Hi! Remember me? I used to try to write a blog post every week. It’s been over a month. There were ups and downs along the way, but I think it might be a good time to get back on course.
For my birthday I received a mask from my housemate. It’s blue and gold and has bat wings on the side. Shortly after, I got this idea in my head for a photo shoot with it. I wanted to portray a kind of wild, muse like character. The Reveal the Real event was proving to be a success, and it was encouraging. I was also inspired by the elaborate make up and design of Kirsty Mitchell, who takes up to 6 months to create a photo, and fabricates most of the elaborate costumes and make up on her models:
And Ryan Burke, who spends up to 8 hours creating these looks on himself, with no end game in mind, and they are fantastic:
I’m nowhere close to those levels, but I had some ideas and some time and I did a practice run:
Please excuse the fact that these are all cell phone “selfies” in my bedroom….
For the lips I used 3 different products. First I used Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetic’s Lip Tar with a lip brush, then I lined it with Costume Maker’s black (with a brush again), and then I added some silver glitter.
After I did everything else, I went back and cleaned up the lip line with concealer, which is a trick I read about for doing red lips, but I figured I could use it here.
I think everyone who wears make up love the eye products. I used primer, 4 different eye shadows, 2 eye liners, blue mascara, brow pencil, and brow gel.
After you apply the primer, I usually apply the mascara so the primer can dry, and then the first coat of mascara (if you are going to do multiple coats) can dry while you apply shadow. I used a gold yellow on the outer upper lid under the brow bone, a vanilla yellow across the brow, a shimmery turquoise across the lid, and a white highlight inside the eye by the nose. I wet the brush to get a more solid coverage. There’s a gold glitter eyeliner on the upper and lower lash line, and a blue eye liner above the lower lashes. Be careful, even glitter eyeliner specifically for your eyes can be an irritant, as I discovered. I always forget, until I use it again the next time and I like it too much to throw it away.
I tried to curl my hair, but I didn’t want to add product because I had just washed my hair in the morning and didn’t want to have to wash it again. So the curls just laughed at me and fell flat. Maybe next time I’ll crimp and back comb it, or something. I also tried to do highlighting and shading on my cheekbones and my nose, but I don’t think it really worked. At the last minute, I decided to use some of the gold eye shadow I have on my forehead to blend it in a little to the mask.
The “toga”.. Well that, kids, is just a bed sheet. I used a gold belt to give it a waist and decorated it with a crescent moon belt buckle I’ve had from a local arts festival years ago. I went the red shoes for a pop of color and something fun.
I’m hoping to do more stuff like this. I was reading about adding color to a moisturizer, and I’m wondering if I can kind of do a face paint look…. Well, we’ll just see what I can come up with.
Also today stumbled upon the “neo-dada” movement of Fluxus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus
And I’ll even excuse it having Yoko Ono among its ranks. I still got some ideas. 🙂
More to come, hope you’ll keep reading.
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