Tim Burton 'Mad Alice' Character Evaluation
Throughout all of my projects I feel I have always took a more challenging artistic approach to them, creating characters and scenarios that are somewhat controversial but that have an important meaning or backstory to them. For this project in particular I knew that I really want to expose my audience to something that might not be so easy to look at but something that when put into perspective is so common in everyday life; mental health.
Depression is one of the biggest illnesses spread across the planet in this current day and age but it also very heavily overlooked because everybody gets 'down'. However in my opinion that's not how I see it and as an artist, I've found that my passion for creativity and my ability to imagine things that other people couldn't is really what stops my depressive states from taking over, although for some people the pressure of being an artist or someone of a creative nature can be all to much, leaving people considered 'mad' or 'insane', simply because another person doesn't necessarily understand it. This is where the 'inside the wall' idea spawned from. I wanted to imagine what would happen if I combined the creative and somewhat bizarre talents of Tim Burton with the beautiful, powerful music of Pink Floyd and the 1982 film to recreate a more realistic interpretation of what it was really like for Alice falling down the rabbit hole surrounded by the wall.
I wanted my Alice to not really scare my audience but I didn't want them to feel safe. I almost wanted a more empathic response towards her. There are many speculations as do the real meaning behind the story of Alice in wonderland and although it's all said to be a dream, the type of dream that is is depends on your personal view.
For my Alice, her story is that she is admitted to an mental hospital after suffering a serious case of what is called 'Alice in Wonderland' syndrome which I have talked about briefly in my make-up inspiration. This is a serious condition and is most common in young children and it causes affects blood flow to parts of the brain that deal with our perception, which leads to the experience of hallucinations. This is where I wanted the idea of wonderland to be, all just the hallucination of a small child. Similar to the dream of Ophelia in Pan's Labyrinth. I felt like that was quite a fitting theme because Tim Burton often works in the dark, gothic fantasy genre.
To start off with, I had to decide on what piece of art work I wanted on the exposed part of the back. After looking through all of the album art I chose to do the most iconic scream face. I didn't actually have any design sheets, I was simply working off reference pictures. My reason for not having design sheets is because I wanted to solely work off the painting so I could follow the colours properly, plus I feel I work better when I sort of just go for things rather than over practising because I end up spoiling my work.
On the day of the catwalk, the painting took me around 2 hours to do. On this time round separate from my practise piece, I incorporated the wall on the outside of the face to give the illusion the face was breaking through the wall. On the wall, I added shading to give a more 3D illusion. My main concern with the painting is that it would transfer. I did use the Kryolan spray that I bought but I think I may have over-sprayed because after about 20mins it all began to crack off, however it was only noticeable up close.
I struggled more with the fantasy hair because of the length of my models hair. Due to this issue, I decided to create a black hole emerging from the back of her head. Using gelatine that I mixed with black treacle to add colour and I more shiny, gooey like texture. I first started off by creating volume and texture to the hair all by creating wavy type curls with a waver I own. I did this in small sections, hairspraying each section as I went along. Once I had done the whole head, I began lightly backcombing the hair to give a dirty, matted effect, I didn't want it too looked tamed, I wanted it to look old and uncared for. The black hole was created by using a bald cap section pinned onto the back of the hair and the gelatine acting a sealing edges, hiding the clips and blending it onto the hair. I then add depth by colour the bald cap black using cream paints. I let the gelatine treacle mix just drip down on the hair, keeping the shape natural and random. I then added tablets onto the back using prosiade and added a tablet tiara I had made using various tablets and tablet packets. Although, I didn't use any extensions or extra hair, I did like the outcome however I don't really think I did it as well as I could of done, I paid more attention to detail on the painting of my work so I feel I neglected the hair a little bit but I think I was really innovative in the way of using gelatine in the hair because it was really effective.
For the costume I bought a nightgown from a charity shop and cut it up the back and then glued it to the skin around the boobs and near the waist to hold it in place and retain the shape. I made her hands and feet dirty using ash powder and on her face I just blacked out her eyes in a feathered style using black face paint, adding some contour on her cheek bones and on her neck to make her look gaunt and ill. On the latex wound, I used woundfiller on the inside along with bruise gels and cream paints. However this was quite rushed and I felt it could of looked far far better.
I didn't really enjoy the look for catwalk because I would of liked it to be a lot bigger and more of it, however for photographic purposes it works brilliantly. I took my photos on the same day as the catwalk and I took them in the disabled bathroom of college, which may sound like a bit of a strange place to take photos for a magazine shoot however it was perfectly fitting for my scenario. Using the shower curtain, it really helped blur out her body shape but by pressing it onto her body her made the painting more obvious and apparent through the material. The photos were just edited using Instagram filters and effects. I kept with the same filter and the same cold blue tint to make them look creepier.
If I was to do this again I don't think I'd use the look for catwalk but I'd like to carry on Inside The Wall as a more independent project, recreating different scenes from the film, and other elements of the artwork. Out of all my projects I have done though, this is the one I am most proud of because the topic was really important to me. My whole idea was to create a statement and I feel like my whole piece really did that. Yes, I took inspiration from Tim Burton's style but my real inspiration at the end of the day, was myself. I wanted to bring exposure on to a so called 'touchy' topic and show that insanity can actually be a beautiful thing because to me, and especially in the photographs, I feel my work is beautiful but its because its a representation of something that is real. As an artist, I see myself a lot in all my work, creating projects that a very much a representation of me as a person and showing what it's really like inside my mind. Like Burton's films are a prime example of who he is, that what I want my work to show. Taking all that into account, I am extremely proud of my FMP piece and I'm glad of all of my choices, even if I was a little underprepared, I wouldn't really change anything about what i've done. After all, perfection is something I don't strive for, because I do my work for myself and if other people find it just as pleasurable as me, well that's all I could ever really want as an artist.
Depression is one of the biggest illnesses spread across the planet in this current day and age but it also very heavily overlooked because everybody gets 'down'. However in my opinion that's not how I see it and as an artist, I've found that my passion for creativity and my ability to imagine things that other people couldn't is really what stops my depressive states from taking over, although for some people the pressure of being an artist or someone of a creative nature can be all to much, leaving people considered 'mad' or 'insane', simply because another person doesn't necessarily understand it. This is where the 'inside the wall' idea spawned from. I wanted to imagine what would happen if I combined the creative and somewhat bizarre talents of Tim Burton with the beautiful, powerful music of Pink Floyd and the 1982 film to recreate a more realistic interpretation of what it was really like for Alice falling down the rabbit hole surrounded by the wall.
I wanted my Alice to not really scare my audience but I didn't want them to feel safe. I almost wanted a more empathic response towards her. There are many speculations as do the real meaning behind the story of Alice in wonderland and although it's all said to be a dream, the type of dream that is is depends on your personal view.
For my Alice, her story is that she is admitted to an mental hospital after suffering a serious case of what is called 'Alice in Wonderland' syndrome which I have talked about briefly in my make-up inspiration. This is a serious condition and is most common in young children and it causes affects blood flow to parts of the brain that deal with our perception, which leads to the experience of hallucinations. This is where I wanted the idea of wonderland to be, all just the hallucination of a small child. Similar to the dream of Ophelia in Pan's Labyrinth. I felt like that was quite a fitting theme because Tim Burton often works in the dark, gothic fantasy genre.
To start off with, I had to decide on what piece of art work I wanted on the exposed part of the back. After looking through all of the album art I chose to do the most iconic scream face. I didn't actually have any design sheets, I was simply working off reference pictures. My reason for not having design sheets is because I wanted to solely work off the painting so I could follow the colours properly, plus I feel I work better when I sort of just go for things rather than over practising because I end up spoiling my work.
On the day of the catwalk, the painting took me around 2 hours to do. On this time round separate from my practise piece, I incorporated the wall on the outside of the face to give the illusion the face was breaking through the wall. On the wall, I added shading to give a more 3D illusion. My main concern with the painting is that it would transfer. I did use the Kryolan spray that I bought but I think I may have over-sprayed because after about 20mins it all began to crack off, however it was only noticeable up close.
I struggled more with the fantasy hair because of the length of my models hair. Due to this issue, I decided to create a black hole emerging from the back of her head. Using gelatine that I mixed with black treacle to add colour and I more shiny, gooey like texture. I first started off by creating volume and texture to the hair all by creating wavy type curls with a waver I own. I did this in small sections, hairspraying each section as I went along. Once I had done the whole head, I began lightly backcombing the hair to give a dirty, matted effect, I didn't want it too looked tamed, I wanted it to look old and uncared for. The black hole was created by using a bald cap section pinned onto the back of the hair and the gelatine acting a sealing edges, hiding the clips and blending it onto the hair. I then add depth by colour the bald cap black using cream paints. I let the gelatine treacle mix just drip down on the hair, keeping the shape natural and random. I then added tablets onto the back using prosiade and added a tablet tiara I had made using various tablets and tablet packets. Although, I didn't use any extensions or extra hair, I did like the outcome however I don't really think I did it as well as I could of done, I paid more attention to detail on the painting of my work so I feel I neglected the hair a little bit but I think I was really innovative in the way of using gelatine in the hair because it was really effective.
For the costume I bought a nightgown from a charity shop and cut it up the back and then glued it to the skin around the boobs and near the waist to hold it in place and retain the shape. I made her hands and feet dirty using ash powder and on her face I just blacked out her eyes in a feathered style using black face paint, adding some contour on her cheek bones and on her neck to make her look gaunt and ill. On the latex wound, I used woundfiller on the inside along with bruise gels and cream paints. However this was quite rushed and I felt it could of looked far far better.
I didn't really enjoy the look for catwalk because I would of liked it to be a lot bigger and more of it, however for photographic purposes it works brilliantly. I took my photos on the same day as the catwalk and I took them in the disabled bathroom of college, which may sound like a bit of a strange place to take photos for a magazine shoot however it was perfectly fitting for my scenario. Using the shower curtain, it really helped blur out her body shape but by pressing it onto her body her made the painting more obvious and apparent through the material. The photos were just edited using Instagram filters and effects. I kept with the same filter and the same cold blue tint to make them look creepier.
If I was to do this again I don't think I'd use the look for catwalk but I'd like to carry on Inside The Wall as a more independent project, recreating different scenes from the film, and other elements of the artwork. Out of all my projects I have done though, this is the one I am most proud of because the topic was really important to me. My whole idea was to create a statement and I feel like my whole piece really did that. Yes, I took inspiration from Tim Burton's style but my real inspiration at the end of the day, was myself. I wanted to bring exposure on to a so called 'touchy' topic and show that insanity can actually be a beautiful thing because to me, and especially in the photographs, I feel my work is beautiful but its because its a representation of something that is real. As an artist, I see myself a lot in all my work, creating projects that a very much a representation of me as a person and showing what it's really like inside my mind. Like Burton's films are a prime example of who he is, that what I want my work to show. Taking all that into account, I am extremely proud of my FMP piece and I'm glad of all of my choices, even if I was a little underprepared, I wouldn't really change anything about what i've done. After all, perfection is something I don't strive for, because I do my work for myself and if other people find it just as pleasurable as me, well that's all I could ever really want as an artist.