Technical - Bruising & The Perfect Black Eye

In todays technical class we learnt how to create realistic bruising on the skin. In order to create a successful and believable bruise, there are a few factors that need to be considered ...

• How was the bruise created in the first place? (e.g. A broken nose often causes bruising underneath both eyes) 
• Where was the impact to the skin? (a black eye goes into the eye socket the majority of the time).
• How old is the bruise? (a new bruise is often quite red, whereas an older bruise is usually shades of green and purple) 

In order to create a bruising effect the supra-colour palette by Kryolan (Charles Fox) is good to use as its easy to blend so the makeup doesn't just sit on the skin but instead looks as if it is part of the skin.

Health & Safety:
Make sure your hands are clean, washed thoroughly with soap.
Place an apron around the model to avoid damaging their clothing.
Carry out a consultation with the client to highlight any allergies or contraindications.

Step by Step:
1. Make sure the skin is completely clean, free of dirt and/or any other makeup. If it is not then begin with the cleansing routine.

2. Once you have decided what type of bruise you would like to create, take the appropriate supra-colours and begin applying where necessary. 
3. As you apply the colours, keep a clean sponge to hand to help blend them together and into the skin, you can also use your fingers (make sure your hands are clean first).
4. Keep applying the colours and blending until you are happy you have achieved the appropriate bruising. (with a black eye it can sometimes be effective to add a small amount of vaseline on top of the colours to make the skin look stretched and swollen).

A Black Eye

Evaluation:

After briefly looking at images to work out how bruising differs across different skin tones and as the bruises age, it was a lot easier to create the looks with makeup. I found that old bruises tended to be more of a yellow/green tone, whereas fresher bruises were more purple and blue (sometimes also black depending on where on the body and how severe). I enjoyed experimenting with this idea and created one of each. I learnt what colours work best on a darker skin tone, which I hadn't had much practise on before. Overall I thought this technical went well and I produced good results which can only improve with time.