Blog 3 – Reflection
Being on the Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics for Performance course, I have always had a love for makeup and how it has no creative limits. This is what enticed me to do the ‘Makeup Breakdown’ for my Better Lives unit. I wanted to stick with what I loved but see it from a completely new angle.
When starting this unit a few weeks ago, I was really starting to get a feel of the new environment and individual insight to this course. However due to the Covid 19 crisis, I have since found keeping up with this unit a little difficult. I am a hands on learner and I struggled to sit and listen to the lectures due to them all being online. Despite this change of learning, the university still provided us with all the help needed and kept its cool while managing the situation. I had surprised myself by keeping up with the lectures, due to being in such a different learning environment and having so much going on around, as I usually struggle to keep my focus.
My goal through this unit was to be quite different and create a piece that was more unusual. When creating my final outcome, I had the running themes of ‘Complimentary colours’ in relation to the colour wheel and also combined it with the theme of ‘Imperfection’. I felt the style of imperfection went hand in hand with diversity. I was trying to create something distinctive so I was aiming to open my mind to a different kind of art. My thought process behind this was that, in this day and age to be classed ‘beautiful’ you need to portray a really unrealistic and artificial look. This is then published and also normalised over and over again by social media. These altered looks are so unhealthy for the younger states of minds but are so convincing as it is plastered over every social media page. Everyone needs to see the beauty in a diverse face instead of all trying to have the same one, this is a damaging and unachievable goal. By adding the theme complimentary colours, I could make it stand out even more, I used my eyes as a starting out as they are blue. Then continued the look using shades of blue and orange as they are opposites on the colour wheel and make each other pop. I reached into these themes as I wanted to strengthen my knowledge and therefore hone my skill.
During the weeks we attended workshops, this shaped my personal development in various ways as we were encouraged to work as groups. We are all from different educational and cultural backgrounds so this was a great learning experience, also this has helped with communication and people skills as we had to work together and discuss our work.
Overall the Better Lives unit has had a positive effect on my learning and I will continue to approach any future work with the thought of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility at the forefront of my mind.