Initial Ideas Presentation and Evaluation

 

Initial Ideas Presentation and Evaluation:

 

After completing my research, I started to think about some ideas for my makeup. I made notes on this and these are my notes:

Using these notes, I started to draw and created my initial designs, when creating these designs I had taken into consideration the animal and personality traits which is what I wanted to focus my look on:

I then created a presentation about my initial ideas.

I presented this presentation on Monday 12^th April and this is my presentation:

This is the script of what I said:

Slide 1:

The star sign I had chosen to do is Scorpio, I will discuss information I have found about this sign and then discuss my ideas and how it links to my research so that it’s more coordinated than constantly going between ideas and research.

Slide 2:

So, I thought I’d start off by talking about some general facts about Scorpio that most people would think is random but some of these things are that it’s the only sign that has 4 symbols linked to it rather than just 1. There’s a website called Astrology zodiac signs which us where I got this information from and I found out that the 4 symbols are a scorpion, a serpent, an eagle and a phoenix, the 4 lucky numbers of this sign are 8, 11, 18 & 22. The dates for this sign are from the 23rd of October until the 21st of November, Scorpio is also a water sign, and its rulers are Mars & Pluto, the relevance of this will be mentioned in a minute.

Scorpio is also the ruler of sexual organs and the colours linked to it are scarlet, red, and the slight orange tone of rust. As this is the 8th sign in the zodiac, it represents the change from August, and this is one of the ways it’s referred to as the sign of death.

Slide 3:

This M is the symbol of Scorpio and there’s 3 different interpretations of what it represents, I found out about these from a website called Love to know that has lots of information and articles on the zodiac and their history.

One of these interpretations is that this symbol represents the scorpion and that the arrow on the end of the M is the stinger of the scorpion.

Another interpretation comes from people who are more spiritually inclined, this is that it represents the serpent as it’s spiralling up the spine towards the 3rd eye and it represents Kundalini energy.

The 3rd interpretation is that this is a phallic image, for those who don’t know what that means, it can be an actual penis, penis shaped or just something that represents a penis. This is an interpretation because Scorpio rules the sexual organs, so it makes sense for the symbol to represent a penis.

Slide 4:

Personality traits are a huge part of any zodiac sign, Scorpio is no exception, there’s both negative and positive traits, some of these have been dotted around on the slide, as it says here, Scorpios can be very stubborn which can be seen as a positive or negative trait depending on the situation. Other traits include being very argumentative, distrusting, and secretive but they’re also very loyal, good leaders, they’re passionate and they have an incredible amount of intelligence and bravery. This information also came from astrology zodiac signs, I looked at lots of different sources but this one gave the best explanations.

Slide 5:

So next I’m going to talk about the scorpion and its links to this sign. This information came from love to know, the first thing to know about this is that the defensive aspects of the scorpion have been spotted in Scorpios. A scorpion is defensive, hostile, aggressive, and they won’t hesitate to strike if they feel threatened, this is also one of the ways the scorpion, Scorpio and Mars are linked. The sexual aspect also links these 3 things, I know this seems a bit random, but it’s linked as the mating process of scorpions can be very dangerous and can even result in death.  There’s a saying in French which is ‘la petite mort’ which translates to ‘the little death,’ this is referring to the orgasms and it further portrays the importance of the sexual nature of Scorpio.

Scorpions also glow when placed under a UV light, this has been described as almost appearing magical, the sign of Scorpio has been associated with magic on many different occasions, this is another link between the 2.

Slide 6:

The next topic is the serpent, this is a snake but due to the age of this it was originally labelled as the serpent. These creatures are calm, and they will lay in wait, but they will bite if provoked. The shedding of the skin represents the process of rebirth, regeneration, and renewal within the sign of Scorpio, Scorpios are also said to have a fascination with death, danger, the unseen and the psycho-spiritual, this again is represented by the serpent and it’s a strong link to Pluto as this is the planet of death and rebirth.

Slide 7:

Scorpios also share some traits with an eagle, one of these being that they are intelligent and wise, they’re also extremely loyal and amazing friends but they make despicable enemies. They also share the ability to spot small details that others may not see, for an eagle this means their eyesight but for Scorpios it often means being able to spot when someone’s lying very easily based on their tone of voice, facial expression, and body language, these are thing that other people may not spot.

Slide 8:

The final symbol linked to the Scorpio is the phoenix, this is a mythical creature that represents the transformational energy of a Scorpio, this also reinforces the fact that Scorpios are often very wise, mature, and intelligent. All of this information has come from love to know, there’s so much information about these things but I decided to use this website as my main reference.

Slide 9:

So, before talking about my designs and my ideas, I wanted to talk about the history of this sign because it was so fascinating to read about, and I wanted to share it with you as I feel it gives a huge insight to how some of the personality traits link. This information came from lots of different places, but the 2 main ones are Greekmythology.com and Astrology zodiac signs.

When looking into it I found different versions of the myth, but they all ended the same, this is that Orion is stung by a scorpion and dies, they also share the same sexual element as he is seduced by Eos, who is the goddess of dawn, and was abducted by her which made Artemis jealous.

One version of this myth is that Orion and Artemis were hunting partners, but this made her brother extremely jealous, and he wanted to stop it, so he went to Mother Earth and asked her to create a giant scorpion to kill him. Zeus then placed them in the heavens as a constellation. Artemis was placed as the heart of the scorpion.

Another version is that Orion wanted to kill a bull which made Gaia angry, so she sent a scorpion to sting him to prevent the kill, this then ended with his death.

A final version is that he threatened Artemis and her mother that he would kill every animal on the planet which made them disgustingly angry, and they sent a scorpion to battle him, but he lost and died.

Slide 10:

This leads onto the constellation; this was recognised by the Babylonians and its name translates to ‘the creature with the burning sting.’ As we can also see in the enhanced pictures of this, Antares is the biggest star of the constellation, this is the heart of the scorpion and it’s often called ‘the rival of Mars’ due to its red colour and it’s one of the 4 royal stars. The western location means it’s referred to as the ‘Guardian of the West.’

Slide 11:

Finally, I’m going to end by talking about my ideas, I’ve included a photo of the notes I created while I was doing research because this is how I started to link lots of things together and how they link to the sign. It has notes on how I want the hair to be curly and it also has notes on how I can include prosthetics into it.

I then decided that the colour theme would be shades of blue as it’s a water sign and reds as it links to the scorpion and the colours most often associated with the sign.

I started to think of ways that I could create this makeup, so I started to sketch and that’s how I came up with the design on the right, I loved the idea of having a bold blue lip, and reds to shade the face.

I wanted to include the stinger of the scorpion which is when I decided that I would create a head piece, the general shape is shown here to help visualize this idea better, this still needs to be covered and painted. This is made from tinfoil and paper mâché as it’s a lot lighter than Modroc, so it has less chance of slipping. I also wanted to include water in some way, so I thought about maybe adding droplets to the face or coming from the mouth, but I decided to create tears. Emotions are very important to Scorpios, but they can also be very argumentative and aggressive, my mams a Scorpio and she has a disgusting habit of crying when she’s angry (I ended up inheriting this as well) so I decided that I would incorporate that and have them represent angry tears.

I also had some inspiration from ‘Maleficent’ and her high cheekbones, she’s such a headstrong character and I feel as though this is also shown in Scorpios, so I wanted to do something similar, and I decided to add a snake print to the top side of the cheeks to incorporate this aspect as well, I have created a clay sculpture to help portray this and the pattern with blend out with the prosthetic. The eyebrows will also be covered with prosthetics to create angry eyebrows but with an indent rather than hair, again this is taken from the personality traits.

The symbol was a very important aspect when planning this makeup so I decided to create a prosthetic for the centre of the neck with this symbol, I have also chosen curly hair so that the spirals of the curls can represent the spirals in the symbol.

After creating this design, I didn’t like it very much because personally I thought it looked a bit boring, so I decided to recreate the design but with red skin and this really helped contrast the blue lips.

As this is for a calendar, I didn’t want to use wax for any of the sfx work as I didn’t want to risk the chance of it melting under the lights or moving during the process, I decided that silicone prosthetics would be best because I prefer working with it over latex and there’s no latex bald cap that could possibly melt.

This means that alcohol paints would be used to paint it, but I need to experiment with finding a red eyeshadow that matches the shade of alcohol paint as it could be dangerous to put alcohol paint this close to the eyes, if I am unable to do it, grease paints can be used, and they won’t come off if my model starts to sweat like aqua paints would.

The edges would also need to be seamless to prevent them showing up on camera, this will also prevent the paint sticking to the edges and making it obvious that it’s makeup, and it will all have to be powdered to prevent any shine from the prosthetics causing inconsistencies in the makeup and it will prevent the lights making the makeup appear distorted. 

After my presentation, Amy C asked about how I would like this look to be photographed and if I would want it to be a full body piece, I then discussed that I would want the costume to be a ‘90’s edgy look as there’s a stereotype that edgy people can be aggressive so I want to play on that as it links to the personality traits so I might have my model wear a leather jacket to fit with that agenda.

Drew then asked how the stinger would stay in the hair so I discussed how it’s attached to a headband and that will be pinned into the hair to prevent it slipping and that the hair would be used to cover the headband.

I demonstrated good communication skills while presenting as personally, I feel as though I was confident while speaking and I spoke clearly, I also gave a clear explanation of each slide and how it was all relevant. My presentation was well coordinated, and the points made with each slide were very clear so they could be understood easily which demonstrated good organisational skills.