I have always had a great thrill from disguising myself and hiding my identity in a number of different ways.
Abstract portrait
In this I wanted to create an abstract type face paint. This doesn't necessarily have to be interpretated on just the face. To show more depth I had a quick idea to draw large eyes and eyebrows on my arm then held it up in front of my eyes as if they were my own. I feel I am producing a mask like effect as something is held in front of my face with facial features directly covering mine. By doing this I am portraying a mask and face paint as an equal. My features remind me of a wacky cartoon character. This is judging from how i'm expressing my mouth, the big eyes and the yellow hair. I am stood in front of a blank/white background so that the main focus of the picture and the colours stands out.
One way with experimenting ways of hiding the identity is by using face paints. Face painting has always been amusing to mostly young adults. The idea behind face painting is to become another character such as fictional and non fictional. This process is mostly known to excite people of the younger generation. This reason could be because face painting wasn't well known as painting realistically. As the liquid comes off the skin after breaking a sweat it is quicker to not worry about the details. The paint would run off quickly and the children do not yet care for whether something looks realistic or not. I myself find it an interesting hobby to portray realistically. It is another way to express playing a role of someone else and Its different to just putting on a mask. This way I get to create the mask myself by using my arm. This also helps me experiment with colours in a delicate manner. To make your face paint look realistic it is important to have a steady hand and to know your colours. Just like painting.
Day of the dead - Sylvia Ji
Sylvia Ji is a painter who expresses dark portraits of 'Day Of The Dead'. These are portrayed from photographs focussing on the beauty behind life and death. Sylvia has experimented in changing the skull into something more life like. When we see skulls our first thoughts are death and morbidity and by someone having this painted on their face makes us find something amusing that we once thought was depressing.
The patterns on the portrait are painted like a face paint with delicate patterns and colours. Instead of using the original bone shapes Sylvia has changed the bone structures and added small shapes and lines. There are also natural coloured floral patterns added. I noticed that she has floral patterns in her hair as if they are hair clips with her hair tied up in a large but loose bun. The woman in this painting is composed this way to portray an elegant side to the skull.
My interpretation
I adore the dark side to beauty and I wanted to explore with this by using myself as my experiment. Before putting on my face paints I put on an outfit which shouts out the word 'elegant' to me. I put on my favourite cream Basque tied my hair up in a bun and wore a flower clip on the side. I noticed my earring's fitted just well as has a skulls face carved in black and white. This is the logo for 'The Mighty Boosh'. I stood in front of a black bacground which was in fact a garage door. I chose to do this so that my image is being centered. I feel a theatrical theme going on.
The Joker - The Dark Knight
My interpretation
The picture shown above is my most loved face paint I have done on myself. Reasons being because I felt I could play the part extremely well as I already had the hair and colours in the clothes to match just perfect. These colours were purple and blue. A purple dress was worn with a dark blue blazer giving my own interpretation of the costume. In this situation I see myself more as a lady like version of the Joker. The Joker is my favourite fictional character as his appearance is surreal and clown like. This isn't just a made up face paint but in the book/movie there is a storey behind it. Quoting The Joker...
"Wanna know how I got these scars? My father was... a drinker, and a fiend! And one night he comes home crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife and defends herself; he doesn't like that. No. Not... one... bit. So, me watching - he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. He turns to me, and says.. "Why so SERIOUS?" So, he comes at me with the knife, "Why so SERIOUS?!" He sticks the blade in my mouth, "Let's put a smile on that face!"
I fell in love with this quote and the day I played off the role I just could not stop myself from using the famous quote "why so serious?"
On my research I came across a doll and mask that portray The Joker. I fell deeply in love with each of them.
Zombie
That time of year has yet come around again. My favourite time of the year, that being Halloween. Halloween is a time year where everyone has fun dressing up as something they aren't. I have this thrilling feeling that makes me shiver as everyone around me feels that same exciting feeling as I do when dressing up as another character. Halloween is meant to scare. Its theme is horrific monsters and creepy stories. Some people don't see Halloween in this term but they see it as an opportunity to dress as a fictional person with beauty added. I do not agree with this.
Every time this time of year arrives I mainly like to dress myself up dead (a zombie). The reason to this is because I love the horrific theme being zombie movies and zombie apocalypse. There is a dark side to someone being killed then later on walking around as a living body without a soul. A person becomes a monster ready to feast.
I had the most fun adding the latex, fake blood and bruises. The latex gave off that texture of my skin peeling off with the blood adding to it and added colours like black and yellow for bruising.
This image looks that bit more horrific as it is a close up portrait showing an angry expression of a zombie. There are also shadows following behind me.
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