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.
