will be teaching right at our studio, creating a makeup look for “The Perfect Portrait”. (For more information on Kevin’s July workshop click here )

I feel so blessed to be a part of these and future lineups at the studio because as an artist I don’t feel I can ever stop learning. As an educator myself, I get inspired to give my students more and by watching the passion that goes into all of these workshops and demos, it makes me want to strive to give that same passion back through my classes. 

Please add www.studio400.net to keep up with all latest workshop announcements and sign up pages. I hope to see you at an upcoming event @Studio400 soon!