Blog Post 4: Peer Review.
When going through all of the Blog Posts in order to find one that struck me the most to then review it, I came across Red Quentin Gardner’s ‘Blog 3 – Project Outcome and Personal Development’. This blog post in particular stood out to me as the way in which Gardner spoke about their experience within the Better Lives unit seemed deeply personal and gave me a much deeper insight into how the project itself has changed their view of their creative and professional practises in the future and how the themes may impact these from here on out.
The very first thing I noticed when reading through the blog post for the first time was the fact that their project was ‘Make-up Breakdown’, so as a Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics student this immediately caught my attention. I was first interested in finding out what their view on Makeup was, and how they seemed to cope with the project itself, which, from the blog post, seemed to be very interestingly out of their comfort zone and something they didn’t ever see becoming a part of their future profession. Gardner’s approach to portraying how the project worked for them and what they expected before beginning is very well presented within the blog post, giving the viewer a sense of reluctance regarding the topic as it was out of their comfort zone, but also something they willingly chose to do because of this fact – wanting to step out of their comfort zone and learn more about their future colleagues, as stated in the post.
Another area in which I feel Gardener excelled is within the approach they took to actually completing the project, as stated in the post, working with a chosen mix of ‘Imperfections’, ‘Fashion Mistakes’ and ‘Power’, a mix that works extremely well together when looking into both the makeup and fashion industries, seeing the imperfections and the importance of both from a whole new perspective. I also wanted to acknowledge the fact that Gardner seems to take on board what they have learnt from carrying out the project and to “make a conscious effort to keep what we have learnt in mind” in both a creative and professional future in industry.
Within the blog post, Gardner states that they didn’t immediately see the personal progress they made or were making within the Better Lives unit, further adding to my point from earlier regarding the blog post having a very personal and raw approach, admitting to having moments of personal doubt and even stating that they are “not one hundred percent proud” of what they have achieved due to the current state of our world and educational changes.
One last thing I, as a big Make-up lover, want to commend is the picture portrayed alongside the blog post. Not only did it draw me into reading the piece to begin with, but it is also a truly striking example of the work that Gardner managed to create alongside their project brief even within such unforeseen circumstances. Gardner had clearly stuck and worked with their chosen mixed theme, using textures from plastic bags to create a really striking, contemporary and very fashion based makeup look, displaying the insight that they personally had into the industry, both good and bad.
References: Gardner, R., 2020. Blog 3 – Project Outcome And Personal Development. [online] 19/20 Better Lives SMC. Available at: https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/04/30/blog-3-project-outcome-and-personal-development-2/ [Accessed 1 May 2020].