Technical - illness/black eye

What is an illness?

This is a condition of being unhealthy in your body or mind. Some illnesses are minor, meaning they come and go quickly such as a cold or flu whereas other illnesses are continuing, perhaps a lifetime such as asthma or diabetes.

What is a disease?

‘A disease is a particular abnormal condition that affects part or all of an organism. The causal study of disease is called pathology. Disease is often construed as a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by factors originally from an external source, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases. Diseases usually affect people not only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting and living with a disease can alter one's perspective on life, and one's personality.

Death due to disease is called death by natural causes. There are four main types of disease: pathogenic disease, deficiency disease, hereditary disease, and physiological disease. Diseases can also be classified as communicable and non-communicable. The deadliest disease in humans is ischemic heart disease (blood flow obstruction).’

Disease (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease (Accessed: 2 April 2016).

What is a sickness?

Often people confuse the words sickness and illness together as they believe they mean the same thing however a sickness is believed to be when ‘a part of the body is broken or malfunctioning. Any medical diagnosis or psychiatric malady is a sickness. Illness, on the other hand refers to our emotional, psychological, and/or spiritual reactions to our sickness. Most patients report that the pain from their illness is far more severe, long lasting, and personally traumatizing than is the pain from their sicknesses.’ 

Illness, H.Y. (2016) SICKNESS VS. ILLNESS. Available at: http://www.healyourillness.com/page.asp?page=3332 (Accessed: 2 April 2016).

Symptoms of an illness:

’There are symptoms caused by an illness, or the damage it is doing. If you have a bacterial infection, the bacteria could be releasing toxins that cause pain or discomfort. Discomfort from an illness is immensely varied, and can range from a minor feeling of unease, to unrelenting pain from a serious cancer.

There are symptoms that indicate your body is fighting an illness such as inflammation, pain, swelling and vomiting. There are also symptoms of healing, when your body is replacing cells that were damaged by the illness. These may include itching, swelling, even discomfort and pain. When your body is clearing out toxins from the illness there may be many more symptoms. These symptoms might start - as soon as the illness is present. When your body detects an illness, it starts to feel the illness, to fight the illness, and to heal from the illness - all at once.

There are also symptoms that appear when you have recovered. If you were sick for a while, your body might feel agitated, eager to get moving, stretching, etc.

When you take medications for an illness it gets even more complicated. There are many symptoms that might result from the medication. Some aspects of medication might make you 'healthier', which will cause specific symptoms. Many medicines are toxic and have a wide variety of symptoms as a result. Clinical testing of medications does not attempt to distinguish between 'healthy' effects and 'unhealthy' effects of a medicine. Side effects are listed, often without judgment or analysis of their cause or meaning.’

Kolenchuk, T., Founder, Freedom, P.H., Healthicine, to, Health, T. of, Arts, T. and Health, S. of (2015) Are your ‘side effects’ symptoms of illness or Healthiness? Available at: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/are-your-side-effects-symptoms-illness-or-healthiness (Accessed: 2 April 2016).

Ill baby (skin reddening)

Choices, N. (2015) Skin rashes in babies - NHS choices. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/skin-rash-babies/Pages/Introduction.aspx (Accessed: 2 April 2016).

Technical lesson four:

Model name: Lia
Skin type: combination
Skin tone: medium skin with yellow undertones
Natural eyes/contacts: natural eyes
Allergies: none
Medication: none
Any open wounds/scars, cuts etc.: none

Required products/materials: cleanser, toner, moisturiser, cotton pads, water/contact lens solution, liquid latex, glycerin, stipple sponge, Kryolan camouflage concealer palette, Kryolan supra colour palette, and makeup brushes.

What is glycerin?

Also known as ‘Glycerol’, this product is an oily liquid used for sweat, tears, and raindrops on the face/body or lymph on a burn for instance. It can also be mixed with gelatine. Glycerin is sold in most high street chemists. Glycerin is non-volatile and intensely water-loving, meaning it draws water to itself from the surrounding it’s in. It is also often added to face/body paint for an added glossy shine.

Image reference: Dmedia, 2 (2016) Kryolan glycerine. Available at: http://www.screenface.co.uk/sfx/blood-sweat-tears/tears/kryolan-glycerine.htm (Accessed: 2 April 2016).

Step-by-step guide:

Before starting the practical, I set up my station and got rid of any bags, scarves and coats that were in the way for health and safety reasons. I then placed a towel around my model again for hygienic, health and safety reasons. Next, I cleansed her. This is an essential part of basic skin care routine used to wipe of the oil, makeup and dirt off the face to leave the skin looking clean and tight. I applied a bit of cleanser onto a cotton pad, and gently wiped it on the face. I then toned her face. I always do this after cleansing to shrink pores, give the skin pH balance, remove any dirt the cleanser didn’t and hydrate the skin. Again I applied a bit of toner onto a cotton pad, and gently wiped it on the face. The last part of the cleansing routine is to moisturise the face to smoothen/silken it. This method is good
for those especially with dry skin in order to hydrate it. I did this using my hands. (Make sure they’re clean!)

For this look, we first started concealing out any spots or blemishes on the skin. I used shade D3 from the Kryolan camouflage concealer palette using a thin flat concealer brush. Sue told us it’s best to use our fingers to blend out the edges of the concealer onto the rest of the skin. The look we were trying to achieve was a high temperature/fever, meaning we had to make the face red and sweaty. Often a fever results to red eyes and a tired face results to bluey/brown eyes. To create this effect, I applied some red (079) from the Kryolan supra colour palette using a stipple sponge. I used a very small amount of this as I wanted it to remain as natural as possible. I also patted the colour in some areas using the heat from my fingers. I made sure I went into the hairline, nose and ears. Once I was happy with this, I moved onto the black eye.

What is a black eye?

‘A black eye is bruising to the tissue under the skin surrounding your eye. It's usually caused by a blow to the face, such as a punch, or an accident such as a fall. Sometimes, a black eye can occur after cosmetic surgery to the face, such as a facelift or a nose operation.

The area around the eye turns bluish or purple because tiny blood vessels under the skin burst and blood leaks out into surrounding soft tissue. Your skin may be painful and swollen and may make it difficult to fully open your eye. Your vision may also be temporarily blurred and you may have a headache.

A black eye is not usually serious and you can usually look after it at home if there are no signs of a severe injury. After a few days, the swelling around your eye will start to go down and the bruise will turn brownish-yellow before eventually fading. Like any other bruise, a black eye will usually take about a week or two to heal completely.’

Choices, N. (2015) Black eye - NHS choices. Available at:
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/black-eye/Pages/Introduction.aspx (Accessed: 2 April 2016).

What is a bruise?

Bruises are coloured patches that appear on the skin when blood vessels, called capillaries break or burst underneath the skin. Red blood cells leak out of these blood vessels which causes a bluish, reddish or blackish mark. Bruises go through colour changes as the body begins to heal. When the colour changes, this means the body is metabolising which is the process that the body goes through to repair itself.

The phase of a bruise:

1. A bump will occur that may look red/purple. The bruising may be tender or swollen.

2. After a few days, the bruise will turn blue/black.

3. After about a week it will start to look green/yellow.

4. After about two weeks the bruise will most likely be a very light brown, and then fade away by time.

To reduce the swelling of bruises, ice must be used right after you receive the bruise. People with dark skin can bruise also, however it shows up more on fair skin. Some people also tend to bruise easier than others; especially the elderly as their skin in thinner and the tissue underneath is more fragile.

Example of a black eye

Hellem, A. (no date) How to treat a black eye. Available at:
http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/black-eye.htm (Accessed: 2 April 2016).

Continuing on the step-by-step guide, to create the bruise we had the option of using our supra colours or Sue’s bruise colour wheel. (A bruise colour wheel is crème based makeup placed in a wheel consisting of different colours, used to create realistic bruises. They can be applied directly to
dry skin). I firstly went in with the same red I used earlier from the supra colour palette and applied this gently onto the eyelid using my fingers. (Make sure your nails are cut otherwise this will irritate the models eye). You want to make sure u get the colour right down to the eyelash so it’s best to use a thin shadow brush, preferably pointy. Dab/feather to colour onto the eye rather than dragging it. The brush can also be used in a circular motion to help with the blending. I went right into the inner corners as well as the socket line. I also mixed some black (071) with the red to achieve a dark red
and applied this on the under eye crease. With bruises, you can apply colour over colour so I decided to mix some blue (091) with the same red and apply this again in the inner corners and under eye crease. You can wipe off any mistakes with a cleanser using cotton buds. To finish off my bruise,
I added a small amount of moisturiser on the eye so add some shine. You’re more than welcome to apply this anywhere on the skin where u think it’s required. Do not however apply powder as this takes the shine away, making it look unrealistic. For extreme black eyes, Sue told us we can also use silicone. It’s also important to consider what stage your bruise is in e.g. early/late before creating it.

I next moved onto the lips. I wanted to make them look dry therefore I applied a very small amount of liquid latex using a small stipple sponge. I patted this onto the lips to give it a flaky effect. Ensure to go over the edges of the lips to create sores. You also have the option of achieving this effect using DUO.

After, I achieved the sweat effect. To do this, I put glycerin on the back of my hand and dabbed it on the upper lip, neck and nose using a stipple sponge. It’s also optional to apply water on the hair and back of the neck to achieve sweat however glycerin is better as it doesn’t run down the face.

For the tear application, tilt the models head backward and drop some water/contact lens solution or normal eye drops into the eye. (This is completely safe to use in eye; make sure u are 100% sure a product is meant to be used inside/around of an eye before you apply anything due to health and safety reasons). Remember tears fall out the inner corners of the eye. You could also lengthen the tear by applying glycerin down the cheek. For tears, do this just before a shoot/scene (last minute) otherwise the effect will disappear after a few minutes or so.

Reflection:

I was very pleased with my overall look. I think the application of everything was very balanced (not too much or not too little). The only feedback I received from Sue was that I could apply more purples/blues into my black eye. I also could’ve applied some water on the neck/hairline to give it an extra sweaty effect.

Key notes (taken in class):

• In film/TV, less is more.
• Don’t create unnecessary spots/scratches for continuity. 
• Always try new products on the back of your hand before trying them out on someone’s face. 
• Research an illness and the effect it has on the skin before applying anything. 
• You could draw stencils for continuity. 
• You could use food colourings to colour inside the mouth. 
• It’s easier for a male model to grow a beard rather than you create one for continuity.