Kevyn Aucoin

“Glamour is not self-conscious; it’s not trying really hard. It’s just expressing your own truth. I think that’s what the essence of glamour really is—expressing your uniqueness.” - Kevin Aucoin

http://www.kevynaucoin.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/may/11/guardianobituaries.veronicahorwell

Kevin Aucoin is a great makeup artist who used his skill and talent to spread a kind word in relation to homosexuality, race, and individuality.

 

http://www.themakeupshow.com/the-makeup-show-blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/vVuv6cVGWC92wjF.jpg

 

 

 

 

He was loved by all apart from during his childhood. He dropped out of school early due to physical and emotional tormenting by others all because they could not understand why he was gay and enjoyed playing with and applying makeup to others.

Kevyn is known his passion in makeup and life in general. The way in which Kevyn got himself a career is by practising and photographing his younger sister with the makeup he applied upon her. Through this, he managed to start a career in New York City.

Kevyn was a very open, and opinionated man which celebrities, followers and readers absolutely loved. Through his honest opinions, he would express his  thoughts about AIDS, gun shooting, abortion and many more factors.

'Kevyn even publicly called for Vogue—one of his first longtime employers—start putting more women of color ( He was quoted saying “I want to see more black women in Vogue. We live in America, not Sweden.”) Kevyn was a risk taker. It came across in everything he did, from makeup looks to press interviews.'

Due to Kevyn's astounding personality, it got him where he was in his career path and many of us looked up to him. A lesson can be learnt through Kevyn which is to always believe in yourself no matter what other people say or think of you. He is still an inspiration to others to this day.

http://www.beautylish.com/a/vxgza/kevyn-aucoin-history

Here are some images of his work

Armada Portrait

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Elizabeth_I_(Armada_Portrait).jpg)

Armada Portrait

  Name of Painter: George Gower
  Title of the Work: Armada
  Date it was painted: 1588
  Size : 133.5 x 105.5 cm
  Medium : Oil painting on an oak panel
  Stylistic Period: Elizabethan
http://www.woburnabbey.co.uk/abbey/art-and-the-collection/the-armada-portrait/

https://historyofeuropeanfashion.wordpress.com/

http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-GB/asset/68921/gower-george-1540-96-attr

Here is the 'Armada Portrait' of Queen Elizabeth I. There are many points in this portrait which are symbolising all sorts of different things that were going on in that particular era.

Firstly, Queen Elizabeth is wearing a numerous amount of pearls around her neck. She loved her pearls just like her Mother did. It also shows a sign of virginity and purity. Pearls were known for showing purity especially.

Queen Elizabeth is known for her youthful look. She is around 55 years old in this portrait and yet still looks beautiful with her clear complexion, and bright coloured hair.

Elizabeth's posture is one of confidence and power. Through her posture, you can see feels in control and powerful.

It has been noticed by a man named David Dimbleby in a series called 'The Seven Ages of Britain' who pointed out the paintings on the window and what they could stand for. On the left hand side, you can see the Spanish Armada arriving into England, and on the right you can see the defeat of the Armada. This portrait could be a way of Elizabeth expressing her pride and success in protecting her nation.

Elizabeth's hand is so carefully placed upon the globe, in which you can see that it is hovering over America. This is where England were taking over them. Her fingers are also reaching out elsewhere which could be a symbol that she has such power over other parts of world.

"If you look at the right hand side of the painting, you can see that there is an egg shaped object above Elizabeth’s shoulder and in front of the window. It appears to be a pomegranate which symbolised fertility, abundance, generosity, union, prosperity, rebirth, resurrection and eternal life."

Queen Elizabeth is seen to be wearing a crown which clearly emphasises her power and royalty.


http://www.elizabethfiles.com/the-armada-portrait/3931/#ixzz3LCgpNBIY

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02077/Queen-Elizabeth-I#sitter

Carina Buckley Analytical Review - The Danger Dress

 http://fashiontoast.com

Here is an image we have been asked to make an analysis on from someone else's blog. When you go onto this post on their blog, there is no real explanation as to what this image means and why. This is why we are being asked to analyse it ourselves.

I personally feel this image gives a sense of sadness and happiness all at once. It's as though she is upset pushing herself up against the wall, looking deeply into the camera lens. Her hair and makeup is natural looking therefore I don't feel this is a high fashion photograph. There are shadows all around her yet sunlight is beaming onto her. To me, this photograph feels like a hope for happiness which she may have just found.

The lighting in this photograph feels like the most important part, and not the model herself. Lighting can tell a story in itself if it is used in the correct way.

'The horn of Plenty' F/W 2009 - Alexander Mcqueen

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/autumn-winter-2009/ready-to-wear/alexander-mcqueen

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com

Alexander Mcqueen always manages to create extraordinary work. This particular catwalk has a very contemporary Elizabethan feel to it in my opinion. The pale white faces, and the big red glossy lips. Also, the lack of eyebrows of course!

This is great inspiration for me to work off of - I think it is a very interesting look. The costume design alongside it brings a very upper class feel to it and I feel it fits perfectly with the era that we are focusing on for our project now. This is because in the Elizabethan era, Queen Elizabeth was of great wealth and everyone looked up to her and how 'perfect' everything was for her; from her costume, makeup, and hair.

These images portray a particular arrogance about them which is very alike as to how some people are in this era when they own a lot of nice, expensive things or are earning a large sum of money.

I really enjoy looking at the images of Alexander Mcqueen's makeup as it is always original and he always has his own outlook onto things. He is a true makeup artist with his own perspective and ideas.

Practising Partners Design

Here is a practise I did of my partners makeup design for the Contemporary Elizabethan look. First of all, I started by blocking her eyebrows out with soap. This required about 4/5 layers on each eyebrow with a lot of pressure to try and make the eyebrows feel smooth.

I then continued onto the Kryolan base foundation  all over the face (also covering the eyebrows), buffing it into the skin and then powdering with Illamasqua translucent powder. Once the skin was powdered all over, I moved onto contouring the face. My partner asked for me to use a shade darker than the base foundation and apply it from the hairline downwards (about half way down the forehead), and then buffing it so that it blends into the base foundation.

After that, I progressed onto the chin area, creating a precise white line right along the jaw line using my foundation brush from ear to ear with the Illamasqua white base foundation. Again, Rachel wanted the white line to stay prominent on the jawline, but blend it upwards into the cheekbone. For the assessment, I will make sure I make the white makeup more prominent as Rachel gave me feedback and said that the white makeup was not strong enough.

Rachel then wanted me to work along the neck with the Illamasqua white base foundation again. This time, working along the white line I had created, I had to create a 'dripping' effect downwards on the neck. This was to make it look like paint was dripping from the white area. That is another reason as to why the jawline needed to be a stronger colour as it would blend better with the white paint effect on the neck.

I then had to move onto the lips. I used a mac lip liner pencil to line the outer edges of Rachel's lips. I found this very difficult as my fingers kept going into the dripped white foundation therefore the overall look began to look messy and I could not be as precise on the lips as I wanted to. I suggested to Rachel that when she writes up her method,
that she makes sure I do the dripping paint effect last.

I then filled the lips in with a mac lipstick, and applied a
gloss over the top. I then had to simply apply a little bit of a cream based eyeshadow into the sockets of Rachel's eyes to give the eye some depth - to make her 'lack of eyebrows' stand out. Due to finding it difficult to apply the lip products, the outer line was very messy which is something I need to improve on therefore I will practise on model's before the real assessment. By having this practise, it has made me aware of what needs to be improved or adjusted.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of communication from my partner, this has been my only practise for her makeup design. Thankfully, I feel rather confident in doing the makeup as it is quite a basic look. I am very disappointed in working with Rachel though as I have not had the confidence in relying on her to  attend lessons at all. This has been a very hard project for me due to Rachel's lack of commitment.

Timed Assessment - In the Role of the Makeup Designer/Assesor

Today, my partner Rachel had her assessment as the Makeup Artist today. She had to set up the makeup work station with an organised touch, and make sure she had all of the products and tools available in which she needed to complete the assessment.

Unfortunately, she arrived late to the assessment. As a model, I felt very uncomfortable and unaware of whether or not she was going to turn up at all to the assessment. This is due to not attending many other sessions beforehand to practise the makeup. She had then sadly forgotten her makeup kit and brushes therefore I had to provide it all for her to work on myself which was very disappointing.

As unprepared as she was to begin with, she soon got herself into work mode. She began by blocking my eyebrows out which I think took a little longer than expected, therefore the rest of the application had to be rushed slightly. She blocked the eyebrows out well though, and the coverage was good. I felt at ease once she began applying the base foundation onto my face, neck, and ears. She applied with great coverage which is exactly what I wanted for my particular design; a clean looking finish.

I think Rachel is the type of person who enjoys working under pressure, which is why I feel she completed the look a lot better than I had honestly expected.

The symmetry of the contouring was good, although I felt she could have maybe gone a little darker with the shading as it did not particularly show up well on camera. She also forgot to contour the sides of my nose for a more dramatic look when it was clearly stated in my instructions and on the face chart I had designed. Another point in reference to camera work is I feel that she could have gone a little heavier with the products and gave a stronger finish as the photos do not show up everything therefore my design looks unfinished. I think that will come with practise and experience though.

I felt very comfortable as  the makeup application progressed as I was happy to see that she was doing almost everything correctly; the way I had instructed. She made sure I was comfortable, especially when she was blocking my eyebrows out as a little pressure is required.

Overall, I think Rachel did a good job on the day apart from being late to the assessment and forgetting her makeup. My main criticisms would be on organisational and time management skills. If she worked on those, I feel she could be a great makeup artist. I found it very difficult to get in contact to practise, and communicate our ideas across to one another. Hopefully this will have taught Rachel a lesson in some sort, that she needs to be a little more committed to what is on hand. Due to the lack of communication throughout the process of our designs, I would not choose to be partnered with Rachel again because of her lack of motivation and punctuality to lessons.

Here are some of the photos of the makeup in which Rachel applied...

Day of the Dead Halloween Makeup

In today's lesson, we were given the freedom to follow an image and create it ourselves upon our partners. It was Halloween themed, so we had the choices from three Day of the Dead makeup looks.

Here is the outcome of my makeup. It was quite rushed as I let my partner do the makeup on me first therefore I ran out of time towards the end.

The products used were greasepaints. If I were to create this look again, I would firstly make sure I had enough time to finish it without feeling pressured and I would apply more powder onto the black greasepaint so there was no shine on it.

I really enjoyed today's lesson. It was very laid back and gave me an opportunity to experiment with brush techniques and see how well the greasepaints applied to the skin.

Other than the makeup being unfinished, I feel my brush work of precision was achieved quite well.

Selfie Portrait

Here is my own 'Selfie Portrait'. It's a very simple photograph but it says a lot about me and my personality. I am very close with my friends and family and I always prioritise  them in life. The photographs in the background simply represent this. I always have a good time with my friends and family and they mean a lot to me.

I am smiling in this photo because I am a very happy, laid back type of person. I have grown into myself as a woman and have become more and more confident as I experience new things in life.

I do not have my full face in the photograph as this is a way of me expressing that I am not the type of person to show my feelings and thoughts to anyone. I have to gain trust in someone before I can step out of my 'shell' properly.

University was a huge step for me but I am ever so happy I took that step, moved away from home, and have already gained the experience and friends that I have.

I am also wearing my favourite coloured lipstick. I love to take care of my appearance, which is another reason for taking this particular course. It is all about beauty and accentuating a person's natural beauty.