Gender Transformation
Distinctions of Gender
There are many differences between male and females, most obviously there are the physical differences. Males tend to be larger than females in most species. Males tend to be taller with greater body mass and weight. The male human face is mre angular and ususally larger than a female face, the lower jaw is generally larger and stronger making the head bigger. The jaw is more severely defined in the male with a squarer chin.
This list shows some traits that are different between men and female:
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Men generally have more body hair than women
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Male skin is thicker and oilier whereas women's tend to be smoother
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Women generally have smaller waists in relation to hips than men
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A man's index finger tends to be shorter than the ring finger and the opposite is true of women
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Women tend to have lighter skin colouration than men by as much as 3 to 4%
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Women generally have a lower centre of gravity, with shorter legs and longer torso the opposite it true of men
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Women generally have higher body fat percentage
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Women generally have higher voices than men
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Men have a more prominent laryngeal prominence (adam's apple)
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Women have functional breasts
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Men generally have greater muscles mass and physical strength
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Men tend to have shoulders that are wider than their hips
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Men's skeletal structure is generally heavier than women's
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Men tend to collect fat around the abdomen and waist whereas women collect around the buttocks, thighs and hips.
(Special Makeup Effects, Debreceni.T, pg54-55)
Mask of Facial Beauty (2012) [Online Image] Available From: http://www.realscience.us/2012/04/30/beauty-by-the-number/ Date Accessed: 06/02/2015
Sarah Orphan Black (2014) [Online Image] Available From: http://thetvwatercooler.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/140417_TatianaMaslany.jpg Date Accessed: 05/01/2015
Tony Orphan Black (2014) [Online Image] Available From: http://cdn.bbcamerica.com/brightcove/16764841001/201406/1848/16764841001_3613698256001_BBCAmerica-OrphanBlackS2-InsideLook-E208-Tony-30-WebTeam-H264-Widescreen-1920x1080-vs.jpg?pubid=16764841001 Date Accessed: 05/01/2015
BBC America (2014) The Making of the New Clone Tony: ORPHAN BLACK Inside Look - NEW Eps Sat 9/8c BBC AMERICA [Online] Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KGxXeDGtWU Date Accessed: 05/01/2015
The television show Orphan Black displays a character who has many different clones, one of which is transgender. Each of these characters has a completely different style and look differentiating them for another. The makeup that has been for the transgender character is done in a subtle way, using little makeup to contour the face and a final postiche beard and sideburns. The final touch of the makeup is to create the hair which for this design was a mullet. The makeup artists added small extensions to the front of the hairline giving the shape to the hairstyle. These photographs show the before and after of the actress that plays the two characters. There is a little change in the facial shaping except the jawline has been made stronger through the use of shading under the jaw and the shaping of the facial hair on the face. The transgender character still resembles the other as they are intended to be clones. The makeup has been created subtly as the design is to be shown on High Definition television. I think the face works successfully, as the nose has been more pronounced, the eyebrows have been made fuller as a male character would not alter the shaping. The facial hair on the chin is a hair piece, however the hair around the jawline is too fine for a piece as has therefore been hand layed, although the technique is not given for the application method, it is likely hand layed or using a flocking gun. Overall this is a clever makeup for creating a realistic and effective design to convey the character that has been created.
Female to Male Transformation
The first makeup experiment to create a female to male look can be seen to the right, the result although in essence captured the idea, did not look realistic. The brows were thickened, the face shape altered to create a more masculine effect and stubble around the jaw line. This last point is probably the element which makes the look seem most unrealistic, due to the smudge like effect, the colouring was a general blur around the area. Where looking at reference images one would not that stubble is rough, with the individual hairs creating the texture. The eyebrows, although thicker blend too much into one overall smudge. The contouring of the face worked well, creating a male resemblence, drawing the eyes closer together. The forehead has also been squared off slightly to create a more male shaping. The upper lip has been thinned as the male gender on average tend to have smaller lips than females. This overall makeup could be used for theatre as from a distance it will read male, through the shading around the lower half of the face, similarly the bigger eyebrows and hat to cover the long hair.
The second attempt at the female to male makeup worked much more successfully for use on film or television. The detail in the makeup is much more precise and therefore reads more effectively on the detailed cameras. The eyebrows were much more defined with individual strokes in the brow. The colour created fullness and also lost the defined shape of the original eyebrow. The eyes are more subtly brought closer together with shading around the eye socket and eye lids. Similarly the forehead has been altered for a squarer effect. There is shading around the nose as the nose is generally larger on the male gender. The shading around the jawline has been applied to create a more chiselled jaw, as the angle found in mens jaws is more prominent than that of womens. The lip has also been slightly thinned but in better relation to the lower lip in the second makeup attempt. Similarly the philtrum has been darkened as this is generally more indented. The stubble has been added more subtly to create shadow and imply the growth of hair. The final youch was to add hair to the face. Using crepe hair it was layed on the face using mastix spirit gum, this created a hair like effect. The colour did not exactly match the hair on the top of the head, however beards can grown different colours, however mostly lighter. The sideburns have been extended down the face as men generally have hair further down the sides of their face, due to beard growth. This looked partcularly effective in the laying, however the colour draws more unwanted attention to the area. In two photogrphs the beard is long, however thse look unkempt and tatty, with a messy look, the shorter beard had a more powerful effect as it looked denser and more realistic.
Drag Queen
Drag Queens are men that dress as women in drag. Drag stands for Dressed as A Girl. The history of drag queens began with the switching of gender rols for shakespearean and ancient chinese theatre where men would dress as women, due to the fact that women were not allowed to act on stage at the time. Many performances have been created around the idea of female impersonation such as Dame Edna. Drag began in the fifteies and sixties and progressed in the eighties within the LGBTQ community, however it should be clearly noted that the performance should not be labeled with a prejudice of sexuality. Many men have become very famous through their performances and are known by wide audiences, one such man is Ru Paul who has created a hit television show 'RuPaul's Drag Race'. In the show men compete in various competitions to be crowned the ultimate Drag Queen.
These are some quotes from Drag Queens explaining the art of their performances and the reasoning behind it:
“People want to look at me , they want to Look at this piece of art that I have made for the night” (Silver 2014)
“Whatever you proclaim as your identity here in the material realm is also your drag. You are not your religion. You are not your skin color. You are not your gender, your politics, your career, or your marital status. You are none of the superficial things that this world deems important. The real you is the energy force that created the entire universe!” RuPaul
Creating a Drag Queen Makeup
When creating a makeup for Drag there are many important points to consider when trying to alter the face. The first is the Face shape, look at the structure, dimensions and shapes, as seen in the image above of the 'Mask of Facial Beauty' there are clear differences in face structure, to which close attention should be paid. Men have straighter faces, with less definition around the cheekbones and squarer foreheads.
The next point is that there should be a focus feature of the face, be it the eyes or the lips. Attention must be paid to the context of the makeup, is the makeup required to last a long period of time under bright lights, or is it for a close up photography shoot. This will affect the application and the products used as each has their own qualities making them suitable for different circumstances. Finally the Drag Queen identity is a big part of the makeup, the makeup must reflect the style of drag that is being portrayed, close attention should be paid to the attitude of the performer and their style.
Blocking Out the Brows
Blocking out the brows is a relativley simple technique, it involves covereing the brow hairs and matching it with the skin tone in order to redraw the brows in the desired location and shape. It is used recurrently with drag queens, as the men have larger eyebrows and need to lift the brow higher on the head to open up the eyes, as women gernerally tend to have larger eyes. To block out the brow there are many products that can be used, the most popular with drag queens is actually pritt sticks, as they provide covereage for the brows and dry hard covering the hairs. Another technique is using prosaide, lightly covering the brows so that they stick to the head and talcum powdering to ensure they are not sticky. Another technique is to use putty wax to build up layers and cover the hairs, this works well, however does not stay on for a long period of time as the wax heats up from body temperature and can melt off and ruin the whole effect.
Drag Makeup
Here are some photographs of experimentation with drag makeup, using various techniques to cover the brow. This area of makeup is relatively new to me and therefore there has not been much practise of the technique, so the first makeup that was created is not at all representative of an actual drag makeup, therefore a second attempt was condiucted in hope of achieving a more effective look that worked better for the style it is trying to recreate.
Nina Flowers (2014) [Online Image] Available From: http://41.media.tumblr.com/31f9a21aa9ae048ede929b2d4f52518f/tumblr_ngqx8gJOvD1t5qmpjo5_1280.jpg Date Accessed: 21/02/2015
RuPaul (2013) [Online Image] Available From:http://nycprowler.com/prowler/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/RU_-headshoulder.jpg Date Accessed: 21/02/2015
Courtney Act (2014) [Online Image] Available From: http://themissinformation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Courtney_act_Ru_Paul_2013_640x360.jpg Date Accessed: 21/02/2015
Raven (2014) [Online Image] Available From: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/46/85/55/4685555abb845a84460406923796de7a.jpg Date Accessed: 21/02/2015
These photographs show a wide range of different drag acts, some are extremely extravagant such as Nina Flowers, whereas some others focus more on the simple beauty turning themselves into 'pretty' women, such as Courtney Act. This range in style is seen in many different acts, some focus on the beauty and do not change much of themseleves, except for adding slight highlighting makeup, whereas others go extreme to show off their makeup and their idea of beauty. It is from these photographs that inspiration will be taken to create the drag queen makeups shown below.
This image shows the Mask of Facial Beauty, the calculated idea of what modern day people consider to be anattractive face. This mask was created by Dr. Marquardt. It defines the male and female features of the face to allow vision into the characteristics thatare deemed beautiful. When masked over the face it defines whether or not the person fits the face to distinguish which features make the person beautiful. It is interesting to look at for representation of the features that need to be highlighted or reduced when creating a gender transformation makeup.
Second Drag Makeup
These potographs show the results of the second drag makeup, this was much more successful than the first. It represents the bolder drag queen style of makeup, with strong focal features and shaping. As this is not a strong point of my makeup abilities, I was pleased with the results of this makeup, it achieved the desired result.
Kristianathe (2014) WOMAN TO A MAN MAKEUP TRANSFORMATION TUTORIAL / Girl to boy make-up [Online] Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lR6MgzPLJM Date Accessed: 05/01/2015
This video shows the transformation form female to male, it is quite an effective result. The techniques shown in the video are worth considering when creating a female to male makeup. The eyebrows are still quite styled, however the volume works very well. The contrast of colour through highlight and shadow adds to the bone structure producing a more structured jawline. The hair has also been completed well as it looks realistic through the slight longer strokes with the base tone underneath. Another element that does not work particualrly well is the upper lip, this is due to the complete whiteness of the colouration. It makes the original lip shape stand out in comparison. The techniques will be utilsed for the makeup that I complete turning from female to male.
In this video it describes the character of tony and the thought porcesses of the makeup artists that had to create the transgender male. They thought through various ideas such as using a wig, however becuase of the volume of the hair that the actress has the wig would stand out as a peculiar shape, ruining the believability of the overall makeup. They have added small amounts of facial hair in order to create the overall look that works well for the character.