F A C E C H A R T S . . .

30th March

Further on from my initial make-up research and the mood boards that I created to demonstrate my inspiration, I have produced face charts to exhibit the make-up looks I shall create for my final shoots. After practise and experimenting on myself, I thought the best way to visually show that looks I will create is to create these face designs. From my first 2 years at uni so far, I have find doing face charts is a great way for me to communicate to my tutors the kind of thing that I am planning on producing and also for me to refer back to, not only on my blog but to print out so I can have the design up in front of me when it comes down to doing the shoots.

M A K E - U P M O O D B O A R D S . . .

As stated in my FMP proposal and recently discussed with Emma and my mentor Flavia, I am going to create an art photography book focusing simply on hair and make-up but based around the 7 deadly sins. For ideas and inspiration I have created Pinterest boards for both hair and make-up but to visually show my ideas I decided to create mood boards for each sin as by this way, it will be easier for both myself and my tutors to refer back to when discussing my final shoots. For each board I decided to include nails, hair and make-up to keep it simple and not have to chop and change from different screens when discussing my visions.

Beauty

Eyes – grey metallic, blue liner, natural brushed out brows

Lips – nude lip with slight grey liner to create ombre effect

Face – heavy contouring to sculpt face, slight rose colour

Nails – grey/blue varnish (preferably matte)

Avant Garde

Eyes – greys/browns/blue to create sunken sockets. Applied up over washed out brows

Lips – natural with light blue applied to corners

Face – heavy contouring using greys

Nails – unkempt claw like nails, maybe chipped to show they haven’t been maintained.

Beauty

Eyes – slight shimmer of yellow/gold to create shine

Lips – bold yellow lip with heavy gloss

Face – slight contouring, bronzing to create dewy skin

Nails – black yellow

Avant Garde

Eyes – multi-tonal, powder dripping down face, pushed into socket

Lips – yellow/gold only applied in centre of lip

Face – yellow in temple and solid line along jaw, product brought down the neck

Nails – claw nails with added texture using salt

Beauty

Eyes – matte acid green in centre, blended out using darker tones

Lips – nude or a black lip with added gloss

Face – shaped brows, natural cheeks and contouring

Nails – dark green polish

Avant Garde

Eyes – dropping powder, plus design reaching up to temples into hairline

Lips – dark green lip, black liner – ombre effect with gloss

Face – product into hairline, washed out contouring

Nails – claw nails with added texture using salt

Beauty

Eyes – light/dark shades to create beaut eye

Lips – moisture lips with gloss

Face – natural contouring, rouge cheek. Shaped brows

Nails – light purple polish

Avant Garde

Eyes – block purple reaching over brow, into hairline

Lips – black liner and purple lip

Face – heavy contouring working up to hairline

Nails – shape pointed claw nails with marble effect gloss

Beauty

Eyes – mixture of red tones, pushed into eye socket

Lips – nude lip with slight gloss

Face – natural, brushed out brows, slight contouring

Nails – strong, bold red

Avant Garde

Eyes – dark red fanned out to hairline creating strip     

Lips – added colour/balm

Face – heavy contouring, colour brought down neckline, defined collar bones

Nail – claw nails, sharp tip

Beauty

Eyes – slight orange tone applied inner corner of eyes

Lips – strong orange lip with darker, defined lip liner

Face – heavy contouring, bronzed cheeks

Nails – simple orange nail 

Avant Garde

Eyes – multiple colour shades powdered around the eye

Lips – strong, dark orange/red tone lip

Face – pale, washed out, slight grey contouring

Nail – textured claw nails, using salt then colour applied onto/marble nail

I originally envisioned the sin ‘Gluttony’ as a mixture of light colours, pastel shades but the known colour is orange. I created this mood board to represent different colures used on the face and throughout the hair as I think for my beauty look I will create a simple orange themed look and the progress this into more of a vibrant, colourful look for my avant garde shoot. By doing this, this will represent the sin as it usually is with the orange but it will show my twist adaptation progressing into the avant garde design instead of simply sticking to what as previously been done. A I think this will be the most difficult shoot to organise, I think for the beauty look I shall do a blotted powder design on the nails, to link this in with the avant garde shoot make-up to bring the 2 images together instead of having different concepts. 

N A I L / M A K E - U P I N S P I R A T I O N . . .

24th March
Further on from my meeting with Emma a few days ago and her advice on the concept of my images, she suggested that I should show the progression of beauty to avant-garde by incorporating close ups of nails and lips, not only to show my skills but to show the transition of the sins. I think this will work brilliantly as it will bring more diversity to my book and also something different than just every page being a different image as with these close-ups will bring each concept together. This mood board that I have created shows inspiration for the nail and lip close ups also the composition of how I will plan my model to stand to show both elements in each shoot. With some of the images being beauty shots of the face with the nails and others showing more of the body but keeping the focal point on the nails.

C R E A T I N G H A I R . . .

22nd March

As well as researching different methods on styling hair for my avant-garde shoots, I have been trying to think of how I can push my skills to create something that hasn’t been done really before which will bring that extra spark to my looks. In first year, we were taught how to create different hairstyles by incorporating hair props and one material that we used was crepe hair.

During our practise, we used the crepe hair in its natural form after pulling it apart from the plait that it comes in so it is more like a ball of frizz, but I wanted to see what other effects I can create by applying heat to it. As demonstrated in my pictures, I experimented with flattening and ironing the crepe hair to try and create sheets of hair. By process of elimination of using too much/too little hairspray to set the hair and ironing one of both sides of the tracing paper, I learnt the best method of creating sheets of hair which is a process I will definitely use for my final shoots, for which one I am not sure yet but will definitely keep this method in mind.

After I had a few samples to work with, I had a play with folding and bending the hair to create a wave effect and also pinching the middle to gather the hair. This resulting in a rose like shape and I think if I continue to do this process with different colours and attach them all to the hair once styled, can create an interesting and diverse design. Also I have thought about creating a large sheet of hair and shaping this to make a veil of hair which could cover half the face and on or both of the eyes, depending on what sin I use this method for.

4 T H H A I R P R A C T I S E . . .

21st March . . .

This second hair design was a follow up from a similar practise I did with my model Nina the previous week, as seen above in this post. As I was doing the original practise, I was inspired to create something not as structured and to experiment with layering ball like shapes to create an elegant look but still demonstrating my skills to create an interesting concept. The original idea was to section the hair into 3, and for each section to be in a hair net, then moulded into shape and with the use of straighteners, wave and pinned into place. One of the best things I have learnt about practising these styles is that it doesn’t always work out how I originally intend, as with the specific hairnets that I bought, it turned out that they melt when heat is applied so I couldn’t follow through with the original style I had in mind. But nether the less, as I had already prepped the hair and sectioned it all, I continued to have a play and developed the design into what you can see in the image on the left. Quite pleased with the outcome as I learnt many things a long the way and I am definitely going to do this design for my final avant garde shoots.

3 R D H A I R P R A C T I S E . . .

20th March
Following on from my previous hair design practise, I have continued to research different techniques and styles for my avant-garde hair designs for my photo-shoots. I have collected all these images on a Pinterest board, which I have attached in another post to show clearly, and precisely the different styles I have looked into. I decided to practise more of a simple style and then see how it went to develop it more at the end. By crimping the hair and sectioning it, I then rolled the hair into ball-like shapes and secured using bobby pins, the positioning of the hair in a brick like manner created an interesting result. With the front of the hair tightly scraped back,it almost reminded me of a chic/bridal hairstyle. I think after doing this style, this overall look will be quite elegant as with all the hair off the face and shoulders, this will bring more attention to the face. Or in contrast I could counteract the elegant hair with dramatised makeup to bring the look together.

After I completed the style and look photos to document my hair design process, I pushed this forward to try something new by really focusing on the edges and defying the shapes of the hair that I had created.Although I was happy with the original style of the hair, I thought by doing something a little extra it will really stand out more, especially being complimented by make-up. By using my pintail comb and straighteners, I pulled up the hair using the pin and straightened to create a web effect, this technique was also used to create solid edges. With the final result being still ball-like sections of hair but with the edges more precise.

These final images show the hair before and after 

edited onPhotoshop. These pictures were taken by my iPhone but I wanted to try different editing options to see what effects these create. This was also good practice for the time comes for when I need to edit my final images, as I will know exactly what tools to use to bring out the best of the hair in each image. I feel that in the images on the right, it clearly shows the progression from the original images from Photoshop, using the blending and blur tool to darken the root of each edge and web, and highlighting certain sections and the tips to make them seem higher. This also gives the hair a professional looking finish as I stated in my proposal that I want all my images to be highly post-produced to give them a non realistic feel – an overly perfect sense of beauty in a way. As well as research and designing purposes, practising my hair designs always builds my confidence and helps me feel 100% certain that ill be ready to do the hair when it comes down to my final shoots as I will know exactly what products I will need and how long each look takes me time wise.

E M M A' S D R O P I N S E S S I O N . . .

20th March
Today I went to Emma’s drop in session as I was feeling lost about the direction of my work. I took what work I had done so far to show her including hair designs and my Pinterest boards to show her the sort of imagery and designs I had been looking at. The main thing I was struggling with was whether for each of the sins in my book, to do just avant-garde makeup or beauty as well as I still want the focus of my book to demonstrate my skills as an artist.

I have only briefly seen Emma whilst the duration of my FMP as my mentor is Emma but I have come away feeling a lot more confident and secure about my work and the direction I want it to go in. I showed Emma my pinterest boards to discuss the similar styles that I have taken inspiration from and really seemed to enjoy my idea, which I was happy about. She recommended that for each of the sins, I start of with a beauty look and then progress into an Avant-grade style, flowing between the two should be images of close ups to show the finer detail such as eyes/lips/nails as this will focus the eye on the attention given to each aspect.

Emma also mentioned about the form of the images as this can really make my book stronger with a combination of different layouts. I explained how I had shown this through storyboards in my proposal but I didn’t have this to hand. As I now know for certain the concept of my book, I shall make time to develop my story boards to show how I want my images to be laid out which will help my tutors understand and also the publishers for when the time comes to get my book made – exciting!!

Before I left, I quickly asked about the presentation I have to produce for Monday 24^th to demonstrate the progression of my project so far as to what I need to bring. Things I need to produce/develop:

• Makeup designs
• Blog (take tablet)
• Pinterest page
• Testing make-up images
• Hair designs
• Take proposal
• Template of layout images – for 3 of the sins

A lot of work to do but I am feeling positive and confident, starting to get excited about producing the finished product!!!

C H A R A C T E R A N A L Y S I S . . .

F I L M R E S E A R C H . . .

4th March
As part of my secondary research to gain more of a knowledge of the seven sins,  I plan on watching and exploring different interpretations of each sin through different medias such as films/books/photography, not only to advance my education on the sins but to hopefully be inspired by different adaptations to see how different artists have used their skills in their specific fields to show the connotations or even celebration of each sin. 

Films 

Wrath, Pride, Envy, Greed, Lust, Sloth, Gluttony. Known as the seven deadly sins, they often lead to destruction, but can serve as a great backdrop for a movie's plot. Most memorable movie characters are sinful in some way, but in this list, they've taken it to the next level, with hilarious (or disturbing) results.

Se7en (1995) - Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) - A sequence of seven sketches, each representing a sin and written by an array of British comedy-writing talent. The sketches are linked by animation sequences. 

Fatal Attraction (1987) - A married man's one nightstand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family. Acid, a homemade cassette tape, and a bunny are used as weapons against a man who has made a horrible mistake, one that ultimately involves his family in a disturbing climax.

Wall Street (1987) - A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider who takes the youth under his wing.

Office Space (1999) -  During his dream day he literally does nothing all day, remaining wrapped in his sheets and sleeping while his boss leaves numerous messages on his machine. His lack of cares goes from blatantly playing games in front of his boss while he's supposed to be working to crime. Anyone who's ever hated their job or daydreamed about sleeping all day while toiling away at work will appreciate Peter's slothful behavior...though as his neighbor Lawrence (Diedrich Bader) points out, "You don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man."

Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (1971 & 2005) - Both adaptations of Ronald Dahl's classic children's book have something in common; an odd man running a fantastic candy factory, and gluttonous children eager to devour the goods the factory produces. Each child is punished in strange ways for their wicked ways, whether it's becoming a large blueberry, being nearly drowned in a sea of chocolate, or tossed down a chute.

Gone With The Wind (1939) – I don’t think iv ever seen a character as proud and self-centered as Scarlett O'Hara. Vivien Leigh brings her to life in the cinematic classic Gone with the Wind as a stubborn woman obsessed with a married man, who enjoys being doted on and ignores the affections of her husband. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) finally gives up on this impossible woman with the famous line "Frankly my dear..." and the audience can't blame him one bit. In fact, we wonder why he didn't get rid of her sooner.

All these movies showcase the seven deadly sins in memorable ways, bringing the evil to life in fascinating characters. They represent the wickedness these sins can bring in their own devious ways. Although many of these sins are revealed through a characteristics and not necessary visually, I shall still analyse the way the sins have been portrayed for my FMP and hopefully take my research and develop it into visual designs through hair and make-up. One thing that I am aiming to study as well as is the characters facial expressions to help my models really get into character when sitting in front of the camera for my final shoots.