Second Practice

With this practice, I am far happier with the outcome compared to my first one. I have completely changed my approach, with a much more natural use of colour, instead of theatrical and almost cartoon-like. I also feel this will be much easier to replicate as the colours are simple.

Also with this practice, I have used my fang prosthetic, where I melted the mold that goes inside using boiling water, inserted it into the piece and then into the mouth. This was successful first time and I feel that it definitely enhances the impact of my design overall. 

I feel that the more subtle and better blended use of red on the lips and eyes means that it is more authentic to the period as a bold lip would not have been seen during this time.

I am not 100% please with my blending of the prosthetic edges, but as this is a reused piece from my first practice, and is the piece with the thickest edges, I expect the piece that I will use on the day to look much better. Including the outcome of the colour as I had to try to wash off the previous colour i had put on it and cover it with the new.

Prosthetic Painting Part 2

After being unhappy with the outcome of my first practice of my initial design, I needed to remove the make-up of my practice prosthetic and test my new design concept. After finding the outcome to be too bold and theatrical, and definitely not suitable for film, I had to rethink my approach. After considering my options and also the products I already have available to me, I came up with a new idea.

I wanted my new design to be a lot more natural in appearance, and for the prosthetic to look as matching to the skin it is applied to as possible. Part of my read for originally opting for white Supracolor was the thick, grease-based and creamy consistency which provided a coverage thick enough to make the complexion of my model and the prosthetic as much of a close match as possible.

I then realised that the answer was very obvious and simple:- Kryolan's Ultra foundation palette. This gave me enough of a range of highlight and shade tones and also allowed me to pick a shade that was both natural and human-like but also pale. As well as this, the consistency is thick enough and easily bendable that I could create the outcome that I wanted.

Once I decided on this, I painted my prosthetic using regular beauty brushes and the foundation, using darker shades in the deep areas and lighter shades in the higher parts, with a pale shade as the base. 

Once I had done this, I did another make-up practice on my model to test the new outcome, and was very please with the result:

(prosthetic before and after)

First practice

Overall, I am not very happy with this outcome. I found it almost impossible to achieve the same colour on the prosthetic as on to the natural skin and then  I also found that the same with the shading, practically outlining the edges of the prosthetic with colour making it obvious. The redness around the eye looks pinkish in colour and the lips too bold for the period. I mixed black and white greasepaint and it looked blueish in colour. Overall, this looks very theatrical and not at all suitable for film. I feel this is mostly due to the boldness of the shades and their application. Therefore, I need to rethink my approach. I am currently considering a more natural and human-like shade as the base, like a very pale foundation. I then would like to use grease-based darker foundation shades to add shading as I think this will look a lot more realistic. I also plan to use greasepaint instead of eyeshadow around the eyes which I will blend lots to create a softer and more natural effect. I am also going to use a softer shade of red (more rouge like) on the lips to be more authentic to the victorian era.

Prosthetic Painting

Below is my current design idea for the make-up. I have sourced an appropriate prosthetic, which I have 3 of - One for practicing with, one for the first assessment and one for the second. I have decided to paint 1 of my prosthetics, to test if I feel that my approach with colour and highlight & shade is appropriate and to see how it translates to a real face. I will be doing my first ever practice tomorrow, so I will be able to judge it's success.

Below is a before and after comparison of my piece painted. I have done only a basic and general application colour to save time, and hope that with my practice, i'll be able to incorporate new shadows to help blend the prosthetic with my model's own face shape.

Design Ideas

 Design 1.

Above is my initial idea for my character design. I wanted my character to look pale, and to look unwell with red around her eyes and lips to enhance it. I also wanted to have blood dripping down her chin as in my chosen scene, she had just bitten someone and her appearance is described as this. As she is also described as animalistic, I considered making my design more interesting with a colour added on the face that looks animal-like. The image below is where I found inspiration for this idea:

Pinterest, (2015). Yolandi Visser Vampire. [image] Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/346003183851186890/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2016].

After drawing up my initial idea, it occurred to me that my design would be very hard to create for continuity and at this stage I want decide on something achievable. The blood in particular would be especially hard to get it to drip in the same way. I also found my animal-like aspect on the skin may not look as effective as I want and difficult to achieve.

Design 2.

With this design, I tried to approach my design in a way that was a lot less abstract and more vampire-like. After drawing my design I found my ideas to be too predictable and uninspiring. I felt that I needed something with originality, but still recognisable as a vampire. I also felt that my design also did not reflect the period in any way.

Design 3.

I decided that a good way for me to achieve some creative flare and also be successful in continuity would be to incorporate the use of prosthetic in my design.

I felt very confident with this idea and decided to practice it on my model:

When creating my design, I decided to swap out the grey powder for greasepaint as this would not apply well on to the prosthetic and I wanted it to match on the face. After doing this design, I realised that everything looked far too threatical for a TV design and almost cartoon like which made it look comical. I realised I needed to reconsider my products and colours what I wanted to use to make it look more suitable.

With this design , I followed the same idea as before but this time everything is toned down. I have gone for a much softer use of red around the eyes and lips to look more natural and gone for a pale skin tone instead of white. This therefore still looks vampire like but without the boldness:

After practicing this design, I realised I like this approach much better and the more natural look is much more suited to the Victorian period. 

Technical File - Hair Design Initial Idea Practice and Outcome

After some discussion with Helen, I realised that my hope to do a typical late Victorian Hairstyle (as shown in previous Technical file practice) was far too adventurous to fit into my time frame, particularly as I hope to do quite a complex make-up. Therefore, I have chosen a hairstyle which is much simpler and requires less heat setting etc.

The pictures above are of a general shape which Helen put together to help bring an idea to life, which I am adapting further to create a style that would be true to the Victorian era but also be quite simple.

Below is a drawn and adapted version of my idea, which I will later practice on my model properly using her length of hair as this will be influential in my approach to the style:

Technical File - Horror meets Fashion

In this practical lesson, we looked at examples of make-ups for Fashion that are inspired by the Horror genre. There was various pictures of examples laid out at the front that we chose from to recreate. Above is the image that I selected and above that is my creation.

Products Used:

• Kryolan Supracolor (greasepaint) - black, white, pink and purple.

How to:

To create this look, I a soft brush and used a blending motion to create the effect. I layered on the colours, starting with the lightest first and going darker. On the eyebrows, I used an angled brush. I applied white on the face very lightly using a soft brush and a light stippling motion.

Evaluation / Feedback:

I found the eye area easy and fun to create. Looking back at the pictures I realised I should have brought more colour up to the inner eyebrows as there is a space there, and  I had finished where her actual eyebrows stopped rather than the ones I had drawn on. The eyebrows I drew on are too round and not straight like the original image due to me following her eyebrow shape rather than going against it. I hadn't really noticed that there should have been more of an application of white on the lower part of the face as it looks quite faded in the image and made the effect I did on the lips stand out too much in contrast. Despite this, I am quite happy with the outcome and is definitely close as a recreation.