3D Makeup
During The Val Garland School of Makeup we were given a runway brief. I chose to create a look for Vivienne Westwood and it needed to be really special. The only information we were given was… “Politicians R Criminals” and that the collection was for Vivienne’s Red Label SS16. I started with a crazy amount of research on Vivienne and her brand. I read 3 books on the Dame and listened to a thirteen hour audio book on her life. To put it simply… Vivienne is a bad ass and is responsible for the punk rock aesthetic in the 1970’s!!! She is an environmental advocate and her design aesthetic has a nod to ironic politics. Val Garland, makeup extraordinaire, creates amazing faces that compliment Vivienne’s collections. Keeping all of that in mind… I had to treat this brief with the utmost respect and really do my homework.
The consistent theme that I found in my reading is that her designs are rooted in history and she views herself as a cutter. Love it!! I liked the idea that the media changes the perception of its viewers and unless we chose to know the truth, we are left to believe what we are told. I also love the idea that “criminals” leave their mark with fingerprints. I couldn’t get away from the notion that a fingerprint could really make a statement. I researched art that involved perception and found everything from Renaissance perceptual anamorphosis, to a technique Leonardo DaVinci used on the Mona Lisa, called sfumato. Vivienne is known for taking the old and making it new.
While researching anamorphic images and perception, I stumbled upon this. An anaglyph image is what is used in conjunction with a stereoscope lens to create what we know today as 3D. Crazy right? A stereoscope is a device for viewing a pair of images from different vantage points. Think of it like your left and right eye views of the same scene… it creates a three dimensional image. I had been searching for a modern way to present this very old idea of perception. In the audio book I listened to on Vivienne, she says… “conceptual art is SHIT”. I loved that! I do believe that a perceptual concept is a bit ambitious and maybe foolish… the technique and craftsmanship involved in creating a 3D effect on the face was nothing short of geometric optimism on my part. I kept in mind that the goal was to create a look that is painterly to align with Vivienne’s brand and that would appear beautiful both with and without 3D glasses. The idea is… I want the audience to choose their perception.
Here was my first stab at creating a fingerprint design using my die cut machine and a vector file. Instead of using the design as a sticker; I used it as the inverse. You can use a die cut machine to create stencils that will adhere to the skin and then be removed. The reason I chose to crank up the die cut machine for this project is because I could achieve identical graphics. I worked on a mannequin head to refine my design prior to trying it on the face.
I created two looks using this technique. To create a 3D makeup effect, the design must be identical and painted twice. I learned that cyan must be applied first and red applied second for the 3D effect to work. I applied the stencil to the face and used an airbrush with MAC Acrylic Paint in Cyan first. I lifted the stencil and moved it slightly to the left on a horizontal plane and pressed it into the skin. I then applied MAC Acrylic Paint in Red using my airbrush, and peeled the stencil away to reveal the effect. PUT YOUR 3D GLASSES ON!!!
I created this gif for fun to show a bit of animation in the look. My amazing model Devon Norvell was a trooper. We did these looks on two separate days into the wee hours of morning. I like the idea that makeup can have a statement in an abstract way. It doesn’t have to be perfect, however, the thought process must be.
Below is a film that my amazing son Dorian, filmed and edited for my project. He is only fifteen, but I believe the future of filmmaking. Check out his YouTube at DOMIFilms. The goal of the film was to act as a backstage soundbite, as if I was keying a Vivienne Westwood show. Dorian chose to use a song by the band Death because of their early punk roots in the 1970’s.
For more of Sara’s looks created for runway… check out TRIBEZA Style Show 2015.