Lecture Notes

The questions that we must ask ourselves What informs the notion of Demons?

How to apply this ideology in design and makeup transformation?

History

Ethnology

Mythology

Psychology

Anthropology

The things to think about when researching these topics are-

Physiognomy

colour

(facial) hair

etc

List of Lectures from Specialist Practice Unit.

Imagining The Demonic

Creature Design in the 21st Century.

The Cosmetic Advertisement, Semiotic Analysis

Imagining the Demonic - With Sara Taylor

The purpose of this lecture is to think about how to develop characters and makeups, and how sufficient research from multiple sources can inform the design.

In this lecture Sara used Demons as a case study.

Creature Design in the 21st Century - With Pete Tindall

During this lecture Pete, referred back to creature design but many of the aspects he spoke about related to any aspects of makeup or hair design work.

Below are some creatures designed by Jordu Schell I am going to use them to analyse the setting and characteristics of the design. How they are believable.

Analysing Creatures

When designing a creature there are 5 aspects to think about to make your character believable.

- Anatomy

- Back story

- Setting

The easiest way to achieve this is to use aspects of nature in your design.

For example, look at powers of creatures in nature that can be transferred into your design.

Ie:

Speed- look at the cheetah and its anatomy.

Colour- look at lizards, baboons, parrots, fish etc. and which work together in nature.

Senses- star nosed mole for example with its unusual nose. Could easily by transferred into a fantasy creature. Howler monkeys and its throat that swells up so that call across the jungle.

Camouflage- i.e jellyfish, chameleon.

All these aspects relate back to the setting of the character. Its surroundings, what it eats? if it is a predator or prey? does it live in pairs or packs? does it have a culture? It’s age? Social standing?

You should always be asking questions about your character and questioning every aspect of its design, why does it have big teeth? Why does it have fur? Why does it have tattoos? Etc.

ANATOMY – is really important. Your character has to be recognizable, and have a certain anatomical bases in nature because otherwise it will not be believable to an audience. (Predator films)

Creature Eyes- if you design a creature around its eyes it may create a new way of designing the creature. Especially if you take reference or inspiration from nature, for example, if you use the tarsier’s eyes in your bust/makeup you may want to create a creature that lives in the dark.

Coming away from nature you should think about the type creature you want to create. Is it a nice, good creature or an evil villain or something more complicated. This will affect your design because of the stereotypes of these characteristics.

Developing a creature-

what to think about in your design

In addition to history and arts, It is sometimes useful to look at some other examples from artists working in film, television and theatre, etc, that surrounds the same theme. Not only to see what has been don’t/ designed before but also to help you design an original character, makeup that has not been seen before/ copied.

But also It is important in helping to create an appropriate makeup for context. For example, seeing the different techniques such as wigs and prosthetics in theatre and film respectively. But also to assess the certification of your makeups, and if they are age appropriate.

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Also for extra research, you can look into literature, and critical theory books, for example Sara looks into the Making Faces, Playing God book by Morawetz;

Morawetz, (2001, p.79) suggests that,

‘Psychologists tell us that the external demons that terrorise us are often projections. Fears of our own impulses, wishes, and capacities, fears of what we cannot control in ourselves. If that is true than the make-up artists’ vampires, zombies and grotesques are mirrors. Recognise this, we find our identity in these transformations just as we exorcise fear by indulging it.”

In the first character you can tell from the colouring and the fins, that it would be an aquatic creature. The teeth and the forward facing eye suggests it is a predatory creature. The scales give the believability, a texture that replicates what we see in nature with reptiles and amphibians. Lastly the colours match up nicely, there is still some wear and tear on the fins at the top, which give the character back story.

The second creature brings a very different approach to design and analysis. This creature is somewhat more human-like personally I don’t think that the human ears work in this, but the other human aspects such as the facial hair give it more context such as age and social status. The tribal markings tell more of a story of social hierarchy, and back story.

Fig. 3.6

Fig. 3.7

Bad and Good examples of Creatures in Film

Essence Creature Book

Scott, R. (1986) Aliens. [Film] 20th Century-Fox

Scott, R. (1979) Alien. [Film] 20th Century-Fox

Areas of Calm!

This is so important in any aspect of design. Especially if you want a good aesthetic in your work and you want your audience to want to look at your creature/design.

You can see from the images below how the design of the first creature works so much better than the design of the second alien.

Alien from the films. 1 and 3. Area of calm on the head.
Aliens from the 2nd film, changes the head with some spines etc on the top, and the design is almost too overwhelming.

The Cosmetic Advertisment, Semiotic Analysis - With Sara Taylor

The creature below is called 'Big Red" it was created by Neville Page for Star Trek (2009).

It is considered one of the worst creature designs in recent years.

The wrong things that stand out are the face that this creature lives in an arctic climate, yet is bright red, so would never camouflage in with the ice, and its pincer like legs would not allow it to grip the ice. As well as many other things such as the functioning of its mouth which is a design never seen in nature, so to the human eye looks wrong and non- functional.

Fig. 3.10

Fig. 3.8

This was the most popular poster of its time. Sold mainly to young woman. Appeals to paternal devotion, and combined with the raw stud-like look. Appeals to people’s semiotics Vogie 2011. The centre of the photo is the focus from the light.

The main thing to think about with this concept is What message are you trying to portray with the photo/advert/campaign?

This is useful within makeup campaigns.

For example the Tom Ford Beauty Campaign.

This advertisement was used to promote the Tom ford Cosmetic line.

Compare this to a creature that is set in similar conditions. The Wampa from the Star Wars franchise, is a much more realistic creature, as it takes aspects from nature and reality.

For example the heavy fur coat, that is similar to the polar bear and the realistic anatomy. As well as the horns, claws and forward facing eyes that show it is a predator.

Creature Design is becoming ever more popular, is a significant part of film, television and gaming design. In 2015 a new book "Essence Creatures" was released. It includes work and interviews from creature artists such as; Aris Kolokontes, Bryan Wynia, Andrew Baker, Ian Joyner, James Van Den Bogart, Josh Herman, Martin Rezard and Simon Webber.

The semiotics in advertising are used to target specific markets.

To analyse advertisements, you need to look at the signs and the visual messages conveyed within them.

This is very poignant within perfume and makeup advertisements. For example the J'adore Dior starring Charlize Theron.

Eyes starring into the camera, gives the impression of power and confidence.

Model's dress and body mimic the perfume bottle, to make you remember the perfume when you see the advert/ model.

Gold and glitter eludes, wealth and luxury.

Smooth skin, shows perfection.

All of the symbols mentioned above makes the consumber buy the product.

White Light behind her shows her as angelic, beautiful

L’Enfant (1986) Spencer Rowell

The centre of her face is the focus of the advert, and is illuminated to add impact.

The lips are bold and the colour red represents, love, lust, anger

The lips match the fingernails to tie the whole thing together.

The rugged, bearded man, contrasts the youthful blonde beauty of the female model. Their close contact symbolises sexual tension and as we all know Sex Sells.

The eyes are painted with green, the colour of envy and jealousy, also of money and wealth. it is supposed to make you think she has it and you want it.

There is still a controlling aspect, the way she is looking straight into the camera, but his hand is resting on her neck.

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Fig. 3.9

The interview above shows the thought proess taken by the artist when designing a creature. Note the questions that focus on the creature inspiration and anatomy.

Below is the design process of the Rhino Creature by Brian Wynia. It shows the various initial sketches of the dinorsaur creature with human figures in them to show scale, and various shape and colour ideas.

The final image showing the creature in its environment.