32. evaluation

Critical Evaluation – Catrin Elin Jones

 

Specialist practice is a unit developed to help the makeup artist through learning and adapting quickly to new techniques, making the project more encouraging too develop ideas and concepts. Exciting and new outcomes was set during this project setting the standard of work higher. This was met through lectures and workshops, which was set to inspire new creative ideas for transformations and makeup applications.

The project helped develop an innovative approach to identifying and projecting new technqiues with the application of body painting and prosthetic makeup. By using a female model to represent a tribal member, demonstrated the advance transformation and extend skills in prosthetic, hair and makeup design and application of makeup.

All tasks where met to the brief deadline through recorded evidence of practical workload, annotated research, development of ideas within a sketchbook and blog showing the whole creative process of makeup applications, drawings and the final idea. I believe the project had been a success within being able to maintain time keeping within the unit brief that was written up. As written in the proposal, the personal aims set for this project was to create a high fashion piece of work that took inspiration from tribes to produce realistic body paint. The same inspiration would help with the prosthetic work, Combining personal inspiration and a large amount of accurate research from articles, books and television programs was key to creating a personal, yet realistic and professional looking, tribal member.

The body of work produced within the project is one of a high standard, which includes key texts and images, which contribute to the intellectual and fundamental understanding of the project, as well as the academic learning of concepts and theories. Basing the project on a tribal theme was a subject that would require a lot of background research.

Using original text from researched books was a great way of sourcing appropriate information regarding the theme this encouraged practice through visual, creative and technical realization of the project. Further more researching appropriate academic books, images and TV programs was the best way of sourcing originally information. As the makeup was a development from a tribal member, development from research demonstrated the drive in success and working on my own accord, this informed the project solutions with appropriate understanding, with a high degree of independent judgement and demonstrate critical self-awareness in developing a idea.

Designing process of the project was of a high stranded that related concepts, theories and critical themes to the project along with the realization of make-up transformation. Through creating face charts, body charts and a hair charts analyzing each on how the application would be applied and justifying the colour concepts through this the best outcome for the final piece was achieved.

By demonstrating the ability to negotiate an appropriate body of work, formulize a work plan and manage time and resources effectively a blog was successfully completed with in depth research along with visual sketch books that included annotated research, concepts designs and process development and photographs which will show risk taking, self assessment and professional thinking. A series of high quality of industry standards photos was produced to show ability of research into the era and makeup application, this illustrated the depth of research and considerate decision-making. Time management was shown through a reflective journal, which gave an insightful view of the whole project along with the time plan. Showing the whole creative process of makeup tests. The time plan will show the project from its starting point to the final piece. It also demonstrated the ability to time manage myself personally as well as within a team.

Construction aspects of the project were achieved greatly through high degree of independent judgement, research and experimentation work.   Using new technqiues such as wefting for hair extensions has developed more practical and professional skills. In which will enhance portfolio and create a wider increase in employment after graduating.

Creating wefts was something that worked very well, using wefts that can be added and removed in and out of models hair and adapted into hairpieces, is something that is used within the industry and could be included within future projects. Body painting is a hard skill to achieve and applying technical measurements and accurate application skills meant the final finish would be of a high quality. Painting the latex animals required patience and accuracy. Some advanced problem solving was required here, when the acrylic paint had de-layered the latex, therefore using alternative techniques in problem solving demonstrated to ability to work under pressure.

The overall aesthetics of the final piece are vibrant and uplifting, there are also parts that can be improved on, which are weak points in the work. The final face paint flows well with the natural curves of the models face. And the colours mix well together that are not the typical colours for tribal patterns. Longer concentration on the face paint could have achieved a higher quality. The main focus of the makeup is the middle stomach of the model, as this is the stand out piece due to the orange colour to represent African sunset, this is the most detailed part of the body paint, the slow fade of orange to black works really well with the choice of clothing made for the shoot, this is the strongest part of the body paint piece, the black animal pieces work well over the orange background that shows silhouettes creating a sunset environment, moving into the zebra print on each arm. These parts work really well due to the contrast it has with the orange and blends well with the black clothing. Unfortunately the hands didn’t get covered completely, in development to this in the future the hands would be fully covered, as this would have put that extra final finish to the make up. Another aspect of the makeup application would be considered changing is the leopard print on the upper thigh of the legs as it doesn’t blend well from the shorts to the zebra print on the bottom of the legs, a change of design would be considered next time in which it would create flowing overall finish to the design.

Unfortunately due to health reasons the project did not run as smoothly as it could, due to having difficulties with knee problems. Therefore getting about doing painting and such, takes longer than usual having to take a few days rest at a time. It leaves a lot of time to do blog work and sketches but as far as practical practice is concerned I’m restricted.

Models were originally chosen from Bournemouth, in which where the final piece was to be shot as planned, also meetings had been organized to go over ideas and concepts to work with the model, due to injured knees. Due to these issues models had to be changed from the original selection, this turned out better for the work because a friend turned model was able to work her schedule round the situation to come to a compromise.

The outcome of the project was completely professional due to finding a photographer and studio last minute while reselecting a model. Working collaboratively on the project was also a new experience, in which developed skills in team working, and also give a more professional outcome, combining the skills of the model, makeup artist and the photographer. Working independently by problem solving the makeup aspects of the project was challenging but the outcome was great. Sharing commitment with a team regarding technical aspects worked well and made the project relaxing and enjoyable.

Overall the final outcome was pleasing, the whole concept of bringing the image forward as a mock up magazine cover worked well. Although some of the exposure of the body paint had made the paint look a bit too textured, this would be altered in further projects by changing the brands of body paint used within the project.

As a makeup artist the whole experience helped with time management, organization skills, working with others within workshops and design skills. The project was a great experience as a whole that was enjoyable as well as being challenging, nevertheless extremely rewarding. Overall the project was a success and demonstrated that researching the subject helps a lot to create a professional final piece.