Catalysts project

For the catalyst project I chose to focus on Abstract as my pathway yet also touching upon Modernism. I wanted to incorporate two opposing styles and designs in my outcome, and in this case I knew that I wanted to marry a victorian/old fashion style and a more contemporary/modern one. Following this idea, I researched into fashion and fashion designers that I would find inspiration in such as Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Burberry. As well as looking into their fashion design, I also looked at their runway and editorial makeup for inspiration in the actual makeup I will be designing.

 I began to experiment with colours and designs through various sketches and paintings to identify the kind of style I was looking for. I eventually found that although my inspiration for this makeup piece was fashion (usually focusing on the garment),
fashion photography often involved the face being the focal point of the image. This, combined with the conventional style of vintage photography gave me the idea of putting quite a cutting, geometric shape onto the face. This would heavily oppose
the muted browns and greys of the other makeup surrounding it.
I wanted to ensure that my piece was a perfect representation of fashion and makeup and my main goal was for the final photograph to be heavily inspired by old portrait photography and I believe that although high fashion and old vintage styles juxtapose very much, they have a lot of similarities and a large amount of current fashion designers take inspiration from very old eras.

For my final piece i used a range of brown and golden eyeshadows to contour the face in unconventional places such as the nose and eye sockets to make the face appear weak dehumanised. I also blocked out the eyebrows to achieve this effect. I then used a white body paint to draw a mask like material around the face and down the neck as I wanted the makeup to appear layered by me using the sharing as an illusion that there is something underneath. I purchased a black wig which I styled myself to fit with the emotion I was attempting to portray in the look. I crudely cut the wig into a servere bob-style, then singed the ends using a hair straightener to create the effect of the hair pointing outwards at the bottom. Overall, I believe that the final outcome perfectly mirrored the victorian
quality I was looking for, while having the fragment of Modernism, creating almost an alien aura.