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! 

Our New Elizabethan Practice Evaluation

Last night me and one of my partners for our new Elizabethan assessment decided to get together and have a discussion about my design and how we were going to achieve it within the time given. When first practising my look I decided to include blocking out of the eyebrows as I felt this would reference Elizabethan makeup perfectly. However we found that once we had tried this we would have to spend a great deal of time perfecting the eyebrows and wouldn't have enough time to complete my design. Due to this complication I decided to change my design idea and include the eyebrows into my design making them alot bigger and more contempory. We also found that using a light coloured foundation (Mac studio fix NW10) that I had in my kit worked better for my look than the original Illamasqua white base.  

Here are pictures that we took in our first session (blocking out the eyebrows) that didn't work out as well as we had hoped and also our pictures from our outside practice last night along with a discussion video link that we recorded. 

Orginal Design

Modified Design

Out of Uni Practice

Discussion Video

We are going to continue our out of uni practice to perfect the look and monitor our time management also to perfect the final look.

The Taming of The Shrew

When watching taming of the shrew in class I noticed several Elizabethan references that were persistent throughout the film. The main character 'Catherine' wears a lot of black symbolizing wealth with an Elizabethan neckline throughout. She is, as Elizabeth was, asked to marry to improve her public appearance and to be seen as a powerful politician, but ends up marrying 'Rufus' who turns up in women's clothes to their wedding day as Queen Elizabeth's King to be also did as seen in the film Elizabeth. Both characters in both films seem to be pining for love I feel although Catherine is very cold and angry. Her sister is the exact opposite in taming of the shrew playing the role of 'Bianca'. As the film goes on you see a view of Bianca's apartment with several portraits of herself on all walls, this reminded me Elizabeth and how she loved to control her image and how she was portrayed to the public. You are introduced to Bianca's agent also who at the beginning of the film is wearing bright colourful garments with stripes and checked shirts, this was seen as a poor mans wardrobe for men that worked on the land as everyone else in the film is seen wearing blacks, whites, beiges and fur pieces of clothing. At the end of the film however the agent is seen wearing black once he is ready to marry Catherine's mum showing his change in status suddenly from poor to wealthy. Catherine's mum and sister are always seen is expensive clothing, her mum always wearing colourful jewels and I instantly thought of Elizabeth's jewels and pearls which we're symbolic of her position and showed her love for expensive powerful things. 

The film really made me think about what the Elizabethan references really meant and made them easier to interpret. The actors and actresses played their roles perfectly and it really represented the Elizabethan era well in a contemporary setting. 

Image Reference: http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/f837a9e03724c5c5e4ef3f696aa24af1f19a53a9.jpg

My New Elizabethan - Princess Diana

My chosen New Elizabethan is Princess Diana. Adored by so many, Princess Diana remains popular and looked up to by so many years after her tragic death in 1997.
I've chosen Diana because of the way she was with her people and the way people looked at her as the 'People's Princess'. She was involved in many charities and was also known internationally for her charitable work and efforts to help create awareness and stop the use of land mines, children in need, AIDS, people living with HIV and the homeless. Similar to Elizabeth herself who was known to do anything for her people, she wanted to be seen as dependable and I think the public saw Diana in the same way. She knew how to speak to the people and adored her two young sons William and Harry so her motherly ways were something a lot of people could relate to and respect.
In the image above Diana is seen wearing her extremely detailed crown and what looks like pearl earrings, the use of these two pieces of jewelry show her status along with the high collar of her jacket which is white showing purity. Her expression is trusting and inviting and her eyes innocent, because of this I think people found her appearance approachable and friendly. People thought of her as one of them which is why I think she was so popular and worshiped by so many.
Diana also had an interest in music, dancing, popular culture and fashion similar to a lot of young people these days and a lot of people back in the 70's and 80's. Her interests and shy innocent ways attracted the public's attention when she became involved within the royal family and married Prince Charles of Wales in 1981.
When Princess Diana died the public were devastated and millions of people mourned her death as if for a family member. The fact that she was seen as a family member and affected so many people shows her impact on society and this is why I think she is a New Elizabethan in her own right. As Elizabeth the first did she prided herself in doing all that she could for her people and her tremendous achievements not only in the UK but all over the world are still remembered and ongoing today.

Image Reference: http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/21900000/so-beautiful-princess-diana-21947319-710-644.jpg
Research References:  http://www.biography.com/people/princess-diana-9273782
                                    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/special_rep1.html

Contemporary Elizabethan Look and Blanking out the Eyebrows

In this week's lesson we again looked at blanking out of the eyebrows and introduced a contemporary look as well. I practised using soap to blank out the eyebrows again and found that this time I was able to flatten the hairs more effectively by layering the soap and allowing to dry in between.
We were given two contemporary images to inspire us and I chose to use a pale skin coloured foundation instead of the white to give a modern feel to the look.

To cover the eyebrows with a skin coloured base you must follow a few different steps to the white base.

1. Once the soap or pritt stick has dried, you must use a grease based product and possibly mix colours to create a rosy pink colour. Dab this colour onto the brows with a sponge very gently so you do not disturb the soap or pritt stick underneath. This will take away the dark colour of the brows and make it easier to cover with your base.
2. Next apply your base using a sponge to firmly press the product into the brow covering it completely.
3. Continue to cover the whole of the face until it is completed.

As you can see the brows are almost completely covered however with another layer of soap would be gone so this is something I will need to work on as my partner for my final assessment has this idea included in her design. For the cheeks I used my Kryolan Viva Matt eyeshadow pallet and used the colour Anis (dark brown) to contour the cheeks, sides of nose and up onto the forehead as I thought a black would be too harsh for this contemporary look. The Lips were made black with my MAC lipmix paint and overall I'm very happy with this look and may consider this for one of my design ideas for my final piece. 

Traditional Elizabethan Look and Blanking out the Eyebrows

When trying to recreate an Elizabethan make-up, a key thing to remember is that the women would try to disguise their eyebrows to make their foreheads appear higher aswell as shaving their hairlines as a high forehead was a sign of nobility and wealth.  

To blank out the eyebrows you can use two methods and both will work well but choose the method that works best for you. 

What you will need: 

Bowl 

Warm Water 

Soap 

Brushes 

Blusher Palette 

Supra colour pallete 

Primer 

White Illamasqua Foundation 

Disposable mascara brushes 

Angled Brush 

Tiny bit of tint on the lips 

Powder- Setting powder 

Pritt Stick 

Pritt stick is super smooth to use and is quite shiny so needs to be powdered as it will show up in photography. The powder gives the brows a look of 'real skin' and that's the effect you require when blanking out the eyebrows. 

1. First take a small amount of glue onto a spatula, ask the model to close their eyes and using a sponge work the glue into the eyebrow going against the direction of the hair to begin with. This is to ensure all of the brow is covered and that the hairs will flatten. (You will need to work quite quickly as the glue will dry and it will be a lot harder to create a smooth look. 

2. Carry on working the glue into the eyebrows and smooth down any edges with your finger and press down. 

3. When you feel that the hairs are flattened and you have done enough layers pat on some powder lightly with a small puff before it dries. 

Soap 

Soap can be a great way of flattening the brows and if your model has sensitive skin you may wish to use sensitive, I scented soap (prepare beforehand). Soap is a good product to use as it doesn't dry as quickly as pritt stick so is easier to work with.

1. Take a small amounf of soap and create a paste with a small amount of water on the back of your hand or on a pallete. 

2. Ask your model to close their eyes and with the product into the eyebrows, again going against the direction of the hairs. 

3. Start to use the brush the other way and with your finger smooth down any edges and press down. 

4. With a wet baby bud, go around to take off any excess product, pressing hard to get rid of any texture. 

5. Let the soap dry (do not add powder) 

(use grease over the top when using soap) 

Base

1. For the base first apply your primer as normal all over the skin. 

2. Next take a small amount of the white illamasqua foundation and work it into the skin either with a sponge or a brush. (I found I liked using a brush for the first application and a sponge to perfect afterwards) 

3. Take the white foundation onto the ears and down the neck as these would be on show. 

4. Finish with a setting powder when all skin is covered. 

5. Elizabethans would have had a slight pink on their cheeks so apply your blusher to the apples of the cheeks only. 

 

Lips 

1. Only a slight colour would have been used on the lips in Elizabethan times so a berry shade lightly applied to the lips would be perfect for this look. 

Eyes 

1. Use your disposable mascara wand and work a white mascara or white grease based product lightly through the top and bottom lashes to disguise the natural darkness of the lashes wiggling your brush to get right to the root. 

Here are some pictures of my Traditional Elizabethan look: 

I found the base quite difficult at first as it didn't blend as I wanted it to, but as I got used to the product I found a way to blend it nicely. The brows could do with another layer of soap to flatten them and another layer of foundation also to cover them effectively. The eyes for this look I found were too dark as the lashes weren't covered enough so that is something I would change for a traditional Elizabethan look but I quite liked the berry colour that I used on the lips and the kryolan blusher as it's quite natural and Elizabethan. 

Halloween - Day of the Dead

For the halloween festivities, we were given a photograph of a day of the dead makeup and were told to be creative but include key day of the dead makeup features to our model. I decided on using black, red and white for mine and concentrated most on the eye area as this is one of the main key areas when doing a day of the dead makeup. For the lips I used red and black again but used the black to create 'teeth like' lines. For the nose I made what should be a bone shape into a heart to add femininity. Contouring the cheekbones with a black eyeshadow really gave them dimension and finished off the look and I had so much fun creating it! If I had more time to perfect the look I would have been happier but in the 25 minutes I had I'm happy with the result. I need to work on my precision around the eye however as it looks quite messy and that would show up on camera so that's a skull I will have to keep on practising!  

Carina Buckley Analytical Review - The Danger Dress

As the sun was rising on a warm September morning, I stumbled out of bed at my normal time of 8:15 to endure another tedious day at work. Pulling on my uniform and brushing out my messy curls and made my way to work realising that today was surprisingly sunny. I always walked to work, there's something refreshing about stepping out into the morning air, it wakes me up and makes me feel ready to face the day ahead.

On this particular morning however something broke my usual routine, a girl standing outside a local surf shack caught my attention. There she was in all white, her eyes seemed to be looking for something with a pained look across her golden tanned face. As I walked past, her glance barely touched me as if I wasn't there, as if she was expecting something. There was a slight crease on her forehead from disappointment, I was surprised when she asked me "Where is he?". It wasn't really like she was asking me, more like she was talking to herself, asking herself where this mystery guy was.
I kept my head down and walked to work.

The following morning it felt deja vu, there she was again dressed in white looking around. I remembered I had my camera on me and decided to capture the moment. As the week went by every morning there she was outside the Surfing Cowboys murial, still searching and continued to ask me "Where is he?" I captured several moments to get the perfect light as the morning's light was beautiful this time of year.

A week later I was taken aback when I expected to be greeted by the same mysterious girl and instead found a small note on the wall below Surfing Cowboys where she previously stood. The note read "I waited".

I never saw her again.

This is not my work and this is my analysis and interpretation of the image above. The picture above was found from a blogpost at: http://fashiontoast.com/2013/11/where-have-all-the-surfing-cowboys-gone/

Perfect Eyes and Lips

Eyes

When applying eyeshadow to the eye you must follow simple steps to achieve the best possible outcome.

• First prep the eye with an eye primer, this will help the eyeshadow to stay put and will also create a nice base so the full intensity of the colour of the eyeshadow can be seen. (You must also ask if the model is a contact wearer)
• Starting with the lightest colour first, use the back of your hand as a pallete and work into the eye with a small rounded brush. (To stop the eyeshadow from falling onto the skin below you can use a small tissue or press on some loose powder all around underneath the eye to make it easy to brush away any excess product.
• Next use another rounded brush to create shading in the socket of the eye with a colour of your choice, always checking in the mirror to see that each eye matches and to check the colour.
• Once your eyeshadow is completed you may wish to add some eyeliner to create a more defined eye line. To do this ask your model to close their eyes and gently pull the eye up in order for you to be able to get close to the lashline. Work in small strokes and when reaching the outer corners of the eye you can also use masking tape if you wish to create a bold straight flick.
• To finish the eye look you must now apply mascara asking the model to look down and up when needed (can start with the bottom lashes first to avoid smudging the mascara onto the eye when doing the upper lashes.) Wiggle the brush side to side to ensure you're covering the lashes with product from root to tip being very careful as the eye is a delicate area.
• To colour the brows choose an appropiate colour and whether it be a powder, wax etc feather the product through the brows with an angular shaped brush to get definition and also to add shape and depth to the brow.

Lips

• Depending on the look and shape of the lips, you may like to first start with a lipliner. A lipliner adds shape to the lips if there is any uneveness and also makes the colour you apply afterwards stand out.
• Eight hour cream by Elizabeth Arden is also a good thing to give your model to put on before applying the lip product as it adds moisture and will help if your model has dry lips.
• Using a pointed brush at an angle work the brush backwards and forwards to cover the lips. (You may want to change the angle in which you are holding the brush for different areas of the lips.
• To help the lip product to stay on, pat with a puff with some powder and reapply over the top.
• If you wish to apply a gloss afterwards, apply to the centre of the lips where the light hits.
• To make the lips look fuller, apply a darker colour around the edges to add depth.

Good Lip Products

Mac - Spice Lip Liner (can use all over the lips as a natural colour) this is a must have for your make-up kit!)
Elizabeth Arden - Eight Hour Cream (this is a multi purpose product that can be used for many different things for many different looks but is especially good for the lips to add moisture.)

Here are some photos I took of a look I created in class.