Tomo Hyakutake's work 'The Rose Nymph'

After reading the book, A Complete Guide To Special Effects Makeup - Conceptual Creations by Japanese Makeup Artists, I have learnt more about special effects makeup (the techniques and also the process of creating a character) and also how to use different materials to decorate a prosthetic make-up look. I have found out a design which look very interesting and creative and it is named 'The Rose Nymph'.

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'Bud and Thorn': The Rose Nymph, Photo taken by: Yosuke Model:  Marie, AtushiBeauty Make-up: KeizoCostume by Yuta Okuyama&TOMO

Tomo Hyakutake is the make-up artist and the designer of 'The Rose Nymph' and he was born in 1972 on Iwate Prefecture. He is the owner of Hyakutake Studio, KK and studied special effects makeup at the Nikkatsu Visual Arts Academy. He has participated in different projects such as ''Yokai daisenso'' ("The Great Yokai War"), "Ashura-jo no hitomi" (a.k.a. "Ashura": poster artwork), "Dororo", etc. He also works in television project such as "Yo ni mo kimyo na monogatari" ("Tales of the Unusual") and "Mokuyou no kaidan" ("Ghost Stories on Thursday", etc.  His design projects include Casshern (the suits); Yokai daisenso; Dororo; Ashura-jo no hitomi (the conceptual sketch); 13 Doors, the haunted house attraction at the amusement part, Korakuen, etc.

The concepts of 'Rose Nymph' is to show innocence and freedom and portray a fey being. The look gives a quite eerie and mystery because of the color of the lighting, the zip in the middle of the body and also the way the character has got arm bandages and stitches on her body. There is red tissue underneath the bandages and it looks like its coming from the white pale skin. The shell shape on her chest reminds me of the mermaid. My favourite part of 'The Rose Nymph' is the ornaments and decorations on the bald cap. For the petals on the head, Tomo has used a thin plastic sheet and cut into scalloped ruffle shapes when it is heated with a heated gun. The edges of the plastic sheet will then curl and ruffle. Then, he hold the heat gun near the cut-out shape and it will shrink. After that, he painted the petal with red acrylic paint. The thorns on the bald cap, arms and shoulders is created by twisting and shaping the papier-mache into the thorn shape. He then applied color on them with acrylic paint and attached them to a plastic sheet coated with latex. After the acrylic paint is dried, he brushed the pros-aide on the bottom of the thorns and placed them onto the bald cap, arms and shoulders. 

The look also features red long and sharp press on nails. For the make-up, Tomo has used red eye shadow on the corner of the eyes and then blend the color in order to create gradation effects. Then, he has used black eye shadow to contour the eyes and blend the black color over the red color. He has also added pink eye shadow on the lower eyelid and extend it outside the corner of the eye. After that, he has colored the white false lashes in red and then applied it onto the upper and lower eyelids. He has used pink color lipstick for the look. Red contact lenses are being used in this look as well.

Branches and thorns:
In order to create the branches, he has twisted two or three colored craft wires together with the pilers and then use the glue gun and apply it along the twisted wire. By extending a little bit of the glue into short strands, it can create the thorns shapes. Also you can adjust the shape to make it look like branches as well. Brush Liquitex Ceramic Texture Gel on the wire and then color the branches with acrylic paint. 

'The creation of fantastic creatures involves making a foam latex prosthetic and fabricating props and a costume that matches the prosthetic in atmosphere to portray the creature's world.' (Tokyo SFX Makeup Workshop, 2008) This quote shows the importance of  how the costumes and props do affect the presentation of the character and when designing or styling the characters' looks, we need to think about how the costumes or props do give specific meanings or give impacts to the looks. 

References:

• Tokyo SFX Makeup Workshop (2008). A Complete Guide To Special Effects Makeup - Conceptual Creations by Japanese Makeup Artists. Published by Graphic-sha Publishing Co., Ltd.