Ariel Johnson decided to go to cosmetology school until she could figure out what direction she wanted to go in as an artist.

“I ended up loving it,” the Wiscasset woman, 24, said July 2, fresh off her work doing actors’ hair and makeup in a movie filmed partly in southern Maine.

It was the first film work that the past employee of Wiscasset restaurants Le Garage and Sarah’s Cafe has done as she builds a career as a hair and makeup artist. Through her business, Ariel Johnson Makeup Artistry, Johnson works on weddings, pageants and other events; regional television commercials; and print gigs that have included Martha Stewart Whole Living magazine.

So far, the weddings have been her most satisfying work.

“It’s a little bit more intimate than sometimes working with the bigger companies, (which) are just as good because they’re different opportunities. But my brides, my clients are always so appreciative that I’m there helping them look more beautiful on their special day,” she said. “I always receive the most thankful letters, saying how much they enjoyed working with me, and that if I hadn’t been there to help, that their photos wouldn’t look as nice.”

Johnson expanded her work to include the weddings and other pursuits after stints working in multiple salons and day spas.

“I always knew that you could only go so far in a salon, and I had a drive to do more, so I started branching out on my own.”

Johnson and her family credit her entrepreneurial spirit and her talent with the opportunities she has had to work in a number of arenas in the makeup field.

As a small child, the daughter of Eric and Brenda Johnson of Wiscasset always wanted a fresh sheet of paper if she didn’t like how her drawing came out, her mother recalled.

“I couldn’t flip (the paper) over,” Brenda Johnson said.

Darren Johnson said his sister, 11 years his junior, used to like to draw whatever he was drawing. “If it was something I was trying to do, she would try to do it,” he said.

In separate interviews, he and his mother spoke with pride about Ariel Johnson. “She’s always been an awesome artist,” her brother said.

“She’s done very well,” Brenda Johnson said. “And she just uses any medium as a palette. We’re very proud of her.”

Johnson enjoyed her work for the film “Tim Janis’ The Button Girl,” directed by Janis and starring Dick Van Dyke, Jane Seymour and Charles Shaughnessy and narrated by Kate Winslet.

Those famous actors were not in the portions she worked on, shot in York County and Portland’s Victoria Mansion; she worked on the young actress in the title role, and on Gene Kelly’s widow Patricia Ward Kelly.

When Johnson learned that the film will benefit the Golden Hat Foundation, which focuses on the abilities of those with autism, she donated the final week of her work. She has since been told she will be getting an autographed copy of a book Winslet co-authored, “The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism.” For more on the foundation, go to www.goldenhatfoundation.org.

For more on Johnson and the business she started in 2010, visit www.arieljohnsonmakeup.com. Johnson also takes appointments at River View Beauty Salon on Water Street in Wiscasset.

She plans to keep living in Maine, but probably move at some point from Wiscasset to southern Maine to be closer to jobs in Boston and elsewhere, she said.

“I have a really good feeling about my future. I can’t entirely say what it’s going to entail, but I do want something great to surface. I want my own salon, and (if) that brings me into a different world of work, potentially, with celebrities, and if this movie opens the door, I would absolutely love to do that.

“In the meantime, I’m going to just keep doing what I’m doing and always try to keep improving.”