Scarification *

Scarification is the art of purposefully cutting/burning the skin in a design, and prolonging the healing process to create a visible scar. It has been widely used by tribes such as the Maori and the Aborigine people as a way to decorate the body and as part of age milestone rituals such as when a child reaches puberty or gets married. I loved this idea for the character of Quentin, for Claudia to brand him with scars of 'mine' to display her claim on him.

I like the bottom right picture for Claudia and Quentin as this is what I had imaged the Quentins scars to look (although faded). I feel that the art of scarification could be seen as quite intimate and personal. seeing as it involves someone cutting another person and spilling their blood. I think this method of tattooing ties in perfectly with the Gothic, as it blurs the lines between right and wrong. Harming another human seems fundamentally wrong but when it is as closely ingrained in some societies as scarification is, it is actually seen as a right of passage. This juxtaposition is a theme within the Gothic so I feel that this is the perfect method for Claudia to use to brand Quentin.

Body Scarification (no date) tattoo22. Available at: http://www.tattoo22.com/scarification.html (Accessed: 13 April 2015).

oops | malformalady: Tribal scarification (no date). Available at: http://witzelsuchting.tumblr.com/post/49321163532/malformalady-tribal-scarification (Accessed: 13 April 2015).

Scarification Tattoos: Page 22 (no date) Tattoos Time. Available at: http://www.tattoostime.com/tattoos/scarification/page/22/ (Accessed: 13 April 2015).

Who is Claudia channelling?

http://thetwilightsagacommunity.ning.com/profile/AnnaValerious

Due to Claudia's fascination with Gothic movies, she often bases her style on a character from a film. I think Claudia could be subtly channeling Anna Valerious from the film Van Helsing. She wears a corset which hints at the outerwear as overwear trend, which Claudia herself loves to follow. She also wears a lot of deep wine, purpley shades that Claudia includes in her own make up.
Claudia's hair starts off a lot like Anna's, but she backcombs it and neglects to brush it which creates a much more voluminous effect.

Vampire bites *

This is a tutorial I watched when thinking about how to best create Quentin's bite marks. I really like the way scar wax has been used to make the area seem raised and inflamed. I have tried to recreate the look without scar wax below, simply by using different shades of red to create the depth of the bite.

Creating Quentin's scars*

For my character of Quentin I wanted to recreate the look of scarification. I knew that the best way would be to use Rigid Collodian, but as I am on a budget I first wanted to try out an idea I had using Gelatine. Gelatine is commonly used to create burns, but as some scarification is performed by heated metal branding techniques, I thought that if the technique payed off, a more burned look would still work for my Quentin character. I bought regular Gelatine intended for baking to try out the look. I started by applying a reddish purple colour (the colour a scar usually starts of as) in the shape of the words 'mine' that I wanted to apply to the skin. After heating up the Gelatine mixture I started to apply it to the words. I didn't find this technique to work very well, the shop bought Gelatine wasn't the right consistency to paint onto the words, and as I had used the oil based supra colour it was difficult to adhere. I realised it was probably the wrong product to use so went ahead and purchased some rigid collodian. 

I first tried with the rigid collodian using supra colour as my base colour again. I liked the effect the collodian created for the scars, but found when it came to blending foundation over the top, the oily supra colour blended out making the whole area pink. 

I decided to try again using Aqua colour. After repeating the same process as before but using the Aqua colour, I was really pleased with the look of the scar. The drier consistency was easier for the collodian to adhere to, and didn't colour the whole area after foundation was placed on top. It would be interesting to try the first method using gelatine with the Aqua colour, and see if this would make this technique more successful. 

Scars with Rigid Collodian*

This is the technique I might use to create Quentin's scars. I really like the effect it creates as it creates depth to the look and is very realistic. For Quentin, I may not add as many layers of the product as his scars would not be quite as deep as this.

Quentin Hair Charts

This is my first hair look. I wanted for this version of Quentin to also have a sort of punky look about him, with peircings and facial hair. His long hair has been pulled back into a loose braid, tied with a string of leather.

This second look goes alongside a very Gothic make up look for Quentin. This long, poker straight, black and slicked back style is very harsh on the face. I like this look, but it would be hard to achieve without a model with long black hair which my model does not have. It would also not be at all challenging to create.

My final look for quentin is also very simple. However I think it fits with Quentins artistic, soft centred personality as this loose blonde ponytail could be seen as femenine. I have added some texture to the hair with backcombing to make it look lived in and unkempt

Claudia Hair Charts

This is the most simple hair look of the three. The reasoning behind this is that the make up that goes with this Is also very simple because Claudia hides away, seen by no one and wants to look and feel as human as she can. By doing this she is going for a very natrual, girl next door type look if not slightly unkempt. I like the simplicity of this look but decided it wouldnt challenge me at all so it is not what i want to create for my final design.

This next look is a very cutesy, kitsch hair look to tie in with claudia's apartment decor. The hair is tightly curled and flowers bave been added to create a sweet, girly look. I really love this look but have decided it wouldn't work that well within the series of True Blood.

The look I have decided to go for is this big, backcombed, curly look. I love the rock chick glamour this look brings, I think it goes hand in hand with the make up to make claudia look really fierce. This is the look i have chosen for my final design.