CARDIGAN make-up artist Abi Giles will soon be attending a special effects make-up course with the famous Neill Gorton in Cornwall.

Located at the Gorton Studio, the course will be directed by Neill himself, an internationally-acclaimed prosthetics designer whose studio is widely regarded as Europe’s most authentic screen prosthetics school.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Abi. “I’ve really enjoyed the face-painting at children’s parties and love the reaction of the children and parents and I’ll carry on with that work at parties and at weekends.

“But I’ve had such feedback from people as regards my special effects make-up, that I thought I needed to pursue this line of work,” said Abi, who recently took part in a live mock demonstration with the fire service in Lampeter when she had to create small wounds on various firefighters.

She reckons her passion for special effects was ignited after she attended a course in Essex with a Los Angeles-based artist called Pashur, a specialist painter.

“He told me I was a natural and that I should consider looking into it a bit more, so I did, and here I am with a course in Cornwall coming up soon!” she said.

“Hallowe’en is a really busy time of year for me and people usually ask me to create zombies.”

See this week’s Cardigan & Newcastle Emlyn edition for the full story, in shops and online now