Make-up Exploration
Gender Transformation in Film
Female to Male - Albert Nobbs
Drag Queens
Individual Style
For example Sharon Needles has a very gothic look to her, and she likes to excentuate her lips by wearing bold matter colours, where her eyes are usually a neutral tone. Although she is rarely seen with out her white contact lenses.
Drag Kings
Vesta Tilley (1864-1952)
Vesta Tilley was a pioneer who became Britain's most popular male impersonator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tilley, whose real name is Matilda Alice Victoria Powers, eventually took her act to the U.S. in 1894, performing in major cities like New York City and Chicago. During World War I, Tilley teamed up with her husband who wrote patriotic songs for her to perform as "Tommy," to recruit people to join the military. This effort got both of them knighted.
Drag Queen Makeup Demonstration
Step 1- Blocking Brows
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Before blocking out the brows use a barrier like Dermashield and rub it through the borw back and forth with your finger.
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Brows can be blocked out with a number of different materials, Pritt Stick is the most common in the drag community and it is deemed the most sucsessful. Ben Nye scar was can also be used and also soap.
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For this demonstration, Laura used pros-aide. - smooth it over with your fingers and hair dry it until it turns clear. it may take a a few layers depending on ther thickness of he brow.
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Then they need to be powdered to remove the pros-aide tackiness.
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to cover the brow and create a new socket. MAC Painterly Paint pot was used.
My Drag Makeup
History of Drag
Step 2- Base
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MAC Painterly paint point, used to neutralise the brow area, all over the lid right up to the brows.
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Kryolan TV stick is good to use for Drag makeup coverage. it is thick and up close can be obvious but from far away to works well.
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Place product all over face and over lips too to create a 'blank canvas'
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on the lower half of the face it may be necessary to use a pinker colour on the bottom half of the face to cover any shadow areas.
Boy Players were employed by theatre companies in Shakespearean times in order to play the more feminine roles.
Because women could not act in the theatre.
Nowadays we have advanced a lot and women play their own gender in theatre.
The Final Look
Highlight and contouring
Contouring is a must in Drag makeup. It helps change the face shape to more feminine and fool the audiences' eyes.
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Contour - The Temples, down the sides and under the nose, under the cheekbones, under the chin and under the botton lip.
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Highlight - the centre of the forhead, uner the eyes and cheekbones, down the centre of the nose, above the top lip.
When contouring the nose, start from the top of the natural brow, then right down to the bottom of the nose and the sides of the nostrils to slim the nose.
Use 3 shades to contour.
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When contouring for drag you can be very over the top when you are contouring, using the darkest shades of brown or even black if your drag queen's style requies it.
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For the highlight you can use between a light orange/skin tone colour to white.
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you must blend it all together with a mid-tone colour.
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Then after contouring with greasepaints of cream based colours, you should set the whole thing with powder. transluscent or coloured.
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For the Highlight on this demonstration laura used MACvanilla pigment to give a high sheen highlight on the cheekbones.
A drag queen is a person, traditionally male, who dresses in drag and often acts with exaggerated femininity and in female gender roles. Often they will exaggerate certain characteristics such as make-up and eyelashes for comic, dramatic or satirical effect. Although drag queens are often associated with gay culture, as a make-up artist you must never assume that your client has a particular sexuality.
Eyes
Gender Transformation
Using Prosthetics to transform a woman into a man
Drag King Makeup with No Prosthetics
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My Transformation from Female to Male
Without beard:
With a Beard
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I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
Male to Female
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It is obvious that men and women have different face shapes. The chart to the left shows Dr Stephen Marquart’s Facial beauty chart. With the Woman on the left and the man on the right.
Differences in face shape
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A man’s jaw is usually wider
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Men’s noses are wider
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Women’s faces are slimmer
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Women have more definition in their cheekbones
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Women have a slimmer neck
Using prosthetics and using postiche and laying on hair clearly gives a more realistic result than just using shadows and paints.
However i still believe that it is not 100% convincing.
There are certain aspects
EYES:
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Draw in new socket using shadow under brow - then use gel liner to shape outr edge
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Ensure you are layering the product - take softer colours and blend into the darker
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Stiple rather than brush - Do not want to disturb brow
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Matte black eyeshadow pressed over top to set gel - important to set or will transfer
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From inside corner, go over brow crease with liner
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Liner on bottom, below lash line - creates guide for shape of eye
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Patting on product - to lay on product rather than blend.
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Powder under bottom liner, then reapply the liner
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Use highlighting shadow on lid - press on
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Bottom lashes - take oppposite eye and turn around
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Conceal under brow - highlight in corner of eye
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If using colour, use contrasting colour
I loved doing this makeup!
I took inspiration from the drag theatre video below but the makeup really challenged me to think about colour theory, which was good practice.
I wanted to use colours that would complement Clare’s eyes skin and hair. I decided to go with an over the top blue and gold glittery look.
Admittedly I did ask her which colours she wanted, because I tried to treat he like an actual client who would have preferences, and she picked the gold. So i thought blue would work with that.
Overall I am really happy with how it came out, except for the eyebrows, I think because I used pros-aide it was not that successful. In another makeup look I would love to have a try with Pritt-stick. (if the client was ok with using it).
I also think that the drawn on brow could have been stronger. I know I struggle with brows so this was a good practice. But I think I am improving with eyes and lips. In this makeup I think I was successful in keeping the lips clean and everything else polished.
When working for a client you have to work WITH them, make sure you are matching your makeup to their character. Each drag queen will have an indevidual style.
Some Drag Artists are a lot less dramatic and costume-like but very feminine. Below is Alaska, Courtney and Willam. They are some of the most famous feminine drag stars.
As you can see their makeup choices are a little more subtle, possible a woman would wear jsut as much makeup as some of this. They also have a lot more natural coloured and styled wigs.
Their colour palette is not too bold, but feminie, with lots of nudes and pinks.
Another popular drag makeup is to exaggerate the eyes with over the top long lashes like in the photos below, paired with an ombre lip this can be very pleasing to the eye. Usually these looks are less contoured than the ones above, just for a balance.
I love the makeup that Laura did on Jordan i think he could actually pull of being a drag queen if he wanted to. i think the placement of the contour is so important and it is perfect in this makeup.
Pantomime Dames