This is the final image for my Sixties Victim design. I think the research and planning that went into this design really paid off. I used fake eyelashes on the bottom as well as the top lids to give it a glamorous sixties feel and kept her make-up quite authentic, then added blood in the places it would've been from the research that I did into brain haemorrhage symptoms. I am very happy with the styling and think the collared dress works well for sixties styling. I am proudest about the hair in this shoot, as usually hair is a weakness of mine but sufficient research and testing meant I was able to create a beehive that worked well with the rest of the shoot.
This is my main final image for the Bedlam Insomniac.I am extremely pleased with the outcome and I think the concept transfers well to photograph. The contouring, green toned lips and matted hair show decay and neglect of the body and the constraints around her face represents both the emotional and physical constraints of having a mental illness.I am especially happy with model choice - she was able to take direction extremely well and work with me to get a good photo composition, for example, twisting her hand to make it seem as though she's pulling at the straps on her face and moving her neck at odd angles. I also think the styling worked well for this shoot, especially the home-made backdrop.
I wanted an eerie background for my Bedlam shoot, so I bought some white material and wrote on it and splattered it with fake blood. I wrote messages like "help me" and "spiders" which you will only be able to see bits of in the actual photographs, but I think this will be quite effective because it makes it more eerie. I got inspiration from researching images of mental asylum graffiti, like these:
After I researched Light and Shadow and how it was portrayed in different media, I thought I would be handy to test some lighting myself in Photography. I wanted to see if I could recreate Jim Ferreira's style and the lighting that was used in the video for Ghostpoet and see if I could get light and shadow to fall across the models face in a way that was both intriguing and Gothic. The following images have had NO EDITING and I created the light and shadow using different angles of flash and reflective boards.
I think that the use of light and shadow in Gothic media is very important as it symbolises the presence of good and evil. My background in art has helped me understand this, but I wanted to research how it was used in music videos too, as this is the concept of my shoot.
The video for "Cash and Carry Me Home" by Ghostpoet relies heavily on the use of light and shadow and this has inspired me a lot and shown me what is possible. I've also used the use of the brightly coloured objects surrounding him that are going through his mind as the video describes his mental state as research for my Bedlam Insomniac character.
I really like the use of light used in the video for Warpaint's "Elephants." Its a soft spotlight that, when combined with the fans and dark background, give the girls a ghostlike and extremely powerful presence.
This is a sketch that i found by Michael Newberry, I think its really exciting to explore how light and shadow is portrayed through different medias and Newberry is one of my favourites who can do this through sketching with pencil.
The two above images are by Jim Ferreira, who specialises in Film Noir Hollywood Glamour Photography. I think the way he portrays light and shadow is really interesting because he uses it not only on his subjects but to create backgrounds as well. The way he uses light and shadow gives a Gothic/creepy feel to the photograph, and this feeling is only achieved in that way, not through styling or make-up or props, he relies purely and light and shadow and I think that's fascinating.
I need to darken the contouring so that it is more effective when applied to the face and also deepen the sockets. But overall I am pleased with this design and like the concept of showing both the physical and emotional constraints of having a mental illness.
RIBBON: I have made sure that this is a feasible idea and will secure it to the head by tying it and pulling the hair through to create a more distressed look.
When researching mental illness something
that really caught my eye and, for me, captured the whole essence of
mental illness was the person being constrained because it represents not only physical constraints but the constraints of the diseased mind. I thought this would be something really interesting to incorporate into a high fashion make-up shoot, and would also work well with the Music Video concept. These are some of the images that most inspired me on this concept:
Patient constraint on American Horror Story
Patient constraint to bed in padded room
Constraint of eyes and wrists in forest
Bodily constraints and the inability to see because of them
Constraints by other people, pulling hair with disbodied hands.
I took inspiration from these images to come up with my own face design, as seen below:
This design uses faded eyebrows to give the effect of character deformation (as discussed in the post before) and greenish/blue lips to show neglect of the body. High contouring and minimalist eyes will give the look a high fashion yet dishevelled feel. I have put constraints across the face, which I will incorporate into the hair (designs to follow) and these will be created using black ribbon.
I started to create some face charts after looking at images of both modern and authentic lunatics. I feel that this has helped me a lot, although I would like to look further into into fashion photography images of madness and mental illness. Below are my first visions of how I could build upon my look, which I will continue to build upon as I get further into my research.
The above design shows blueish lips to represent neglect of the bodily appearance and deep red and purple eyes, which represents the models lack of sleep as that is the reason why she has gone mad in the first place. I added some blood as I thought it would be interesting to add an element of self harm to the design to show the extent of the models madness - she is so convinced that the spiders are in her brain that she has resorted to harming herself in an effort to get them out.
Ive always though bleached eyebrows represented something out of the ordinary so I thought it would be interesting to add this to a design. The bleaching of the eyebrows also takes away a lot of character from the face which could be mirrored in the pure whiteness of most mental asylums. Again the eyes are red to show lack of sleep and this time I have added stitches onto the mouth to add a more horrific element because there is no blood in this design. The stitches also represent the fact the patient cant talk about or get anybody to understand their condition completely.
My next step will be to do some tests of these designs and see what works and what doesn't, and I can then incorporate those elements into my further research and design.
Looking at modern versions of mental patients and asylums will hopefully give me a more rounded idea of how I can make my design contemporary and fashion and something that could fit into a make-up video. I began by looking into music videos with this theme and continued looking at how mental patients were portrayed on screen in movies, and finally looked at photography that show the illness.
I need to put a more "fashion" twist on my mental patient outcome, so I'm looking at other sources of things that are similar. This video by Colette Car shows her as a mental patient, although she is incredibly styled and made up with neon paint and contacts. It has really inspired me to be creative with my Bedlam Insomniac.
The second series of American Horror Story was set in a mental asylum and the styling and make-up department had me hooked the whole way through. Some of their mental patients are styled really well and have really inspired me in my own thinking and creation.
This is one of the more exaggerated American Horror Story characters. I found this really inspiring as its unlike any representation of any mental patient I have ever seen before, her appearance is almost comical yet terrifying at the same time.
This character stayed with me since I fist saw Shutter Island. She is one of the mental patients being held on the island and one of the few throughout the film who show obvious physical signs of mental illness. What I love about her is that although she has sunken eyes and withered skin and wisps of hair, you can see that she was once pretty.
This is the mother from The Devil Inside, a film about a woman who is opposed and being held in a mental asylum. She looks incredibly haggard and had big bags under her eyes and fly-away hair. What I like about how they presented this particular mental patient is that you can really see the physical strain that her illness has had on her.
This is a more contemporary "fashion" portrait of a mental patient that I found She is in a wheelchair and styled, but its the background and use of light and shadow and monochrome that suggests that she is in an asylum. The balloon is also very symbolic and has got me thinking about the possibility of using props in my own work.
The padded cell and constraints are shocking to the audience and suggests that not only is the subject insane but could also be a danger to both herself and others. The grand bed makes the shoot contemporary and suggests there's something not quite right about the place that she's being held in. Again the use of props seems to be prominent when using mental illness as a theme in fashion photography.
I wanted to properly research the the effects of hallucinations through sleep deprivation, and whether or not there were other people who had experienced hallucinations spiders or insects crawling on them so that I could make sure that there was enough evidence of this to base my concept on.
I found this video of a woman on the news who was caught hallucinating that spiders were crawling over her body.
WHY DO WE HALLUCINATE ON LACK OF SLEEP
This video about Peter Tripp's experience tells us why people hallucinate when they haven't slept for a long period of time. The psychologists that were monitoring Tripp found that his brain was mimicking REM sleep (which is when we dream) even though he was awake. Therefore he was, in effect, dreaming while awake.
This research has given me enough to start to build a character around the condition.
My second character is going to be a mental patient, who is imagining spiders in their brain because they've gone mad from sleep deprivation.
ORIGIN OF THE IDEA
I remembered hearing about a case like this in Psychology at A Level and it stuck with me. The Fatal Hairdo project brief is the perfect opportunity to combine this real psychological case with a make-up shoot, so I'm really looking forward to playing with it.
PETER TRIPP
Peter Tripp was a DJ in the Fifties who completed a 201 wakeathon for charity. Before the wakeathon he was said to be a pleasantly man who was happy and light-hearted After the wakeathon, for the rest of his life, he was grouchy, unpleasant, aggressive and it ruined his marriage.
Towards the end of the wakeathon he began to hallucinate, and one of his main hallucinations was that there were spiders in his shoes. I want to apply this idea to my project brief and have a model who, through sleep deprivation, believes spiders are nesting in her hair and brain.
After looking into different variations of the Beehive hairstyle I did some practice tests to see what looked best on camera.
TEST ONE
I started by testing a half-up half-down beehive, but what I found was that it didn't look as glamorous without a fringe at the front and the height was way too forward
TEST TWO
This time I built the height up at the crown which gave the style a much more Sixties feel, and pulled some fringe down at the front which I think made it look a lot more glamorous. I feel on track with my hair now, although I will build more height for my actual shoot because I will use a model with longer hair.
Again I will be basing my eye make-up tests off of the eye charts I did before in hopes to improve them.
I did some test shots to see if false bottom lashes or drawn on bottom lashes worked better. I know that drawing them on is more authentic but it could be tricky and unreliable on the day and I don't want to jeopardise my shoot. I like the look of the fake lashes and think they are just as affective, and because the shoot is high fashion it gives me leeway to be able to use falsies for a more dramatic effect, so that is what i will do for my final image. Re-testing has allowed me to neaten the eye-shadow up and see what tools worked better. This time, for example, i used a small rounded tapered brush combined with an angled brush to get the crease just right. The only thing I need to do is invest in a white eye-liner to use along the water line.
This is my second test of the face as a whole. I have applied the eyes that I've retested and the knowledge I gained when I did the lip tests. The skin is flawless with a foundation that is a shade or two lighter than the models natural skin tone and I used a tiny bit of bronzer to contour, which I may increase in the final shoot if needed.
After adding blood to the nose and ear. This was a test and I didn't have the right materials available but the blood that I did use gave me a good idea of how the face chart on the left will apply to the face and I'm very happy with the outcome.
Using M.A.C Lipmix, I did some tests to see what colour would be best to create the nude Sixties lip. My initial thoughts were to do it pale pink but after tests I discovered that this photographed way too pink, so I toned it down by adding more orange and less pink and came up with a nice pale peachy coral, which I now plan to use in my final look.
Eye make-up is something that is paramount to get right when achieving a Sixties look, so I've sketched some eye templates to give me ideas and enable me to keep my Gothic character authentic looking.
These designs have been influenced by the looks of Sixties icons, Sixties fashion and contemporary Sixties Make-up interpretations. They include different interpretations of typical Sixties make-up:
-Long or drawn on lower lashes
- Cat flicks on the top lash line
-White waterlines
-Heavy eyebrows in different shapes
-Heavy black line through the eye crease
.
This is my first attempt, although I know know the design that I am going to chose, I need to keep testing to perfect the look.
Because the "Gothic" part of my design is going to be portrayed by blood, I wanted to research some music videos that centred around gore and blood to see how this is presented in a music video format. I will get inspiration from these videos and apply that inspiration to my Sixties themed design.
The music video for It Never Ends by Bring Me The Horizon
The music video for The Sweetest Kill by Broken Social Scene
The music video for We Are Water by Health
Looking at how gore is portrayed in music videos has shown me that there are no rules where blood is concerned. It can be as subtle or as over the top as you like and doesn't necessarily have to look real or convincing - the idea of blood is horrific enough.
I will apply what I've learnt from this gore-fest to my glamorous Sixties model.
This is a the first concept draying and face chart that I did in Ink. I have devised this from the research I have done of the Sixties style, contemporary versions of the Sixties style and the physical effects of brain trauma. The key points of this face chart is the heavy use of eyelashes, darkening of the eye crease, pale lip and blood slowly trickling from the ears and nose. I have not shown any trauma to the brain because i want this to be expressed through the bleeding of orifices in the face, as I want the gore to be simple but effective and not over the top.
I want to look at how the Sixties style has been brought into contemporary styling to get more of idea how I can turn authentic Sixties styling into a high fashion editorial shoot.
JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
Jean Paul Gaultier featured Beehive hairstyles heavily in his Spring/Summer 2013 Couture show.
The stylist has made the hairstyle a lot more "fashion" by making the Beehive VERY high, this is something I will incorporate into my own design to keep the look fresh and interesting but still typical Sixties.
MARC JACOBS
Marc Jacobs was also influenced by the Sixties and used the typical twiggy make-up on his models at his Spring/Summer 2013 show.
The stylists for Marc Jacobs have made the Sixties make-up more "fashion" by intensifying the black crease and hugely defining the eyebrows.
GWEN STEFFANI'S L.A.M.B SHOW 2012
I found that Gwen Steffani also used the Sixties to influence her L.A.M.B show in 2012.
She used a half-up half-down version of the Beehive and the Sixties make-up focused on the extension (and drawing on of) the bottom lashes.
WHAT THIS HAS SHOWN ME
Seeing the ways that designers have used the Sixties style in their work has shown me how to make a Sixties design look Editorial and high-fashion while keeping it authentic.Each designer has focused on something different, which has helped me a lot because many of these things are aspects that have been thinking about incorporating into my own design. This research has helped me think about this in more of a "fashion" way.
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