Transgender

Transgender is term used when a person’s gender identity differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. For transgender people, the sex they were assigned at birth and their own internal gender identity do not match. Gender identity - Is an internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman. Switch in gender roles has been seen for centuries within Shakespearean and ancient Chinese theatre, and is often seen in current patomine perfromances, where a male impersonates a female role.

Transgender Identities

Transsexual people

Identify themselves as a member of the sex opposite to that assigned at birth, and desire to live and be accepted as such.

Transvestite/Crossdressers

A transvestite is a person who cross-dresses, or dresses in clothes of the opposite sex. Cross-dressers may not identify with, or want to be the opposite gender, nor adopt the behaviors or practices of the opposite gender, and generally do not want to change their bodies medically.

Androgyne

A person that is not classified into the typical gender roles of their society. This image is often seen wihin the fashion industry.

Drag Kings and Queens

Drag is a term applied to clothing and make-up worn on occasions for performing or entertaining, unlike those who are transgender or who cross-dress for other reasons. Drag performance includes overall presentation and behavior in addition to clothing and makeup. Drag can be theatrical, comedic, or grotesque. Generally the terms drag queen covers men doing female drag, drag king covers women doing male drag, and faux queen covers women doing female drag. Nevertheless, there are drag artists of all genders and sexualities who perform for various reasons.

Drag Makeup

Consider

Differences between male and female

Bone Structure

Brow bone is lower and more prominant

Jawl bone is more angular and wider

Men tend to have a more prominent laryngeal prominence, or Adam's apple

Facial Features

Lips are smaller and thinner

Eyebrows are straighter, flatter and narrower

Eyes are deep set

skin is thicker and oilier than women's skin

Women tend to have lighter skin coloration than men, on average, by as much as 3% or 4%

Body Hair

Hairline is futher forwards on the forehead

Facial hair on neck, chin and top lip are obvious

Eyebrow hairs tend to be thicker

What is the main Focus feature? Eyes, lips, hair, and/or body. What is the characters describtion are they over the top or want to be more subtle?

Context requirements - does it need to be long lasting and heavy for performance in theatre? or more suttle to show a character within TV or Film?

Drag Queen Demonstration

Eyebrows

Need to be blocked to create the illusion of a higher brow bone in order to resemble a female’s facial anatomy.

Pros aide method

Derma Shield
Apply pros aide
Set with powder
Apply red tones over the brows to help hide hair
kroylan tv stick – warmer than natural skin tone – over the lips – stipple over the brows up the eye brow
Powder slightly over the brow

Eyes

Use the existing brow shape to create a new socket line

Draw in new eye shape – first draw in new eye socket with gel liner. Pat matte eye shadow, making sure not to distort the liner but rather to blend it and add depth to new socket line and outer corner.
Matte black eye shadow over the top to set the gel liner
Add new liner socket line
Press and dab to blend – layering colors
Liner under the eye
Conceal up close to the eyes

Face

Contouring is vital to help create the women facial shape

Use very dark contour colour to define the cheekbones, slim the nose, around the nostrils and down to the cupids bow and create lip shape.
Highlight with lighter colour than base in relation to the contouring and also add a triangular shape under the eye helps bring out the eyes.
Set with powder

Lips

Use a darker colour lip liner around lips and over draw to make them look more plump
Fill in with lipstick
Lighten the center areas to help add shape

Practical

Examples

New York photographer Leland Bobbé captures the two sides of the city's drag queens -- the extravagantly made-up drag divas and the organic men that lie beneath.

The series is called “Half-Drag … A Different Kind of Beauty”.

It took between 1 1/2 - 2 hours for each man's makeup and hair, and each design had significance to each of the men.

Most of the Drag Queens were refered to as another person rather than the man's self. He would talk about 'her'. It shows how makeup and hair can help someone change their identity.

Drag King

Same consideration applies when creating Drag Queen makeup, such as shaping the face with highlighting and contouring and the absence of facial hair.

1] prominent supra-orbital (brow) ridges (frontal bossing) resulting in deep set appearing eyes
2] flatter and narrower eyebrows
3] slightly narrower eyes
4] eyes less “wide open” (eye lids slightly closed)
5] slightly longer and/or wider nose
6] slightly thinner lips (especially upper lip)
7] square/angled and or larger jaws

Archetype Mask

Stephen Marquartdt developed a facial mask called the achetype mask as a measurement of classic beauty, to discover the 'ideal' bone structure. The Phi Mask, is actually that of a woman and the male mask is a variation on that mathematical female image.

By conparing the two produces the view that there is a biological basis for the difference between male and female.

Golden ratio mask. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.femininebeauty.info/i/marq.masks.gif [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].

In this image, the red lines show the masculine version of the mask. It contains the same involvement of symmetry, however some of the lines are more angular and travel out wider.

This helps give me a better understanding of the differences between the male and female bone structure. This therefore will help me uderstand where contouring and highlighting should be applied in order to create these shapes on the opposite genders face.

Here shows the outcome of the demonstration within class. By having only half the face completed allows a better understanding of how the makeup has been able to change the appearance of the face shape.

This was my first time of using Pros- Aide to block out the eyebrows, as previously I have used wax or cap plastic pieces. It was much easier to apply and did not produce out of the face as much as my attempts with wax and did not have edges or shine like the cap plastic. However although the colour of the hair was well hidden the hairs were still visible, so from far it was not that noticeable but upclose it was. This makes the product more suitable for stage or photographs were it can be edited rather than film and tv. I will try this method again as perhaps with more practice the hairs would be less visible.

At first I found it quite difficult the recreate the eyebrow shape as i was following the original brow and not relating it to the angle of the nose and eye. This made the eyebrow angle down too shapely and too soon. As my model has naturally large eyes i had to make sure that the creaseline position suited her eyeshape , so I did not go as high as the orginal brow. I feel that I could of made more of an definite line within the new crease line to make it more believable rather than just dark shadow contouring. I feel that I could have contoured alot more to help add to the heavy makeup effect. Also as I did not the pale foundation was all over rather than to act as highlight.

I feel that I was able to get an understanding of how to create a Drag Queen Makeup but feel that I could improve by applying it to a male. This would allow me to see where the contouring needs to go in order to slim down the face shape. Also the brows would be lower to start with and therefore following its line as a crease would look more accurate.

Drag Queen. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/ht_pusse_couture_leland_bobbe_ss17_jt_120802_ssh.jpg [Accessed 21 Feb. 2015].

Drag Queen 2. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.20min.ch/diashow/54760/54760-46hOXFT051UILGXhSFk7IQ.jpg [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].

Drag Queen 3. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ro_Q0xt76ZE/UCNV1vRhaWI/

AAAAAAAABMQ/sSD8BqgQZSs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-08-08+at+10.57.58+PM.png [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].

It's interesting to see how the makeup differs from one man to another, in order to help show their indentity of their female self. In the top left image his eyebrows start at the original place but then arch more upwards - as naturally positioned on a female, while the top right image the eyebrows are almost the same as he has already groomed them to be more feminine. The bottom image includes very heavy makeup of strong purple eyeshadow, pink checks and lips, he has chosen to go for the extreme glam look. The top left has a more subtle appearance while top right has a fashionised approach.

All the men have a lighter foundation than his original tone, which allows a more natural colour contouring to be applied. Overall it allows the viewer to see the difference of what makeup can produce, especially with changing the facial shape.

Here shows some images of Lady Gaga dressed as a boy. She has a dark grunge appearance, with messy, quiff hair and long sideburns. The eyes sockets appear to be very dark, making them look more deep set. Also the body language is different to a typical women and it helps display to man look also through the face.

Lady Gaga. (2011). [image] Available at: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/06/article-2023132-0D51B6EA00000578-50_468x475.jpg [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].

Lady Gaga 2. (2011). [image] Available at: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/06/article-2023132-0D51B71D00000578-128_468x466.jpg [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].

Here are the final images from the Drag King makeup. I feel thay the contouring is very heavy and looks obvious that these is makeup on the face, however overal I feel that I was able to recreate the face shape to resemble a mans. I did include an adam;s apple but it did not show up that well in the photographs, I think that more contouring should have been applied to the neck to match it better with the face. I feel that the eyebrows were the main key in producing a male look as as soon as they were made more bushy and angled downwards, it created a heavy brow line and helped deepen the appearance of the eye sockets. Also the the facial hair added to the effect, I only stippled on paint but feel that it would have been more realistic to cut up hair and into small fine bits and then glue it on.

By converting the image into black and white takes away the heavy makeup appearance and makes the male image look more believable. Also the angle at which the face is photographed also had an impact on how manly it looked.

From watching these videos, I feel that I have a better understanding of where the contouring and highlighting should be applied in order to recreate the face shape. This combined with the research into the facial structure differences between male and female will allow me to create a Drag King makeup.