Level 4 Make-up In Motion : 2014

Claudia and Quentin have felt like my best friends during the past month, I have built up their story, personality, style and makeup. I think I am going to miss them now I have completed this project.

I have loved creating their stories, and I have found this project has really highlighted a path which I would consider going down in the future. Visiting Highgate Cemetery in London for some first source research during this project was amazing and I love using the Gothic architecture for inspiration.

After completing my photo shoot of my final designs, looking through the photos I had the biggest smile on my face, looking over the images they are exactly how I imagined during my research. They give the perfect amount of sinister and kitsch. Although things went wrong and sticking the buttons on at times was very challenging, I love the final outcome and this project was fantastic. I wish I could make the music video now.

Together Forever

Here is the final bit, my two favorite images of Claudia and Quentin together side by side, and a link to the song i have chosen to use.If you look at the photos whilst the songs on in the background, it strangely fits and feels very sinister and odd but slightly quirky and kitsch at the same time.

Quentin Final Images.

I shot Quentin on a Monday morning. In the house the light flickered through the rain into the window. I had set up the back drops i was intending on using, i had talked about it in my previous post using kitsch things around my house to give it a quirky feel.

After following my face chart designs, I completed the look by gluing the buttons to my models eyelids after being inspired by the story Coroline. Claudia stuck them on so he cant look at other women, as a sign of possession.

Here are my top three favorite images of Quentin which i think carry a itchingly sinister feel to them. The buttons give it an amazing effect, they are soulless, a quote from my model William "its so hard showing emotion when you cant see my eyes".

Claudia Final Images.

It was also a rainy evening when i shot Claudia, I wanted the whole atmosphere to be eery and creepy. After following my face chart and completing her makeup look I styled her. Then we began shooting first to get some basics and the feel of the shot, against a white wall. We began with the stylized shots that really give it that sinister feeling, shooting using my models rabbit as an accessory was an inspired idea that I had. I thought it would add a really creepy feel to the photos. It added more emphasis on the witch craft and sacrifice element which I wanted to bring into my story.
No animals were harmed it the making of these photographs.

Here are my three favorites:

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Kitsch!

I have been thinking about the setting and the feel of the background i want my charterers on, i have been looking into kitsch. My home is very kitsch and vintage anyway so then i began thinking about Claudia's flat. How kitsch i think that would be full/overflowing with stuff but in a very indie/quirky way. Everything would be lit by candles and fairy lights no main lights at all.

I love this picture of the cat, I think they would be the kind of thing she would have all over the walls with many different animals. Its so sinister kitsch. I Love it!

Sunday 27 April 2014

Claudia and Quentin - Hair Charts

This image above is the hair chart for Claudia, my model have long black/dark brown curls hair, i will be slicking the top down to her ears and tucked behind them. and then i will surf spray the ends to make them extra wild and curly. She will have a very defined center parting.

This is Quentin Hair Chart,I will be creating a 1940's slick back style. By using gel and smoothing his hair down and back in a very defined side parting and slicked back tucked behind his ears.

Saturday 26 April 2014

Claudia - Face Chart

I have completed my face chart for Claudia.

I used:

Face: Illamasque rich liquid foundation

Eyes: Sleep nude pallete in black, MAC felt tip eyeliner

Lips: Revelon Dark night lipstick

Contouring: Sleek Nude pallete

Face chart - Quentin

I have finished designing my face charts for Qeuntin

I used:

Face: Illamasque Rich Liquid Foundation and Illamasque Tranparent Powder

Eyes: Sleek nude pallete - Black and

Duo eyelash glue

Contouring: Sleek Pallete - black

Thursday 24 April 2014

Make-up Design ideas and Fashion Styling Ideas

Within my research I started looking into witchcraft on the catwalks and within high fashion. I have found some really inspiring images which make me think about my make-up designs even more for Claudia. I love the idea of bleach white skin, completely deathly pale as she never leaves the house she would never get any vitamin D so she would be deathly white. I have also been thinking about shading and contouring over the face, very strong contouring under the cheek bones to create a frail thin look, my model Kellie, is already thin but this will add a gaunt look to her very beautiful face. I am using a very dark purple/almost black Revlon lipstick, I am then using Sleek’s natural eye palate on the eyes. I will be using the black, and will be creating almost a mask flowing from the scalp each sides of the temple flowing over the eyes and the nose, to look like she dunked her hand into a bucket of paint and in her possessed state smothered it across her eyes to symbolize how evil she is, how she is no longer a little girl, she is a dark witch.

For the styling I have made a button necklace for her to wear around her collar of her white shirt, I am dressing Claudia and Quentin in pure white short sleeved shirts, with their top button done up, Quentin’s is a plain man’s shirt but Claudia’s is a more girly versions with detailing. The white shirts add parts of up to date fashion to the look, doing your shirt top button up, represents a good person at school when you’re a child, but in the adult world it is seen as very “stylish” to do so.

Button Eye's - Claudia and Quentin

After reading and watching both versions of corline, it is defiantly a massive source of inspiration toward this project, i am feeling more confident about using buttons for the eyes of Quentin as if Cluadia has sewn them on so he cant look at other women. I always used to have an obsession with the story and film of Coroline when i was younger so it is very close to my heart. The way it made me shiver whenever it showed the image of the buttons next to the needle, it used to give me nightmares when i was little,so I feel very influenced by the feelings the film used to give me.

I have began practising sticking buttons to my male model Williams eye lids, they stay perfectly and I love the effect they have. Making his eyes look very creepy and all his emotion has almost been taken away, its very hard showing emotions without using your eyes.

Song Decisions

I have narrowed it down to two songs. Both are love songs but i feel teamed with my designs they will add a very creepy and obsessive atmosphere in a music video. I also want a "Kitch" "Hipstermatic" atmosphere to my music video/images/song.

The first song is: Lovin' you - Minnie Riperton

This song is a very loving song, all about her expressing her extreme love of a man she wants to spend the rest of her life with, it is a lovely song , but I think teamed with my images it could create a truly eery feel, if you close your eyes and imagine my Claudia and Quentin dancing around eerily in her incredibly kistch and tacky in a retro/vintage way and she slowly ties Quentin up so he can never leave and sews buttons in his eyes so he cant look at another women to this song. It defiantly goes in the most opposite way possible.

The second song is Perfect Day - Lou Reed, who is an iconic and simply amazing person, I think this song could be more interpreted with my characters as a man being forced to sing these words of love to a girl who is torturing him. I like this song but im not sure it sends as good of an atmosphere as my first choice.

Hair Designs and Ideas - Claudia

I am been looking through research and creating designs for Claudia also and in our class we learnt how to do a perfect slick back hair style from runways, it creates a stern and espaically with a center parting it can look very cruel and a wanted it a little too perfect and my model Kellie i have adapted it to her hair, as she has very long dark brown hair almost down to her hips. It is also very curly so i have planned and practiced smoothing the top of the hair down so its ticked behind her ears and then from her ears down its very curly and wild.

I think the half and half effect will express some of her personality the madness and crazy curls will represent what goes on in her head and the voices but the smooth top layer will show her OCD and attention to detail and obsessiveness over Quentin.

Hair Plans and Inspiration - Quentin

I have created a mood board and plans of how i feel Quentin's hair should be, im going for a greased back 1940's side parting and gelled back away from the face.

Firstly i think this image is just gorgeous, but also his hair is perfect for Quentin, i am wanting to create a slick back smooth no strays 1940's hair style.

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Deciding On My Song

I have been looking into many different songs and doing lots of research into many different types of love songs, from plain creepy ones like The Police - Every Breath You Take to more modern rock/heavy metal songs like Marilyn Manson - Poison. I have made a playlist of some potential songs on my spotify to keep listening over, and i have also made a disc which i have started listening to in the car to give me inspiration as I am driving along.

I have decided i am looking for a very Kitch and over the top, very happy love song, which is so happy and romantic that it feel a little too obvious, i love music so i want to find the perfect song to match the mood. giving it a very creepy feel to it. If it is a woman singer i would like it to be a very in love happy girly voice, but if it is a male singer I would like it to sound slightly more tortured and almost like he is being forced to sing these words of love to Claudia.Suffocating.

Monday 21 April 2014

High Gate Cemetery - More Photographs

Sunday 20 April 2014

High Gate Cemetery

As research i decided i would visit the famous High gate Cemetery in London. After i looking into it in the last project because of Dickens daughter being buried there after dieing of scarlet fever when she was very young. I drove up, when i arrived i was blown away by the inspiration it give it in more ways than i thought it would. The Gothic architecture was amazing, from the the sheer intricacy and detail to the massive building and statues built for a loved one.

After being lead on a tour around the cemetery by a guide i learnt so much about the people buried there, why and how they lived. It was a brilliant first hand source of inspiration and i wish i could have taken my final images there but i am afraid your not aloud any professional photography there anymore. After they opened it for some hammer horror filming in the 70's, there became rumored that there was a vampire buried there, and people would break in in the 80's to "Slay" the vampire and lots of damage was done to the surrounding graves and area. So they no longer allow any publicity.

These images speak for themselves with the Gothic architecture and landscapes:

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Art Inspiration

I have created a mood board filled with paintings and art that has inspired me, i love that in most of the paintings contain one mysterious girl and that her eyes are covered with different things in different ways, it seems to be a re occurring thing the eyes being covered or not "normal" in one way or another.
http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/art-inspiration/

I have also been reading the graphic novel of "Caroline",watched the film and i have read the normal book as well, i am feeling greatly inspired by the writings of Neil Gaiman in this story and i have decided to use part of this book in my final creations. I have decided i am going to use buttons over the eyes of Claudia and Quentin, in the video Claudia will always have these black buttons for eyes as they will represent that she never goes outside into the real world and her eyes have never been open to anything else except horror, during the video, whilst she is torturing Quentin in a ritualistic and Satan way, she will sew buttons into his eyes, so he cant look at another women or stray from her "love" or her home ever again.

News - Related news stories

I have been looking into a few related news stories that genuinely terrifies me, that are linked to some of my ideas for my music video characters Claudia and Quentin. I thought it would be important to look into news stories surrounding the real life aspects of satanism and witchcraft, and if Claudia was found to be torturing Quentin in the name of Satan what would happen to her.
These are are few news stories i have found that shock and scare me:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2580388/EXCLUSIVE-Babies-abused-laying-Pentagram-Satanic-writings-church-walls-devouring-cats-blood-The-twisted-confessions-pedophile-church-pastor-Louisiana-inspired-True-Detective.html - this story was what they based the new "True Detective" series around, i have just started watching it, so i will keep my blog and my inspiration updated by reviewing my ideas.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2564896/Sexually-abused-age-four-uncle-sex-Satanist-twice-age-drugs-spells-mental-institution-The-making-warped-mind-teenage-girl-killer-claimed-murdered-22.html - When i first read about this article i hadn't heard about the child abuse or the satanic rituals, and now i view the crime very differently, although yes, it was a horrible crimes she committed, you have to think was it all down to the sexual abuse as a child the age of four, and being introduced to satanism so young, this is a very disturbed girl.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-25105067 - This story and short document is a little different to the others, but i still found it interesting toward my research into my character development. I found it shocking how these rituals are part of everyday life in mexico, the fact that there are more trained exorcists in mexico, than anywhere else in the world, how in England we would just laugh and think it is all rubbish, but these people truly believe they have been possessed by the devil and that he is making them kill people, one man from this documentary talks about how as part of the drug war this gang member cut people up into small pieces whilst they were still alive, and enjoyed it, but instead of going to a mental asylum, he was exorcised. It is very interesting and shocking to see how different cultures deal with religion,witchcraft and satanism.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/feb/01/uk.johnhooper - this story reminds me of Claudia and Quentin the most, as it is a couple performing a ritualistic satanic killing. Although now i have changed my character bases in the way that Claudia is abusing,exorcising and torturing Quentin and that he is trapped.

All of these stories and many more that i have found are very disturbing, but if you are creating a fake story line which is reenacting a story which is based around the same subject i think it is important to learn about the people that these topics have brutally affected in real life otherwise it would be immoral and unprincipled.

Eye's - something a bit different

I want something completely different for the eyes, i have made a mood board with loads of ideas on, from contact lenses to using objects and materials to cover the eyes and even painting on the eyelides or around the eyes for some kind of illusion.
http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/eyes-something-a-bit-different/

Animal Sacrifice - Witch Craft

I was beginning to think about the stylist point of the images as i wanted a full all round effect with my images, so i have started thinking of using some kind of animal in the images to emphasis the witchcraft angel which is prominent in my designs of Claudia.

Monday 7 April 2014

Witchcraft in the movies

I have been doing some research into witchcraft films and watching my fair share of horror's, one in particular that i found inspiring is called "The Lords Of Salem" and its directed by Rob Zombie who also directs a film which i love called "House of a Thousand Corpse's". The Lords of Salem is based around a girl who lives in this flat and little to her knowledge after hearing a record played on her radio show, the three old women in her building are satanic worshipers and they make her become one of them. The movie flicks from present time to back in time to the Salem witch trails. I thought of using aspects from the lead girl toward Claudia, but how in her case she has been willing taken over by satanic worshiping and witchcraft.

Vlogging - Witchcraft is a must.

American Horror Story

American Horror Story is a series i absolutely love! i was competently addicted to it a few months ago until i finished all the seasons. Now i have began this project i suddenly thought after already having the idea to base my Cluaida and Quentin around witchcraft and black magic. How much this inspired me this season is called "Coven" and is contingent on a coven of witches and also voodoo and black magic.

All the witches in this series are very glamorous and all dress in black and look like normal young girls, i liked that about the styling, but for my witch i want her to be a little more obvious and almost a little possessed.

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Mood Board - Witchcraft

http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/witchcraft/

Research Begins

I have began creating a mood/character board for Claudia and Quentin

- http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/claudia/
-http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/quentin/

i have created these mood boards to show the wide variety of inspirations i could use, from Gothic vampires, to Zombies and Gore.
Through these moods boards i have thought of basing my Claudia on Witchcraft,Black Magic and satanism.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Claudia and Quentin Intro

Thursday 20 March 2014

Bibliography

http://whitechapeljack.com/the-ripper-letters/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2450832/Victorian-photographs-relatives-posing-alongside-dead-bodies.html
http://www.southlondonguide.co.uk/crystalpalace/history.htm
http://mamajonni17.wikispaces.com/Diction+in+The+Raven
http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/great-expectations-university/
http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/miss-havisham-uni/
http://gb.pinterest.com/CreamsodaPoppy/miss-havisham-make-up-inspiration/

Wednesday 19 March 2014

250 Word Project Evaluation.

Throughout this Victorian inspired project I have learnt amazing things and discovered some hidden facts about the Victorians. The culture and attitude around makeup in the Victorian times was a very odd one, where men were in charge of whether women could wear makeup. But to conclude the project over all I am unbelievable happy with the many outcomes it has brought. Starting with my first Miss Havisham assessment. Although I was very nervous it went practically perfect, I managed to finish my design in the allotted time with an extra five minutes to go over my checklists and face charts. After my second assessment I thought I had completed the continuity test, and although looking exactly the same in closer inspection my nose cut was a slightly different angel and I wished I had noticed at the time.

Finally my Estella design I was happy with the outcome although I think looking back I could have done a little more detailing in the hair, it still expressed the innocence I wanted it to, I think it could have been a little more cruel.

So to finally conclude, I feel I have been very successful and I have loved every second of this project, I have put in 110% and my images express that, so I am very happy.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Final Miss Havisham

Monday 17 March 2014

Miss Havisham - Timed Assesment 2 Continuity

These are my final images Of my second timed assessment, which tested continuity. After viewing both photographs from the different times, i am very happy with the results, and i feel that i have managed to create a very very similar almost except replicate.