Tribal Make-Up

 Inspiration from Wilder Mann made me want to look further into tribal face art. I really like the patterns and the colours as they're applied as though the features aren't there.

I found editorial looks devised from tribal looks but i preferred the originals from the tribes themselves.

I quickly sketched down some ideas I had using oil pastels. After deciding what colours and vaguely what kind of patterns i wanted i created some more defined sketches. When i'd decided on the design I wanted to use I then chose to use normal acrylic paint for this. I chose this from looking at Boo Ritson and Alexa Meade's work. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out and wouldn't change a thing. I'm happy that I decided to give the face a grey base as it adds to the tribal look.

The mask: an update

I wanted the background of my mask to be a grey-like colour so I researched and did some swatches of the kind of colours I was thinking about.

I painted my mask a basic grey around the main area and then a blue-grey around the base to create the sense of depth.

I began adding the detail I wanted to the mask around the eyes, nose and cheek bones. I still need to add further detail and add a wig to my mask.

Talons are harder to make than I thought

So my idea for adding talons on to my fingers for my Wilder Mann costume didn't go according to plan.                                                     When I was adding the clay it was extremely difficult to reach around each finger as they were so close together. I got the idea then to do each finger separately. I got one of the thumbs from one of my broken casts and tried my idea on that. it worked so much better that I'm considering cutting my other cast so I can work on each finger separately. 

Hands and falling fingers

I was introduced to the material alginate and really wanted to work with it for some hand casts. I decided i was going to make one, add clay to it so it looked like talons then paint latex on to it. After doing this i planned on attaching the latex on to a part of my body so that it looked like it was coming out of my body or was attached. I got this idea from looking at wilder Mann.





I really liked my initial cast because the alginate gives you a really detailed cast. Unfortunately I had pressed me fingers into the bottom of the bowl so the tops of them came out flat. Despite this I find the first cast interesting because of the detail, you can even see my fingerprints. I also like the position of the hand and how it's curled up.

(Photo of curled up hand) 

I started changing the position of my fingers in the alginate because of my idea so that they were straights. However after I'd allowed the plaster to set and was taking the alginate off the fingers kept breaking off due to how fragile the plaster was. This happened 3 times before my final cast. 

(Photo of broken fingers)

For my final cast I took longer, a lot longer, to peel away the alginate. An hour later, I had my final cast ready to start building! Now to wait for the clay to arrive...

(Picture of the final cast)

Glitter and blue eyebrows

The mask

After creating the plaster cast of my face i began to add all of the features i wanted my latex mask to have

I added thin eyebrows, bigger lips and over- exaggerated, more defined cheekbones. I also added clay to the bridge of the nose to make it straighter and more masculine.

I sketched a couple of ideas of what i wanted my mask to look like which were inspired by Wilder Mann.

I started adding latex to my base and waited for it to dry before adding multiple layers to thicken it.

Folk art characters inspired makeup

I started off with my Jaremy Aiello's inspired fawn makeup from the film "The Chronicles of Narnia" which he worked on. 

I started with creating the 'eyebrows' of the fawn with eye shadows and eyeliners. I built up around this with cheek bones and contour around the face. The face came together when i added the liner on the eyes, rose and mouth and the white spots around the face

I created my own rendition of the 'Queen of hearts' from the work Richard Alonzo did on "Alice in Wonderland".

I drafted my idea first so i had some idea of what i was doing. I didn't do this for the fawn idea so i created it as i went. This made me a lot more organised the second time round.

I lined the face with black eyeliner as i wanted to black-out some parts of the face and create a new jaw bone. I kept the same eye colour but changed it for a smokey eye instead of a block colour.


I outlined the hearts on the side of my face with a white eyeliner pencil before going over it with a red eyeliner and face glitter. i outlined the hearts with black liner to emphasize their shape.

Make up artists

With this project i wanted to look at the way films portrayed "folk art" characters.

 I researched one of my favourite films, Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland", and found two great make-up artists.
The first being Jaremy Aiello who has worked on films such as "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Hitchcock", "The Hills have eyes" and the popular tv series "The walking dead".




 As tribute to his work on the film "The chronicles of Narnia" I intend to create the face of a fawn. This links to one of my favourite characters of the film: Mr. Tumnus.


The second artist I liked for their former work was Richard Alonzo. His past work included being part of the make-up team for "Thor", "Oz the great and powerful", "pirates of the caribbean", and "Iron Man".


Because of finding these two artists I look forward do creating my own rendition of "The Queen of hearts" from Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" which both of them worked on. The bright colours of the make-up and theatrical elements within this look fit well with my Folk Art project.

Charles Freger's Wilder Mann

Charles Freger visited 18 European countries in search of the mythological figure of the Wild Man. His strange and beautiful photobook, Wilder Mann: the image of the savage, explores human fascination with myth, ritual and tradition.

Cerbul din Corlata

Goat characters appear across Romania, but in Corlata, the Stag is the central character, surrounded by dancers who resurrect the figure after it is ritually slain.

Schnappviecher 

From Italy, these horned creatures are often three meters high and appear on Shrove Tuesday to spread terror on the streets of the wine village or Tramin. Their origin is unknown.

Strohmann 

The Strohmann (Straw Man) of German rural mythology has been variously interpreted as a Wild Man, a personification of lust and a symbol of winter.

Babugeiri 

From Bansko in Bubugeiri, dressed in goat skins, hold a procession on 1 January. They originally symbolised fertility.

Folk Art across the world

The nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture, it's patterns and designs change as a result of this. I came across maxi can, Indian and american folk art through my original research.

American Folk Art was very similar to british in that it includes repeated patterns, bright colours, and scenery pieces. It plays a lot on their history and shows scenes of a more rural America. For example this piece by Cheryl Bartley demonstrates a young America with only one star on it's flag.

African and Indian Folk Art also came under my search of international Folk Art. They show the traditional costume of the culture with vivid colours.

I also came across Indian Henna. This came from my Folk Art search because of its artistic designs and its traditional values in various religions. I really like it's swirling spirals and basic but decorative style. It is traditionally worn at weddings but is fast becoming popular is western cultures.

Through a little more research i quickly discovered Mexican Folk Art. Although they have the same grasp on colour with its boldness they focus more on the face and body.
This piece caught my eye because of the boldness of colour and the fullness of the piece with no room for further colour or pattern. It demonstrates traditional Folk Art qualities.






The decorative and well known holiday of "Day Of The Dead" I felt fitted the description of Folk Art. The holiday is centered around friends and family coming together to pray and remember friends and family who have died. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars call ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and he favourite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

I find this holiday particularly interesting because of the makeup the participants use to create "sugar skulls". They make their faces into skulls but add colour and flowers to look more vibrant.