Begoña Fernández Martín, Special Make-up Artist

Begoña "BB" Fernández Martín is a freelance artist with a focus on Special Make-up Effects, prosthetics, and character & creature design. Her mentors were Neill Gorton, Rod Maxwell (from the Face-Off TV show), and Tom Hester (Designer of Shrek).

She studied Fine Arts at the University of Seville, with a major in Sculpture, Anatomy, and Drawing. After graduating from Winchester School of Art and getting her Masters in Art Photography at the University of Arts London, she enrolled in Neill Gorton’s Prosthetics Boot Camp in order to push her career forward. She has also studied sculpture with Tom Hester, Zbrush with Rod Maxwell, and Illustration & Creature Design with artist Jared Fajardo.

In 2019 Begona was selected as the Winner of Ve Neil's Legends of Makeup Design scholarship (LA, USA), Finalist of the KNB EFX Group Legends of Creature Design (LA, USA), and Winner of The Prosthetics Event AS Make-up contest (UK).

She now works as a prosthetics & special makeup effects artist, sculptor, and illustrator, as well as a prop maker, for film and TV, and often teaches SPFX makeup at universities and other venues. Her professional work encompasses Film &TV productions, working for companies including Disney, Netflix, Warner Brothers, (Damsel, Aquaman 2, The Witcher, Willow, etc), and the BBC, and several music videos and independent films across the UK and Europe.

She has also released the only prosthetics-related book for cosplayers "Special Makeup Effects and Prosthetics: An Essential Guide for Beginners and Cosplayers", aimed at newcomers and cosplayers interested in special effects, and featuring a diverse range of models and skin tones.

She is often a guest at events (such as The Prosthetics Event, Comic-Con events across Europe, etc) where she does live SFX make-up demonstrations on stage.

Ian Failes, Editor-in-Chief, befores & afters

Ian Failes is a journalist based in Sydney specialising in visual effects and animation. Ian recently launched his own VFX and animation publication called befores & afters (beforesandafters.com) and an accompanying print magazine. He has written for fxguide, Cartoon Brew, VFX Voice, 3D Artist, 3D World and many other publications. Ian is the author of the book, ‘Masters of FX’. He holds the world's largest collection of memorabilia from the film Speed.