Quentin final character design

Quentin

 

Here Is a close up photograph of my character Quentin's hair and makeup. Many of the other photographs on the blog convey the characters styling from a mid length shot, facial close up and side shot.
I wanted to create a character which resembled the Joker , and incorporated an element of the 1950s into the styling . The human puppet was the name I wanted to use to sum up to my target audience the characters role in chosen TV horror series the American Horror Story season 4 the freak show.

Firstly I asked my model to change into chosen outfit, which was a white shirt and waistcoat. I chose this outfit due to it being quite plain, I wanted the main focus to be the makeup and hair styling. The outfit also resembled the 1950s which was when season 4 of the American horror story was set.

I then started to create Quentin's makeup, by firstly applying a white foundation base by Illamaqua to the face , neck and ears which I blended out using my buffer brush. Next I applied a black supracolour to the eyelids and under the eyes, to make the makeup appear more rough I smudge the eye makeup using my thumb.  Then I used my grey and black eye shadow from my Kryolan pallet to contour the face. Next I used red supracolour and my angled brush to draw a thin triangle above and underneath the eyes, I then used fake blood to add depth to the red triangles.

Next I started to create the joker inspired smile, using gelatine from screen face which I heated in the microwave and applied from the corners of the mouth extended out into an over sized smile using a spatula. Once the gelatine was dried I then applied my Illamaqua loose powder to set the product. Using dark red , pink and black supracolour I added depth to the mouth colouring the darker areas of the mouth darker red to black and the lighter areas of the mouth pink. I then used fake blood to fill in the smile and a textured orange sponge to add texture to the mouth and in order to complete my look.

Next I applied a special effects cut which I prepared earlier to the wrist, I stuck the prosthetic to the skin using latex and blending the product into the ski using foundation from my Kryolan pallet. Finally to make the cut appear more raw I reapplied blood to the cut. On the other wrist I recreated the makeup , by firstly applying cinewax to the wrist and blending the product using a spatula, I then used latex and tissue paper to layer up the wound and create a skin like effect. Once that was dried I then used scissors to create a cut in the skin . Using dark red and black I applied colour to the wound. I then used a needle and thread to create stitches effect around the wrist. Finally to complete the special effects look I applied blood to the wound.

In terms of the hair I sectioned the hair into a prominent side parting using my pin tail comb, I then sleeked the my models fringe back of his face and applied a gel to the hair to create a sleek greasy 1950s resembled hairstyle.

When taking my Photographs I worked in a small group with people who had background experience on photography in order to give me advice and feedback on lighting skills in order to highlight the best qualities of my makeup skills. I also decided to shot my characters hair and makeup in front of a curtain pole, in order to give the audience the feeling of a puppet at a show in front of a curtain, I used string which I attached to my models wrists ad to the curtain pole to complete my character styling.

I was generally quite happy with the outcome of my Quentin character, I liked the outcome of the hair and the application of makeup used around the mouth to create a joker like smile. I also felt my chosen colour scheme worked well and my chosen outfit resembled the 1950s. The only thing I feel I could have improved on was perhaps making the eye make up a little more even, however the rough makeup look I feel works well with the element of horror. Another thing I was slightly disappointed with was the makeup applied around the wrist , the prosthetic which I created earlier and applied to the skin using latex looked like it was blended into the skin well, however the makeup on the other wrist looked a little messy and thick, I felt the latex wasn't blended into the skin well enough and the makeup looked to heavy. Due to being unhappy with the outcome of the second wrist I used editing skills in order to make the makeup appear more realistic.









The photograph on he left I feel is a fantastic shot , however I feel the miscoloured wrist lets the image down a little
Due to shooting my character makeup on location which was in a cabin, the lightening was rather yellow, however when shooting the makeup and hair the character was shot under a white light, therefore the makeup on the wrists appear slightly miscoloured in comparison to the rest of my models arm, particularly on the wrist which appeared to have more heavier makeup application. This can be considered as a mistake and something to take on board for future reference, the lighting skills.

Here is the same photograph as the one above , in this photograph I used my editing skills to edit the wrist and make it neater in order to see what it would look like . Although the wrist looks slightly different colour to the rest of the arm still this was due to applying the makeup under yellow lighting due to shooting on location and shooting the photographs under a white light I feel the by slightly tidying the wrist makeup up it looks much more neater, I achieved this by using the clone tool on Photoshop to clone certain parts of the wrist in order to get rid of the sharp line.

Here is a photograph of makeup before shooting under white lighting, in this photograph the lighting appears quite shadowed and yellow , due to shooting on location. I shot my final images using a white light.

Here are some of my final images of my Quentin character, the curtain behind him I felt looks as if he is in a show as a human puppet, I decided to experiment with adding different filters onto some of my final images in order to make it look like a spotlight and to make the photograph appear older, due to my Chosen Horror series,the American horror story the freak show being set in the 1950s.

Here is another one of my final images I applied a darker filter to the image to make the image appear more shadowed, I feel by using this filter its emphasised the mouth makeup and the red around the eyes .