Pencil Final Display

When it came to displaying my pencil stuff i was trying to steer away from just putting them in frames, i dont find frames that visually interesting and i cant be doing with paying for them either so i decided on having them clipped onto a wire or string in a neat little row. The string i used was from Paperchase which was a bit of a bugger to get tacked onto the actual wall, had to use drawing pins and a hammer so its not all that neat, my clips and my printouts are from Mailboxes etc. in Stirling done A4 size on semi glossy photo paper.

this was about as taught as i could get the string to go, it started to dip when the photos got pegged on but what can you do

i like these little clips id probably use this display method again but tidied up

Pencil Part 3 - Taking Photos

I got set up for taking my photos with an idea of how i wanted them to look, i was worried i was maybe overthinking the child portrait and trying to add to many bits so i started off with something basic, a childs drawing and writing on my face and then added some other stuff, like pencil shavings as i went so i didnt go overboard.

I set my camera up on the tripod in my room using natural daylight and used this matte black paper i had lying around as my background. I would have liked to use fancy lighting in a darkened room to look more like the professional illamasqua pics but didnt really have the time to wait for amazon shipping.

drawing on your face is much more tricky than drawing on your hand

i added these pencil shavings to my hair in later photos

inspiration for my face doodling, makeup by Andrew Gallimore

 Using better quality lighting might have meant i had less photoshop to use for these images, i basically made two copies of the photo layered in photoshop one darkened with the burn tool for my black background the other lightened with dodge for my skin, i put dark on top of light and used a really soft eraser to rub out the areas i wanted lightened. After this i used the dodge tool again on the writing on my face just to make it bolder looking . 

The next image was my adult, basically pretty, conformist makeup look. I decided to go for a 'red lips and liner' look since there are 211,000 videos that come up in youtube search it must be pretty popular with people wanting to do makeup proper. This was relatively easy to achieve, as i was taking the photos i quite liked all the romantic old portrait style poses i was making.

 This image was edited much the same way as the child but as well as using dodge and burn i used a layer with the colour vibrancy dialed up and used the eraser again to make my lips and eyes more stand out, again i used the dodge tool at the end to darken up the eyeliner and eyelashes and a bit of eyebrow.

The final image was my creative rule breaking makeup, i took a bit of inspiration from Val Garland and Alex Box and some clowny makeup they had done before. The idea was to be a bit ugly, androgynous and messy with colour placement.

Val Garland for Vivienne Westwood, really liked the black lines in this

Image from Rankins Surface Attraction

The makeup took a bit to put on and it took a while to get off as well, i really liked how it turned out though, i used these kind of unflattering 70s disco bright blue eyes and bright pink blush around the outside of my face, my hair was up with a peek of my undercut looking quite boyish and as a last minute decision i found this blue lipgloss in a little tube and just smeared it over my neck and chest. Just like before i used the dodge and burn layers to get pale skin and a darker background, used vibrancy to jack up the intensity of the colours and a bit of dodge on the black lines.

I actually decided for my final display to have a version of the images cropped closer but you'll see that next.

Pencil Part 2

Ive pretty much got a solid idea for my self portraits based on the pencil, im doing a child portrait which will include all the nostalgic things about the pencil, Here are some notes from my sketchbook:

'when i was a child the pencil was creative and uncertain and could be changed easily, there was no fear of making mistakes. I remember desks covered in rubber shavings and jaggy pencil sharpenings getting stuck in my tights.

as an adult pencils are the tools of my femininity, enhancing my features, smudges must be fixed, theyre used in a very precise way. I write in pen the majority of the time like i was taught to do after leaving primary school

Do pencils still hold the child-like joy and creativity for me as an adult?'

So the child portrait will have a little bit of nostalgia and some of the elements ive mentioned, maybe some childs drawings or face painting included.The next image would be the adult me conforming to beauty standards through makeup, ive done similar to this as part of the last project with instagram so im good with that. The last image will be the creative adult, so i get to be as crazy as i want and really expressive and excessive.

In the last post i mentioned Alex Box the creative director of beauty brand Illamasqua, i really love their promotional images and campaigns so im looking into their images as a bit of inspiration on how to photograph and edit makeup.

i like how soft and glowy this looks, by Alex Box

Illamasqua 'Throb' Valentines Campaign, makeup by Alex Box

Third Year!! The Essence of a Pencil

Val Garland for Vivienne Westwood

Third Year has finally started and it feels really weird to be here. Everything gets kicked off with a two week mini brief (no pressure) all about the pencil. The idea is to 'explore the qualities and encapsulate the essence of the pencil in the most innovative and challenging way'. I got thinking about the whole leaving marks part of the pencil and how the pencil is linked with childhood and learning but as we get older we are encouraged to use ink.When i was a child the pencil was creative and uncertain and mistakes didnt matter because it was a learning experience and could be easily changed. Another thing ive noticed is that the only pencils i use regularly as an adult are makeup related, like eyeliner pencils, lip liner etc.

The idea for this project is: the pencil was so free and creative when i was small then as i got older the uncertainty of making mistakes became a bad thing and every mark i made needed some kind of forward planning, so do i still have the same child-like creativity in my life in makeup or am i just conforming to ridgid beauty standards and controlled creativity.

Im going to create a series of self portraits which represent the pencil in my life from childhood until now, so showing the difference between confience and fear of making mistakes and stifled creativity or if theres still the possibility of being truly creative and breaking rules. For inspiration im looking at some really amazing makeup artists that do really avant garde stuff like Val Garland, Alex Box and Lisa Eldridge.

Alex Box creative director for makeup brand Illamasqua