Link to exhibition

http://shannenabbott.wix.com/meraki

Meeting with Jennifer 5/5/16

Today I had a tutorial with Jennifer, I feel as if this wasn't really the best idea as I hadn't seen her about my project before today therefore she didn't really know about my project. However I wanted to see what Jennifer thought about my layout and she said that the images at the top looked okay. 

I was also unsure about the layout of the evaluation and about what to write in the 'the artist' tab on the exhibition. She advised me to write about my skills and interests on the artist page. She also said to follow the guidelines on MyCourse to be able to write the evaluation - ensure to answer all the questions clearly. 

Seeing Jennifer the day before hand in was a bit of a silly choice on my behalf. Throughout this project I definitely should have made the most of the time to see my teachers to get their view on my project. 

Final images for exhibition

For each character I wanted to include a big image at the top of each tab of the character. For the GIF image effect the youtube videos would not change to a bigger size therefore I had to keep them small. I would have really liked to have had them bigger on the screen so that you could really see the detail of each design. 

Below are the final videos and the main images that i have used for he exhibition. 

Zeus

Aphrodite

Medusa

This was the first video that I created, however I decided to change it because i wanted to use a closer image of the braids in the main part of the neck piece. I also needed to change some of the colour in the face as it still wasn't the right complexion that I wanted.

Second video

Athena

I think that the close up images that I have chosen are the best that I could do from the images that I have captured from the shoots. If i was able to do this again I really would have planned how I wanted to 'GIF's' to look. I could have captured really interesting close up images of the models face as well as the texture of the hair. However i think that these finished videos still get the main points across - I think that they show my hair skills well and show the designs successfully. 

New layout for exhibition

As i did not like the previous lay out for the exhibition I have decided to start over again. This is frustrating as i have left this very late and am running out of time to get the exhibition up and running. I decided to use a photographers layout for the exhibition as i thought that this would be the best and most successful way to show my images.

Layout template

Home page

 tab pages

However i decided to change some of the layout slightly as i didn't want a slideshow of images at the top bar of the character pages. I like the repetition of the same image at the top bar of each character tab because it gives a clear understanding of the over all look of the character. 

I was speaking to Grace, one of my peers who is also using wix for her FMP and she said that wix does not support GIF's. I feel anxious now as this is a very important aspect of my project!! Grace said that she had to create a video using iMovie and upload it onto wix this way - you could then put the video on a loop so that it looks like a GIF. Luckily I have experience using iMovie from second year so i found this quite easy to achieve. 

This made me feel really disappointed, if only i had started doing all of this a lot earlier i would have been able to use a different platform for my exhibition that would allow me to use GIF's within it. As i had left it way to late to i had to resolve to using videos created by iMovie and then uploaded to youtube and on a continuous loop. 

To create the video I had to ensure that all the images were the same size. Therefore I had to create a blank picture document and import the TIFF files onto it and drag the image to the size that I wanted it to be on the canvas. 

I feel that i have created the exhibition as best i could given I had left it so late. If I was to do this again I would have used Muse so that i would have been able to achieve exactly what I wanted. If i had known about wix not supporting GIF's i would have used the IT sessions a lot more wisely to get Jon's help in session. From this whole experience I have learnt that next time i need to be a lot more organised and aware of what platforms are achievable for the desired effects.  


I wanted to add text on the home page and a little bit of information about myself on the exhibition. On each character tab page there is context and reasoning for the design aspects of each character. Below is a copy of teach text box that is included on the exhibition:

Home page

This exhibition displays hair as an art form with reference from Greek Mythology and avant garde, featuring Zeus, Aphrodite, Medusa and Athena. Hair styling is the most adaptable and refined way to set the tone for fashion photography therefore wigs and postiche have been widely used throughout this project. The hair and makeup has been designed to reflect personality, attract attention and to project the chosen identity of the chosen characters - colour has been used throughout to influence emotions. This exhibition has been named Meraki as it has been created with passion and soul from the artist.

Almighty

Zeus was the god of the sky and rain as well as ruler of the Olympian Gods– he was also brother to Hades. He was a wise and merciful paternal figure, protector of the people, and watched over the welfare of the whole community. Zeus was described as “lord of justice” as he brought peace in place of violence. This design has been created with Zeus’ strength and power in mind; the main aspect of this design was to ensure that he is prevailing.

Elegance

Aphrodite was the goddess of love, desire and beauty; she arose from the sea on a giant scallop and was considered the most beautiful by French prince Trojan. Aphrodite symbolised feminine beauty. Yellow has been included in this design as it a powerful life energy colour and represents openness, happiness and innocence, orange has also been used as it is a warm and inviting colour. This design was created to represent Aphrodite’s youthfulness and beauty.

Serpent

According to legend, the Gorgons were ugly monsters they had horrible grins, staring eyes. Their gaze was so terrifying that anyone who looked upon them immediately turned to stone. Medusa – the most well known of the Gordon’s was cursed with snakes for hair by Athena. Red has been used in this design to symbolise danger, rage and torment – resembling Medusa’s visual fuel for endangerment to others.

Vision

Athena is the goddess of many things - wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strength, the arts, crafts and skill. She was the daughter of Zeus alone - no mother bore her.  Athena was a fierce and ruthless warrior yet she was praised for her compassion and generosity. Green, blue and orange has been used throughout this design to represent Athena’s loyalty, openness and her sweet and sour side.

The artist

Shannen is a under graduate BA (Hons) Hair & Makeup student at Solent University, specialised in wig and postiche. She is a resourceful and innovative artist with experience with makeup and hair for film, TV, fashion and theatre. She has good artistry skills with knowledge of history and background of period hair, wig styling and makeup alongside characterization skills. Shannen enjoys researching and developing creative designs – establishing relationships between research, design and realisation. If you would like to work with me please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

mentor meeting 4/5/16

Today I had a mentor meeting with Sharon, I was feeling really nervous about this as I know that my time management for this project has not been good enough and I haven't used my tutorial time as much as I should have. 

As i have been unable to shoot the 6 characters that I originally wanted to Sharon said that I need to ensure that the images i do have are really successful. I will also need to reflect on this in detail in my final evaluation. She also said that i need have close up images and further away images to show detail. 

During the meeting I showed Sharon all my final images and she gave me advice about what kind of images to use for the exhibition. It is really important to use  verity of images so that they don't all look samey-samey. I also need to edit the discolouration of the models nose from the Zeus shoot and edit out the bra strap from the back shot of Aphrodite and also the models nose ring form this shoot. 

Here are the print screen of the editing of the colour of the models nose for the Zeus shoot.

Creating the exhibition

I have now begun putting the exhibition together using wix.com, here is a screen shot of the layout that i have chosen, I began putting some text and selecting fonts that i might like to use for the exhibition.

Home page

Although i haven't began to pay any other images of the pages yet i dont feel as if this layout will be the best for the exhibition. i don't like the way there would be a strip of one image at the top and then another image on the screen. I would be unsure of what characters to put on the front page. I definitely want to include some text of why i have designed the characters in each way.

Character tabs

This is a screen shot of how the character tab would look like. I don't feel happy with this layout because I feel as if i need to have more images of each character on the page. I like this font that i have chosen for the text however i don't think that i should use it for all the text throughout the exhibition as it can be difficult to read. I will use it for the titles and links as it will direct to the next tab, i feel as if this sets a mood for the exhibition - giving a 'holy' feel to it. 

As i do not really like this layout I will create a new website domain and start over creating something that i feel is more successful. 

Playing around with Photoshop effects

After a previous mentor meeting with Sharon she mentioned that it could be interesting to add effects onto the images. I wanted to try out a few different effects using tutorials on YouTube. I decided to look at painting effects, sharpening and cartoon effects as I thought that this could be cool to use for the final images.  Below are the finished images and the tutorials which i used to edit the images. 

Water colour painting

Powerful, HDR, Photographic Portraits

Cartoon comic book

Water colour painting with paper texture

I don't think that I will use any of these editing techniques for the exhibition as I think that it will distract from the hair and the makeup and it takes away attention and changes the whole feel to the images. 

Editing necklace out of Gordon sister images

In an IT session Jon also showed me how to edit out the necklace of the gordon sister shoot. I had previously tried to use the spot healing brush tool and the clone stamping tool however I was really struggling to do this. Jon advised me to use a layer mask to ensure that part of the hair wrapped around the neck would not be removed. Below is the final outcome of my editing of the necklace chain.

Original paintings of Greek Myhtology

I have decided to undertake some more research of paintings of Greek Mythology as I think it could be effective to edit my pictures so that they look like paintings. These images have given direction of tones that would be used within the final edited images. From doing this research I can now begin playing around in Photoshop to see if I could edit my images with inspiration from these images.

Image found at http://www.howarddavidjohnson.com/Greek%20Mythology%20intro%201.jpg

Image found at http://www.howarddavidjohnson.com/The%20Virgin%20and%20the%20Unicorn%20p-65.jpg

Image found at http://41.media.tumblr.com/f0317c0eb1e23e1104ec2ea6c2daed0e/tumblr_nnmcetuSya1uu4eeto1_1280.jpg

Image found at http://www.greek-mythology-pantheon.com/wp-content/uploads/Greek_Gods_and_Goddesses/Zeus_Jupiter_Greek_God/Zeus_Jupiter_Greek_God_Art_27_by_le0arts.jpg

Mentor meeting 24/3/16

I had a mentor meeting with Sharon and she gave some advice about post production of the images and a list of things i need to do/think about over Easter. She said to maybe look at fashion illustration artist as this could be interesting for post production of the images. Im not sure if i want to do this because i feel like it will distract the attention from the hair for the shoots. 

I need to ensure my blog is up to date and has more reference to theatre and other artist work that i have been inspired by.  This made me feel anxious because i now need to go back into all my post and research to ensure that all my work is logical and showing my progression. 

Over Easter I'm making up worked based learning hours - working on a short film for 2 weeks. Because my time management has not been very good throughout this project I will not now be able to create 6 looks for this project. This is really disappointing and I wish that i had managed my time a lot better. I hope that this is not going to effect my grade too much. I will need to write about this in my evaluation. 

How it went - Gordon sister shoot

On the day of the shoot I was feeling confident as I was really happy with the final outcome of the piece that I had made for this. Although when I had photographed the piece prior the shoot I noticed that the hair exstentions didn't quite look black on camera. Because of this I brought some black spray and decided to spray the the wefts with black spray. I also used black grease paint on the braided pieces in the middle as the jumbo hair also didn't look black on camera either.

This happening meant that I had to think about what products I could use to darken the hair so that it would be appropriate for the shoot. From this I have learnt that next time I should ensure that the hair is the wanted colour and looks the same colour on camera. 

As I didn't have a photographer for the shoot I did the photography in the beauty booths myself. I had a sync lead, a reflector and a camera however when I attached the sync lead to the bulb lights it wasn't flashing together. I couldn't work out how to fix it however luckily there were other students in the photography room so one guy helped me set up the lights in time with the camera.

In the future it is much better to have a photographer to take the images for me as they have a lot more confidence and experience with the camera settings and the lighting. 

Below are the unedited image from the shoot.

For the exhibition I will edit the pictures, I will need to edit the gold chain from the necklace of the hair piece. I will also edit the skin tones to make the skin look more flawless.

How it went - Zeus shoot

I had the final shoot for Zeus yesterday, I feel that it was a lot more successful that the first shoot. The model worked really well with the look and the glycerin worked great on camera. Luckily I had Peter again for this shoot doing the photography, he was also feeling confident about the lighting for this shoot as he said he had worked with this type of lighting before. He suggested to use another light onto the models face so that there wouldn't be so much contrast and it would make the beards look better. Throughout this project i have really enjoyed working with him. 

I was a bit nervous about laying on the beard as I hadn't done this since the beginning of this year. I began by cutting sections of the crepe hair off and laying them onto my work station. I then separated the hair using the end of my pintail to ensure the hair wasn't too bundled up in sections to look more even. Below is an image of my work station while I created this look.

Here are also some unedited images for the shoot. The beard will need to be edited slightly to look more full and take away some of the glue that can be seen around the mouth. 

Creating Gordon sister design

This is the hair accessories has been made from hand by me from jumbo braiding hair, hair weft, cardboard and a necklace. Originally I wanted to create twists in the jumbo hair in the center section of this piece, however it was really difficult to twist the jumbo hair as it was too elasticity and kept bouncing back. 

As i have a collection of hair at home i wanted to try out drying some brown hair weft that I already had at home. I remember that last year Seema told us that that to dye synthetic hair you should use fabric dye. I tried this out  nut it wasn't successful (see images below) this meant that I had to buy some black hair weft to use to create this design. 

Working with the jumbo braiding hair was quite difficult creating such small braids from it as it kept getting cause it the folds of the hair. And when I brushed the hair it was all coming out into the brush. This meant that I had to try not to brush the hair at all and ensure that the hair was being separated while being braided with my fingers. From this I have learnt that in future if i want o twist hair that it must be real hair or hair weft. 

This meant that I had to complete the center part using normal plates and fish tail plates. I believe that this still looks good however I think that twists in the hair would have also been very effective. After braiding all of the jumbo hair for the center piece I then cut out the cardboard in a snake head shape and began pinning the hair in place around the cardboard. I then used black thread and a needle to sew the hair in place. Ensuring that the hair was pulled together leaving minimal white space between the braids.

Once I had sewed the braided hair into the cardboard I then sewed the hair weft onto a thread of elastic and then glued onto the back of the cardboard around the bottom of the piece. I used this method because I didn't want to directly glue the weft as I knew I would like to keep the weft for the future. The necklace was then glued onto the cardboard and clued the biggest red braid around the top of the necklace which will be around the neck.

Before making this piece I underestimated how long it would take. This piece was very time consuming as I had to ensure that everything was the right shape and size for the final outcome. From making this piece I have learnt about the structure and tension that should be used for creating singular braids with jumbo hair. 

Close up front image of the hair piece (side way image)

The back of the piece, can see where I have sewed and glued the elements of the style to hold it together.

Me wearing the the piece.

How it went - Athena shoot

On the day of the shoot I was feeling a bit anxious about how it was going to go as I wasn't completely confident with the makeup design. I had my model arranged and I messaged her in the morning to ensure that she was going to arrive on time, she didn't reply for a few hours, this left me feeling very anxious as I really needed the model to show up for the shoot. Luckily the model arrived on time and everything was running on time. 

These are the final images from the Athena shoot. I am happy with the final outcome, I feel that the photography works really well with the hair design as it outlines the shape of the hair really well. Peter was the photographer for this shoot, I really enjoy working with him as he pays a lot of attention to detail. He also ensured that the placement of the lighting was perfect saving a lot of time in post production. He also helps a lot with direction of the model and has a lot of awareness about body posture and what works with fashion photography.

I feel as if the makeup could have been stronger for this shoot, the skin doesn't look as flawless as I would like. From this shoot I have learnt that I should be much more prepared for the makeup aspects of my shoots as it is still important as it could have a strong effect of the over all look of the shoot. 

I can see form these images that the inner corners of the wig by the chin are not completely symmetrical. However speaking with Chris the photography teacher he said that it would be easy to edit that in Photoshop but he doesn't think that it needs changing. From this shoot I have learnt that I will need to pay more attention to detail when creating makeup designs for shoots. In the future I will ensure that I have properly prepared myself for the makeup as well as the hair as this will have an effect on the final images. 

Notes about hair which will be adapted into text for exhibition

I decided to take some booked from the library to take some information about hair styling in fashion and fantasy. The book by Laurent Philippon was really interesting. Below are my notes from the book, i will take some of the text and adapt it into the exhibition to show my understanding of hair and design.

Philippon, L. (2013) Hair. Fashion and fantasy. Farnborough: Thames & Hudson.

Preface

Hair is a living art. Artist have used hair as a medium, not just for sauce of beautification, but to reveal the beauty of hair itself, and the creative spirit that moves us.

p.9 The beauty of a hairstyle speaks for itself: anyone with a curious eye can understand a hair style.

Every culture and fashion carries different codes, but hair styles have a kind of universality. Throughout history, hair styles have conferred status on the wearer.

Fashion and status are easily linked

Hair carries strong spiritual symbolism.

p.10 Hair is the only part of the body that we can change whenever we want, without causing permanent damage. We can dress it up or dress it down, to reflect personality, attract attention, to project a chosen identity or to seize the mood of the moment.

In some parts of Africa, it is possible to ‘read’ a story of someone’s life by paying attention to their hair style.

We are the only animal on the planet to give our hair so much care and attention.

Inspiration is everywhere

In fashion photography, hair styling is often the most versatile and sophisticated way to set the tone if the whole shoot. The style of hair can alter the mood and effect, whether glamorous or sensuous, formal or relaxed, still of frenzied.

Hair styles bring fashion to life.

Braiding

p.15 One of the oldest ways of styling hair to us

Braiding requires no special instrument or tool and can be worked by simply using the fingers.

The classic style is a 3 strand plait, but the hair can be braided using 4, 5, 6 strands or even woven up to 10 separate sections.

Curls

p.49 Our ancestors realised that framing the face with beautiful wavy curls softens the face and enhances its shape.

Waves flowing abundantly down a women’s back and the sensuality suggested by richly curled locks, have inspired artists, sculptors and painters through the ages in a quest to portray the idealized female form.

Loose hair

p.83 Loose hair grows, constantly generating itself, a living protective mane.

For many centuries in many societies, hair worn loose has been reserved for moments of intimacy.

Hair can be an erotic part of us, as intimate as parts of the body that are usually covered.

Unveiled hair becomes synonymous with sensuality, freedom and fantasy.

Long loose hair has often been associated with seduction and eroticism.

In the 60’s and 70’s long loose hair became a way of demonstrating liberation, equality, peace and love.

p.185 ‘Trends used to be related to be a social movement. Nowadays there are no big political movements that have a meaning, theres nothing to fight for’ – Orlando Pita (hair stylist)

the chignon

p.201 Hair is the most natural and adaptable kind of ornamentation. It can be endlessly shaped and sculpted into surprising new forms.

In the 1960’s creative hair styling bursts into life after the austerity of the war years.

Wigs

p.235 The wig has many uses: to protect against the sun, to hide physical imperfections, to change the look or the colour of one’s hair, or even mark social status.

Elaborate and expensive wigs indicated the wearer could afford the finest personal decoration. Elizabeth 1^st had an impressive collection of wigs.

In the 17^th century France the art of the wig reached its peak. Ladies at the court of Marie Antoinette carried the fashion into the 18^th century.

Wigs are most commonly noticed on the heads of actors and judges. Fashionable pleasure seekers may prefer hair extensions, they, too, enjoy the liberation of adopting another identity.

Short hair

p.263 Usually associated with masculine occupation

cutting hair has often symbolised a removal of individuality, whether imposed on slaves or soldiers, or as a punishment for outcasts, collaborators or convicts.