In this post I will break down the aspects of my final design in my body art assessment and give a brief evaluation. A more in depth evaluation will follow in the next post.
For the assessment, I had five hours to complete a full body art look based on a culture of my choice. We were only required to cover the face, back, torso, upper arms and legs, however I chose to cover the lower arm and hands as well.
Face; For the face, I created a natural base makeup, inspired by the popular, less-is-more look in South Africa. Then, I created a more beautiful editorial kind of tribal face paint, to represent the modern blend between the tribal traditions, and western modernization. I created a bold blue eye shadow, partnered with a bright red lip, to acknowledge the celebration of bright color in this country. Furthermore, in my research I outlined I wanted my design to empower women, and these colours have meanings such as; peace, calm, affection and draining energy, helping to support this idea.
Chest; On the chest, I created a tribal scarring effect using sculpt gel. I like how this turned out but from a closer perspective it is not as effective, so I would do it differently if I was to create this look again. Furthermore, I had some fabric to wrap around the models breasts as I didn’t plan to paint them, however the body tape would not stay stuck. In the end I decided to leave them un-painted and uncovered (apart from nipple covers), as this is a common practice for young, unmarried women in many South African tribes. However, for my models modesty I have censored the area in these images.
Torso; I am really impressed with how this area turned out. This is the only part of the design I had not practiced prior to the assessment, however I am so happy with the result. I believe the flag in the center looks really effective, and is a great central point for the design, as it helps clearly show who and what I am trying to represent – therefore preventing any confusion.
Arms; I love the animal and tribal print bands I created on the arms. I believe they create a great effect, and help to represent many areas of the country. However, I had planned to add another 3D element into my design, by adding lines of string through each change in pattern. Although this didn’t work exactly how I wanted it to, I still really like the result.
Legs; My favorite part of the legs is the totem pole design. Although this was a last minute addition to my design I felt it was very effective and worked really well. However, the Yellow wood tree design on the other leg was not as clear and defined as I had hoped it would be, making the overall finish less effective.
Back; On the back, I scrapped the idea of a tribal mask collage to help save me time to create more intricate designs on other areas of the body. However, I still decided to stick with a similar aspect, creating one large and two smaller tribal masks. Then, veering away slightly from my design I chose to add some tribal spears along the shoulders, rather than repeating another two masks. This allowed me to add even more elements of the different sub cultures into my design.
Hair; Although I was disappointed that my cow horn, crimped, hair cage plan did not work out, I really like the effect the feather crown creates. Although the hairstyle itself was fairly simplistic, it helped draw the focus to the crown which I felt really elevated my design.
Accessories; Although the cow horns did not work in the hair, how I wanted them too, I didn’t want them to go to waste. Therefore, I used some wire to create a spacer, allowing me to place them over my models shoulders. I feel this created a really effective finish and am so happy with this decision. Furthermore, the jewelry I made to help accessorize the design helped further elevate and really bring my vision to life. Finally, I also brung along a walking stick to use as a prop in the images. This created a great effect.
Overall, I am really happy with the end result of this unit, and feel I have accurately represented my culture, to the best of my ability.
Megan Hoff 