mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal - Tumblr blog

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Bibliography

Anon, (2018). Tattoo Artists Yearbook, (29).

BBC Three (2018). Things Not To Say To Drag Kings And Queens. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1v9qm8J1S0&t=2s [Accessed 24 Feb. 2018].

Humans of New York. (2018). Humans of New York. [online] Available at: http://www.humansofnewyork.com/ [Accessed 20 Feb. 2018].

LADY GAGA EXPLAINS HOW HER DRAG ALTER-EGO JO CALDERONE CAME TO BE (PLUS THE NAME OF HER 'BLOOD AND SEMEN' PERFUME REVEALED). (2011). FASHIONISTA. [online] Available at: https://fashionista.com/2011/11/the-rumored-name-of-lady-gagas-blood-and-semen-scented-perfume-and-how-she-tricked-vogue-hommes-japan-with-her-jo-calderone-pictures [Accessed 12 Mar. 2018].

Logo (2016). Drag Makeup Tutorial: Raja's 'Chocolate Cake Challenge. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMDzKlKNdyk [Accessed 30 Feb. 2018].

Logo (2016). Drag Makeup Tutorial: Trixie Mattel's Legendary Makeup. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aik0vuQs9Qs [Accessed 31 Feb. 2018].

Logo (2017). Drag Makeup Tutorial: Farrah Moan's Hurried Hotness. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2DCxI6qTfU [Accessed 31 Feb. 2018].

Logo (2017). Drag Makeup Tutorial: Valentina's Latina Glam. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7y4N-FWH0 [Accessed 29 Feb. 2018].

Paris is Burning. (1990). [film] Directed by J. Livingston. New York, USA: Art Matters Inc.

Stanton, B. (2015). Humans of New York. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Velour, S. (2017). VELOUR - The Drag Magazine, [online] (3). Available at: http://thedragmagazine.com/ [Accessed 30 Feb. 2018].

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 13 - 16/04/18

This week was my last shoot for the magazine. This shoot was with Drag Queen Rose - a new drag queen in the local area, who has already made a huge success within three months.

This shoot was fun and relatively easy going, and included three looks. I have already met Rose on two separate occasions prior, when attending her performances at The Stage Door. I wish I had met Rose much earlier on in my project, as she offered to set me up with many other local Drag Queens. Unfortunately, it was much too late in the project to take up this offer, but is something definitely worth considering, should I continue this project in the future. Aside from this shoot, this week has been largely focused on completing the written work to go alongside this project, as well as the Work Based Learning Unit.

An issue for this shoot was difficulty finding parking for Rose, and I had to pay for parking on a road nearby, which was an unfortunate cost beyond my project’s budget. Regardless, I was happy to find somewhere for my model and to decrease issues for the shoot.

One other issue was the camera lens would not focus when taking photos from a distance. For the first time I had to take photos using Manual Focus which was not something I had proper experience in. Regardless the outcome turned out fine and I was very pleased with the result.

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 12 - 09/04/18

This week I continued to work on my website. I have a theme for the site that reflects the magazine logo which was designed for me. I felt incorporating pink was important for the site due to the feminine aspect of drag, plus I wanted the website to be colourful and fun. The text is bold and distinctive, and I’ve kept the layout of each page simple and easy to navigate. In past weeks when getting feedback, I was told to have “click image to read more” etc on each page to ensure it is crystal-clear how the site should be navigated. I have every story and feature on the front page, like an instagram feed. I also have each story under sub-headings to for those who know specifically what they are looking for. I’ve named this issue “the draguate issue” due to everyone featured being either a student or a faculty member.

This week, I conducted an interview and a photoshoot of local drag queen Mileena Wyntr. This was my first time doing a shoot with someone who does drag professionally, and the hair, makeup and styling etc was done by the person themselves as the feature is about them as a drag artist. This shoot was relatively difficult due to my modelling requiring 2 hours to do their make-up. I sat with them whilst they got ready in the make-up studios, and maintained a friendly social approach to allow them to become comfortable with me. When they had their make-up done, I took them to toilets that were near the studios to get dressed and do their wig. They told me it would take 10 minutes, therefore I waited outside for them as they don’t know how to navigate the university. 45 minutes later, they were dressed and ready. For me personally, it was a shame this had taken so long as it took 45 minutes out of my booked studio time, and I was very thankful I had booked 2 hours worth of time, as this meant this wasn’t an issue in the end. Due to this outcome, I am now aware that I should prepare for this type of situation again in my next upcoming photoshoot with Drag Queen Rose. Due to nearly 3 hours of preparation, I ensured I took tonnes of photos and put on a well-researched playlist to ensure my model would be hyped and comfortable. I chose songs that are often lip-synced and performed by drag artists, which went down well. My model was very happy with the outcome of the photos.

At the weekend, I attended a event where both of the drag queens I will be featuring were performing at. I hoped that this would help support their careers and build a relationship with them. Due to the new contact I made in the local LGBT scene from my friend’s photoshoot, I had free tickets. This was a thoroughly enjoyable event, and even got some potential content for the magazine.

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 11 - 02/04/18

This week I spent a long weekend with my family, where I did extra work on the Queens of the South website. I contemplated creating a small book to serve as a mini portfolio and advertisement for the website, but realised this would add nothing to the overall digital magazine and would therefore be a pointless step. I have decided that I will use any extra time I can find between essay writing to make extra content for the magazine.

My initial plan was to focus on assisting on shoots for friends who have helped me with my shoots. Through this, I made a very important contact for my magazine. One of the model’s my friend used, has a parent who deals with the organising of all LGBT events in Southampton. My model informed me that she 1) knew a drag queen personally 2) that said drag queen was performing locally tonight. By that evening, I was at a local event watching the drag queen (”Drag Queen Rose”) performing at The Stage Door.

At the event I had a moment to speak to Drag Queen Rose, who was very keen and willing to be featured in my magazine. I am very excited to use this opportunity, due to Ru Paul’s Drag Race star Charlie Hides no longer replying to my messages.

The next day, the event organiser called me and asked me how I found the event and if I had a chance to speak to Rose. I told her I intend to feature her in my magazine. She told me of another local Drag Queen Mileena Wynter, who currently already follows my magazine Instagram. I contacted Mileena and have a shoot and interview booked with her next week. I have also been given free tickets to the next drag event (14th April) where both queens plus an new queen will be performing. This is a great opportunity for extra magazine content and is very relevant to the concept behind it. Onwards and upwards!

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 10 - 26/03/18

This week I created what I currently intend to be the last drag-look shoot. This shoot involved a model who was a member of faculty at the university. This was my most difficult shoot I had created to date. The studios were unusually hot on this day, meaning that myself, my shoot assistant and my model found an already challenging shoot extra difficult. My model chose to bring along a friend to shoot, without any prior warning, which meant that the small and hot studio space was extra cramped. The friend of my model had a lot of creative suggestions for the shoot, which was a social challenge for me as an individual as I struggle to assertively reject unwanted input when creating my work.

In prior feedback, I have been advised to incorporate more interesting background in my shoots. This was something I had been incorporating through photoshop, but had chosen today to create a background in the studio. This included putting together pom-pom style colourful paper flowers which were hung from a string between to floor to ceiling height polls. This took a lot longer than expected, and meant I had to let my shoot assistant continue putting it together whilst I got my model into hair and make-up.

Thankfully, due to making the eyebrows, lashes, lips and liner before the day, I was able to get the make-up completed relatively quickly. 

Having a real-life 3D background meant that lighting was significantly harder than usual due to all of the shadows and shapes that came into play.

Despite the minor inconveniences of the shoot, I am very happy with the outcome of the shoot and the impact it created.

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 9 - 19/03/18

This week I created a 20s style shoot. In my recent miscellaneous shoot, I realised that one of the wigs I was photographing was not how I expected, and I therefore ordered another. When this new wig came, although the length was perfect, it was extremely shiny and the waves that was in it were barely there. I decided to mattify the wig using powders and styled it in a traditional 20s style using lots of hair gel and hairspray to set it:

As well as this, I sourced some black earrings that fit with the 20s theme which were clip-on from H&M, which was an accidental but perfect find. 

Overall, the shoot went very well and I am pleased with the outcome. I have photoshopped the images, but I feel they need something extra as the currently look a little flat. I will experiment with potential background editing etc at a later date:

Over the weekend, I began the prep for my next shoot. This will be in a pop art style using paper features which I will be making myself out of coloured card. This included creating my own paper false lashes, which I used some existing lashes I owned to use as a base to work on:

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 8 - 12/03/18

This week, I came back from Dublin on the Tuesday. This meant that I had lost half of the week. Due to this, I planned a shoot that would allow me to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time, and take some pressure off. This shoot was a miscellaneous shoot of costume, props and accessories to serve as faceless images to represent various anonymous stories I would be having on my website.

As well as this, I attended Rupaul’s Drag Race star Charlie Hide’s performance at The Stage Door, Southampton. By attending, I intended to gain some personal inspiration for my project, as well as photograph Charlie for my website. Charlie has agreed to answering a couple of questions concerning being a member of the LGBT community, to fit with the theme of my site. I am very excited for this feature, although I am currently still waiting to get a reply from him. I am therefore aware that I may need to message him further in order to prompt him. 

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 7 - 05/03/18

This week I created my next shoot which was Marie Antoinette themed. I am pleased with how the shoot turned out and I have noticed a change in my overall approach due to being much more used to the shoot process. Upon arrival, I had to deal with being confident with asking the people before me to get packed up due to them continuing to shoot during my allotted booked time. This was out of my comfort zone, but has encouraged me to a learn a valuable lesson in being friendly but stern to ensure a smooth-running shoot.

When my shoot was completed, I felt that was something about the shoot that seemed dull and not like I had pictured. I realised this was due to choosing a grey background instead of pink, and used this opportunity to learn and experiment with photoshopping a pink floral background on to the image. I feel this massively increased the overall impact of this image.

Later in the week, I had a planned trip to Dublin for a couple of days, which I felt was vital in allowing me to emotionally recharge. Due to this, I had to work extra quickly to get work done compared to usual, to ensure the trip would not interfere with my weekly project schedule. 

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 6 - 26/02/18

This week, nothing went as planned and everything changed - yet somehow come out better for it.

This week set off with a negative start with me tirelessly over-thinking about my feedback I had in the previous week. I knew it was too late to go in a new direction with my project, yet I knew based on the feedback, it could not remain as it was.

Mid-week I had a epiphany in the shower. A new project idea that allowed me to 1) continue with my shoots as I currently am (therefore no work lost) 2) allow me to have more time to create content 3) use a platform I am already familiar and more confident with.

The new idea is as follows: Instead of a print magazine, it will now been an online magazine. Instead of being loosely about identity, it will be the sole focus, with in-depth real life stories from willing participants in the LGBT community surrounding LGBT issues. This allows me to showcase more images than my previous idea, I do not need to allow for printing time, and the project will be a lot more personal and have depth.

This means I can no longer use the title “Draguate” for my project as it no longer has an academic theme to it, therefore does not require a title that reflects that theme. Within my feedback, I was advised to have a more “Humans of New York” approach to my work (which will now be a source of inspiration) and have come up with the title “Queens of the South”. “Queens” referring to drag queens, which will be present throughout the project, and also a (positive) slang word for homosexual. It will be “the South” referring to the South of England, as I currently have models from London, Winchester and Southampton, as well as Southampton students. 

From this, I have began designing my website for desktop and mobile, which will be further adapted once I have more shoots and content.

To add to the content, I have also conducted personal interviews online with 7 people for the site. I hope to increase this number over the next few weeks. 

Lastly, I intended to create a Marie Antoinette inspired shoot this Friday, but due to heavy snow closing the university, this has been postponed. The silver lining of this issue is that it has allowed me more time to develop my project idea. Despite this, I styled my wig and made the gloves for this shoot, which I hope to do next week:

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 5 - 19/02/18

This week I took a break from shooting for my project due to having other commitments doing shoots for Anonstyle Magazine for WBL.

Instead, I allowed this week to be focussed on feedback on my project so far.

Firstly, on the Tuesday, I met with Kieran Kenzi for a tutorial. Kieran and I primarily discussed my shoots so far, and the photography. The main feedback I received from this session is that my photos need to adhere more to traditional photographic approaches regarding drag. This typically means blurred out skin, focused eyes and brightening of colours so that they pop and create a stronger photo. Upon this feedback, I experimented with photoshop and changed my approach:

On the Wednesday, I did my PechaKucha presentation. This was very helpful as it meant I was able to receive feedback from 3 different mentors. Feedback included varying styles for drag king looks, although this is something I will channel into my drag queen looks, I currently only planned to include the 2 drag king looks I already created, but I have considered leaving this open to changing in the future once the bulk of the drag queen looks are created. A specific piece of advice was the my tudor-inspired drag king looked too feminine, and would benefit from having no eyebrows to add a more masculine to the face. This is something I tried and felt was successful:

I was also advised to photograph parts of the body and accessories in my shoots to add variety into the magazine. Although this is something i’ve already started doing, I will try to focus this more than I already have with future shoots. The thing I took away the most from this experience was to interview my participants more in depth than I had previously. I wholeheartedly agree with this suggestion, and it made me reflect on the fact that I feared making this project too personal. Therefore, I decided I would come out of my comfort zone and get more personal with my model’s experiences as members of the LGBTQ+ community. The issue with this, is that is runs the risk of changing my entire concept/format behind the magazine, which was to mimic the format of a yearbook. This may need re-thinking and re-designing. 

When I was asked during my presentation what inspired me to do the project, and how I could make it more personal, I realised what sparked this interest was the documentary “Paris is Burning”. When I watched it, I was inspired by the history of the drag industry, and the stories of the people featured. When, later in the documentary it is revealed that one of the people is murdered, it go to me on an emotional level, and have been passionate about the topic since. This passion is something I want to bring to my project when interviewing my models.

Paris is Burning (1990)

On top of this, another aspect stands to change the idea behind my magazine. Rupaul’s Drag Race star Charlie Hides will be performing in the local area in a few weeks, and I have booked tickets and emailed their manager asking if it is possible to photograph him and interview with him. I got a quick response stating that Charlie wants me to email him personally regarding my project, and provided me with his personal email address. I emailed immediately and I currently await a response. I hope to have a development on this in a few days. I received feedback from a mentor that if I successfully arrange this, Charlie Hides should be on the front cover of the magazine. This would again interfere with my current yearbook inspiration/format, but is a change I feel would be a worthwhile risk.

During my travels, I came across a news agents which stocked niche magazines. I found a Tattoo magazine called “The Tattoo Yearbook” which had “Tattoo Artists 2017-2018″ as it’s issue. I bought and read this magazine, which featured imagery and articles for each artist. I found this to be an extremely useful reference tool in how I can combine a yearbook format and a magazine format together, as a way to showcase creative work.

Tattoo Artists UK & Ireland Yearbook 2017-2018

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 4 - 12/02/18

This week I completed two drag king shoots. On the Monday I prepared ahead to remain organised for the busy week ahead. Tuesday’s shoot involved a tank top, a catholic cross necklace, slicked back hair, stubble and a fake cigarette. This shoot was inspired by Lady Gaga’s drag persona “Jo Calderone” which has a tough italian gangster aesthetic which I wanted to mimic for the shoot:

Lady Gaga’s Jo Calderone

The shoot ran smoothly and I was pleased with the outcome of the make-up and hair as it was my first time styling short hair and doing fake stubble. My model identifies as Agender, therefore it was in the interest of my model that I was respectful and considerate of their personal boundaries when modelling for me. My model had previous experience with modelling and being a drag king, and therefore was a natural in front of the camera. 

Before Photo

After Photo - The Drag King Look

Due to studio restrictions, the cigarette used was a realistic costume cigarette, and I had to edit smoke on to the image later with photoshop.

On the Wednesday, I had my 1:1 meeting with my mentor, where the adding a smoke effect to the image was advised. As well as this, the image above was cropped as my model had their second arm around the waist, which was too much of a feminine pose.

On the Thursday, I had my second shoot. This shoot was a little less traditional drag king, and a little more androgynous. The idea behind this shoot was to be more high-fashion and less theatre, to show range. This look was inspired by the Tudor era, but with an edge. Modern fashion editorials often play with traditional masculine styling, paired with feminine make-up, and this was something I wanted to replicate:

Before Photo

After Photo

During this shoot, I had did encounter two minor social issues. Firstly, when I arrived at the studio which I had booked, the studio was still being used by the previous group of people. When asked if they could finish up, they showed little urgency and interest. This required some confidence and stern (but not angry) intervention in order to solve the issue. Once finally in the studios, I received a message from my model she would be late as she was going to get a coffee beforehand. To overcome this issue, I had very little social time with my model at the beginning in order to make up for some lost time. Despite this, I showed calm professionalism during the shoot, and was sure to remain friendly due to wanting to maintain a good relationship with my model for both professionalism and as this project is personal to the participants, and it is important that they enjoy their experience. 

When editing the photos, I noticed that my post-production skills were suddenly lagging, therefore I waited until the following weekend to tackle these with a fresh approach.

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 3 - 05/02/18

This week I created the accessories for my first shoot. This shoot is intended to feature on the cover of my magazine, as well as having it’s own spread within the book.

First I created “drag gloves”. These gloves are arm-length, nude-coloured nylon gloves, which you glue false nails to the tips of the fingers. These gloves created an illusion of the wearer having false nails on, whilst also smoothing out the appearance of the hand, making it appear more feminine. Due to the lack of available online resources on attaining or achieving these gloves that were budget-friendly, I made them myself. I used nylon gloves bought from an international lingerie seller on ebay, and used my own hand to build upon. I coated a thick layer of clear nail polish over the area I would be sticking the nail on, to prevent the glue from seeping through the material and gluing my own nails to the gloves. Then, using nail glue, I attached each nail on to the gloves. This process was surprisingly detailed and lengthy, but had the outcome I envisaged. Here is a gif I made demonstrating the appearance of the gloves and how they are removed:

After this, I created a bedazzled mouthpiece for my shoot. This mouthpiece is used in orthodontic procedures and teeth-whitening. It is a comfortable and safe item to wear, but adds a quirky and uncomfortable appearance to the wearer, creating an added interest to the shoot. I applied pink diamantes to the mouthpiece to drag-up the accessory:

As well as preparations for the shoot, I also discussed my ideas with my model regularly, to check they were comfortable with the plan and arrangements. On the shoot, I brought along a friend of mine who had previously appeared in a shoot for the magazine before Christmas. His role was to assist on the shoot, but also as a backup plan, should my model be a no-show. This meant I could still shoot a cover image, just not use it for a spread as he has already modelled for such.

Thankfully, my model turned up to the shoot and was amazing to work with. He was enthusiastic and up for trying out lots of ideas for the shoot. I learned during the shoot that he is on a Web-Design course, and we discussed professionalism and our industries. From this conversation, 2 days after the shoot, he contacted me offering to make me a professional self-promoting make-up artist page AND to create and collaborate on the website for the Draguate magazine for his own portfolio. From this experience, I learned that a professional and friendly approach can really help with making contacts, and allowing them to enjoy the experience with the project, makes them feel they want to help further. This was a very rewarding experience and I look forward to who else I will be meeting on this journey.

Shoot behind the scenes:

“Before” shoot:

“After” shoot (potential cover image):

After the shoot, I edited the images myself to make small cleanups of the images to make them ready for feedback in my next mentor session.

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 2 - 29/02/18

This week I practiced the makeup for my first shoot.

As a point of reference, I used tutorials available on Youtube by stars of Rupauls Drag Race including queens such as Trixie Mattel, Farrah Moan, Raja and Valentina. This was to help me grasp basics with aspects such as blocking out eyebrows, eye shapes and contour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aik0vuQs9Qs  / 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2DCxI6qTfU  /

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMDzKlKNdyk  /

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7y4N-FWH0  /

Upon reflecting on the makeup, it taught me that despite watching numerous tutorials online, the practice of it is more difficult than anticipated, and I will be needing to learn a new skill. After creating my makeup, I showed people who I felt would give an honest opinion, and they felt the eyebrows were too high, and that I had created a droopy eyes-shape.

Once I received this feedback, I decided to take it all off and re-attempt. I am extremely pleased with the progress I made on the second attempt, and feel I created a much more feminine and flattering eye-shape:

As well as this, I was not happy with the wig parting or styling, and re-set this on a later day:

Later in the week, I had my 1:1 tutorial with my project mentor. I am extremely pleased with the positive feedback I have received in regards to my ideas and organisation. During this session, I discussed that fact that my written feedback suggested I make a website to support and sell my magazine on. This discussion led to the idea of creating a fuller site, with content and extras on, as well as a selling option. Inspiration i will use for this is: http://thedragmagazine.com/ as it demonstrates perfectly an artistic direction I would like to take for the site.

[mfs124bdavagereflectivejournal]

Week 1 - 22/02/18

 This week involved the beginnings of my project. Firstly, I created a post on the Solent University LGBT Society Facebook page as people who identify LGBT are my target market for this project. In this post, I explained the concept behind my project and asked if there would be anyone who would be interested in modelling for it. This post was a huge hit, and gained the interest of 13 potential models. My intention is to use around 10 models for this project, but if the timing goes well, I am open to a few more, which has meant the casting process of my project was quickly completed.

The following day, I chose a male model out of the list that I felt would be most suited to drag makeup and therefore be my covergirl for the magazine. I contacted him and arranged a shoot day and time.

Once this was completed, I began designing my look and sourced a blonde lace-front wig, a graduation costume, bold lashes and red false nails.

To help prepare me with socialising with people who will be in different genres of drag, I ensure I brushed up some knowledge through BBC Three’s video on “Things Not To Say To Drag Kings And Queens” to make sure I was knowledgable before starting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1v9qm8J1S0&t=2s

Lastly, I set up and Instagram page for this project (@draguation) to begin that aspect of the project. I am yet to post on this but wanted to secure the handle (name) for the page.