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Project Evaluation

This semester, I thoroughly enjoyed learning many new and exciting techniques in make-up and hair design. We learnt an awful lot about special effects, character work and Victorian periodic hair and make-up. The techniques in make-up were massively interesting, using materials I have never heard of before and how to make the most repulsive looks. I loved using blood and gore in our work, apart from the awkward walk home through the park with the make-up still on! With the make-up, I felt I could apply more of my Fine Art background to create shading, blending and texture into wounds and skin effects. With hair, I have massively increased in confidence! Since getting a doll head for Christmas, my practising has really helped me to improve creating shapes, texture and control over the hair. Creating Victorian shapes in hair was really fascinating and has opened my eyes with how to create shape, especially with creating silhouettes.

With the techniques learnt in our practical lessons, we then applied these to our designs for our assessments. Our first assessment was our Miss Havisham looks for continuity. With this look, I wanted to create an elderly character, with reddened, sore and aged looking skin, and applying the techniques of dry and flakey skin to the lips. I was very pleased with each final outcome of my Miss Havisham look in both assessments. The matted and decayed hair with discoloured roses helps emphasise her unhealthy and unwashed look. I greyed her facial hair, which matched the greyed hair that I created with dry shampoo. With last semester’s knowledge of contouring, I heavily emphasised the hollows of her face to create a gaunt effect.

The real challenge to this task, was not only the timing, but creating the same look both weeks. I felt that the first assessment went slightly better than the second one, as the aging appeared more drastic in the first. Out of habit, I used primer on the face in the second look, which made the skin appear softer and more youthful. Other than this small error with the skin tone, I feel that the hair was completely accurate and the detail on the eyes and lips are very similar. Overall, I was very pleased with the final outcomes. 

With the knowledge that Estella’s images were to be in black and white, and had to look regal, youthful and powerful, yet beautiful at the same time, contouring and soft elements of beauty were vital. For my final Estella look I was very pleased with how everything went. The cruel/cold characteristics were shown well in the design with the slicked hair, and the contrasting beauty of the make-up. The make-up and hair are simple, and I feel they were both executed well, to create the Estella I was after.

In the assessment, I was very satisfied with how it all went. I stayed calm and controlled my timing well. I felt that the shades of Hayley's skin tone were matched well with the foundation and the contouring was applied in the right places. The skin looks fresh and youthful, but not shiny and not over powdered which I was really happy about. The extensions were incorporated well with the real hair and I don't think you can massively tell the colour difference. If I could change something about this look, I would incorporate much more volume into the plait and make the hair a lot more polished and finished with use of mousse.

The next phase of this semester was the introduction to Gothic Horror. With lots of research of this topic to aid my understanding, I managed to create a decent image and feel for the subject. The creation of two characters, Quentin and Claudia, was such an exciting project. I researched horror films and existing music videos with a gothic theme to help with my inspiration. After playing around on youtube trying to find a relevant song, I found a song, which I felt was a perfect ‘chase’ song which hadn’t already had an official music video.

For my Claudia look, I wanted to create a character that was obsessive, dominant and controlling. Her intensions were to keep Quentin for her very own pleasure, where her obsession had become so extreme that she results in tying him up. Quentin is her imaginary boyfriend, yet she is obsessed with him being her own little possession. For the final outcome, I wanted to create something subtle and attractive, yet dark and powerful. For this, I created emphasis or darkened eyes in a flattering feminine shape to enhance the eyelashes. For the lips, I created a seductive, shiny, ‘blood-like’ red. I wanted Claudia to look like a Femme Fatale, almost like a black widow.

The look I wanted to create for Quentin is based around his timid and danger filled life. He is completely terrified and trapped by Claudia, so he has no choice but to obey her orders. Strangely enough he does love her, but he cannot take the torment of her obsession. After trying to escape, Claudia results in tying him up so she can keep a close eye on him. For the make-up and hair, I wanted to keep a link between the two characters so that they fit in the same storyline well together. So I followed the similar theme of dark eyes and eyebrows with a slick finished hairstyle.

The song I have chosen for the music video gradually increases in pace to create the effect of a chase. The words, “going in for the kill”, emphasise the horror and fear of the chase.

If I could change the looks at all, I think I would have probably made them a bit more colourful and extreme. Even though my aim was to go for subtlety, I feel that a bit more excitement to the looks could have been introduced. Other than that, I am very pleased with the general these of this look and the outcomes of the hair and make-up design.

Masculine Hair

Equipment:

·      Pintail comb

·      Clips

·      Grips

·      Mousse

·      Hairspray

Instructions:

·      Create horseshoe section on top of the head and separate with a clip.

·      Using the remaining hair, secure into a ‘flat’ French pleat so that it’s close to the head.

·      In order to do this, rather than rolling the hair, fold it under so that it is flatter.

·      Slick into place using a pintail comb and mousse.

·      Neaten the french pleat. Be sure to create clean lines, a smooth texture and shape.

·      Pull down hair by the ears to create the effect of sideburns.

·      With the horseshoe section, separate into a side parting and slick back into the French pleat.

·      Use mousse and comb to make the hair sleek with no fly away hairs and neatly secure so the ends are not visible.

Final Looks - Claudia + Quentin

Claudia Moodboard

Theme: Power, dominance, beauty, blood thirsty.

Claudia

Quentin Moodboard

Theme: Entrapment, vulnerability, innocence, disturbed, scared.

Quentin

My Final Idea For The Music Video:

Main characters:

Claudia - The obsessive, dominant girlfriend who has the intensions to keep her victim (boyfriend) tied up for the pleasure of herself only. Her obsession becomes too extreme to the extent she has literally tied Quentin up after he has attempted to escape.

Quentin - The feeble imaginary boyfriend of Claudia. Quentin is timid and fears for his own life, which Claudia has full control over. He has attempted to escape Claudia's obsessive grasp over him but has failed numerous times, resulting in being caught up in rope.

The song:

Quentin Designs

Makeup Designs:

1.

This first Quentin design is fairly simple but makes a statement. The colours create the impression of quite a strong character. The lips are dark and bold and quite unusual for a male character as the lips aren’t necessarily usually a feature of the main focus. The eyes have a mask-like effect with pale powdered red across them. This could also represent something that Quentin is hiding behind in fear, or possible red to represent danger or in danger. I like this design because the eye mask makes him look a bit like a super hero, which could contrast Claudia’s villain role. But I feel that the lips were too much so I would like to verge away from this being the focus.

2.

This look is very, very dark and has an Adam’s Family feel about it. The contouring is heavily created in black to hollow out the pale face making it look like a skeleton. There is a very heavy focus around the eyes and eyebrows making him look quite deathly. The sides are where I have extended the hair in a geometric shape to accentuate the hair line to create structure. The lips have a slight pinched effect in dark red. I feel that this look may be too heavy for Quentin.

3.

This look is simple but effective with the eyes heavily darkened to make it look mysterious. The rest of the face is left pale and flawless with no colour on the lips or cheeks. The eyes are fully blackened to make his identity uncertain as the eyes are a strong feature of the face that defines you. I have blurred out this part of Quentin’s identity because Quentin is imaginary and often changes in Claudia’s imagination.

4.

With this look, I have created a very strong brow which creates an angry expression. They are dark and heavy and create the main focus of the look. The eyes are darkened around the edges too. The face is then lightly contoured with black powder to make the bone structure more prominent and to make Quentin more handsome. I feel that the eyebrows may look too angry rather than the vulnerable look which is what I am after instead.

5.

I have chosen this look for Quentin as I feel it captures darkness and slight vulnerability in one. The face has the effect of being hollowed out with use of strong contouring with black at the cheekbones, nose and temples. The base is paler than normal to create a gothic look. The eyebrows are bold and quite similar to Claudia’s as I’d like the two looks to work together nicely in the music video. Again, strong eyebrows are on trend, so they are a main focus for this look. The eyes are darkened and blend out softly. The lips have a deep red pinch in the centre which make the lips look smaller and don’t draw too much attention away from the eyes. Alongside this look, I will be using rope to tie up Quentin to suggest how Claudia is in full power of their relationship. This is not in a cruel way, but in a psycho and obsessive manner.

Hair Designs:

1.

This hairstyle is very slick, prim and proper. There is a high shine on the hair, which would be created using mousse, shine spray and heat applied through use of a hairdryer. The style is understated and kept simple not to draw attention away from the face.

2.

This design has a sharp side parting with one side pulled forward and slicked over half of the face. This look creates mystery and makes Quentin seem shy. The hair will be kept slick with the use of the techniques as above.

3.

This look is quite wild and out of control but has a sense of innocence to it. The hair looks youthful, full and quite cute with all the random curls, which are separated into a side parting. I like the concept of Quentin looking innocent, but I feel it doesn’t seem dark enough and doesn’t look suited to Claudia’s look.

4.

This design has the modern short back and sides style with a defined sideburn created with coloured spray. The quiff is soft and left a bit untamed. This would be created by applying heat to the roots to create lift and then fixed using hairspray. The look is nice, but not striking or dark enough for the look I’m after.

5.

After choosing my fantastic model, who has their hair cut into a mohican, I decided that I will use this to my advantage. I am going to use the hair in the centre to elongate the face by creating an upward volume which is sleek and slicked into a quiff going all the way down to the back of the neck. To create this, mousse will be applied whilst applying heat to create lift at the roots. The hair will then be set into large backward curls, once cool they will be brushed back to combine together. Shine spray will be applied to create a polished finish. This look is ideal as it is simple and with an edge, which I feel will suit Claudia’s look and the theme of the music video I have in mind.

Claudia Designs

Makeup Designs:

1.

For this look, I am focusing on creepy yet feminine. With the main colour being pink and lines to create the illusion of long eyelashes, you would think it all sounds very pretty. Instead, it looks psychotic and insane. The contouring makes the face more defined and the pale skin tone looks ghostly. The bright glossy lips look entising, which emphasises the femme fatale concept. The eyebrows are thin and look overplucked and creepy. This look screams Halloween rather than fashion horror, which isnt really what Im after. Im after something current that has a hint of sexiness.

2.

For this look I wanted to try something futuristic and minimal lash detail around the eyes. This is definitely a different approach to the first look I tried as I wanted to test different possible themes. For this look I used Katy Perry’s E.T music video as inspiration. It slightly diverges off the gothic horror theme that Claudia would have gained from horror films, but aliens are scary right?! The eyebrows are higher than naturally positioned and create an angry expression. Even though this look had potential, I feel that it’s possibly too far off the concept I am aiming for and would like something a little more gothic.

3.

This look shows elements of beauty with the contouring of the cheekbones, shaping of the eyes and mascara on the eyelashes. In this, I have decided to stick with dark shades but wanted to incorporate some colour and therefore I chose to use purple. The look is striking which creates a dominant feel from the bold lips and eyebrows. This look was inspired by the evil queen from Disney films, but the fact that it’s inspired by Disney may be enough to suggest that this look isn’t ideal for my idea of Claudia.

4.

With this look I have again chosen to focus on the illusion of large lashes and would possibly create my own lashes to create this effect in 3D. This lips are larger than the natural lip shape to create an emphasised and oversized lip. The eyes and lips together make a statement and create emphasis on the most feminine features of the face. The blue lips make the look more fashion forward and current. The look isnt quite how I would picture Claudia as I feel it is too eccentric.

5.

Focusing heavily on the eyebrows with this look, I wanted to create a large impact. The design almost reminds be of antlers which are often associated with stags which are very dominant, as they use their antlers as a weapon to be the alpha male. I kind of like this idea as it represents how Claudia is the dominant in her relationship with Quentin. I’ve added a soft feline flick on the eyes to make her look more feminine, not to draw away from her gender despite her role. The lips have an ombre/reversed pinched effect which is softer than a full lip.

6.

With this design I wanted to go with something that is very harsh and evil looking. The strongly angled eyebrows create an instant aggressive expression and the spikes on the lower lip look dangerous and fearful. This is how I’d expect Quentin to view Claudia. Rather than being a ‘villain’ here, I feel that Claudia represents more of a monster as the spikes slightly remind me of sharp teeth. This design has been inspired by the film ‘Jaws’ as I feel she looks shark-like, with the angle of the brows and the red blood thirsty lips.

6.

Here, I have chosen a typical female vampire look with the detail on the forehead. The contouring is striking against the pale skin, to create a harsh and defined bone structure. The eyes are sultry and feminine, but the eyebrows are bold and defined. I can see Claudia with this look and Quentin is the victim she will suck blood from. The lips are heavily glossed and red which reminds me of blood and makes the look a little bit gory. Although I really like this look, I feel that Claudia should be her own character and not developed from an existing character.

6

I have chosen this design as my final look. I feel it takes aspects from some of my other looks to create something which is soft horror. I imagine Claudia to be very much in love with Quentin, so she isn't going to want to kill him, she is just dominant over him and maybe is a little too in love, in the sense she is obsessive! With this idea in mind, I imagine Claudia would want to feel attractive in front of Quentin and therefore she would like to make herself more appealing rather than horrifying. So the makeup look I have gone for is dark, yet seductive and feminine. The eyes are dark and smokey, with emphasis on fluttering lashes. With the contouring, I intend to make the face shaped in a flattering way, which highlights her bone structure. Bearing in mind current trends with makeup, I have opted for the ‘power brow’ and heavily applied black to create a bold structured set of eyebrows. The lips are scarlet red which oozes sexiness and the gloss makes it that little bit more horror. I can imagine this look being inspired from horror films as the femme fatale character, who entices her victims, but isn’t too over the top. I have opted for subtlety with this look, Claudia’s and Quentin’s relationship in mind, as I don’t want her to be portrayed as the villain, just slightly evil instead!

Hair Designs:

1.

For this look, I have chosen to create a harsh slicked back ponytail. The hair is scraped off away from the face to create a harsh effect by pulling the skin back. The hair is very sleek and perfect, with aid of mousse, hairspray and shine spray. The securing of the ponytail is hidden by a strand of hair wrapped around. The ponytail has height and volume, but finishes in a sharp point.

2.

This look has contrasting textures, metaphorical for Claudia's personality. The sleek centre parting is smooth and suggests a calmer and more refined personality. The backcombed ends suggest her crazy and out of control personality. The hair looks like a lion's mane, which suggests her dominance and control, being the leader of the relationship. The top section will be created using heat and mousse, then tightly secured behind the ears. The rest of the hair will then be back combed and heavily textured to create volume.

3. 

This look has been inspired by Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. The hair is harshly and tightly braided along the scalp into a centre parting, which is pulling the skin back on the face, to create a harsh facial expression. The ends of the braids are then sectioned off and plaited into three. Again, the hair would be slick and neat using mousse.

4.

This is my chosen look for Claudia's hair. The hair has been put into three sections, the top section being a braid starting from the hair line, working backwards away from the face. The hair is slick and smoothed out using heat. The braided section has mousse applied to avoid fly away hairs and to neaten the look. This look is developed from the braided look, combined with a vampire inspired look. I want the hair to look simplistic and sexually attractive. I feel that there is a reoccurring trend in music videos where the main female characters are usually very attractive. Therefore, I want to portray this with Claudia as a Femme Fatale.