Project evaluation

This semester's project theme was Make-up in Motion - Gothic Horror. When I first thought about it it
seemed to be pretty scary, literally, because I just don't like horror movies, books, I completely dislike
zombies or creepy TV series, or even violent and gory film scenes! So this unit was not only
psychologically challenging me, but the skills required to create such characters were completely
missing. Despite all of these, I looked at this project with enthusiasm, mainly because we had to
choose from various books and TV series. I have to admit that I have never watched any of the TV
series given, but some of the books from the list were my all time favourites, which really helped me
to keep my motivation and creativity levels high.
The picture of Dorian Gray being one of my all time favourite books, made me enjoy the first part of
the unit more. Also, researching about the Victorian times, even though for most of the students was a
pain, for me was a pleasure. I've always had an interest for history and being given the chance to
research into England's history was something that I really enjoyed. I've never knew that make-up
and hair had such a big impact in history until now and I thought that these things being "a thing" was
something typical of modern people.
The fact that we had to design our first character accordingly to the book description and to the
fashions of the time was quite challenging, first of all, because it was hard to find a suitable model, and
in my case the model did "most of the work", and secondly because we had to limit ourselves to get
the hair and the make-up done in only one hour and almost a half for the timed assessment. But what
I've learnt from this experience is how to simplify and yet make the design more interesting, keeping
the commercial timings, which is very, very important in the industry. At first, getting both hair and
make-up done was a problem, but with practice I managed to solve it. Another problem that I have
encountered doing Dorian Gray character was taking notes when doing make-up for continuity and
using the same products and same techniques everytime, to achieve the same result. After the first
assessment I ran out of HD foundation and I didn't have enough money until the next one to buy
another so I had to use a different foundation with a different formula and coverage and make it look
like a HD one which, to me, was very difficult. The aim when creating Dorian Gray character was to
keep the flawless compexion without any trace of make-up use, except on the lips and probably
eyebrows, which were the two focal points, or "effects", of my design. The thing that I have missed
though was to take notes of the camera and lighting setups used when taking the first pictures from
the first assessment. This led to me being unable to replicate the exact pictures taken first time, and
this could confuse the assessor, especially because everything in my design was about the skin and the
subtle contour, and changing where the light comes from results in unwanted shadows. Next time I
will pay more attetion to these details as they really matter when shooting for continuity make-up.
Despite of that, I really enjoyed this project and I consider the final result a success.
I feel like I've learnt so many new techniques this semester, especially special effects ones. Even
though I will study Digital Beauty and Editorial Writing next year and not Special Effects, the
techniques I've learnt are very useful even when creating fashion designs. Now that I have these skills
I just need to use a bit of creativity and I have a variety of new options! I have never done a scratch
before, so me being able to do something like a third degree or acid burn was something unachievable
until now. I had to research a lot on the internet too about acid burns and scars like that too, and one
of the artists that I consider a wonderful inspiration in Powdah FX, a sfx artist and youtuber which
gives really helpful tutorials and advices. The techniques I've learnt at uni helped me a lot as well, and
making my own gelatine was super fun, even though I failed first time and had to try it again! If given
the chance to complete the second project again, I will have something to change tough, such as my
time management when working at it and my products stock, because when doing Quentin, my
second character, I quite ran out of blood. And I will change that if I had to complete the first part of
the project as well so I wouldn't ran out of foundation in between the assessments!
Overall I feel more confident in my skills and knowledge and this term has been great, not only
because I have learnt so much but because I had made new friends when working at it too! And
because my Quentin photoshoot was done outside, I had the chance to improve and play with my
photography skills too! I am satisfied of the final images even though they could have been better, but
I think that the essence of improvement is not being completely satisfied with your own work!