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DESIGNS
All of the designs symbolise a free nature and a wild behaviour in humans. The boundary between humans and animals is a fascination in modern culture and I have discussed the topic in an appraisal and in depth literature review. Human beings have lost their innocence in a sense that they once lived in harmony with nature and through our knowledge and civilization; we have lost our interest in nature. The result of this evidently is an accumulation of regressed personalities; bound by societies laws, set out to prevent destruction.
I was inspired by the traditionalism of the henna tattoo and would like to incorporate a henna style tattoo design in one of my make ups. I enjoy drawing tattoos and generally like the originality of the design, I think that a henna design on the models face will distort the features and imaginably, represent an enclosed personality (an interesting being). The design will cover the models lips to emphasize the barrier between their repressed self and society’s unspoken laws, effectively, a human without a voice, neglecting their wild nature.
The design to the left represents the human eating the animal inside, sabotaging the inner desire to be ‘free and wild’ to ultimately fit into a law enforced civilization. The horns on the forehead are symbols of the demon inside and the snake is in a position of attack, fighting for survival against the human form. The shapes and patterns in this design where inspired by traditional henna (the flowers and repetitive lines) and the result is a black and white tattoo style henna design which I think would look most effective as a vertical piece, across the models neck.
My second tattoo style henna represents the death of the human in an un-natural habitat, un-natural being the developing world, which is evidently destroying the worlds natural habitat through the intelligence of the human being. I wanted to incorporate the traditional henna style flowers and intertwine them between the two skulls, symbols of the natural world. With this design, I could either have each skull covering the models eyes or have the directly drawn down the centre of the face. I also think they could be printed on laminate paper and projected across the models face/body. I first coloured the design in colour and then in black and white, I think the black and white version is more suited to the style of henna and therefore holds more relevance to the idea.
ON THE FACE
The final henna design will be painted over the models lips with a fine black eyeliner, this will enable me to draw a detailed design without smudging the black paint. The design will be a traditional style henna rather than the animalistic designs above, I have decided to simplify the design because of where it will be situated on the face, I do not want do diminish the models natural features with an over complicated pattern. I have decided to combine two designs, one of a dog brow, which was originally a dog face/ snout, and the henna, as one.
The design will represent the barrier between natural human intentions and the laws of society, living by a set of rules and ultimately ‘keeping your mouth shut’ or your thoughts and intentions to yourself. The brow reflects the repressed personality and the henna over the mouth symbolises the restrictions.
The hair will be in the style of a large plait, wrapped around the models crown and messy on top. I want the hair to be volumous and messy, relating to being ‘wild and free at nature’.
SURVIVAL
Thumbnail sketches of a survival design, survival being the human instinctively living in the wild and away from social influence. The skeleton will be worn as a mask of protection against predators; this make-up represents death in the wild and having to use the natural surroundings as a form of protection.
The deer skull will be cast in [fast cast resin and filled with rigid foam, giving the fantasy of a deer skull without the weight of actual bone] and applied to a models face; the fixed illusion will look distorted/ uncanny. Either it will look to be strapped on with rope, as well as attached using Pros-aid glue, or I will sculpt small flat pieces of skin, which will run up the sides of the skull, growing around it.
The skin will almost reflect the growing forest surrounding and the insignificance of both the human and the animal against nature. Below, revised design sketches from different perspective angles.
SURVIVAL FINALISED
Finalised, I analysed a taxidermy deer skull, which I purchased especially for the life drawing. The model has been drawn bald to show the full extent of the ropes tying the skull to the head and evidently puckering the surrounding skin. I may change the design and sculpt flat pieces of skin to surround the outer edges of the skull where it comes into contact with the face, this will reflect ‘modification’ to the skins surface and the skull will look to be permanently embedded, as a mask, protecting the face beneath it.
PHOTOSHOP EXPLORATION
I feel it is necessary to improve my skills on Photoshop and Z-Brush [seen on the CGI page] as they are unavoidably growing collaborations within the special-effects make-up industry. I wanted to explore Photoshop and learn the basic colouring skills within the programme by watching tutorials and learning from the process. I attempted to colour the finalised make-up design for ‘survival’ and by doing this I was able to see what the piece would look like in different colour and texture mediums.
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Photoshop Video Academy. (2014). How to colorize a black and white photo in photoshop. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Srw245R7U. [Accessed 14 Feburary 2015].
The above images illustrate the whole colouring process I went through in Photoshop to explore different mediums with the skeleton on the face. The result of the effects surprised me because initially I didn’t think I would be able to work the programme. After watching the tutorials I feel confident in being able to colour in Photoshop, import and overlap images, distort images and refine edges.
A YouTube video posted by ‘Photoshop Video Academy’ taught me to colour a black and white image in photoshop and the Stan Winston School [DVD] [seen on the CGI page] with Christopher Swift, taught me to drag your own images on top of your design and blend the two together, giving your sculpt/ design a realistic feel.
I dragged in a photograph I had taken previously of a taxidermy deer skull I purchased and used the free transform ‘warp’ tool to distort the image to the desired shape, matching the outline of the skull in the design. Once the image was in place I started altering the colours and layers to create different effects. I took photographs of tree bark and cropped the image in, again distorting and altering its natural shape to fit the skeleton face. Once I was happy with its placement I started to clean up the edges using the rubber tool and the lasso tool to select the outline and ‘refine’ the edges. The opacity tool enabled me to see the full effect of the ‘masked layers’ I had created and the result was both educational and productive.
Above: I will use inks to paint the [resin shell] skeleton its original bone colour with residue meat and grass stains embedded into the hard surface, it will have a rotted, eroded feel. I will also create a mask made from tree bark to reflect protection and natural instinct in the wild. However, I will sculpt the bark mask onto a fibreglass positive cast of my models face ad the skull is too fine and detailed, the bark and the skull together wouldnt look effective and the detail in the skull would be lost.
REPRESSED PRIMAL DESIRES
The dog face design was inspired by research into feral children being brought up by wolves, they mimicked their wolf mothers behaviour after years of animal parenting and couldn’t be tamed. The closest animal to a human being is the domesticated dog, belonging to the wolf family, and humans biggest companion. I wanted to create a dog like prosthetic and apply it to a face, which would be made up of normal beauty make up. The dog would reflect a regressed self ‘inner being’ and the prosthetic would be painted neutral/ fleshy to suit the models natural skin.
DOG FACE
I altered my design when I started to look at henna and fashion- editorial make up because I wanted the focus of the prosthetic to be in the eyes and across the forehead, where humans display most emotion through skin wrinkling. I didn’t want the prosthetic to totally change the models face and a dog snout would have. Instead I decided to look at dog brows, particularly breeds which carry a lot of excess skin and look permanently angry or upset.
The surrounding face make up will be flawless and natural, focusing on a healthy looking skin base. The make up will look fashion-editorial but tie into a fantasy being/ repressed self, with the prosthetic brow piece. The idea was to completely contrast the makeup and shock an audience.
DISGUISE
This make up design is inspired by bodypainting and disguise in the jungle against the natural forest surroundings. I wanted the paint to emphasize the models face and features without completely withdrawing them i.e. cheekbones, nose, ears, lips. I will have to work in layers with the paints to control the colour balance because I don’t want it to look like a camouflage ‘army print’ face paint, it is more about the complexity of jungle living and the free style face paint will look contemporary. Above: The image to the left is the original and the image to the right has been desaturated to change to colour sceme, I prefer the image to the left as I want the bodypaint to look fresh and vibrant.
COLOUR SWATCHES
Before I did the make-up I wanted to test out the colours I would be using on paper first, working in layers to get the desired colour for the face paint. The first image above is the preferred colours for the look as they blend perfectly and do not over complicate each other, the vibrancy isn’t lost. I tested the paint first in acrylic and second in water based face paints, see above. The face paint worked equally as well as the acrylic. However, I will have to be patient and wait for layers to dry before adding more paint, to avoid complete blending of colours and destroying the make up.
HENNA
Continued:
The hair will be pinned up at the sides, accentuating the Dutch plait on top of the head and it will run down the models back. I will need to add a hairpiece to my models hair in order to complete the look. Along side the make up I think that this hairstyle will be a good edition to finish the look.
Make-up and Hair combined:
For the hair I wanted to focus completely on volume, I wanted the hair to reflect the description of the young feral hybrid girl in the GRIMM series, which I have looked at for my appraisal. She has untamed long hair and the episode plays on the fairy-tale Rapunzel. Her hair is plaited and I want the hair to look similar in my design/ make-up.