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Perfect! Eyebrows

This is not a drawing class.  Nor is it a how-to for cosmetic tattooing or applying hair-stroke eyebrows.  It is a deeper application about design elements and principles, proposing to develop in you, an eye for designing perfect eyebrows.   The first of its kind for permanent cosmetic practitioners,  this presentation  introduces the elements and principles of design in art, as it applies to facial composition, especially eyebrows.

My presentation is called Perfect Eyebrows, and it is so called because we are always striving for that perfect pair, aren’t we?

We are!

I suppose it’s true what Kristanne wrote about me…I AM fanatic about eyebrows!

I believe eyebrows bring life to a person’s face, don’t you!

I even wrote a song about eyebrows for you!

That’s right! It’s the last part of this presentation!

I call it The Eyebrow Song, of course!

Many years ago, though, I would never have dreamed eyebrows would even be a requested procedure!

Because I had an abundance of eyebrow hair, I assumed everyone did! Even the models in my own first permanent makeup class had eyebrow hair and I wondered to myself then, “why” they were having their eyebrows done! I remember surmising naively to myself that they must be getting paid a lot to be a model for that class!

It wasn’t long before I learned that many women and some men, also, suffered from the lack of eyebrow hair. And this is a serious condition for many of them.

But not for Whoopie Goldberg! Have you noticed that Whoopie Goldberg has no eyebrows at all?

I have a great eyebrow design for Whoopie …If she’ll just call me up! But it’s Whoopie’s style-choice not to have eyebrows! We’ll talk about style and style choices in this discussion.

My first eyebrow client was a co-worker’s grandmother. She was so thrilled to have permanent eyebrows, because she said she knew when she was too old to draw them on, herself, she was convinced that none of her children would do it for her properly … She also knew I was a brand new technician, and she patiently worked with me.

Not only was she hairless in the brow region, but her frontalis muscles pulled one eyebrow up on the right side of her forehead anytime she smiled or spoke, her right eyebrow region elevated considerably.

It was mind-bending for me at first….this was something I was totally unprepared for. I nervously drew until everything looked great. Then I would look again, and everything was all wrong. We worked through this difficult drawing session, and we finally produced a pair of eyebrows that were nearly identical.

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If you are a new technician and wonder how to manage what I call an expressive eyebrow like that, here’s what to do:

You must always check, while you are drawing, that the client’s forehead is relaxed, with her eyes open, so that when she is relaxed, her expression is relaxed and her eyebrows are on a normal and hopefully even plane.

Then -- when she speaks, her eyebrow expression speaks with her, and that’s okay!

As I said, I produced a set of eyebrows that were pleasing to us on that first day, but, when I look back at those first eyebrows now, even though they were quite identical, I know these first eyebrows lacked something in their design.

And that is exactly the point of my presentation today!

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I am going to discuss the elements and principles of design in art, as I learned about these things in fashion design and illustration, and apply it to our eyebrow designing process! We will do this much in the same way that we apply color theory in art, to skin and pigment theory.

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But, let’s Define Perfect Eyebrows, First

and THEN

go on to the Design process.

Preparation is everything!

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Let me say that again.

Preparation is everything!

When you have determined the definition of ‘perfect’ that applies to your client, then you can begin designing perfect brows for her with perfect confidence.

Keep in mind that defining and designing begin with “hello” and may go hand-in-hand as you move along throughout your relationship with your client.

Now, let’s look at the next slide and explore the definition of perfect eyebrows.

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What makes perfect eyebrows perfect?

What is the definition of perfect eyebrows for you?

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If you told me that perfect eyebrows look symmetrical eyebrows, I would whole heartedly agree that eyebrows must look like each other.

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And if you said that perfect eyebrows are right for the face shape, I would agree again.

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For, haven’t we all learned that an elongated face-shape benefits from a sweeping eyebrow with a less angular arch, adding the illusion of breadth to the face? While we want to add length to a rounded face shape by creating a more angular arch, allowing the beholder’s eye to roam lengthwise…adding an illusion of a more lengthy face. And here, we have 2 celebrities, Ann Margret and Marilyn Monroe, to demonstrate this very clearly. There are some interesting makeup design features for these faces…notice how the chiseled Ann Margret has soft rounded brows to soften her look. Also, her eyeliner is accentuating the temple areas of her face in contrast to Marilyn Monroe, whose eyeliner is full from corner to corner and angular brows prevent our eyes from moving out toward the temple area.

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Returning to our list, …Maybe you think that perfect eyebrows must be the right color? I couldn’t agree more.

Many of you would suggest that perfect eyebrows fall within the facial morphology guidelines, and I would say yes again…Certainly, they will appear so.

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However, keep in your mind, that sometimes you will need to cheat the morphology guidelines – using design elements and principles to achieve perfect eyebrows.

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If you suggested that perfect eyebrows are also a correct thinness or thicknes, I’m saying absolutely! This aspect along with the color of an eyebrow largely determines the weight of an eyebrow design.

Thinking about the definition of perfect eyebrows a little further, you might mention that perfect eyebrows flatter the facial features, camouflaging morphology discrepancies of all kinds…and we would like our eyebrows to appear to slightly lift the entire face. Of course, I’ll say yes to that!

These are all valid definitions of perfect eyebrows.

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And I am reminded by the photograph of my first pair of permanent eyebrows, that style is a very crucial aspect that defines perfect eyebrows. Eyebrows can be identical to each other, and not be perfect eyebrows for whom they were designed.

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These are basic eyebrow styles. There are many variations, of course. Move the arch, change the colors, the direction of the tail or the bridge, increase or decrease the angle, length, thickness.

How will you know your client’s style? The key is “listening to your client,” -- that’s right – ASK! If she says, as we so often hear: “…you’re the expert!” …then you must listen even more carefully -- observing her walk…her style of dress…what image does she project now? What image does she wish for? Read your client. Should you just go by facial morphology guidelines and face shape? That is a good starting point. Making them perfect, we have discovered, is more than morphology, more than symmetry, even.

Is it okay to deviate from all of the rules for drawing? I, for one, have defied a few rules in producing eyebrows for style that were beautiful to look at.

Now let’s look at the list again…

Symmetry, right for face shape, right color, within the morphology guidelines, the right thickness, flattering to the facial features, lifts the face a little, right style for a person’s self image.

If permanent eyebrows fulfill all of these descriptions, then they will also look very natural, won’t they ?? I believe that is the goal of our eyebrow compositions.

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They will look so natural that no one really notices. So let’s add appear natural as our final item in our list of defining qualities for perfect eyebrows.

Notice that all of the definitions include the word appear, because, in order to complete a perfect pair of eyebrows, we may need to cheat on some of the rigid rules sometimes. That’s why we also need to develop an eye for design.

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Reference:www.johnlovett.com/test.htm

Elements and Principles of Design are the building blocks used to create a work of art. Painting may come to mind, while there are many other artful uses for this theory. Home decorating, clothing, architecture, hair styles and more…We can certainly apply these elements and principles to the art of designing makeup for the face, and more specifically, today, eyebrows.

Elements of Design are the lines, shapes and colors we use, while the Principles of Design refers to how we integrate the Elements of Design to render a pleasing facial composition.

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All of the elements of design can create optical illusions.

The first design element is Line.

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In this slide are examples of lines. Straight, curved, squiggly, thick and thin. To go a little further, there is a thick black line on the right; it’s edges form a line in the striped box of lines. This box or it could be a very fat line, not only contains lines, but it’s edges form a line where it’s edges meet the green box, and likewise, the green box forms a line against the background.

Line can create optical illusions, because the eye follows a line. The edges of eyebrow shapes create a line where the edge meets the forehead shape. If you are creating hair-stroke eyebrows, you are creating more lines.

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These rectangles have lines in them that demonstrates how the eye follows line. The rectangle on the right appears thinner as our eye is allowed to travel its length, then rectangle A appears to be wider as the eye is stopped at each horizontal division. We don’t want to produce anything as dramatic as this for eyebrows, but we are able to use direction, another element that we’ll be discussing after shape.

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Shape

A shape is a self contained area of geometric or organic form. So the shape of eyebrows, itself, is an element of design for permanent makeup artistry. It is a freeform shape like the cloud shape above.

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Direction

All lines have direction - horizontal, vertical or oblique. Horizontal suggests calmness, stability, and tranquility. Vertical gives a feeling of balance, formality, and alertness, while the slanted or Oblique line in the center suggests movement and action. We see all of these directions within the eyebrow shape, and the shape, itself, has direction.

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Size

Size is simply the relationship of an area occupied by one shape to that of another. With eyebrows, we have other shapes to consider. On the face alone, there are the eyes, nose, mouth;

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and there is the overall face shape (round, square, etc.) and the forehead space provided can be considered a shape in relationship to the eyebrows.

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The size of the body is another consideration. A petite person wears thinner brows easily and a large person wears thicker eyebrows comfortably.

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Texture

Texture is the surface quality of a shape – rough, smooth, soft, hard, glossy, etc. Texture can be physical (tactile – you can actually feel it with your hand) or it can be visual which is the illusion of physical texture, created by color. With eyebrows, this element absolutely refers to the illusion of the physical texture of hair. You may randomly create texture with directional filling, shading or feathering techniques or use lines and shading to create hair-strokes and the illusion of whispiness or hair density.

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Color

Also called hue

Looking at the outside of a color wheel, we see saturated colors. That means the colors contain no complimentary color- or -black –or- white.

Quickly Reviewing, -the primary colors are red, yellow and blue. When one primary color is mixed with another, the secondary colors of green, orange and violet are achieved.

Tertiary colors occur between each primary and secondary color on the color wheel, such as yellow-orange or red-violet.

Compound colors contain a mixture of the three primaries: all browns, kahkis, and earth colors are compound colors.

These are the types colors that our pigment manufacturers provide for us to choose from for eyebrows.

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Value

Lightness or darkness of a color. Black added to a color produces a shade, or darker value, while white will lighten a color and we call this a tint.

We are repeatedly reminded to leave these types of mixing applications up to the pigment manufacturers who have the expertise we rely upon to make our color choices for eyebrows.

Still, it is our responsibility to be able to choose the correct color for the outcomes we expect, based on the qualities of the human skin we are providing eyebrows for.

We know that human facial skin, which we call our canvas, has its own color scheme .

Each person’s skin is different and contains varying amounts of tints and shades from the colors in the color wheel.

We often find ourselves preoccupied with the warm and cool undertones of the face and learn that cool compound colors for eyebrows on cool skin can produce bluish or charcoal-like results, while warm compound colors on warm skin are capable of producing orange and pink values.

Therefore, we strive to use warm eyebrow pigments for cool skins and cool pigment colors for warm undertones.

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PRINCIPLES of Design

Like the Elements, Principles of Design can also be used to create optical illusions.

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How we put the Elements of Design to work describes the Principles of Design – How do we use line, shape, direction, texture, color and value to produce a facial composition? Perfect eyebrows?

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Balance is the first design principle

Object Balance and Color Balance

A large shape close to the center is balanced by a smaller shape of the same color placed farther out to the edge of the design. The space between the 2 shapes carries a weight of its own.

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Color Balance

A large light-colored space close to the center, is balanced by a darker smaller shape also placed close to the center.

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Consider that a face with a wider nose is slimmed by a slender eyebrow bulb -- cheating on facial morphology a little, beginning a tiny bit closer to the center of the face than the facial morphology rules dictate. Look at the model above...in which picture, does the nose look more slim?

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Gradation or Perspective

Gradation of size and direction and color produces linear perspective. Gradation of color from warm to cool, and tonal gradation from dark to light adds life, perspective and interest. Otherwise the object appears static.

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I bring attention to an area of this arch that needs a line of color as the arch is not typically an area that we want to look as whispy as other areas of the brow. The gradation for most brows is that hairs appear in a little more dense growth pattern at the arch region. During the healing process, this eyebrow may develop a little of its own shading in the arch area, or else, either shading or a hair will be inserted at touchup. To do it now, could disturb the hair-stroke pattern permanently with solid color, since the hairs are so close together. It is best to wait and see for details like this.

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Repetition – or Rhythm

Repeating an element of design such as line, color, or size relationship provides an interesting rhythm. The more the same that repetition is, however, the more boring. These are skirts…the first skirt has a boring rhythm. The 2^nd skirt has is more interesting, and the 3^rd one is, as you can see, the most interesting of the skirt designs.

The eyebrow design seen, is an interesting one, because of the realistic random look to a few of the hair-strokes. This is very easy to quickly achieve with hair-stroke eyebrows.

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Contrast, whether it be in color as shown above, or with any of the other elements can produce an optical illusion.

Color contrast between the skin and the color of the brows should be softer…and not too dramatic but we do want to see them. The eyebrows are typically a medium contrast to the skin -- a lead-in to the higher contrast of dark eyeliner which boasts of thick lashes. If you are doing hair-stroke brows, a thick line and a thin line for hair-strokes side by side provides a realistic contrast to each other, lending dimension without having to use of a second and third color. Also, they usually provide a little of their own shading between the strokes during the healing process.

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Harmony

Harmony relates to the visually satisfying effect of combining the elements. In the design composition on the left, the artist comgined the elements so well, you can almost see the water rippling….JOKE. In the facial composition, shapes, and colors are in rhythmic perspective, the right contrast to the skin; the design of the sections of an eyebrow are related and the pair appear related to one another and more importantly, related to the features and shape of the face, as well as to the body structure of the person.

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Dominance or Emphasis…focal point or accent…

In your living room, it might be the coffee table or a painting on the wall. For your clothing, the emphasis could be on the waist, the calf, the neckline. For eyebrows, the emphasis is usually at the arch – more so if the arch is angular and less so as the arch is rounded. Pleasing makeup compositions emphasize the illusion of youth…coaching the eye of the beholder upward and away from downward facial lines.

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Unity

Relating the design elements to the idea being expressed in a painting reinforces the principal of unity.

Let’s go back a few slides…

The first key word in the previous sentence is “relating.”

Notice in the artist’s design how the colors and shapes relate. We don’t see anything that looks out of place in the design. It is a simple design, but the all of the elements are used well. In the healed facial composition, nothing sticks out like a sore thumb and says look at me. We get a natural looking makeup composition. Everything relates and flows together well.

So Unity’s first key word is relates….The second key word is actually the phrase, “idea being expressed.” In the composition, to the left, the idea being expressed is a peaceful, quiet sunset by the water….then our view is somewhere close to the reeds…are we on the banks of the lake? In a boat? On a dock? Optical illusions have created a feeling and an idea…..

For the facial composition, likewise, there is unity in the idea being expressed, or the style or the self image of the person’s face, for the beholder to see….we get the feeling of simple, unassuming choice of makeup, a touch here and there…this model’s makeup design says “I’m not wearing makeup…I just have gorgeous eyes and lips. The eyebrow design is also natural looking and unassuming.

The Eyebrow Song is a song I wrote to the tune of Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, by Frankie Vallie. It’s a song from all of your happy clients to you, so if you would like to join in…the words will be on the screen. Be patient as the music loads….

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