Andy Warhol - The Pop Art King

Andy Warhol was best known for being a leading influential figure in the visual art movement of Pop Art.

What is Pop Art?

Pop Art began in the mid 1950's in Britain and spread to the USA in the late 1950's, it challenged Fine art as it included imagery from western and pop culture and usually combined with other unrelated materials. Pop art focused on mass-produced commercial goods, one of the most popular was Andy Warhol's works featuring "Campbell Soup Cans 1962".

"Campbell Soup Cans 1962"

Alongside creating iconic Pop Art, Andy Warhol also explored portraiture and expression within his work called 'Screen Tests'. Screen Tests were a series of  silent film portraits which each lasted around two minutes, they were shot in silent black and white focusing on the subjects, expression, movement and body language. Warhol usually featured his close friends and celebrities in his screen tests and encouraged them to use continuous movement and interactions.

The link below is a screen test of Baby Jane Holzer brushing her teeth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmW4zME8n3o

Isamaya Ffrench - My Make-up GOD

Isamaya Ffrench hands down is the real OG (Original Gangster), Ffrench challenges conformity and norms within make-up application and in result creates visually beautiful and fascinating art. I referenced Isaymaya's works during my art and design course as her works are inspirational within different aspects of fashion,make-up artist, photography and design, like Alex Box Ffrench uses the face as a blank canvas allowing her to paint creatively and freely without a plan.

Isamaya French has collaborated with Nick Knight, MAC Cosmetics, YSL, Richard Burbridge and many other respectable and inspiring practitioners. 

Below are some of favourite images of her works.

"Flowers"

"Lego"

"Practicing self-development"

Claire Barrow x Eloise Parry

"Move On".

Claire Barrow and Eloise Parry collaborated together making a short film that symbolises a focus on change within our lives and leaving the past behind. Eloise Parry's short film reflects on the bittersweet change of subcultures and style and how the past is being put to bed as we enter a new fashion period within history. 

“Move On represents a milestone for us, a change in the direction of our careers and lives, and putting the past to bed,”- Claire Barrow, Dazed and Confused interview September 2016.

“The collection itself was a study of historical dress,” - Claire Barrow, Dazed and Confused interview September 2016. The collection of historical clothing was delightful and intense throughout the film, I use the word delightful as you can relate and reflect on the past with each unique model featured within the film. Each garment within Barrows collection brings a sense of nostalgia as you follow history with every "look", reminding you of the subculture, behaviour, historical, political and social influence all attached to each garment. The generation of today still attach styles to different subcultures yet they no longer hold the same political and social value, in history clothing created identities, independence and personal value, today clothing is simply replicated  and reproduced for the sake of financial values and branding.

This collection celebrates and reflects on the past to welcome the present, but also represents the dying diversity and unique values fashion and style once held in history.

Claire Barrow AW16

Watch "Move On".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10lhEsvc75A&feature=youtu.be

See Claire Barrow's AW16 Collection.

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/32676/1/claire-barrow-and-eloise-parry-team-up-on-subversive-film

Dripping in Gold

My holiday blues inspired this 'Dripping in Gold' make-up look,  when I went to the Crop Over festival in beautiful Barbados me and my two friends decided to wear glitter all over our bodies and faces to stand out more and the way the glitter reflected under the blazing sun was unreal. All the women dancing in the festival looked stunning and unique and the mix of rich, golden, bright colours and sprinkles of glitter became all one majestic blur. This make-up look is a golden, Caribbean, sun kissed and fun look which reminds me of the carnival and Bajan sunset. 

Products Used

Kryolan Essence palette

NYX Cream highlighter - bronze

NYX Cream highlighter - rose gold

Ben nye pressed powder paletter

Kryolan Brights palette 

Urban Decay naked 2 palette

Mac reflective glitter - holographic silver

Vivo eyeshadow palette - bronze

Kryolan supra colour palette

Kryolan Aqua palette

Soap and Glory black Mascara

Revolution eyeshadow palette 

Bonjour golden highlighter 

Olive Oil 

Mac highlighter 

Gold Glitter

Sci Fi and Highlighting

Since reading Frank Herbert's 'Dune', I wanted to create a editorial style make-up inspired by Sci Fi, aliens and all that good extra terrestrial stuff. The make-up look I created was based on earthy tones which reminded me of the setting of the desert in the book and I wanted to use highlighting products to create a different skin texture and finish similar to replicate Hollywood alien characters.

Products Used 
Kryolan Supra colour palette - gold (base colour)
Kryolan Essence palette- bronze - (contouring and highlighting)
Benefit eyeshadow palette - shimmery brown  (Contouring cheeks, nose, neck, collar bones and forehead)
Kryolan Aqua palette - gold, black (base, lips)
Maybelline kohl pencil - gold (eyes,brows)
Bojour 3d effect lip gloss- Bronze (Eyes)
Maybelline kohl pencil -black (lips)
Urban Decay naked 2 palette - Bronze,gold (eyes, eyebrows)
Ben Nye pressed powder palette - brown black white ( eyes, contouring, lips)
NYX Highlighting cream - rose gold
NYX Highlighting cream - bronze 
Black mascara 

I'm happy with the outcome of this look but to improve it I would have extended the base further onto my chest and also add some scar wax to create small bumps on the skin around the forehead area to make it look more theatrical and sfx inspired but this is something I can re create in the future.

Lon Chaney Sr

Lon Chaney Sr

"The man of a Thousand Faces".

Lon Chaney was a iconic silent film actor often referred to as "The man of a Thousand Faces", physically and mentally Lon Chaney Sr transformed his body and face in order to become different identities and characters on stage. Using make-up, clothing and props Chaney was able to transform himself into different characters in silent films, he was a very talented actor and took his craft seriously taking on different roles as much as he could. His late parents were deaf mutes which explains his incredible ability to communicate without sound and project different characters so well on stage. 

"Chaney referred to his expertise in both make-up and contorting his body to portray his subjects as "extraordinary characterization." Chaney's talents extended beyond the horror genre and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer and comedian."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney

I admire Lon Chaney a lot especially his advanced skill in make-up artistry and adapting himself fully into different characters, he truly was beyond his time. The following link is to a youtube video where Lon Chaney Sr is acting in "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", is this short clip you can see the detailing and skill Lon Chaney held in make-up artistry and stage make-up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUWgEvxZUFU

Jack Pierce

Jack Pierce was a Hollywood make-up artist who created the iconic make-up in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1931), Pierce also continued to work in Universal Studios creating makeup for classic monster movies such as Dracula (1931) and White Zombie. When creating characters Jack Pierce preferred using 'Out of the box techniques' which allowed him to build facial structure and features with products such as cotton wool and collodian instead of Latex appliances. It is said that Pierce spent up to 4 hours each day applying and creating make-up looks on actors, it's crazy to think that these special effects techniques are now being overtaken  and replaced by CGI instead of being hand made.

Frankenstein (1931)

The Wolf Man (1941)

In 1946 it was said that Jack Pierce was fired from Universal studios due to him refusing to use the 'Foam Latex' technique. This new technique became very popular in special effects make-up and was very beneficial for film production companies as it was cheaper and quicker to create make-up looks with. As Jack Pierce wanted to honour the traditional techniques, Universal studios were taken under new management who wanted to upgrade their movie to productions to a more prestige quality. Jack Pierce was one of the first special effects make-up artists to create credible and unique works that inspired and continue to inspire other successful make-up artists today.

Undressed: A brief History of Underwear.

Undressed.

"This exhibition explores the intimate relationship between underwear and fashion and its role in moulding the body to a fashionable ideal, with cut, fit,fabric and decoration revealing issues of gender, sex and morality." 

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition and have since developed a more in depth and meaningful understanding towards lingerie and underwear and what social impacts it has created throughout history for women.  This exhibition gave a more intimate, in depth explanation of underwear and lingerie and how and why it was created at certain points in past history. I've always looked at 'underwear' as just boring everyday garments worn to cover your intimate areas under clothing and 'Lingerie' as special, naughty and daring, mainly because of different factors etc, media and retail advertisement, mainstream and iconic models, sexism, social and unrealistic influences such as pornography and subliminal messages. This exhibition explored the history and development of both underwear & Lingerie, discussing how it was once worn by women to create structure and provide protection or a soft familiar warmth for newborns to then simply being used as high fashion statement pieces in the future. 

A brief walk through the history of Underwear...

Due to the V&A's new rules and regulations I couldn't take photographs or sketch.
The link below takes you to the Stylist blog which discusses the history of women's Underwear and Lingerie throughout history.
http://www.stylist.co.uk/fashion/a-brief-history-of-underwear#gallery-19

Barbados 2016

In August I had an amazing time in Barbados for a short 10 days. The small island was beautiful, the locals were so friendly and lovely and the food was out of this world. Whilst in Barbados I was part of 'Crop Over', Crop Over is a colourful and popular festival that originates from the 1780's when Barbados was the world's largest producer of sugar. Each year Barbadian's would celebrate another successful year of sugar cane harvesting by taking part in the Crop Over festival which celebrated the Barbadian culture. 

Being part of the Crop Over festival was an incredible and priceless experience and I'm dying to be part of the colourful festival again. I danced with the band 'Baje' which is one of the most popular and largest bands that dance in Crop Over, everyone wore beautiful, vibrant costumes and really embraced the celebratory mood everyone was in, with the help of rum of course. Unfortunately to my disappointment I didn't see the beautiful Rihanna, but I still wore her Fenty Puma's just incase I needed the catch her attention. Although, Chanel Iman a beautiful model who I also admire was part of the Crop Over festival and looked amazing!

As well as being part of Crop Over I also went to Bridgetown which is a popular shopping strip full of markets and shops, a Mount Gay rum tour which was one of my favourite activities and don't think it lasted long enough! The Fish market that was a hotspot for locals and tourists full of the best fresh seafood restaurants, music and trinket shops and lastly my favourite I went snorkelling and sailing on a catamaran and got to watch the beautiful sunset whilst drinking rum punch. 

Chanel Iman.

New Job! - Chanel Consultant.

After my endless search of looking for a summer job I'm more than excited to have a new job as a Chanel beauty consultant! I joined the Elite Agency which supplies jobs in the luxury beauty and fashion industry, I'm really loving being a Chanel consultant so far and have had the opportunity to work in Lakeside, Bluewater and Selfridges too. My role as beauty consultant consists of advising customers about the beauty, skincare and fragrances and also providing skincare and cosmetic consultations. Working and adapting to the Chanel look in regards of the make-up looks they promote, I have started to like wearing make-up looks, where wearing less is more and emphasising only certain parts of the face the most, etc eyes. 

Gruesome Fonts

This creepy make-up style is my most favourite and successful make-up experiment I've created recently, Inspired by 'Raniratt' who is an incredible 16 year old girl on Instagram who experiments with anything and everything special effects. She's incredibly talented and inspired me to create this gruesome font effect on the skin, I like the result and think it looks pretty realistic apart from the slight texture and colour difference compared to my skin tone which is less noticeable in the images without flash. 

Products Used

Nose and Scar Wax

Loreal true match foundation

Kryolan supracolour palette

Ben Nye Bruise wheel

Liquid stage blood

Spatula 

When bored become a... GALATIC WEIRDO

I recently created this colourful and sparkly Avant Garde inspired make-up look, this make-up look was really spontaneous and gave me a excuse to play with colours  textures and glitter. I wanted the focus to be on the colours used on my skin so I only applied a small coat of mascara on my lashes to define my eyes, I also kept my eyebrows natural without product and just clear brow gel. Although the look was inspired by Avant Garde I feel the result of the look makes my face looks like a disco galaxy ball!

Products Used

MUA Colour shadow Palette 

Maybelline Black khol liner 

Supracolour palette 

Illamasqua white pigment 

MAC 3D Reflective Glitter 

Chanel Volume Noir mascara 

Mexican Sugar Skull!

After reflecting on my first year I wanted to re-create a sugar skull look originated from Mexico where they celebrate the Day of the Dead. In my first semester Kat Vogart educated us about the Day of the Dead and how popular Sugar skulls are and also demonstrated how to create our own with some really helpful techniques. Because I really loved this studio session I wanted to recreate a sugar skull again on myself incorporated with lots of pink and sparkles, why? Because I'll use any excuse to play with pink and sparkles. The next time I create a sugar skull look I'm going to extend in down my neck area also to play with the look a little more. A sugar skull is quite simple to create as your face is a perfect template, there are lots of different Youtube videos that teach and show others unique designs! A favourite and inspiring sugar skull tutorial of mine is by EllieMacs. Ellie Macs is an incredible youtuber and make-up artist and I really love her originality and take on special effects make-up.

EllieMacsSfx;Sugar Skull - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJVNVjM1Vic
Here it is!

Products Used
Loreal true match foundation 
Illamasqua translucent powder
Ben Nye blush palette - Peach and Pink 
Kryolan supracolour palette - Pink, Black, Turquoise,white
MAC 3D Reflective glitter 
MAC Mix medium 
Faux jewel hearts 
Collection 2000 colour lash- electric blue

Burnt Exploded Lips!...Fail

After having a binge day of watching horror films and eating 10,000 calories I was spontaneously inspired to create a special effects look. I wanted to create a look that involved lips and making them appear dramatically blown up and covered in texture/destroyed flesh as recently on social medias such as Instagram and Youtube, nearly every new and popular beauty blogger has tried or uses lip fillers. I'm not too sure if I'm a fan of lip fillers yet, I used to feel very self conscious about the size of my lips and wished they were bigger and more plump, but ever since seeing more bloggers wear fillers and seeing the result I'm slightly out off as not everyone's looks natural, plump and pretty.
Nevertheless I wanted to create a horrific burnt, blown up lip look and here it is.
The result of this look was okay, I wasn't that impressed with what I had created but thought it was a good first attempt, I'm definitely going to try this look again and make the lips look a little more plastic.

Products Used
Ben Nye Nose and Scar wax 
Ben Nye Foundation Palette
Kryolan Supracolour palette
Liquid Stage Blood 
Ben Nye Bruise wheel

Quick step by Step
1.Cleanse lips, remove any oils/products
2.Using a spatula collect small amount of nose and scar wax and then combine with foundation shade similar to skin/lips
3.Begin to spread and mould lip shape out of scar wax on natural lips and stiple product to create flesh/blown up textures
4.Shade in with black, pink and red from supracolour palette and also yellow and black from bruise wheel, finish with some liquid blood for effect

DIY Tattoo sleeve practice!

I recently created this tattoo sleeve inspired design, its influenced by pop art, bright colours, illusion and of course tattoos. I really enjoyed creating this make-up look and got so lost into creating different designs and effects, I plan to recreate a similar 'sleeve' soon and completely cover my forearm to create a half sleeve look. 

Products Used
Kryolan Supracolour palette
Maybelline khol liner
Vivo transluscent powder
MAC 3D reflective glitter 
Kryolan Vbrights palette 

Glitz and Glam!

 Recently I created this really fun and sparkly eye-look, I wanted to experiment with bright bold colours and lots of sparkles and this was the result! Whenever I see woman wearing bright colours on their eyes I envy their confidence and daring attitude towards make-up, I think wearing bold colours on the eyes creates drama and uniqueness. Inspired by these daring women and also Illamasqua who embrace similar eye looks, I thought I would experiment with something really sparkly and dramatic. I really love the outcome of this look and now feel even more inspired to recreate the look with bright contrasting colours again.

Products used;

Rimmel Wake me up concealer 

Vivo translucent powder

Kryolan Supra colour palette

Kryolan VBrights eyeshadow palette 

Illamasqua white pigment 

MAC 3D Reflective Glitter 

Eyelure Strip Eyelashes 

No7 Black Mascara 

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette 

I applied extra translucent powder underneath the eyes to catch fall out from the eyeshadows and glitter I used.

To tie the look together I applied pink and black to my eyebrows in an ombre effect also and over drawing them slightly to make them appear thicker and more dramatic.

Wearing double stacked eyelure lashes to add more drama to the eye look and applied normal black mascara to top and bottom lashes.

Added silver pigment and highlighter to the brow bone and inner corner of eye to compliment glitter on the eye.