Evaluation

My project theme was Gothic Horror and I thought this would be an interesting topic for this next term as I want to go in to prosthetics next year.

I really liked the technical lessons with Sue as she taught us and advised on using the products, different techniques and what we could use and do with them the best we could. I think Sue is a very good teacher as she has experience and a lot of her advice is always taken on board.

The new techniques I have experienced are learning different ways of using prosthetics. The products we used I didn’t know you could use to create what we did. Like the fullers earth which I know is for face masks to create mud and the effects on the skin it has are great.

I would like to develop in cuts and scars on the skin, I think more practice makes perfect but I would like to create something that looks amazing, whereas right now I know I have further to go and a lot more to learn. I also know, from Sue’s advice that I need to look in the mirror more, as you see in the mirror what the camera sees – so I need to do that more often.

Throughout the project I saw a lot of articles on the makeup artists who worked on the Revenant film, I also went to go watch Deadpool in IMAX and the scarring is incredible. I have looked more at films and TV programs that contain blood and gore and I am more interested in how those things work as to how gory they are supposed to look to the audience.

They have influenced my work because I want to grow and develop to be able to create something like that. So in my practical lessons I always try my best to create something that looks good and getting a good skill set behind me too.

The technique I liked the most was the ready-made gelatin cuts, I liked these because they are easy to make, easy to stick on to the skin and you can continuously make the same cut or scar. I like working with gelatin as I like how easy is it to use and how it sticks and moves with the skin.

I feel the most successful part of my project was shooting my images, I love doing the hair and the makeup, setting up the studio and actually being able to shoot my own images. They look professional, they look good and the editing process is fairly easy too. I always get complimented on the images I show people in person or on social media and I would say I am most pleased with the images I produce – showing off my makeup and hair skills as well as photography.

The only problems I encountered was deciding what TV program I wanted to base my characters on, deciding on just one program was hard for me as I loved the majority of them. I also think trying to make up a character to fit in to the program was hard too because you want it to sound realistic and then create a look for the character. Once I had my idea I felt a lot more comfortable on producing the characters. I also struggled to find models for this term to0, but I managed to find models and get my images how I wanted them.

If I was to do this project differently I would have picked a different TV program that I hadn’t seen, to push myself. I also would have picked a different book for my first part of the brief. I loved Dorian Gray but when I heard about the actual story of Dracula I wish I had chosen that one. I didn’t pick Dracula because I thought it was a very common story and I wanted to pick something different – whereas now I know what the actual story is I wish I had picked that one.