Culminating Blog Reflection

 Coming close to the end of capstone project I feel very relieved. Many of the aspects of this project was very challenging. Writing the reasearch paper was one of them, having to do many weeks of research and writing about what I had discovered. Finding my mentor was quite easy to me since Erika has been a family friend and talking to her was very easy also. Communication with me and my mentor wasn't difficult for me, she would give me tips here and here which helped me very much. We were always on the same level with the whole project and I grew a bond with her. Creativity ran through my entire project since it did consist of special effects make up which has to do with a lot of creativeity. This whole capstone project showed me that I have a more professional side to myself but also creative and fun side also. 

 I gained a lot from the capstone project. I helped me be a lot more creative and outgoing I'd say. Personally I'm a very quite person but this has shown me to not be afraid to show people who I really am. I also learned to be confidant in what I do and not to be so shy about my work. Socially it's easier to talk to people and see what they like, take what they say and put it into the makeup. so at the end they can also enjoy the special effects. Through out this project I have learned a lot about myself and how to talk more to people. 

 There were many challenges in regards to completing my 25 hours with my mentor. One of them was finding the time to meet becuase Erika works full time and has children, meanwhile I go to school and work on other activities also. The other challenge was making the make up look realistic and communication was also a problem. Getting make up to look real is really hard ,having to blend everything together so it's seemless. Communication was difficult sometimes becuase I wouldn't know some of the words Erika was saying about the make up. But at the end I over these obstacles by trying my best and asking questions whenever messes are. 

Completing my hours

April 28th, 2014

 Finishing my hours today made me realize how close I am to graduating. I'm really excited to get out of high school and go on the next chapter of my life. Erika and I have worked together to improve my cosmetic skills. Today we decided to put all my practice to work. We did a full zombie look, and she gave me more tips while doing it. We used scar wax to sculpt the face as if it was falling apart. I made it look like the skin was tearing and look like it was rotten flesh. After adding the scar wax I added colors with some face paint. Adding green as the most important color, I also blended in purple and red to it. Erika suggested that I used grey and black to add depth into the wound so it looks more realistic. I also added red around red around the eyes so she looked sick and deadly. After I was saticfied I added blood to the look and put it around the mouth so it looked like it had been out attacking people. This process was really cool, seeing it al come together. Working with Erika was really fun, I learned a lot from her tips and I even learned things on my own also. 

Time logged this session: 4 hours. 

Total time logged: 26 hours. 

Tips from Erika.

April 27, 2014

 Today I went over Erika's house to demenstrate what I have been practicing. I showed her what I've been doing in the daily basis in regards to beauty make up. Starting off with foundation (revlon color stay) blending that out as best I can. Next is powder (Lancôme) after that I define my eyebrows with ELFs eyebrow kit. I start contouring my cheekbones so my face can have some deminsion to my face (MAC) adding blush to my cheeks to add color (MAC warm soul). Lastly I work on my eyes, wanting something simple, I put the bronzer I have used earlier to the crease to my eye also for deminsion, I add a white shimmery shadow to the inner teardunt of my eye. I show Erika that I've been practincing my eyeliner and got the hang of it. After I was done I curl my eyelashes and put mascara on. I've improved a lot over the last couple weeks. I've only been playing around with special effects and showed her what I've also been working on. I start off with the bruising on my hand and did what I did the day before. Layered blues, reds, black and purples on my had and Erika had suggested that I add green to it. Which made it look a lot more realistic. 

That's one of my biggest goals for this project is making the make up look as realistic as possible. Me and Erika worked on some other look including a skeleton. Using face paint, putting on white on the entire face and using black to make it look like a skull and defining all the bones in the face. The hardest part was making the skeleton/skull look hollow. 

Time logged for this session: 8 hours. 

Total time logged: 22 hours. 

Working on my own

April 26, 2014 

 Our next session didn't go as planned becuase me and my mentor were very busy. Meanwhile I practiced doing my make up on the daily basis. Yesterday I experimented a little with special effects and tried to mimic bruises on my hand. It was pretty cool how realistic I made it. I tried to picture a whole story that went on along with what my hand looked like. I came up with punching the wall and getting cuts and bruises. Today I tried doing it again so that I could make it look as realistic as possible. It took me a while becuase I kept putting layers of different colors including blues, purples, reds and black. I'm meeting with Erika tomorrow for sure to show her what I've been working on these last couple of weeks without her. I also tried doing make up on someone else which was my cousin, I made her look as if she was a zombie. I gave her greenish skin added some red around the eyes so that it made her look sick and deadly. I've been watching a lot of videos on special effects make up also so I could learn some other techniques also. 

Time logged this session: 4 hours.

Total time logged: 14 hours. 

2nd visit with my mentor.

March 29, 2014. 

 Me and Erika, my mentor, discussed what I learned from the videos I had watched over the two days, which I explained that it was very interesting and I was excited to start creating looks. After a while of talking, we did that we finally got to play around with the make up. She wanted me to learn the basics; blending, adding more color, making small details and so on. We didn't do much special effects today but just regular beauty make up. I did a really natural look as she called it which just meant that the make up didn't look so bold but it looked as if no make up was placed on. They're are many make up looks but to start off with, we decided to do something simple and easy. After the look was complete I was surprised to see that it was actually pretty easy to place the make up and it kind of came naturally. On the eyes I chose to use to colors one was a gold and the other was a light brown. I placed the gold on the eyelid and then added the light brown in the crease of her eye to give it deminsion and finally blended all the colors to make it more natural. The hardest part of putting the make up on was doing the eyeliner, it was difficult to "wing" it out and make them look as even as possible. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing but got the hang of it. After I fixed the eyeliner the eyelashes were next which Erika said it was the most important part, adding on eyelashes was quite difficult also and took a couple tries but I got then on. I decided to go with a light pink lipstick since the look was supposed to be natural. After I was done Erika had told me I did a pretty good job but needed some more practice blending out the colors and adding eyeliner. But I learned the steps of what everyday makeup is and would practice on my own. Our next visit would be a week from today and during I would practice on myself. 

Time logged for this session: 5 hours.

Total time logged: 10 hours. 

Michele Phan

March 28, 2014 

 Watching Michele Phan's videos were very inspirational becuase she made a living out of making YouTube videos. She has had aot of success in what she does, and is very passionate about art and make up. She can also transform anyone including herself into anything she could think of. One of her videos was of her creating herself into a character from a Tv show. It was amazing to see the process oh her changing into the character and made it look very animated . Promise and Michelle have similar techniques in make up, although Michelle doesn't do as much special affects make up as promise does. Tomorrow I will meet with my mentor again and actually get into the make up and start learning techniques. 

Time logged for this session: 1 hour

Total Time logged: 5 hours

Watching Promise Phan.

March 27 2014. 

 Many people look up to YouTube for inspriation, help, or for entertainment. My mentor recommended watching dope2111 (Promise Phan) who is a special effect make up artist and is very talented. The first video I watched was called Lorde Makeup Transformation, she started created the singers facial features. Using a light liquid foundation so she can have the same facial complexion. Next she drew her eyebrows as close as Lordes. After that she used a very dark color concealer to contour her face so the shape of her face would look similar. After her face look like Lordes she worked on her eyes and used a white eyeliner to make her eyes look bigger and shape her eyes differently. After watching the video I have learned that contouring is very important, it shapes a persons face however they want. The next video I watched was How to look like Demi Lovato. I watched a couple more videos after this one and I was amazed how detailed the artist was, all of her transformations looked very realistic and difficult to master to techniques. Today I focused on watching Promise Phan and my plan for tomorrow is to watch Michele Phan and learn the differences and similarities between the two make up artist. 

Time logged for this session: 2 hours. 

Total time logged: 4 hours.