Perfect! Eyebrows
Elements and Principles of Design
By Cheryl A. Doss, R.N.
Copyright 2004, Cheryl Doss, R.N., Lasting Impressions
Presentation by Cheryl A. Doss, R.N.
Lasting Impressionsâ
Website: www.lastingmakeup.com
email: cheryl@lastingmakeup.com
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Elements and Principles of Design are the building blocks used to create a work of art. We can apply these elements and principles to the art of designing eyebrows.
Elements of Design are the lines, shapes and colors we use, while the Principles of Design refers to how we integrate the Elements.
ELEMENTS of Design
Line
The marks made with your coil machine, rotary pen, or SofTap tool. The line can also be referred to as the edges of your eyebrow shapes where the edge of an eyebrow meets the forehead shape, etc.
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 facial beautification.
Direction
All lines have direction- horizontal, vertical or oblique. Horizontal suggests calmness, stability, and tranquility. Vertical gives a feeling of balance, formality, and alertness. Oblique suggests movement and action. We see all of these directions within the eyebrow shape, and the shape, itself, has direction.
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; 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.
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 visual which is the illusion of physical texture, created with the material that you use. 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 produce hair-strokes and the illusion of whispiness or hair density.
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.
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.
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 on to make our color choices for darker or lighter 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 to realize that cool compound colors 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 place warm pigment colors into cool undertoned skins and cool pigment colors into warmly undertoned skins.
PRINCIPLES of Design
Principles of Design is how we use the elements – How do we use line, shape, direction, texture, color and value to produce perfect eyebrows?
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.
Color Balance
A large light-colored space close to the center, is balanced by a darker smaller shape also placed close to the center.
Gradation or Perspective
Gradation of size and direction 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.
Repetition
Repeating an element of design such as line or color or size relationship provides an interesting rhythm throughout your eyebrow design.
Contrast
Color contrast between the skin and the color of the brows need not be 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 darker eyeliner which boasts of thick beautiful lashes. If you are doing hair-stroke brows, a thick line and a thin line for hairs provides contrast to eachother in line thickness.
Harmony
Harmony relates to the visually satisfying effect of combining the elements. Eg. 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 structure of the person.
Dominance
Other words to describe dominance may be accent, emphasis, focal point, point of interest. In your living room, it might be the coffee table or a painting on the wall. For eyebrows, the emphasis is usually at the arch – more so if the arch is angular and less so as the arch is rounded or flattened.
Unity
Relating the design elements to the idea being expressed in a painting reinforces the principal of unity.
(Unity cont.) The first key word in the previous sentence is “relating.” Perfect eyebrows relate, not only to eachother, but also to the individual facial features and a person’s whole face. Their face relates, by the same principles, to the bone structure (size) of their body. So when checking the eyebrows you have drawn, look at the eyebrows, then check their relationship to the facial features, then the size of the head, and how the face relates to the body of the person who is wearing them. Everything should flow.
The second key word is actually the phrase, “idea being expressed.” Assuming the other principles of design have been met, for our purpose of designing Perfect! Eyebrows, now is the time to decide whether there is an adjustment needing made for the purpose of personal style. Not YOUR style, but the style of the client. Key: look for the sparkle in your client’s eyes when looking at them in the mirror. Have you interpreted her style or is she unsure of her love for them? Work with honing your design until the sparkle of approval is seen. Note: A person’s Style or preference sometimes disagrees with one or more of our design principles. What should you do if your round-face client doesn’t WANT an arched brow that elongates the face? Try to compromise by softening the arch somewhat. For every rule, there is a margin of play. Perform permanent procedures, however, only for those eyebrow designs that both you and your client mutually agree.
Then -- one last moment for YOU to examine the checkpoints.
First, ask your client to leave the room for a few minutes. This is a good time for her to use the ladies’ room if necessary and ask her to look at her eyebrow drawings in private. It also gives you a break from having looked at her eyebrows for a long period of time. View her brows when she returns. Being at eye level with your client check:
Checkpoints
1. Problems of this nature can be corrected by adding width to the lower border of one brow and to the upper border of the other brow. It tends to balance out. Try it with pencil. Do the permanent work once you and your client have approved the drawing.
a. Conversely, the opposite is true…take away color from the bottom of one border to increase the space, and take away from the top border of the opposite brow to keep the thicknesses the same. Reevaluate. These kinds of meticulous alterations are perfecting ones. Do the permanent work when you and your client agree to the design.
? Sometimes the rules of facial morphology need slight alteration to accommodate an asymmetrical face. This is not uncommon. Make your adjustments as needed after the morphology guidelines have been determined, to accomplish a symmetrical appearance both to the eyebrows and your client’s face. Proceed with permanent work once this is done.
? One way to check eyebrow symmetry before permanent work, is to look at your drawings through the view-finder of your digital camera. Asymmetries become obvious at a glance.