Blogpost 3 – reflections on how better lives themes have influenced your project outcome and your personal development
In blogpost three I will be reflecting on my work in the ‘Developing a Character’ in Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics unit I chose for Better Lives. I have always been enthused by the area of hair and makeup and beauty. That is why I chose this class, out of my PR and Communications course I work as a makeup artist and beauty enthusiast, therefore this course immediately caught my eye.
The beauty industry is one of the fastest growing industries, and just like fashion falls under the PR and Communications field. Makeup was traditionally seen as something minor worn by women to enhance their natural features, however 21st Century makeup takes on various different purpose’s. It is now accepted as an art as well as to purely mske someone ‘look better’. Throughout the first couple of weeks of the unit, the techniques I was taught consisted of creating different illusional effects on the skin to make for example, bruising, veins, trauma to the skin and ageing. Due to the current Coronavirus Pandemic I was unable to phsycially finish this unit and get to try out all of the different techniques, however it was then showed and explained to us via virtual sessions. Having to adapt and learn virtually rather than being able to see and feel the products being used and try it out myself has actually been quite a struggle as I have always found myself to be a Kinesthetic learner, especially so used to also exploring new makeup looks and artistry looks on myself I was listening and watching the sessions and found them so interesting yet really wanted to try it out myself.
One of my favourite of the two sessions we had was the one where we learnt how to create bruises and veins on the skin through the use of alcohol paints which to my surprise was actually very similar to working with water colour which I had done in the past. To know how to create these looks on the skin you first had to learn about why we bruise and what stages a bruise has. I found this part so interesting and it also made it much easier to create the bruises once you actually know the knowledge of a bruise too. I decided to create a crescent shaped bruise under the eye, as I was working on it I feel I started off too scared to
just go for it but after encouragement I decided to really go for it and make it look a lot more red and added a deeper red bruising on the inner corner of the eye which, to my surprise, made it look a lot more realistic. After working on the bruises we then worked on veins, to create a 3Dimensional look to the veins Steven showed us a trick which was to draw the line from the side angle of the brush – lots of small horizontal strokes – rather than just sweeping the brush down and drawing the lines, this is was created the more realistic effect.
I think the Better Lives unit has encouraged me to think about ideas and themes of Sustainability, Diversity and Social responsibility in more depth and it has also encouraged me to question more to get that depth. For example in my previous Blogs, I spoke about how as a PR you need to question the brand, influencers, the teams behind the catwalk and find out the true reasonings behind the decisions and how that brand interacts with their consumer, the ‘Developing a character’ in Hair and Makeup and Prosthetics has taught me similar. For example in order to create a realistic bruise or vein, you have to ask questions like what makes a bruise? Whats caused the trauma? What are the different stages of a bruise? And why does a bruise go so many different colours? Once you have the answers to questions like these only then will your finished product look believeable and realistic.