Project 5 is made up of 3 different aspects of the makeup industry: fashion makeup, theatre makeup and bodypainting. For this project, we have been tasked with creating 3 different looks suited to the 3 different criterias. The bodypainting assessment allows for a lot of creativity. The task is to choose a prompt from a list, such as nature or mental health, and create a look based on the chosen theme. The fashion assessment is to create a Schiaparelli inspired runway look, complete with an outfit and headpiece. The theatre assessment is the final part of the FMP, and involves a collaboration with the performing arts students, doing the actors’ makeup for their take on Peter Pan (Wendy Darling’s Untold Story). As makeup artists, our job is to apply the makeup for the actors to perform their take on this classic children’s story, and then take off the makeup after the performance.
The six prompts to choose from for the stimulus expression task are nature, fire, mental health, midnight, the environment, . The prompt I chose is midnight, as I tend to draw more inspiration from darker places. The first thing I thought of when I thought of a midnight inspired look was the Enchantress from Suicide Squad (2016). This connection was made mainly due to the dark colours used when creating the look on set, so I knew I wanted to take my look in a similar direction. I also decided I wanted to incorporate the moon design she had on her forehead, except I wanted to paint it directly on my model’s face instead of having a large headpiece. I initially drew inspiration from the Enchantress because I thought her aesthetics would be very fitting for the look I wanted to create. However, after looking at her character more, I realised that her look didn’t really match what I was going for. As I previously mentioned, I just decided to take inspiration from her head piece and dark eye makeup, and focused on my main inspiration- gothic makeup.
Another piece of inspiration was, once again, gothic makeup. I incorporated aspects such as the pale base, dramatic contour, dark eyes and lips, and small details painted onto the face. I felt the connection between my inspiration and the assignment was logical because goth culture and nighttime often go hand in hand, both being associated with darkness. As for the bodypainting aspect, I wanted to use black paint to create a sharper edge to my models jawline, and then continue it down their neck and shoulders. Ideally, I would have also applied some to her fingertips so they would fade and blend nicely into her natural skin tone. As opposed to the 80s trad goth style I usually go with, the looks that inspired my FMP are more modern takes on goth, some labelling them witchy. The jawline/neck contour took some inspiration from Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack, as he used to do a similar thing when he was performing as Andy Sixx. The whole concept of the look was to create almost a witchy look, but obviously sticking with the selected theme which was midnight. Had I given it proper thought, I would have also included a headpiece to really give that witchy look, almost like a dark goddess.
Overall, I think this look has room for a lot of improvement. I could’ve definitely used a more opaque base, instead of just white face paint that has had far too much water added to it. My symmetry also has a lot of room for improvement. The crosses were drawn on with an angled brush, but ideally should have been applied with a thin eyeliner brush to really get that precision right. While I think the black face paint turned out okay, it came off patchy in some places and didn’t give that clean, sharp edge on the jawline I was intending to create. While that was an easy fix, the touch ups left some parts on the model’s face that were darker than others. The eyeliner was too uneven and should have been redone as opposed to just being touched up and adjusted. Given proper thought and planning, this look could have turned out amazing, and included hair and an outfit. For the hair, I could have either teased it to high heaven (another nod to the gothic influences), or sleek and straightened. I would have included a headpiece, so having more toned down hair would have suited that better so there wasn’t too much going on with the look. While there is definitely a lot to work on with this look, given a chance to do it again, I would definitely take these things into consideration. Other than that, I think I did okay.