Final Assessment - Me as Make-up Artist, Toby Oldfield as Designer

Here is the final outcome of my assessment with Toby carrying out his design that he gave me. We had practised twice in lesson and even though we had not practised as much as I wanted to, I felt confident that my skills that I had learnt in class could be applied to his design. I felt that Toby incorporated his contemporary design with traditional Elizabethan make-up using the violet colours and adapted his original design to his own face. We added the violet colour to his beard and sideburns and were impressed with the outcome. I think in future more preparation and commitment to the design could be carried out, arranging practices and communicating the design idea to the makeup artist well to ensure that his design idea is reflected in the way that he wishes. It was hard at times to figure out exactly was was expected of me as a makeup artist and I would have liked to have communicated alot more. Overall I feel that more preparation was needed and more communication also.

smokin' baby!

I've been having a look recently at smokey eyes and how to create that really intense black smokey eye that so many makeup artists and celebrities use as a must have in their day to day looks and evening looks too! I found a couple of pictures of the look that I wanted to recreate!

Here's my attempt! 

I used mac 'blacktrack' fluidline all over the lid to get that intense black effect and then worked mac 'carbon' eyeshadow into the lid and partly into the crease. Then taking it below the lower lashes I worked in the colour and used my topshop black liner in my waterline. I used mac 'saddle' eyeshadow and buffed this into the crease to get a nice diffused gradient of colour and took this below the lashes too.To finish I applied 'eyelure 155 lashes' and then dabbed a tiny bit of mac 'suntweaked' eyeshadow into the tearduct and brow bone! what do you think?! 

New Elizabethan Make-up Design Influences

When looking for my final make-up design ideas I decided to take a book from the library to find some inspiration and found several images that incorporated elizabethan styling and influences. These were the images that caught my attention.

All of these images inspired me for different reasons, they all feature strong pale skin but the contemporary influences can clearly be seen from the strong dark eyes and lips in the first image to the strong cerise contour in the final image although this image looks more a little more like it was inspired by french revolution with subtle hints of the Elizabethan era. I like how all images exude power and wealth and I drew inspiration from the first image for one of my final design ideas. Here is my face chart that I created: 

The second look I created was inspired by an image I found online that showed both contemporary and traditional elizabethan make-up ideas. 

The angular white lines are very contemporary as well as the lip colour a it is quite intense however the brows have been blanked out as Elizabethans would and the white pale skin made me instantly think of Elizabethans. The rest of the skin is kept at it's natural skin colour with soft contouring and a natural colour on the eyes. I took inspiration from this for one of my designs and used a cerise pink instead to show wealth and nobility. 

Image found at: www.riimini.com

This is an image I found when researching for my final design. When researching looks in which the artists have blanked out the eyebrows I noticed that a lot of the looks have extended eye designs to give the forehead more length as Elizabethans did and to give more space on the eye for a more in depth design. Several images inspired this idea for me. This image of Kate Moss really stood out to me as being Elizabethan inspired. 

Ive decided to use dark eyes and a skin coloured base with dark contour and lips for my design. I tried out this design idea in class on my partner but quite simply focusing on the base, brows, contour and lips. 

I was pleased with how the base turned out but may use a lighter lip, possibly an ombre effect with a dark cerise colour. The contour needs to be a little stronger and better positioned but I worked effectively in the time we were given. The eyebrows need to have another layer of soap applied to make them less visible and have less texture as I will be applying a darker colour on top to give the effect of a larger eye.  

Timed Assessment Practice - As Makeup Artist

In our class yesterday with Sharon, we had the opportunity to practice our makeup looks for our assessment next week with our partners. As I'm working in a three my makeup and hair partner is Toby Oldfield. 

Toby brought in his facechart for me to look at yesterday and we discussed ideas on how he wanted the look to be achieved and with what products.  

Toby wanted to try the aqua colour in white for the base so we tried this out but found that the base didn't give the coverage that he wanted and dried quite quickly. 

The base appears quite patchy and I found it harder to work into the skin and Toby decided that we try a different base. 

So next we tried my Mac Chromacake in white from the Rick Baker but found that we still needed more coverage that could be buffed into the skin a lot easier. 

So finally we decided to use a really light Mac foundation in shade NW10 with the white illamasqua base to create that pale complexion that he wanted and found that it buffed into skin well and had a much more of a flawless finish. 

Sharon and Sue gave me some much appreciated advice not to fluff my brush when using my buffing brush but to really work it into the skin in fast circular motions as this helps to get an even finish so I must remember "NOT TO FLUFF!" This is the finished outcome of using my mac foundation and illamasqua base! 

The brows, beard, sideburns, lashes and lips were achieved using the aqua colour violet shade. The lips were lined with a black liner and I was really pleased with the final outcome once I had trialed the different bases! 

Timed Assessment - In the role of the Designer

This morning we had our timed assessment for our New Elizabethan unit and Sylwia Mazur was my make-up artist applying my design. We had both thoroughly prepared for this assessment and practised many times outside of class to make sure I communicated my design idea well to Sylwia and that she understood everything about my design. Sylwia took on board my ideas and we had our first practice in class, however after carrying out one of the first stages of the design which incorporated blanking out the eyebrows to reflect the traditional Elizabethan high forehead, we found that this method was too time consuming for the look we wanted so I decided to adapt my idea to suit the time limit we were given of one hour and ten minutes. We decided to make the eyebrows a lot more contemporary and made them bigger and more defined and Sywlia felt happier with her time management. I felt that Sywlia's time keeping was very impressive as she carried out each step carefully and to the best of her ability whilst always being aware of her time and when we were expected to finish. Her application of the base was flawless and the neatness of the eyelash application really impressed me. She remained professional at all times and we both arrived promptly for our assessment in suitable clothing with hair up and tidy also.
The thing I would improve on would be the angle and definition of the contour on the cheekbones and also on the forehead to really define those areas. Sywlia has shown real dedication to this look, practising techniques in her own time and making the most of our practice time together to perfect things she thought she could improve on and I am really impressed with her efforts and the overall outcome of my design.

When arriving at the assessment Sylwia put up my facechart for my design, notes (step by step) and a products and tool list aswell.

The Elizabethan Image

 When searching for research on Elizabethan makeup I came across a book 'Cosmetics in Shakespearean and renaissance drama'. After reading a few chapters, I came across a poem that interested me. It was written in the late 17th century however it refers back to Elizabethan times and how women used make-up to change the appearance of their faces.


"In a satirical poem called ‘A Paradox of a Painted Face’, written in the mid-seventeenth century, the author demonstrates the multivocality of the cultural attitude towards cosmetics by emphasising the contemporary attraction to painted faces, while using terms like ‘cunning’, ‘deceive’ and ‘fraud’ to demonstrate their association with hypocrisy:

The Fucus and Cerusse which on thy face
Thy cunning hand layes on to add more grace,
Deceive me with such pleasing fraud, that I
Find in thy Art what can in Nature lye.

It is a familiar paradox that painted beauty is alluring, but the attraction to artifice is slightly dubious on religious as well as on poetical grounds. A desire for deception, is implicit in the attraction to painted faces, and in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, painted artifice was a powerful material reminder of the human need for aesthetic pleasure. Thus there is a dialogical relationship between aesthetics and deception, which means that face painting can be viewed as an art form unto itself. Ovid, read widely in the Renaissance, instructs ladies in his Art of Love to use cosmetics to correct their natural deficiencies, but he tells them that they must hide it from their suitors, suggesting that it is their deception or artifice to which the potential suitors are attracted: ‘Why must I know the cause of the whiteness of your cheek? Shut your chamber door: why show the unfinished work? There is much that it befits men not to know; most of your doings would offend, did you not hide them within’."

This extract from the book speaks of how women's make-up was to be kept secret from men as they weren't to know of their 'deception'. It is similar today in that women feel the need to hide all of their imperfections from men but do so discreetly like that awkward first few weeks/months with a new partner when women feel the need to wake up early in order to sneakily apply a bit of powder etc. Dont lie we've all done it! But I find it quite comical that women feel the need to do this now as they did back then to "hide it from their suitors".

 I salute you bridesmaids!

 http://www.anyclip.com/movies/bridesmaids/morning-with-ted/#!locations/ 



In conclusion it is clear that even though centuries have passed beauty is still important to women, looking the way you desire to look creates a certain confidence and women are still searching for our own personal perfection, but is perfection ever obtainable?

Book Reference: Karim-Cooper. F (2006) Cosmetics in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama.(Online) Edinburgh University Press. Available from: http://universitypublishingonline.org/edinburgh/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780748627127&cid=CBO9780748627127A026



 

Sketching

In our sketching lesson with Kat we spoke about and practiced using different sketching pencils in correct way to create different shaving effects and shapes.  

We first practiced drawing basic shapes to help us become familiar with the way we hold the pencil and keeping straight lines which mat first was quite diffiicult. Keeping all the sides of an equilateral triangle the same was a struggle! But here is what I achieved.  

We also looked at different pencils and practiced shaving holding the brush at at the far end to give your hand more freedom when drawing shapes. 

 You can see in this picture that I've used different pencils and that some are harder and some are softer so they can be used for different aspects of drawing for example a 6B could be used for very dark shading and a HB2 can be used for very light drawing. 

Taking what I had learnt from Kat's lesson I then went home and tried for myself drawing some still life. As my skills with drawing at the moment are just beginning to develop I decided on an apple as my first sketch and was quite surprised that my sketched turned out better than I had expected!