Monster Mash

The monsters that were created in Gothic novels show a comment on a part of the human nature. 

Vampires

There are different ways in which Vampires have been created over the years and there are different character traits associated with them. Some portrayals of Vampires show the creation as just the Vampire biting the person they wish to turn into a Vampire, some need to die with Vampire venom in their system and some become one as a result of a spell. There are certain elements are weaknesses of the Vampire characters, some include; not being able to cross running water, holy water & crosses being harmful for them, having to be invited into a house, not being able to walk in the sunlight and a wooden stake being able to kill them.
In modern society when we think of Vampires we think of; Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries to name a few. Our view of Vampires is of a very beautiful immortal young people who are integrated into normal society to see how they can cope with being vampires amongst that. There is always a highly sexualised element to the vampire, with it being the desirable 'monster' especially for women despite the element of danger. This is show through the symbolism of having a Vampire who 'sparkles' when they go into the sun in Twilight, as they sparkle it adds an element of luxury 

and unattainability thus making them even more desirable towards those around them. Furthermore they are always shown to have a 'human side', making them less monstrous and more accessible to the people who are reading the novels/watching the TV Shows and Films.  

The vampire was said to be a symbol for the fear of industry and how it was impacting everyday life. In Karl Marx's book 'Das Capital' he likens industry to a vampire sucking life out of the consumer, he played on the fears of the masses using a Gothic character as a means of doing so. 

Zombie 

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” (Grahame-Smith, Austen, 2009)

The typical association with zombies is that they are risen from the dead, either being bitten or being infected by some kind of virus, with them needing brains in order to survive (as is shown by the above quote). Zombies were a symbol for the fear of death that people have, but they can also have ties with a fear of what science can do- as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein shows.  The Creature in Frankenstein could be seen as the first Zombie with him being risen from the 'dead' but through the medium of science. As science can be blamed for some of the zombie outbreaks that have been created over the years- usually with the place of a viral outbreak- it brings it closer to home as some of the things could happen in real life, which make it even scarier.
In the recent years Zombies have become even more popular, with an increase of Zombie orientated TV shows, films and live experiences (to name a few) being made available to the public. The dystopian element of the Zombie era, could be seen to create an intriguing element for us- with everyone wondering how we would each survive as the human race. Furthermore this brings in the element of the 'live experience' where people pay to enter this world of a 'Zombie Apocalypse' to see what it would be like and whether they survive. In modern society it is almost a norm for someone to have a plan for when the 'Zombie Apocalypse does arrive'.
The appearance of Zombies have changed so much across the years, as we are being subjected to more and more violence and gore in our everyday lives we look to TV and Film to provide something that surpasses what we haven't seen before. As the video below shows, there is a lot of diversity in the way Zombies have looked over the years.

100 years of zombie evolution in pop culture | time lapse video (2016) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SdACMZwaaw (Accessed: 28 February 2016).

Werewolf

Much like the other monsters, Werewolves have different origins; it could have been a curse that caused the person to become a wolf, a bite from another Werewolf or a genetic trait that runs in the family. Like Vampires there are things that are weaknesses to Werewolves; that they have to turn on a full moon so are slaves to it, and that they can be killed/harmed by silver. 

When Werewolves were brought in as monsters they were said to represent the fear of the monster inside ourselves, this becomes more about the mind and what happens inside ourselves instead. Rather than experiments or viruses being the cause of the monster, we are becoming the monster ourselves with it growing from within us.
In modern society, much like Vampires, Werewolves have become somewhat of a sex symbol in society. This is seen in TV Shows and Films, such as; Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries and Twilight. Instead of being seen as a Monster, they are seen as the 'normal people' trying to fit in with society, but the added layer of the Werewolf creates a sense of mystery that people find intriguing. 

Another Practise...

Here is the final photo from another practise I did before the Timed Assessment. I wanted to make sure that I could do both the hair and the makeup in the time that I have in the assessment. It did take more time to do the entire look because I was also taking photos and making notes for continuity. 

I think that the scar looks  a lot better as it does stretch across the entire forehead, rather than just in the middle. 

One element that I didn't like about this practise was the darkness underneath the eyes. I think that the black under the eye is too extreme and doesn't look as 'natural' as my previous practise. I think to make sure that I make the eyes look as 'natural' as possible, I need to not over-apply the colour and make sure that everything is properly blended. 

I hope that all my continuity notes will enable me to complete the look during the assessment time and replicate each element to look the same each time. 

Continuity Notes

First Practise of Design

Below are the first images of the practise for my makeup design. I'm really proud of how it turned out along with how well it looks in the photographs. I was very apprehensive about where to put the facial scar, but thinking about where Frankenstein would've cut open the Creature it made sense to have the scar going horizontally across the forehead (in the place where he needed to access the brain).

I did experiment with adding colour to the scar, however I was so disappointed with it I just removed it and decided that it looked better being left. When I did colour the scar it did look slightly like I had just cut open the forehead which wasn't the look I was after. I will definitely need to make sure that I make lots of continuity notes so that I can get the scar looking exactly the same in each assessment. Furthermore I think that I need to bring the scar a lot further across the forehead so that it is seamless and 'blends' in well. 

One element that I think might be difficult is getting the colours and blending exactly the same each time I do it, so I do need to make sure that with the next practise I take lots of pictures with quantities and close ups of each element. Doing another practise before the assessment will make me feel a lot more confident with doing the entire look with hair for the two assessments. 

Dirt and Dirty Teeth

Products:

- Tooth Enamel: in black and yellow 

- Fuller's Earth: can use wet or dry

- AquaColour (to add a powdery colour effect to the Fuller's Earth)

- SupraColour (to colour over the top of Fuller's Earth)

- Surgical Spirit

- Water: to add to the Fuller's Earth

Tools:

- Baby Buds

- Paint Palette

- Paintbrushes 

- Bowl

- Hairdryer

HEALTH AND SAFETY

- You can't use the Tooth Enamel on newly bleached teeth/some caps.

- DO NOT SWALLOW SURGICAL SPIRIT.

- As an alternative to Surgical Spirit, you can use whitening toothpaste but it might not do as good a job as Surgical Spirit. 

- Don't double dip in the product.

- Test the heat of the hairdryer on yourself before using on a model.

- Make sure to cover up your model so that you don't get any product on them or their clothing. 

- Scoop out Fuller's Earth from your bowl and put in the bin to clean it out. 

EXTRA

- If you want to colour the inside of the mouth you can use food colouring. 

-You can also ask your model to suck on some liquorice which will blacken the inside of the mouth.

STEP BY STEP - DIRTY TEETH:

- Shake the bottle to make sure that the product is properly mixed. 

- Use a baby bud to apply the product onto the teeth.

- If any product goes on the lips, use surgical spirit to remove it. 

- You can use the black to block out teeth entirely.

- The yellow will give the rotten look to the teeth. 

- You can also use a fine brush to shape the teeth.

STEP BY STEP- DIRT/MUD:

- You can use this in its powder form, and add it to the face/hair to give the illusion of dirt/dust.

- Add water to the dust to create a paste, which you can apply to the skin with your hands. It's better to apply with your hands as you won't get brush strokes which you would if you used a brush. 

- Remember to open up the fingers to get the product right into the crevices. Do the same with the knuckles as it will look odd when the product doesn't go right into the crevices. 

- Dry with a warm hairdryer, until it goes white in colour. 

- You can add colour to the Fuller's earth with the SupraColour, AquaColour or the Kryolan sprays. 

- Remove using water. 

My Interpretation - Teeth

I did find it quite difficult to get a good coating of the product on the teeth so it does look very patchy.  I think the cotton buds gave it a patchy look and I would've been better off using a paintbrush if I wanted to create an opaque colour. I did begin to use the cotton buds for the black, however I found it  very difficult to get clean lines on the teeth, so I changed to a paintbrush which I found much easier to  block out the entire tooth. The final teeth are slightly messy and some parts needed cleaning up with the surgical spirit, however I think that the small speck of black that I can see on one of the clean teeth would be difficult to clean up without taking off some of the other colour. In future I definitely need to be more careful when applying the product onto the teeth so I can avoid little specks like the ones I had before. 

My Interpretation- Mud

I really liked using this product, it was really fun to work with and I think that it gives a nice effect to the skin. I think that if you caked the product on in multiple layers then it would make a nice look of having just crawled through a lot of mud. 

I did have an issue with the Kryolan spray colours as the brown one did come out in splatters which tried to concentrate in small parts of the hand which didn't go to plan, as the photo demonstrates. I think rather than using the Kryolan spray colours in future I'd prefer to colour using my SupraColour or AquaColour. However I think if I was to use the Spray colour again, I would make sure to spray it in a smaller/larger area so that it doesn't look patchy. 

After colouring with the aerosol colours

Practising with Collodion

I wanted to experiment with colouring the Collodion so I could create the look of a 'newer' scar on the skin. Initially I did just paint the Collodion onto the skin to create a scar, however I didn't think it looked that good so thought colouring it would be better for my version of the Creature. Below is the final result of my experiment. 

I used the SupraColour palette to add the colour to the scar- using the light and dark red colours. I think that the area around the scar needs  a bit of work to make sure that the edges are blended better and they look more seamless to the skin. I do like how 'angry' the scar looks, I think that just one of these going down the chest/across the neck of my model would look quite good for the Creature. However one element I am apprehensive about is whether it would be comfortable for my model to have this done as Collodion is not nice to remove in areas where there is hair. I will need to make sure in my practises that I cater to the comfort of my model along with not making it too difficult for myself so I can't complete the design in the allotted time. 

Character Analysis

I find the Creature/Monster a really interesting character in both the novel and film adaptations as he is so complex. In adaptations across the years he has been shown in so many different ways that there is no way to pinpoint an exact way that he 'should' look. Furthermore he is seen as the villain in the novel, whereas I see him as a victim- a victim of circumstance. He was brought into the world by the work of Frankenstein, so his actions are the result of the behaviour of his creator. Being left to raise himself without a caring parent mirror's his creator's own upbringing, as he lost his mother, making it seem as though it is a never-ending cycle of neglect with the events in the book being the result of this.
In comparison to some of the portrayals of the Creature in popular culture as a very visible monstrosity, I want my portrayal to have a human element - showing him as a normal man with some very feint scarring. In the novel, Shelley never mentions anything about the Creature having any disfigurement of the face, just that the his skin appears slightly stretched which is probably due to the lack of moisture as a result of being made from the parts of dead people. As the entire look is set in the early Victorian times, the styling and hair needs to reflect this. I want the hair to have a deep side parting, slicked to create a proper look but with the rest of the hair being somewhat messy to create a juxtaposition between the two. I think that this will be symbolic of his want to be a proper functioning member of society but because of his upbringing he won't be able to. Finally for the styling, I wanted it to seem as though he is wearing what he has been able to find on his travels so it may not fit him properly or be in the best condition. I have stained a shirt in tea (see my previous post 'Tea-dying a shirt) which is quite large in size and I think will create a rugged appearance for him as he will have had to sleep rough and in the same clothes for a long time.

I think that because my character design for the Creature doesn't have that Monstrous look incorporated into it, I hope that if it was part of a TV series or a Film the audience would feel sympathy for him because he is just as human as them. However my worry is that they would find his character boring because there is a lack of fear and monstrosity in his characterisation, which is what modern audiences seem to crave when it comes to Monsters in modern culture. I think that due to the impact of horror on modern culture and the availability of it in our society we are always looking for ways to be scared and I don't think my portrayal of the Creature will do that. This could either be a detrimental or positive thing for the character as he will be seen in a new light but he could be seen as boring as a result. 

Tea-dying a shirt

For the photos of my character I want my model to be wearing a stained and dirty shirt that shows the Monster has not been taken care of and has had to find any clothing he can. As my model is smaller than the original owner of the shirt I think that this will also show this. 

PROCESS TO TEA-DYE A SHIRT 

-I found a deep pot which would hold the shirt along with a large volume of water.

- I then filled and boiled the kettle a number of times so that there was enough liquid that was just above the level of the shirt. 

- Then I added in 6 teabags to make the large vat of tea. 

- I then added the shirt to the tea and let it soak for about 1-2 hours. 

- Originally for the first half an hour I left the tea bags in the liquid just to get the most amount out of them.

- Then after soaking for a couple of hours, I poured away the tea mixture and transferred it to another container with cold water. The cold water allows the tea to set in the shirt.

- After it soaked in the cold water. I then left it out to dry. 

I quite like the creased look that the short has- I don't think that it needs ironing as a shirt grabbed by the monster along his travels from someone's washing line wouldn't be perfectly ironed. I think I would also quite like to splatter some dirt onto the shirt, just to add that other dimension of sleeping rough and running through the wilderness. 

Practising Continuity

We were given the task of creating either; a bold eye, a bold lip or a black eye, which we would then have to take off and replicate again to see if we could. 

I chose to do a black eye as I didn't get the chance to do one in class. Below is the photo that I used for inspiration for my eye. 

no date) Available at: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/84/254429419_3cb45de484_b.jpg
(Accessed: 18 February 2016).

MY FIRST ATTEMPT AND CONTINUITY PHOTOS 

I scraped out the colours that I thought I would need into my palette, taking pictures of the amounts- I did take more than I actually used on the face and just used the left-overs for the second application. 

 Firstly I applied the yellow from the SupraColour palette under the eyes and into the inner corner. So that the colour wasn't so opaque I blended it out and away with both my fingers and a brush so make it a more subtle colour on the skin. 

I then mixed a small bit of the orange in with the yellow and applied a thin layer of this over the yellow, concentrating on the area just underneath the eye. 

I then proceeded to add in the lighter red on the lower lash line along with defining the puffiness underneath the eye. I did have to blend out the colour on the lower lash line so that it wasn't a complete block and looked more natural. 

The next step was to add the darker red to the parts where I already applied the light red, and then I  mixed a  tiny amount of the black SupraColour in with the darker red just to add even more definition to the bruise. 

The final step was to add Vaseline to the eye to give it a shiny effect. 

The Final Eye. 

I'm quite proud of how this turned out, especially as I have never done a black eye before. One element that I didn't like was the colour of the yellow- in the Kryolan bruise palette the yellow is much more mustard toned which I think would've looked a lot better. 

THE REPLICATION

This is my replication of the eye. Although it definitely isn't perfect I think that it is close to the original. The shape and colours need to be brought down a bit more on the face and rounded off more  at the bottom. Furthermore the orange colour right under the eye needed to be a lot brighter. 

My model was quite squirmy as he has not had makeup applied before so he was finding it an odd process- this made me rush the second black eye slightly as he was feeling uncomfortable having the makeup applied (not an allergy to the products, just a discomfort to the unknown process of having makeup applied). 

Step by Step for Timed Assessment

BLUE: HAIR

RED: MAKEUP

Equipment:

-       Thin Curling Tongs

-       Sectioning Clips

-       Pintail Comb

-       Bobby Pins

-       Cutting Comb

-       Heat Protection Spray

-       Hairspray

Products:

-       Cleanser

-       Toner

-       Moisturiser

-       Kryolan Foundation Palette

-       Illamasqua Powder

-       Illamasqua Contour Palette

-       Illamasqua Obsidion Eyeshadow

-       Kryolan Lip palette

-       Collodion

-       Barrier Foam

-       Mascara

Equipment:

-       Tissues

-       Baby buds

-       Disposable mascara wands

-       Brushes

-       Puff

-       Hairdryer

1: Do a deep side parting in the hair. Spray the hair with heat protectant and comb through.

2: Curl the hair using the thin curling tongs, curling underneath and pinning each section so that it sets.

3: Cleanse, tone and moisturise the face

4: Mix up the correct shade of foundation to suit the tone of your model and apply. Powder as well.

5: Mix together the Illamasqua Contour with the Illamasqua Obsidion so you get a darker brown. Contour the face, making him look very gaunt.

6: Brush up the brows using a disposable mascara wand and fill in to make them look very ‘wild’.

7: Have a very small amount of the Illamasqua Obsidion on a brush, blend it underneath the eye and onto the lid.

8: Use the Illamasqua Obsidion again, take it onto your finger and pat lightly onto the lips giving a slight colour.

9: Do the Collodion scars- applying barrier foam onto the face when doing facial scars.

10: Take down the curls now that they have set.

11: Comb through the curls to mess them up and to bring the parting back.

12: Spray the hair with hairspray at the parting, combing the product through so that it looks slick.

13: Mess up the rest of the hair.

YOU ARE FINISHED!! TAKE PICTURES, TAKE OFF THE MAKEUP AND PACK UP.