Colour Thoery

Colour Theory

Being a makeup artist colour is going to be your best friend, colour and set a mood, make a statement or attract attention. Using the right colours for certain looks can get you on the right tracks to creating the perfect look you’ve always wanted.

In the colour wheel it is divided up into different categories, which are primary, secondary and tertiary colours.

Primary- There is three primary colours Red, Yellow and Blue. These are known as the foundation colours because you need these colours to create other colours.

Secondary- By using two of the primary colours you can create a secondary colour. The secondary colours are Orange, Green and Violet.

Tertiary- Tertiary colour is created by combining a primary and secondary colour. These colours are Yellow-Orange, Orange-Red, Red-Violet, Violet-Blue, Blue-Green and Green Yellow.

The colour wheel can be divided into half, which shows the warm and cool tones of the wheel. This can help when colour matching because you understand when foundation needs to be cooler or warmer for it to match a client’s skin.

Warm colours- Warm colours include Orange, Red and Yellow and other variations of these colours. These colours are known for being very bright and vibrant. Also being passionate and energetic.

Cool colours- Cool colours include Violet, Green and Blue and other variations of these colours. These colours show a more calm and down to earth mood to them.

Analogous Colours- Analogous colours are created by using three or more colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel.

Analogous Colours- Analogous colours are created by using three or more colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel.

Complimentary colours- Complimentary colours are created with a combination of colours from the opposite side of the colour wheel. They are contrasting colours. They make each of the colours pop. For example if a model had bright blue eyes you would use orange to make them stand out.

Also complimentary colours are really important when using colour correction because if you want to cancel out a colour you use the opposite. For example if you want to cover up redness using a green to counteract that would be the best way.

Monochromatic colours- Monochromatic colours are created using different tones and shade and tins of the same colour. For example a monochromatic set of the colour blue would be the blue colour family. This means it would be the lightest of blue ranging to the darkest of blue.

All different colours can show different moods and set a different story. Different colours mean different things for example…

•          Red:Passion,Love,Anger,Power,Sexy
•          Orange:Energy,Happiness,Vitality
•          Yellow:Happiness,Hope,Bright,Summer
•          Green:Abundance,Nature,Growing
•          Blue:Calm,Responsible,Depression,Winter
•          Pink: Sweet, Lovely, First Love, Flowers
•          Purple: Creativity, Royalty, Wealth, Romance
•          Black: Mystery, Elegance, Evil
•          Gray: Moody, Conservative, Formality, Dull
•          White: Purity, Cleanliness, Virtue, Light, Snow
•          Brown: Nature, Wholesomeness, Dependability, Autumn
•          Tan or Beige: Conservative, Piety, Dull
•          Cream or Ivory: Calm, Elegant, Purity
• 
  

Blog References: Color Theory for Designers, YouBeauty-Makeup Artist Basics: The Color Wheel

Self Portrait

Self Portrait

Referring back to my earlier post about how symbolism has continued throughout time and to this day how important it is to show wealth and power in celebrity portraits. Different colours and objects in portraiture show peoples personalities and class. I decided to test this out by photographing by own self-portrait.

While planning my shoot I decided to do some research on the meanings of different colours and what they symbolise. For example I found that orange is the colour that most suits my personality.

Orange: Orange is a fun, bright and bold color and often symbolizes hope, freshness, zest, vigor, and optimism. Orange is a stimulating color that can be a symbol for hunger, desire, creativity, or sociability. Orange makes you feel alive and well and on top of the world. http://mindfuldreamer.com/colors/

I then decided to use the color on a piece of clothing because I think it shows that I’m interested in the fashion industry. I also wore a piece of clothing, which is very popular to wear fur at the moment, which shows that my taste in fashion is very mainstream and bold. I also used red lipstick in the portrait because I think that shows my love for makeup design because I think that wearing red lipstick is to make an impression. 

 I also wore a watch in my portrait, which is Marc Jacobs, which is one of my favorite brands because they suit my style and personality.

 

Symbolism in Portraiture

Elizabethan Portraiture

The Elizabethans used to fill their portraits with a huge amount of symbolism and meanings. This was to try to show there personally through these detailed and very cleverly thought out portraits. Everything in these portraits are painted for a reason. One of the Elizabethan portraits I have looked at as an example is The Rainbow Portrait. This portrait is full of bright color’s and objects.  Elizabeth Is standing in front of a dark archway holding a rainbow above which is inscribed the Latin motto “NON SINE SOLE IRIS”: no rainbow without a sun. Then with her other hand she lightly touches the hem of her ornate cloak, painted partly in gold leaf and decorated with human eyes and ears. One of its sleeves is prominently decorated with a jeweled serpent. The queen also wears a bodice decorated with flowers, three pearl necklaces, several bracelets, a brooch in the form of a cross and a fantastically ornate head-dress. An open standing ruff, a gauzy transparent veil and a ballooning diaphanous lace-embroidered collar of such extent it makes her resemble some strange hybrid of human being and winged insect completes her outfit.

The rainbow were meant to symbolize peace, the serpent which has been embroidered on her sleeve is to represent wisdom and with the ruby is trying to get the point across to the audience that her emotions are controlled by her wisdom. You then have the symbolism from the eyes and the ears that are covering the gown, this is to show that she hears and sees all. Which I think is a very powerful message, which she is trying to get across to her country and also other countries. I think its almost saying she’s going to be one step ahead of everyone else.

After looking into depth about some Elizabethan portraits and how different objects, symbols and colors mean different things I thought I would look up modern portraits and see if things have changed through time.

I looked at a portrait which taken by a photographer which is unknown, but the portrait was of Queen Victoria in the year of her Diamond Jubilee. Around this time her popularity was severely threatened because she didn’t want to be in the public eye after Prince Albert’s death. So this portrait of her was extremely important. This portrait helped to emphasis Victoria’s role as monarch and to ensure the public were rightfully proud of her long reign.

She was positioned in this photo to be upright and in a regal pose because this shows power, they also made it look like she was deep in thought, which could be reflecting on her long reign. Another main point she is making is that she’s all dressed in black, which is the colour she wore all the time after Albert’s death. She also has a very straight face which doesn’t show much emotion quite like the Elizabethan portraits this could show that she is very serious about her role and to show determination to govern Britain to the best of her ability.

Even today they are showing symbolism of power and wealth through images of celebrities, for example the Kardashaian family portrait shows just that. All the men are dressed in suits this immediately screams power and wealth; I think it also shows that they are in control of there self and everything that is going on around them. Another point in that one of the women in the portrait is wearing a suit as well as the men, this could show that she has a lot of power and control over other people including men. There is also a hint of green in this image being drape over the woman’s shoulders, green is also symbolic of money this could be them trying to get it across that they are very wealthy, the color green is also on fur which means its going to be expensive piece of clothing.

This portrait shouts wealth within this family; just by the way the family are all stood very upright and chins up. I think this may show that maybe they think they are better than everyone else; saying they are more superior or a higher class than everyone else.

There is a lot of symbolism in portraits these days that we don’t even notice. I am going to attempt to do my own self portrait showing things that represent me.

Cleansing and Toning

Cleansing and Toning

Equipment list...
-Cotton Pads
-Cotton Buds
-Cleaners and Toner for sensitive skin
-Moisturiser 

Health and safety is a big part of Makeup and Hair Design. We started this lesson by listing the different health and safety measures that need to be taken. This includes making sure bags and coats are out the way. This is extremely important because this industry is very busy and you have people running around all the time to meet deadlines, which means it could become a hazard with bags and coats on the floor. Another main health and safety issue in makeup and hair design is making sure everything is clean and hygienic. After you have set all the makeup and brushes you will be using, make sure your brushes have been cleaned since the last time you used them. A good way to make sure this has been done is to clean them straight after you have used them and know you’re going to be packing them away. Another really important part of preparing yourself is making sure your hair is out of your face and isn’t going to get in the way of you doing your models makeup. The last thing you do before starting the makeup is introduce yourself to your model and then tell them you’re going to go wash your hands. This is important because they then know that your hands are clean instead of wondering if you have cleaned them before starting their makeup.

We started this practical by asking the model if they are allergic to anything, and also to ask if they wear contact lenses. This is really important because you’ll then know what types of products you can use on them and also if they do wear contact lenses you need to be slightly gentler around the eyes. We started off by taking off the makeup using cleaners and cotton pads. If you use a cleanser that is sensitive to skin it will nearly cover every skin type. We started to take the makeup off by using upwards motions starting from the neck. Once you have taken off the base of the makeup, you can then use the cleanser on cotton buds to take the mascara off. This is done by getting your model to look towards the ceiling.

Once we have cleansed the face and made sure there is no more makeup left on the face we then moved onto toning which we used in the same way as the cleanser but this takes off anything that the cleanser didn’t and preps the skin ready for moisturiser. After you have toned the skin we then moved onto moisturiser which we used by using one pump and rubbing that into the hands and then using small circular motions to rub into the skin, this is meant to be relaxing so slowly is the best way to apply the moisturiser.

The main part I found difficult is the way you have to do the cleansing and toning which was from behind your model which was really different to the way you think you should be done. It was really difficult because you had to look at what you were doing through the mirror which made it quite hard to relax as you had to pay full attention to what you were doing. I think this will get easier the more I practise because I think at the moment we are doing motions that are very unnatural to us.
Once you have taken the makeup off and toned and moisturised you can then answer the questions that you need to know before you start their makeup. You need to know what skin tone they have and what type of skin they have.

Elizabethan Makeup Recipe

Apart from the colour of the skin, The Elizabethan idea of beauty was not very different from today’s fashionable look.

Pale skin – This was looked at as a sign of nobility and wealth and could be achieved by a number of ways.

• Staying out of the sun – While travelling or walking in the gardens during summer, noble women would wear oval masks of black velvet called “visards” to protect their faces from the sun.
• Being bled – to give themselves a washed out appearance and to take the colour out of their faces, women would be “bled” probably by leeches.
• Make-up – “Venetian Ceruse” or just ceruse was the most popular means to achieve a pale and smooth complexion. This consisted of a mixture of lead and vinegar. The first record of this skin-whitener was found in 1519 and by Elizabeth I’s reign was well established. However lead is a poisonous element when spread on your skin and was the cause of pitted, discoloured skin and hair loss. This probably lead to the belief that a high hairline or brow was a sign of nobility when it was actually a sign that they had smothered their skin in a poisonous concoction!
• Alum, tin ash and sulphur and talc
• Eggs – boiled egg white and other white materials were used and uncooked egg white was used as a glaze to keep other white ingredients on the face and to tighten the skin to hide wrinkles.
• Mother of pearl – mother of pearl and pearls were ground up to give a luminescence and shimmer.

Bright eyes –

• Belladonna – The name “belladonna” means beautiful lady. This practice began in Italy and the juice of this plant was dropped into women’s eyes to enlarge the pupils which is considered to be attractive and seductive. This plant is really poisonous, only 5 berries or 1 leaf is enough to kill a person and is not used cosmetically anymore as proonged useage caused blindness. The active ingredients in belladonna are atropine, hyoscine (scopolamine), and hyoscyamine, have anticholinergic properties.
• Eyeliner – kohl (powered antimony) was used to outline eyes to enhance their size and to make them appear more wide set and darken their eyelashes.

Red cheeks and lips –

• Face paint containing powdered madder root was applied to give a red glow to womens cheeks and is still available today although it is classed as an unsafe herb. . Expensive dyes made from cochineal was used to redden cheeks and lips. Cochineal is a dye obtained from a beetle. Cochineal insects produced carminic acid which was used to deter other insects. Carminic acid was mixed with aluminium to make the carmine dye.  
• Lipstick has been used for thousands of years since women and men crushed gemstones and applied them to their lips. The Elizabethan age made lipstick fashionable again after the middle ages when it was banned by the church. By this time it was made from beeswax and red stains from plants. Madder and cochineal were also used on the lips, which could also be reddened by using vermilion, a red pigment obtained from mercury sulphide. Lipstick today is made out of many ingredients. There are now organic types made of castor oil, beeswax and other various natural oils and it appears that the production of lipstick seems to have gone full circle.

Smooth complexion –

• Skin Care - All that makeup women (and men) used to achieve a white complexion, would often create all types of skin problems. To get rid of blemishes, wrinkles, spots and freckles the Elizabethans would use several methods: rosewater, lemon juice or mixture of eggshells, alum, mercury and honey. The wealthy would also bathe in ass’s milk while washing the face with mercury was also very popular. Mercury was also a common ingredient in skin care lotions to clear spots and wrinkles, however the mercury corroded the skin. Another method was to mix elder leaves, birch sap and sulphur which was left on the skin overnight and removed in the morning. Other forms of skin care ranged from urine to rain water to donkeys milk or wine.

Fair or red hair –

• A mixture of saffron, cumin seed, celandine and oil could be used to dye their hair a fashionable yellow or red.
• In the 1661 book Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art & Nature, various methods of coloring hair black, gold, green, red, yellow, and white are explained.

High brow –

• Hair was plucked or shaved from the hairline to give an aristocratic looking high forehead.

Copy of a picture showing an Elizabethan lady wearing a visard while travelling.