Timed Assessment - Make-up Artist

On Wednesday, 26th November, it was our timed assessment! I was the make-up artist & my partner, Jay, was the designer. We worked well as a team and made eachother feel confident & believed in eachother. We came to lesson very prepared and got on with it as soon as we could. Obviously, I was a bit nervous seeing as it was my first timed assessment & I had to do the make-up first! I can honestly say that it wasn't that bad, we had music playing in the background & were allowed to have small chit-chat as we went through it, so it was a very relaxed environment. I believe this is the best version of my partners design that I had produced & I think she will agree with me on that one too. I'm very happy with how it came out because it was all blended smoothly & it complimented eachother. Here are some final outcome pictures that I took;

Final Practise Of My Partners Design

My last chance to practise my partners final make-up in lesson was on Monday 24th November in Kat's lesson. It was the chance for some last minute experimenting that I needed to make sure that my partner was confident in me to do her make-up design the way that she desired. She also added a few extra bits like paper eyelashes that we used on her eyebrows that I hadn't worked with before so it was good practise. Here are some pictures of how it went;

This was the set up of my workstation. I had to use an extra tray for my make-up brushes as there wasn't enough space for it on my mirror station. You can also see the face charts & notes that have been created by my partner for this assessment. 

This blending of the colour went alot better than my first attempt. As you can see, it is alot lighter in colour because I didn't use as much product & also it all blends into each colour a lot smoother. You can also see the blocked out eyebrows in this picture.

I hadn't used the paper eyelashes before so this was completely new to me, but when didn't put them on the eyelashes, we put them on the eyebrows. We used these to hid away the eyebrows so it would be an overall soft colouring to the face. With the eyebrows on show, this didn't work. We placed the eyelashes slightly under the browline so they would cover over the hairs. Looking at it now, it does look silly but at the time, we thought it worked well as it curved round with the makeup. 

With everything that needed to be done to my models face, done. We then had the decision of where to add the pearls. She at first, wanted a small line of small pearls going around the eye sort of like eyeliner but then thought it would be too tricky to actually create. So I suggested to get some bigger ones and have them either inside the eye, or outside of the eye. These are the two pictures in comparison. 

We decided to go with having them on the outside of the eye because it made the eyes pop out more whereas we thought it made the eyes look too close together with them on the inside. I believe that I managed to create this look well seeing as it was changed at the last minute. I'm pleased with how it came out & was confident to go into doing it in our timed assessment. 

Practising My Partners Design

On Monday, 17th November, I was given my partners face chart for the first time & had to try to create it that was that she wanted it done. For a first attempt, I don't think I did too badly. We had already talked about what she wanted me to create and what was needed so we were both very organised for our lesson & managed to set up our station straight away. My partner, Jay, brought in her face charts & also some notes that she had made to pin up on the mirror to look at whilst creating this look (we were the only pair to have done this so it made us look good, professional & like we had our work together). Jay also brought in a block of soap & some eye shadows that she included to her look which weren't in that make-up kits. Here are some pictures from the practise;

In these pictures, you can see how my work station was set up with the notes on the mirror & my model in her chair. I also included a close up of the make-up that I used so you know exactly what I used.

In this picture, you can see the different thought process that we had when deciding whether or not to have a bit orange point at the brow or a smaller point. We decided to go with the smaller one. You can't see very well in this picture but I did block out my models eyebrows before applying that eyeshadow colouring to it but her eyebrows are so dark that it didn't work too well. Our tutor, Kat, gave us a little tip that when blocking the eyebrows, we should push them upwards so that they stuck to the skin rather than going with the hair and having hair stuck on hair. 

I will admit, I didn't quite read the face chart accurately as I did do the blush around the eyes too strong. This was because I used too small of a brush with too much product on them & I didn't have the right sized to blend it all properly.  

  For the lips, I used two different eyeshadow colours and made an ombre effect, red round the lip lining & orange blended into the middle. I like how this overall makeup turned out, even though there are corrections to be made but for a first time, I am pleased with the outcome. 

Feedback

I've recently had a few meetings with two of my university tutors, Sharon Lloyd & Kat Vogart about how i've been getting on with my blog & what I can do to improve it. I thought it would be a good idea to make a short blog post about it and write this down to see if I can keep up with these changes from now & further on in my blog. 

My first meeting was with Kat, on a Monday morning during her lesson. Whilst looking quickly through my blog, she said some good and bad points that I have within it. The good things she said about my blog was that she can see that I've worked hard on it. I've not always put in the time to create my blog, due to work commitments & socialising with my new university friend, but when I do have the time to do create a post, I tend to make sure it's up to a high quality with a good balance of writing to images. As you can more than likely tell from looking through my blog, I tend to have gaps where I don't post much then suddenly, I'll have done five in one day. 

The bad things that Kat picked up on was the fact that I didn't look deep enough when finding images. I usually get my images, whatever it may be fore, from the internet or possibly a magazine/newspaper. I tend to look through Google search for a bit then find the one I like best which is normally at the top of the page, just like what everyone else does. Said advised that I dig a bit deeper to get images that noone else has on their blog and that other people possibly haven't seen before. This is easier said that done but I have been trying harder at this since I was told to do so. One thing that I do believe is bad of me, is my time management. Due to my other commitments, I don't always put my blog first. However, when I started this course, just like everyone else, I didn't know anyone so I was trying to socialise as much as possible which meant putting my blog to a second priority. Another factor that didn't help was FRESHERS! I went out every night of freshers and I felt the reciprocations of that for the next month! 

I can promise to my blog now that once I come back from Christmas holiday, I will put my blog to my first & main priority. This is because I will have already made friends, so I don't have to concentrate on that, & I would have settled in a lot better. 

My second meeting with Sharon took place on a Tuesday morning, also during her lesson. She said that my blog showed a good amount of in class practise & that I create good face charts that show my thought & development. However, that there isn't enough face charts to show on my blog. She also added that I don't show enough work on my blog which is only showing half of my potential whereas I could be showing a lot more. This really made me realise that I haven't produced enough work for my blog & that has let me down. This really quite upset me because I'm always one to be on top of my work & to have it at a good standard level. 

Overall, I believe these meetings helped me because they did give me that little kick up the bum that I need to really get my head down & concentrate on my work. However, I do believe that if I had these meetings earlier on in this project, than I would have been able to address them more at the beginning compared to nearing the end of it. 

Prosthetics Event

We had the amazing chance to go to the Prosthetics Event in Birmingham on Sunday 16th November. It was a long drive up there and took nearly 3 hours but we made it just in time.

http://www.theprostheticsevent.co.uk

When there, we watched a seminar hosted by Neill Gorton of him creating a character from 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. These are some images that I took during the development of it;

The Reel Eye company who work with contact lenses were also there to show how adding contacts can change your makeup creation just that little but more.

Fangs FX were also present to show how false teeth can finish off a look too. I never really understood how important these two facts were until I watched this. It does really change the whole outcome of the desired look. 

It was an amazing opportunity to see how something like this makeup peive can been thrown together in just 2 hours. It has helped me to understand a bit more on how prosthetics work and how they can be used to change a desired look. 

When there, we were also lucky enough to spot a makeup stand that we're creating an Elizabethan look. These are some pictures of what they were creating; 

It was amazing to see this be done, and also by a student that was at the makeup school. It was just pure luck for us that we had this to look at when there! 

Overall, we had a good but tiring day up in Birimingham & I feel like I have gained knowledge from doing this experience. 

Final & Chosen Face Chart & Inspiration

This was my third & final face chart that I created; 

For this, I decided to have a foundation matching the skin colour of the model apart from the mask like white going across the eyes, bridge of the nose & temples. Like my previous face chart, I wanted to keep the mask white but I made it a bit more dramatic. In this, it shows that I have had the eyebrows drawn in but when practising my design, I changed it to have them blocked out so they are white with the rest of the mask. This is to keep the historical aspect of the  Elizabethan makeup. I got more inspiration for the mask from this picture;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/bryonygordon/6795324/Lady-Gaga-an-over-hyped-star-for-the-21st-century.html

I like how she put her own special twist on such a simple, classic look. She used a rich red to match the red jems that are placed on her face to create the mask.

The lips that I have designed are using two colours from the Kryolan Supacolour pallet, the deep red, purple & gold. I made them ombré by having the red on the outside & blending into the purple with the gold slightly applied on top of the purple in the mouth crease. I like how it's done this because it's made it feel much more contemporary by adding more colours. Another thing about my design is the blusher I've used. It goes around my hairline in a heart shape and follows round into my cheek bones to add a slight contour. I did the heart shape in the hairline to resemble how sometimes, the Elizabethans would use jewellery to fall from the hair onto the forehead. This is what my practise of my design came out like; 

I really like how it turned out because my artist did an amazing job at getting it spot on to how I wanted it. However, we did forget to add the beauty mark on the left side of the cheek & I've also changed it to add black false eyelashes. I did this because I feel like my eyes are being blended in when I really want them to stand out. 

I produced another face chart to show the slight changes between my third, and what I thought was my final face chart & my actual final face chart. This is what it looks like; 

I really love my final contemporary design because I believe that you can still see the Elizabethan aspects in it but you can also see how I've made it contemporary. I hope that another practise comes out exactly like this. 

Face Chart Number 2 & Inspiration

My second face chart turned out much more contemporary than my first. As you can see, I have still kept the white, pale face with blocking out eyebrows but this time, I've added pure white colour over the eyes. To do this, I'd use the Kryolan Supacolour White to create it;

 I liked the idea of having the blusher round off the face so I created a half crescent shape on each side of the face. I believe this way gave the face more structure to it. The white makeup over the eyes that I added to my design was inspiration from when we did 'Day of the Dead' makeup in lesson for Halloween; 

http://kerli.buzznet.com/m/photos/diytuesdaystunningda/?id=68596076

Day of the Dead makeup circles the eyes to make them stand out, along with highlighting the cheekbones, and doing something amazing with the lips. I really liked doing this so wanted to incorporate it somewhere within my Elizabethan design to mix two different genres together. I think this worked quite well and was happy with the outcome. 

Inspiration

For me, getting the referencing from where my ideas have come from is rather difficult. I don't tend to look into images or artists work too closely & instead I focus purely on the image itself, the things that I would change to develop it & also how I would collaborate it with another image that I may have seen else where. 

From looking through images, I started to develop what sort of ideas that I might want to use in my final design. This was my first face chart outcome;

For this face chart, I was going for a very dramatic look with strong edges. The face would have been an off white colour (including the neck & ears), the lips would have been partly blocked out and blended in with the foundation while the rest of the lips are filled with a deep red colour while also creating a heart shaped effect. I liked the idea of having a deep red blusher for the cheeks that came right up close to the nose to dramatise the classic Elizabethan rouge cheeks & the eyebrows would have been filled in. I did this because I didn't my image to be to historical. My inspirations from this face chart idea came from; 

http://www.fantasy-fan.org/files/Alice_in_Wonderland_Helena_Bonham_Carter.jpg

http://images.artwanted.com/large/55/46390_1064955.jpg

The first image is from the 2010, Alice In Wonderland. I'm a fan of the film and never once did I realise that the inspiration for the Queen of Hearts came from the Elizabethan era but when I look at it now, I can see it straight away. I loved the idea of the lips in this so I took that and put it into my design, along with the pale face. However, it was too historical so I also looked through some other images and came across this second one. It's taken from a theatre production to do with the Elizabethan era. It was created by Vivian Haworth who is actually an artist by trade but also works within painting, make-up & sculptures. When I saw this, again I thought it to be very historical so I decided to only take the strong blusher from this image to work towards my face chart outcome. I used a variety of products within my make-up kit to create this look which are listed on my face chart image. Overall for this face chart, I don't think it works too well for going with a contemporary because it does look too historical.

Unfortanley, I didn't get a chance to try out the whole look on a models face but I was able to test out the small, heart shaped lips. This is how it turned out;  

I like how it turned out when the lips were by itself but I decided to go against using them for my final piece because again, I thought it may make it look to historical and not contemporary enough. 

Who Are The New Elizabethans?

My 'New Elizabethan' is the great lady herself, Beyoncé Knowles. Just like all the other women, (Madonna, Cher, Rihanna) Beyoncé has earned the rights to cut off her surname & be known just as Beyoncé. 

http://i.forbesimg.com/media/lists/people/beyonce-knowles_416x416.jpg

Beyoncé is a beautiful 33-year-old, Texas born girl who currently lives in New York along side her celebrity husband, rapper Jay-Z, & their gorgeous (nearly 3-year-old) daughter. 

http://cdn.hollywoodtake.com/sites/hollywoodtake.com/files/styles/large/public/2014/08/25/blue-ivy-jay-z-and-beyonce.jpg?itok=rrei8kmx

Beyoncé has been & stayed relevant since she came into the public eye in the late 90s with her, now separated, band, Destiny's Child. As a mid 90s born baby, I can remember growing up listening & dancing round my house to Beyoncé's amazing voice. She's always been in my life in way or another & the other is films. In 2001, Beyoncé took the plunge into the acting world with the movie 'Carmen: A Hip Hop Era', I've never personally seen this myself but I know her from the likes of 'Austen Powers in Goldmember' (2002), 'Pink Panther' (2006) & and all time favourite 'Dreamgirls' (2006). 

To me, Beyoncé is a 'New Elizabethan' for her fashion sense & style. Along with her actual career, she's also known for her amazing curves! THAT BIG OLD BOOTY & TING WAIST! And ofcourse she wears her clothes to exaggerate this even more, just like the Elizabethans would. Beyoncé is so Elizabethan, she's also even known as 'Queen B', for more reason than one. 

http://mije.org/sites/default/files/resize/imagecache/two-thirds_column/u678/beyonce-290x376.jpg

You can't get a more contemporary Elizabethan portrait than this one right here. She's got the royal gold & red colours, the big padded & crimped out hair (tied in with the crown added into the hair styles, LOVE THAT!). Also the background shows a fur throw, a big royal thrown & all of her jewellery. When you compare this to an old original Elizabethan portrait, the similarities are striking. 

'The Taming of the Shrew' Review

'The Taming of the Shrew' is an adaptation of Shakespeare's much loved comedy. This is one film that has been adapted many of times within this century. In 2005, the BBC rewrote their version of the events to make it more current for our generation to relate to & understand. With the movie starring Shirley Henderson, Rufus Sewell, Jaime Murray, Stephen Tompkinson, Twiggy Lawson & David Mitchell. Although it has been updated, you can still see the similarities to the Elizabethan ear, however they have shown this through all the characters instead of just one main character. 

http://www.shakespearefilms.com/images/taming-of-the-shrew.jpg

Katherine Minola is a successful politician who is tipped to be leader of her party. She has a nasty, short temper about herself & has also been single for the past 38 years of her life. They don't actually tell us in the film, but we are also lead to believe that this also means that she's a virgin, like the 'Virgin Queen' Elizabeth. Her party believe that, as the leader, she needs to find a man & get married so she will be listened to more by her people. Again, this is what Elizabeth was told to do, find a man to marry so her people will listen to her more & she would be seen to be a stronger queen for her country. The way that Kate looks, also makes me believe that she is seen to be like Elizabeth. She wears a skirt suit in almost ever scene that she's in, that is also pitched in at the waist with a larger open collar. This is just like how Elizabeth wore her outfits. Pinched in at the waist to show off her trim figure with her chest on show. Kate also wears her hair up in a formal bun with a centre parting apart from one scene where she is in bed with her husband after they get married. Once again, this is just like Elizabeth would do, have it up and out the way when in public & loose and down when in her chambers. 

Kate has a sister is called Bianca. She is a celebrity who made her career in modelling. Herself & Kate are nothing alike at all! Bianca is one for the finer things in life. She wears clothing made from velvet & fur, just like her mother does too. She's also seen to wear alot of white & purple which is seen to be royal & expensive colours. Bianca's house is very modern with pictures of herself all over the place. To me, this is a big similarity to Elizabeth because she also had lots of portraits of herself around her home. This also links to the fact that Elizabeth was able to control which portraits were created of her by Bianca choosing which images she has of herself in her own home because it's harder in today's times because of paparazzi. 

There are also similarities to the Elizabethan era throughout the film within all the other characters. For example, Bianca has a new, young, Italian boyfriend named Lucentio, in one scene Bianca & Lucentio are wearing matching fur jackets. This symbolises their wealth and the fact that they can afford the better things in life, much like Queen Elizabeth would. 

Drawing

Drawing is an important part of make-up artistry, we use it so we can create the ideas we have in our minds rather than trying to describe them. This is because describing ideas out loud, means that things can get lost in translation. 

I've always loved drawing, however, through doing this I have realised that I've lost touch with it because I haven't done it for around 2 years! This upset me, but it meant that I was learning the ways again. Previous to our lesson, Kat told us to bring with us an A3 sketch book & drawing pencils. 

We began by drawing 2D shapes & lines to learn quick drawing techniques. We were also told to hold the pencil at the end, I wasn't used to this & really didn't like it as I felt out of control when trying to draw. We then covered shading, going through all our pencils that went from darkest to lightest shades. We then practised this being drawing shapes & using shading to make them 3D. This is how mine turned out;

We had to practise more still life object drawing, once back at home. I haven't done this for around 2 years so I'm not too impressed with how mine turned out because it is messy & the shading isn't too great. Also, looking at it now, it's very out of proportion. This was the outcome of my drawing of a mug;

Carina Buckley Analytical Review - 'The Danger Dress'

www.fashiontoast.com - "Where have all the Surfing Cowboys gone?"

The creator of this blog, Rumi Neely, wrote this post along with 8 pictures & a paragraph at the bottom, writing, "(Made by a Friend of Mine Danger dress, Wego slip-ons)
How to make body consious look fresh; generic slip-ons from Harajuku and some of that pale Venice Blvd. sunshine. Plus Friend of Mine just does it right in the first place. Called the Danger dress for a reason, careful how you walk in this one.."

It isn't clear what this post is actually about but my interpretation of it, is that it is about body image & learning to be comfortable in your own skin. The model in these pictures is Rumi herself. I believe that being the blogger, you don't tend to capture yourself on your own blog much. This is because you're constantly capturing other images of people or places around you. Although Rumi is a beautiful, young women, she still may feel conscious about some factors of her own body or personality. However, she never actually states whether or not the image relates to the writing, so it may not actually be Rumi that is body conscious at all.

These are three images from Rumi's blog; 



http://fashiontoast.com/?s=where+have+all+the+surfing+cowboys+gone

'The Danger Dress', could be referring to this white dress due to the fact, atleast that I believe, that you need to be petit to pull it off. It seems to be a dress fitted for a straight body type, opposed to a curver body type. "Called the Danger dress for a reason, careful how you walk in this one.." The slit on the right side of the dress could also make this the 'Danger dress' as not everyone wuold wear this due to the slit being quite high up along the thigh. However, this whole post is rather contradicting because it's talking about being body  conscious, yet ends with 'careful how you walk in this one.." To me, only someone who was comfortable in the way they look would wear this as there's really no room for error or anywhere to hid in it. 

Contemporary Portraits

Our task;

'To find a contemporary portrait, from a magazine or newspaper, that suggests wealth through the objects around the sitter & also the way the sitter is dressed.'

For this, I chose this image of Holly Willoughby;

Left image; TV Choice Magazine

Right image; http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/0c/7b/3f/0c7b3fbc71995961fb849a3aa36d7d38.jpg 

I believe this image of Holly Willoughby shows a very Elizabethan edge to it. She is sitter down with her arms resting on her legs also with her hand in her hair, just like Queen Elizabeth would have because she loved her hands. Her ring is a symbol is of wealth, this is something that would be in every Elizabeth portrait. This was to show the wealth and power that she had. She believed having her greatest possessions in her portraits would make her look more powerful. Another symbol that shows an Elizabethan edge in this contemporary picture, is the lace in her dress. Elizabeth was one to have her chest out on show in her younger years portraits & she was always be wearing some sort of lace in the image. This is perfectly demonstrated in this image.  

My Contemporary Elizabethan Portrait Selfie

This is my contemporary Elizabethan selfie. This image was taken at my house, back in Hastings, I felt this is was the most appropriate place to take this because it's where I feel most comfortable. I have my hair tied up, like majority of Elizabethan images. I'm wearing my favourite dress which is also a symbol of my favourite colour, red. You have in the background my younger brothers toys scattered on the floor & also the toy shelf. This shows to me that family is an important factor to me, no matter how messy they can be! Also in the background, there is a TV playing a Disney movie. Disney movies are my favourite kind of movies to watch because they make me feel very calm whenever I'm stressed as I spent my childhood watching all the Disney movies. On the right side of image, there's a bookshelf full of DVDs & PC games. In any spare time that I have, which is none existent now, I like to either play PC games like Sims or watch DVDs. I'm pleased with how my selfie turned out because it shows me in my surrounds.