4
Contouring

Why Contouring is Needed

Strong theatrical lighting can make your features look flat and hard to distinguish. Wearing makeup can restore the appearance of three-dimensionality. To do that, utilize the same tools as an artist—highlight and shadow. An artist uses lighter colors to make things appear as if they are coming towards you, and darker colors to make things recede.

When discussing highlight and shadow an artist refers to the value scale; the darkest colors have a value of 100 (percentage of pigment), the lightest colors have a value of 0 (percentage of pigment).

Contouring Using Theatrical Cream Makeup

When using theatrical cream or pancake foundation, cream highlight (lighter than your foundation) is painted on the areas that protrude (cheekbones, jawline, etc.) Cream shadow (darker than your foundation) is painted on areas that recede (sides of the nose, indentations under the cheekbones, etc.). An area of foundation is left in between the areas of highlight and shadow. This neutral area will help give a soft edge to the contouring when blending the highlight and shadow. If you place the highlight and shadow too close together, without leaving enough room to blend the edges into the base tone of the foundation, you will create a hard or sharp edge. This technique can be used to create wrinkles and folds when applying makeup for middle and old age, but is not appropriate for regular contouring.

Choosing Your Highlight and Shadow Colors

The highlight color should be several shades lighter than the foundation. If you have, extremely pale skin, you might choose a white or off-white highlight. If your skin is olive or darker (especially if you are primarily of African descent) you will choose a beige or tan highlight. Your shadow color should be several shades darker than your foundation, and in the brown range. Do not use black as a shadow color, even if your skin tone is very dark. Instead, try blending a small amount of dark purple or blue into a dark brown shadow color.

If you have bought a complete student makeup kit, appropriate highlight and shadow colors are included. If you buy individual items, ask the salesperson to help you choose. Hopefully they will have had training in theatrical makeup, or at least have a good eye and sense of color.

Contouring the Forehead

While looking in the mirror, run your fingers over your forehead and feel where it protrudes and where it recedes. There is an upper ridge below your hairline and a lower ridge just above your eyebrows. These ridges tend to be more prominent on men than on women, although, there are always exceptions.

Run your fingers along the sides of your forehead; these flat, receding planes are the temples.

Using the flat side of your flat, wide brush (size 12 or 7/16-inch), apply a wide swath of highlight to the upper and lower ridges of the forehead, beginning and ending before you reach the temples. These ridges will be shaped somewhat like an archery bow, dipping down in the center. Don't use so much that it looks thick; use only enough that you can see it.

Wipe the highlight off of your brush until it is clean. Do this every time you change makeup colors. Pick up a little bit of your shadow color and apply a wide swath of it to the recessed area between the upper and lower ridges of the forehead. This swath of makeup should also be shaped somewhat like an archery bow. Notice that there is space in between the highlight and shadow.

The temples are relatively flat planes of the face; the shape of the shadow will be rather wide. Paint some shadow (about two brushes wide) onto your temples in a vertical direction.

Wipe the shadow off of your brush until it is clean. Using your brush, follow the highlights along the outer edges in the direction in which you applied it. Use the brush to pick up and remove some of the highlight along the edges. You may need to wipe off your brush. Leave the thickest amount of highlight in the center of the swath. This is blending. Good blending is one of the most important things you need to know in order to apply your makeup well.

Use the same technique to blend out the shadow. Be very careful that the highlight and the shadow do not meet. Leave an area of base tone in between the two when contouring.

Now you know the basic technique of using highlight and shadow to contour, you can move on to the other areas of the face.

Contouring the Cheekbones

In the same way you examined the forehead, run your fingers over your cheekbones and feel where they protrude and where they sink in. Notice that the cheekbones begin just in front of the top of the ear and angle downward as they move towards the pads of the cheeks. The cheekbones stop directly under the outer corners of the eyes. There is a depression underneath the cheekbones, where you may be able to feel your upper molars.

Using the flat side of your wide, flat brush, apply a swath of highlight to the outer flat surface of the cheekbone. Start in front of the upper ear and slowly lift your brush as you angle down towards the pad of the cheek. This lifting motion will make the highlight fade out, in effect, blending it into the base tone.

Using the flat side of your wide brush, apply a swath of shadow below, and parallel to, your highlight. Leave an area of base tone in between.

Using the same technique as you did with your forehead, blend the highlights and then the shadows, making sure that the highlight and the shadow do not meet. Remember to blend the highlight and the shadow in the direction in which you applied them, never across or perpendicular.

Contouring the Jawline

Feel how your jawline begins in front of the bottom of your ear. It heads downward and then turns a corner, or curves, continuing on to the chin. Some people have a more prominent or angled corner to their jawline; some have a softer curve. Depending on your age and weight, you may have to try a little harder to find the bones of the jawline.

Using the flat side of your wide brush, apply a swath of highlight to the outer flat surface of the jawline. Start in front of the lower ear and work down. Either turn at the corner (if it is prominent) or curve around it. Slowly lift your brush as you head towards the chin.

Because the underside of the jawline faces down, you might need to use a hand mirror or ask a fellow performer to help you apply the shadow. The area of base tone you leave will be narrower and you will need to blend into a smaller area.

Contouring the Chin

There are many differently shaped chins. Some are rounded, some have clefts, some have dimples. Following are some examples of ways to contour a variety of chin shapes.

Contouring the Nose

The nose has several distinct parts to it: the bridge, the tip, and the nares (the fleshy parts that surround the nostrils.) There are a variety of shapes, but when contouring, we can approach the three distinct parts of every nose similarly.

The bridge is a vertical, relatively cylindrical shape, and will be contoured as such. Using a medium flat brush, apply a swath of highlight from the top of the bridge, down until just before the tip.

Apply a swath of shadow on either side of the bridge of the nose, ending at the nare, leaving some room to blend.

If the nose is relatively straight and narrow, apply an arc of shadow at the end of the nose, under the tip.

Carefully blend the edges of your highlight and shadow.

If the tip of the nose is rounded, you can stop at the point where it begins to swell outward. Then put a dot of highlight on the highest point of the nose.

Shadow and blend the bridge as previously described. Then apply shadow, in an arc shape, under the rounded tip of the nose. Leave an area of base tone between the dot of highlight and the arc of shadow.

Blend.

Contouring the Eyes

Contouring a woman's eyes and contouring a man's eyes need to be approached in different ways. Men are more likely to have a prominent lower brow bone protruding over their eyes; therefore, much of the upper lid may be hidden. The goal is to make as much of the upper lid visible as possible without "feminizing" the man's face (unless he is playing a woman.) Women tend to have more of the eyelid showing; therefore there is more room to contour.

For the woman, use a medium-sized brush to apply highlight to the brow bone under the eyebrow. Next, apply highlight to the center of the upper eyelid, starting at the eyelash and ending at the crease.

Blend out the edges of your highlights.

Apply shadow to the outer corners of the upper eyelid and in the crease above the lid. Make sure you leave a space between the highlight and the shadow.

Blend out the edges of your shadows. Make sure that you don't blend into your highlights.

Proper placement of highlight and shadow can help to give a more youthful appearance if that is desired.

For the man, apply highlight along the front edge of the eyelid, right next to the lashes.

Blend the highlight towards the crease.

If you are a man or a woman of Asian descent it is likely that much of your eyelid will be hidden by the epicanthic fold. Your goal is to make as much of the lid visible as possible without westernizing your

Apply highlight along the front edge of the eyelid and blend it back towards the crease.

If you are a woman, or a man playing one, apply highlight just below the outer edge of the eyebrow and blend it out to base tone.

Apply shadow to the inner corner of the eye, next to the bridge of the nose. Curve the shadow just onto the epicanthic fold. Do not apply shadow where the crease would be on a western eyelid, unless you want to westernize your eye.

Blend the highlight and shadow.

Setting the Makeup with Powder

At this point you have applied your theatrical foundation, highlight, and shadow. If this is the last of your cream makeup application, you need to set it now. If you will be applying cream rouge, rather than powder rouge, wait until after that to powder.

Theatrical setting powder is loose, not pressed in a solid cake. Follow the directions for setting your foundation with powder, explained in Chapter 3.

Contouring Using Cosmetics

When contouring with cosmetics, only shadow is used, no highlight; therefore it is subtler. That subtlety is why it is appropriate for use offstage as well as onstage. Some cosmetics manufacturers sell pressed powder specifically for contouring; many sell bronzing powder. Either can be used as long as it coordinates with, and is darker than, your skin tone.

Using a large, rounded brush, pick up the shadow color. Follow the depression under your cheekbone, sweeping the brush from just in front of your ear until just under the outer corner of your eye. You may need to repeat this until you have the right amount. Work slowly; it is easier to add shadow than to remove it.

Use the same technique to shadow your temples and under your jawline.

Powder shadow can also be used to contour the nose. You will need a smaller brush.

For contouring the eyes, you can buy eye-shadow that comes in several shades of brown, in one of a variety of tones, all in one container. Use the lightest color for highlight and the darkest for shadow. If there is a mid-tone you can use it as a blending color; unlike cream makeup, the mixing of these colors will not become muddy. Avoid colors (such as blue, green, etc.) unless you are applying makeup for a glamor effect (which we will cover in Chapter 7) or as a character choice.

Apply powder eye-shadow similarly to cream eye-shadow.

If the skin on your brow bone and eyelid are light enough, you may not need to use highlight. Apply bronzing powder in the crease of your eyelid with a smaller brush and blend out the edges.