IT'S all about art rather than beauty. If you wish to train as a make-up artist for film, TV and theatre, there is only one full-time undergraduate course in the Republic. Offered by Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology (DLIADT), the national certificate has 20 first-year places with a cyclical intake.

Course co-ordinator Toni Delaney says students need a good art portfolio in painting and life drawing. "The course does not relate to beautician work, you don't treat faces, you have deal with faces on the day," she says, "it is very art-based." People need an accurate eye for colour.

Eventually they will have to design and create make-up looks. They will have to life-cast and model to create facial prosthetics. "There's an enormous amount to be learned, it's hard work . . . the course covers every conceivable area of the working life. But, the exciting thing about the job is that you spend your life learning."

The course is mainly practical. "Students go through the stages from straightforward beauty to TV and theatre make-up to film makeup . . . ageing, reverse ageing, characterisation, facial hair, wigs, baldcap work, body-painting," says Delaney. During the course, students will also do life drawing, anatomical drawing, life-casting and modelling as well as certain amount of photography. "Because it's third level, students must do a certain amount of theory, mainly the history of film and theatre."

As to jobs, Delaney says the college tries to keep the options as broad as possible - from catalogue work to fashion magazines to TV to film to theatre. "The film industry is very competitive, very stressful and very physical. If people can't cope with those areas, no matter how good they are, work in the film industry is not for them. They may have to work six days a week, 14, 16 and 18 hour days. They can never be late and they may work in appalling conditions - in the rain, on top of a mountain... But, there is enormous job satisfaction. You have to love what you do, to do it."

All of the work is freelance, says Delaney, except for work in TV stations. "This means that you are as good as your last job," she adds. If you do not secure a place on the Dun Laoghaire course, Delaney says you can go to England where there is a wide variety of courses on offer. But, you must assess these carefully, she says, and make sure you are being taught for film not TV. "You need to learn for 35 to 70 mm film. If you can do make-up for one of those giant screens, you can tackle anything."

Tom McInerney, who, along with two partners, has just set up Ireland's first special effects studio, says that getting work is about "being really hard-nosed." A DLIADT graduate, he says most employers want to see a portfolio rather than a cert. When he hears of a film coming to Ireland he "assaults them with a barrage of information" and then tries to bully his way into seeing the producer. The trick is to grab them before they have signed up somebody from outside the country.

He is spending a lot of time on the phone but hopes it will pay off in terms of exciting work. He enjoys high fashion which provides "imaginative work" but says ordinary film make-up does not interest him. Dynamic Design Studios in Terenure is now in its sixth month.