Channel 4 Makeup Photography & Experiments

Channel 4 Make up Photography

For this blog entry, I will be talking about an idea I came up with, this was out of the blue but I liked this idea so I went with it. I was drawing the Channel 4 logo in my sketch book the colourful version where I came up with he idea of using my eyeshadow to create the Channel 4 Logo one on my eye which was well alright and then on my cheek which worked better but where you take a photo of course it reflects the logo and the 4 looks like its the opposite direction to how its supposed to be because the lease reflects the image as a photograph. I basically had nothing else on my mode at this point to recreate the C4 logo on my face and I hope to include in test animations or segments in my 30 second bumper also... by doing so I hope to transform the illustrations so I can be a comic character in inspiration from Roy Litenstein as I wanted to see what my character would look like as a Pop 1960/80's aesthetic to my imagery. 

Brain Storm for this Idea 

Concept doodle ideas

My Photography

Seeing as I did the makeup on myself, I had to ask my mum to take a couple shots of me with the C4 logo on my face with my canon camera because I couldn't take a photo of myself... believe me I tried and failed anyway I asked her to take a couple shots of the logo at slightly different angles to get the perspectives of the logo on my cheek and on the eye. 

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

I have also created edits below of this illustration also but I only changed the Hue saturations of these images, using instagram Photo edits, again just to experiment really. 

Hue Saturation changes and edits of this Photograph 

My Imagery

Image 1

So this illustration I created here is of myself as a comic character based on y photography above, where I basically created and drew using Adobe Illustrator where I used the stroke tool for both drawing the illustration and for colouring my image by using different tints and tones of browns to get different tints of hair and different tints and tones with the skin colour on the illustration for the face, to give my image depth and I coloured this illustration and drew this illustration inspired by the works behind Roy Litenstein as his imagery reminds me of the way I create artwork in a pop cartoon like comic style creating a contemporary 80's aesthetic illustration based of my photographs above. 

Image 2

This image I basically editing my photograph version of this image onto Prisma, which is the app that I have also been experimenting on Photo editing, with this piece though I was able to select the Roy Litenstein filter and seeing what this illustration would look like basically, you could say this illustration is just a harmless experiment, focusing on 1960-80's retro aesthetic using colour as well as including the Ben-Day dots, which is the dot element of Litenstein's imagery, here is a better definition I found on google: "The use of Ben-Day dots was a hallmark of American artist Roy Lichtenstein, who enlarged and exaggerated them in many of his paintings and sculptures. Other illustrators and graphic designers have used enlarged Ben-Day dots in print media for a similar effect."

Here are some examples of illustrations by Litenstein that have Ben-Day dots on them:

Roy Litenstein's work that have used Ben-Day dots 

Litenstein's use for the Ben-Day dots for me I think works well for the retro 1960's-1980's aesthetic because as the description says is from print media, and his work is very comic book genre, which the Ben-Day dots on this illustration adds to that retro aesthetic. I wanted to add the same aesthetic to my image above, to experiment and see if I can create imagery using a 1960's- 1980's retro appearance also as I am showing my inspiration for Litenstein's work by creating imagery in the similar way. 

The reason why Litenstein used this method in his work is because the Ben-Day dots were popular back in the 1950's which I found out from this google description as to why he used the Ben-Day Dots:

"Lichtenstein chose colours carefully, to imitate the four colours of printers' inks. He also used Ben Day dots, a system invented to increase the range of colours available to newspaper printing. ... Lichtenstein is famous for his use of cartoon strips from American comic books, which were very popular the 1950s."

I also found this fact out about the Ben Day dots, which is about their origin... which I thought wounded quite interesting: "The dots are called “Ben-Day dots” in honour of Benjamin Henry Day, Jr., the late 19th century illustrator and printer who invented them. He created the technique in 1879 as a way to create areas of color in prints while minimising the amount of ink used."I found this out on this trivial link: https://www.mindbounce.com/trivia/the-tiny-colored-dots-that-give-old-comics-books-their-iconic-look-are-called/

Some facts about the Ben-Day dots

Image 3

This image was another experiment I created on Prisma, the smartphone photo editing app, the same app as I used on image 2. Apart from the fact I used a different filter, which I think was called tears... I could be wrong but I created this experiment a while ago so apologies if it is wrong, but I like the cartoonists rainbow aesthetic of the hair on this piece the right side of the image, I also like the simplicity of this illustration also, it works well it almost looks photographic but in a cartoon characteristic.   

Image 4

The secret behind this image is I managed to drag Image 1 out of these 8 onto Photoshop where I was able to turn my image both into a pattern and a paint brush and in this experimentation I turned my image into a paintbrush and let the experimentation do the talking with this one, by letting the paint brush tool do the magic. In other words I basically clicked the paint brush on my image background three times using three different colours to get this repeated image effect which  I like the subtlety of the colour scheme, it is simplistic but works well, the pale purply blue colour and the white really stands out with this image it creates a subtle use of the repeated imagery you van see its three images into one kind of thing almost giving the character in the image the illusion that the character is moving even though they're not physically moving.  

Image 5

This illustration was another edit I created Via Photoshop the same way as I had on image 4 where I used the paintbrush tool and overlapped my image using a variety of different colours as well as changing the blend modes on my image to get thus aesthetic which I believe I picked vivid light I believe I picked to create this dynamic, I really like this illustration because it really has the 1960-80's aesthetic to this piece and really does remind me of Litenstein's work includes the Ben-Day dots win this image which I think works really well with this illustration because it does have a comic book aesthetic which I think gives this image life, a lot of bold colour and the use of multi colour works well but enough so it brings out the face of the image but works well as it doesn't intimidate the image it brings the image out if anything. 

Image 6 

This piece is basically the same experiment but using a different blend mode, which I think was divide which is how I got the darker tones in my imagery as it is basically a complimentary variation of the previous image meaning that the colour scheme with this piece is a paradox opposite to image 5.

I liked this image better as I liked the use of multiple colours in this illustration, which I also liked the fact that the colours in this piece hasn't intimidated the image in any way that it is simple but effective but at the same time very detailed. Anyway Here is some feedback below from my tutor that inspired me to  associate this on this page as a Litenstein Approach:

Always listen to feedback!

I agreed with this feedback Lichtenstein's imagery is some of my favourite genres of imagery how it has a retro 1960's-80's comic swing to the imagery, which I feel my art style and design style is very similar to this artist so I figured why not look at Litenstein's work,  The question is could I be the contemporary Litenstein? Could I be the New Litenstein?

Anyway, I Started looking at Lichtenstein's work by I finding some imagery that he's created that I found inspiring, these images below are examples of Lichenstein's work that reminds me of my work and from what I found to be inspiring below: 

Litenstein's Work (found on google images)

Litenstein's work I found inspiring

Crack, Litenstein

POP, Litenstein

Litenstein Research

Yes you'll recognise this research brainstorm I made in my sketch book from a blog entry earlier into the project I figured I bring it back into this entry as my work I have created is influenced and inspired by his imagery. I wanted to use it as a cross reference basically. 

Image 7

This illustration I developed further funny enough more recently than these images above I have created and edited, as you'll notice vaguely that this piece actually had one of my Blurt logo design ideas I had come up with early into the Blurt section of this project, I did this by turning the logo design into a paint brush and a pattern the same way as I turned this illustration of my self portrait as a retro comic character into a paint brush and pattern, in this image I basically used the paint brush tool, picking the colour black and then over the top of that on the same layer I put the Blurt illustration/logo design as a pattern over the top experimenting with blend modes also, you could say the Blurt is hidden into the image  as an experimentation really which was unintentional but it was interesting to create as you can see the Ben-Day dots are still included with this image also just in sections which I quite like also basically where the colours Blue, Pin and Yellow is, I like how the word BLURT is very vague yet you can still see the lettering ever so slightly but that's the effect I wanted because I didn't want to intimidate my illustration but wanted to create like a shadow aesthetic with the type which has surprisingly worked better than I expected it to, so yes that is the secret behind this illustration. 

Image 8

This image I edited the exact same way as I edited image 7 apart from using marvel character Iron Man and Captain America's star as the colour aesthetic of this image basically bringing the Marvel comic characters into my comic me, which in this case I have used the vivid light blend mode on Photoshop which does work, it has the 1960-80's appearance to the imagery as well as combine actual comic non fiction characters into an illustration with a comic style portrait, I just thought it was a good experiment that worked well so for my final image I continued with this same process which all will become clear... 

Image 9

Yes as I mention on image 8, I basically combined my Comic style illustration of me as a cartoon comic character, in the same genre and aesthetic as Roy Litenstein's work but taken into a whole other level, where I have used more than one programme, illustrator for drawing the imagery and photoshop for the clever bit which is one of the many reasons that this piece is my favourite out of the 9 images. As I continued with the clever idea and experimentation but taken it further by combining Iron man because it worked really well with the image and the comic style image of me as a self portrait together which has worked really well, I used the exact same method basically using the paintbrush tool with the self portrait of myself with the C4 logo in black, and thyen using the same layer putting iron man patten one the image but zoomed in so it is just iron man's face also on the patterns setting of overlay so the iron man can shine through this image and you can see each detail of iron man. I love how this piece cobins actual marvel comic characters and my comic character I feel It works really well with this illustration, I like how the image looks like it is two faces in one it is almost as if to say my image is me turning into Iron man, basically as if to say I am Tony stark transforming into Iron man, another really geeky reference but adds to the reasons I like the illustration, I like how iron man has the Ben Day its in a areas of this image well subtly, I like the use of only using  colours of the illustration, Black, Red and Yellow and Pale Blue also it really brings out my image of my self portrait as a comic. I love the fact this image has a comic book genre from the 1960-1980 aesthetic as well as a Marvel comic book retro like illustration into a contemporary way,  I really adore this effect and I really like this illustration I think it works really well I really want to use this illustration in my 30 second bumper which we will speak about soon in another entry.   Not only that but it to some degree has a very personal meaning to me personally as I like Iron man and I am loving the Marvel Movies and the retro comic style is one of my favourite types of art of all time I just love Comic, I also made this piece my own by using the comic self portrait... I wanted to turn myself into a character I love from the Marvel Movies that worked well with the illustration and wanted it to relate to my liking to Iron Man and the Marvel Comics. 

Feedback from friends from uni and outside uni 

As I say, I really like the idea of coming up with a Marvel Character from a comic book into this image I found the inspiration for this idea in images 8 and 9 that I created from these examples of retro Marvel Comics I found on google images and screen shotted of Iron Man below:

Iron Man Retro Marvel Comic books