Eurvein of Air

[kumir_k9]

So this past weekend I finally decided to get my act together in regards to the makeup job for my new character for Madrigal.  I figured maybe I should try to put my face on before I actually had to take it in-game and take pictures while I was at it so I could get staff approval on it, since the description in the rule book struck me as a little vague.

From the rulebook:  Your skin is veined with the white and gray of clouds and mist, tinged with pale blue, with clear or silver highlights of crystal.  Some Eurvein have white hair or light gray hair.  The crystal in your skin is clear or silver; you may affix a unique pattern of clear crystals to your face or use silver glitter over your colored veins.

GM clarification:  You can be light blue with white veins and clear/silver crystal, or white with light blue veins and clear/silver crystal.  You can substitute crystals for "veins" of silver glitter as well.  Basically do your makeup to look like an Air elemental with crystal bits.

So here's what I've got.  There are two shots.  The one without the flute is the final product.  The one with the flute is missing one swirl that I added after that shot, but it nicely shows the effect of the airy swirls coming out the end of the flute.  Both shots nicely show the sparkle of mist in the swirls of air.  At least, I think they do.  Oh yeah, all exposed flesh will be done for game.  This is for the sake of getting the makeup right.

 

I'm open to feedback.

Comments

[ryxander.livejournal.com]

Pretty cool!

If you're willing to put in a fair amount of extra work to look extra fantastic, here's a technique I used for Arashi that works VERY nicely:

Start with your blue base, then layer over with a thin layer of white pancake. You will end up with a lighter blue that will have less pink show through due to the second coat, hold up longer without needing retouching, add a look of depth and uniqueness due to the color blending, and feel better in the sun because the lighter color won't hold heat as much.

Looking forward to meeting the character!

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

Good advice. I actually wanted a lighter blue. And I was having a hell time getting it to not show pink, especially on my nose. My nose for some reason just refused to hold the blue.

I don't worry about heat so much. I play a black dog in NERO, black from top to bottom including a black ninja mask around my head with a mask closing in my face and black fur as my first layer of clothing. Compared to that, this will feel like a cool Spring zephyr on the hottest of days.

Who's Arashi?

[ryxander.livejournal.com]

Re: nose: try using an almost-dry, good-quality face sponge out of which you have squeezed as much water as possible (or nearly so) and scooping up the pancake as thickly as possible onto the sponge. also, drier sponges lead to less pink than wetter ones, up to a point.

Arashi was my Shandlin's Ferry character, still my favorite PC to play ever.

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

BTW, do you happen to have a picture of Arashi that shows the makeup effect?

Carribean Blue and Blue Spirit

[traceroo.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest the same thing. Rather than apply the makeup in layers, however, I would west the sponge and mix on the sponge itself (dipping in blue first). Wildlands West has a blue race, and my friend (and WLS staffer) gingerer used Carribean Blue and Blue Spirit (which is white with a blue tinge, good for vampires) mixed together. He comes out sky blue.

I would experiement with clear set powder prior to doing the stripes, but it might be better afterward. Just gotta test it.

Next, from the description, I had a picture in my head that these guys looked like sedimentary rock or marble like the old duergar in Wildlands. Is that inaccurate? I pictured horizontal or slanting layers rather than patterns. I'm not sure if I'm right at all, however.

What sort of tool are you using to apply the marks? I'd like to see what it looks like with a thinner paint brush. I can't see the detail clearly enough, but it might look very cool to have an even thinner run of sparkly over each stripe. Ben Nye makes a line of dry glimmering powders - can't remember the name, but I could look it up if need be. One is a translucent color that's just irridescent. That would look very nice over the white, and give the proper "ethereal" effect.

Last bit of advice: Do not put the stripes on the tip of your nose or around your mouth. These are the areas that will wipe off first. Make it easy on yourself to touch up by leaving them solid blue.

Traceroo

Re: Carribean Blue and Blue Spirit

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

Set powder? I will have to look into this. I had put a mist of barrier spray down after the blue. I have not played with set powder before. You may feel free to pretend that I'm 'makeup ignorant'. It's not even a stretch to assume this. ;-)

I've got what I have on the advice of the woman at the costuming shop where I purchased it when I described what I wanted and what conditions I would be using it under. She didn't even blink at this, so I assumed she'd heard this stuff before.

The base blue is the Mehron powdered cake makeup being applied with a large round sponge. Then the white (which ended up light blue) was applied with a grease marker. I'm guessing from the sounds of your comments this isn't the best approach. Then I used a pre-mixed spirit gum / glitter combination to apply the silver glitter over the swirls with a brush.

Interesting thoughts on the placement. I will have to think on this. I have had some nasty makeup jobs applied for me by others for large NPC roles and had to wear them for long stretches. I find I'm very conscious of not touching the makeup. The only area I have of concern is my embouchure. I don't want gunk all over my flute. The barrier spray set the blue nicely. The playing I did left not a single blue speck on my flute's mouth piece.

There are four types of Eurvein (earth, air, fire and water) with differing descriptions. The rulebook description didn't give me a good feel for what they looked like and I was picturing veins, but veins don't mesh with air, as they do with earth. That's why I emailed Rob and he sent the clarification that said "Picture air elementals". Every air elemental I've ever seen has swirls and that made the picture gel in my mind as you see above.

The answer I got back from Rob when I sent him the picture was overwhelmingly positive with no advice for modification. So while I may change where certain swirls lie and how I apply the makeup, I will stick with the base look.

Thank you for the advice and commentary. I really appreciate all the help people are giving and will gladly take more.

Re: Carribean Blue and Blue Spirit

[traceroo.livejournal.com]

I've never used barrier spray. If that's working with the flute, then I wouldn't change it. I suggested set powder because it does much the same thing (but possibly not as well with the flute), and the allegedly "clear" powder can lighten dark colors a little bit.

I think you may find more flexibility with a paint brush and liquid with the swirls than a pencil. Here in the south, many, many players use - I kid you not - acrylic paint on their skin for marks like these! I have never seen anyone break out, have stained skin, or skin problems from this. They use it extensively at 10+ events a year and it seems to work fine - but I'm still skeptical about putting that on my own skin! Inkpen tried it when he gamed with me down here, and you might ask him about his experience with it. That said, white acyrlic paint would show up solid white over that blue. It comes in markers which is easiest to use, or you could go the paint brush route if you wanted marks less crisp and more fluid.

There are many glitter options more comfortable than putting spirit gum on your face. A powder should stick over the make-up just fine. But when in doubt, don't neglect women's make-up! Even a CVS should have some glittery eye shadow with a nice handy applicator for just such an occassion.

Traceroo

Re: Carribean Blue and Blue Spirit

[ryxander.livejournal.com]

Oh! Rather than using grease pencil for the white, consider using liquid white. You get a more precise line and it stays on very well. And it's not, you know, greasy. :)

[ryxander.livejournal.com]

Alas, no.

[ryxander.livejournal.com]

Oh, but if you ever want to come by, I could give you tips in person. :)

Dropping by

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in your and my copious amounts of free time and seeing as we live so close. :-) I'd love to drop by, I just have no idea when would work. It would be nice to have personal face-to-face time with someone who knows what they're doing. Alas, the revel is only a couple weeks away.

Re: Dropping by

[ryxander.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, in your and my copious amounts of free time and seeing as we live so close. :-)"

Okay, good point. :)

[mrpaladin.livejournal.com]

Awesome look! That's going to be cool IG!

[rowan-syngwyn.livejournal.com]

Sweet.

[marcus-sez-vote.livejournal.com]

Swank and trippy.

I actually prefer the picture without the curl right on your nose/nostril. Maybe that could be moved to the bridge of your nose/between your brows?

Be well.

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

Possibly. When I looked at the picture without it, the center of the face seemed to be missing something. However, I too wasn't enthused with the way that particular swirl came out because it seemed to make the one around the eye seem crowded. What I think I may do is combine the two in a more central fashion.

Part of the problem I think I'm seeing is that the eyebrows are white, so I sort of need to stay away from them to make sure they stand out.

Playing with the configuration was part of the point of this exercise so that I didn't get to the game and have to figure it out on the fly with no time to make changes. Good observation. Thanks.

[embermwe.livejournal.com]

I would suggest making the curl near the nostril more of an s shape and tilting it so it lies more across the lip and into the bare space next to the nose.
The white coat over the blue coat is a great plan to get a lighter color and more depth. The white curls can then be highlighted with silvery glitter to make them stand out more.

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[tashewolf.livejournal.com]

Firstly -- dollink, you look fabulous.

Secondly, I am not crazy about the nose swirl for a couple of reasons -- Trace is right, stay away from your nose and mouth as much as you can; it's kind of disruptive, stands out too much from the rest of your makeup... and it fails the LARP schoolyard test in that someone could conceivably imply it's a booger. Yea, the ways in which my mind functions!!

I have another kooky suggestion for you -- try lightly dusting your makeup with baby powder. Pretty much after it dries, I would say. You might find this has a setting effect. I'm of two minds about greasepaint -- you definitely don't want to just leave that open, dirt is bound to get on your face and stick to it (it's never really going to dry). BUT, for MY Shandlin's character -- a stone elf -- I erased half my eyebrows with clown white AKA greasepaint and powdered it down with, you guessed it, baby powder. I also did this for Columbia in Rocky Horror. Works GREAT but would be difficult to match up the swirls! Unless you find that it works as a good setting agent for the overall effect: heavily applied on the swirls (I would use your finger for that), gently dusted over the rest, for example.

And as a BONUS, since air is an unstable element, I don't think you are in any way married to the exact layout of the swirls from application to application.

Can't WAIT to play with you again in the future!!! :)

[kumir-k9.livejournal.com]

I am not crazy about the nose swirl
Well, like I said somewhere up in previous comments, I'm not keen on that particular swirl either. I'm pretty much sold on the look but not necessarily all the details of placement and makeup application. That particular swirl was added as an afterthought because the middle of the face looked like there was a gap, and so it came out brighter and shinier than the rest.

Yeah, I thought about moving the swirls around from event to event, though I really like the ones that come off the end of the flute. After all, it's a manifestation of the the elemental energy in our bodies. Hell, if things are slow and I need something to do, maybe I'll change my face around between battles just to mess with peoples' heads. (or not)

I too am looking forward to playing with the staff again, or is that the other way around? ;-)