Artistic Appearance and Make-Believe through Computer-Generated Make-Up Designs in Coheren Hardy’s The Nun (2018)

Abstract

Artistic appearance in the field of performing arts has to do with the effective use of make-up to create desired believability in the mind of the viewers and audience members, thus making them believe with little or no doubt what they are seeing on stage or watching on the screen. It is expected that make-up should be made to be convincing enough in terms of the products, tools, colours, textures and shapes. However, make-up designs have over the years employed traditional and manual methods/approaches in achieving the desired make-believe in artistic productions. This paper, away from the conventional means of make-up design, attempts to explore the application of technology through the use of computer to evaluate the effectiveness of creating believability through make-up design, adopting Coheren Hardy’s The Nun as a case study.  Based on a qualitative research approach, this study appropriates a 2-dimensional analysis technique to discuss the generating of make-up designs with effect for make-believe. The paper submits that, though practical make-up effects are still common in film productions, contemporary digital approaches for make-up designs present as an innovation that helps design achieve believability with ease.