Contouring.

Contouring is an illusion it can change a person’s face shape and structure. Which reminds me of why I love makeup soo much as you can create illusions, and completely change the way a person looks.

Makeup artist Eve Pearl has a phenomenal book out "plastic surgery without the surgery". It was created to inspire women to not run straight to the surgeon there are other less painful, dangerous solutions! It demonstrates the power of makeup. However some people may say that this book shows us how vain western society really is! That we cannot be satisfied with the way we look; we often forget that the way we look does not always reflect us as humans. Its sad to think that we must always compare ourselves to celebrities. It makes me think that cosmetics in today's society has been  created to mask your beauty and not enhance it. Like many of the men believed in The Elizabethan era (Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama

 By Farah Karim-Cooper)

The fact that some want to change their facial features could link back to Elizabethan times as they tried to change their face shapes. By plucking their hairline to make it seem as if their forehead was higher to make the face look more oval. Even plucking their brows thinly can alter a face shape t a certain extent. Times really have not changed in a sense of ideal beauty. The public still tried to look like someone else.

Natural contouring.

(For a more dramatic contour go lighter on the highlight and darker on the contour)

To highlight use concealer 2 shades lighter for a subtle effect.

Contour colour for a subtle effect should be 1 to 2 shade darker.

Start with the highlight first.

Apply highlight to the top of the cheek structure ,forehead, middle of the nose, jaw and under the eyes.

Adding a little bit of concealer at a time.

To find the cheekbones you can get your model to suck their cheeks in and feel where to cheekbone is to contour.

Contour the temples, sides of the nose, and the jawline.

Make sure to blend makeup into the hairline.

Powder the contour well.

If you want a more dramatic effect you can always apply powder product on top.

Blend the edges away with a puff.

Kevyn Aucoin Making Faces
Page 24.

Here is a exaggerated example of contouring and highlighting that I found in Makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin's book Making Faces. I found this a useful. Kevyn also explained the process.

Highlighting and contouring using complementary colours.

In class we got to chose two colours of which had to complementary, use the lightest colour as a highlight and the darkest colour for contour. The colours I chose were pink and green. I used two shades of pink one matte and one metallic to give it texture.

I think that pink and green work well together as they are both equally striking colours. Pink is associated more with femininity where as green is associated more with growth and emotions like envy as its not a particularly pretty strong colour.

I feel the colours orange and blue go well together. As blue is a calming colour and works really well with shocking orange it creates an eye catching look. I want to do an orange and blue face chart to help me create a contemporary Elizabethan character.