Thursday, October 13, 2011

Inspired by Armor





 
         At the turn of fall, I began hankering for new color inspiration. I'd become a little weary of my usual standbys and summer blues. I needed something fresh, unexpected, and fitting for fall. I pondered this question on my comfy armchair (as I often do) with color wheels flying through my imagination. Finally I speared a combination I found exciting: matte rusty, earthy red-brown and pure polished silver.

          To develop this color story, I looked for inspiration in art. While doing, so I stumbled upon the perfect 3-dimensional inspiration: armor! Armor has a reflective silver plated appearance, which is contrasted with utilitarian earthy embellishments like leather straps. I also fancifully imagined a knight's shining armor contrasting against his red steed, or the red earth on a jousting field. Hints of red rust can also be found on armor in need of polishing. I searched out some real life armor. These metal suits are stunning in real life. The photographs shown here are of German (right) and English (below) armor from roughly the 15th-16th centuries. The intricate detailing on some of the pieces, like the one below, was unbelievable. They seemed more like artwork than instruments of battle. (It is worth mentioning that these pieces belonged to nobility). These medieval peices were a wonderful inspiration for fall.



          To translate my inspiration into creation, I dug through my eyeshadow stash for red-browns and space-age silvers. Unfortunately, these colors were simply nonexistant in my collection. Red-browns are way too warm and red for my taste. True silvers and too cool and frosty for my taste. However, in combination these strong colors can balance each other out to create an interesting combination. The ideal eyeshadow colors I wanted to purchase for this project were MAC Electra and MAC Brown script. However, I'm saving up for some other things, so I made do with what I currently have. I layered some colors, as I would with paint, to create a close approximation of what I wanted . To get a matte red brown, I combined Urban Decay Buck with NARS Grand Palais (see swatch below). To got a more silvery silver, I combined NARS Tzarine (the grey) with Urban Decay Virgin. I also have a very silvery MUFE Aqua eyes eyeliner pencil in #8L. I also used hints of gold using Urban Decay Half Baked and Bare Escentuals Gold Medal. For this look, I use a wash of silver on the lid, with the brown on the outer corners or crease.

I really love the contrast between brown and silver!


          That concludes my "Inspired by Armor" color story. I have a lot of fun with these posts. My mini missions get me out of the house and looking for new ideas. Thank you to the girls who encouraged me to get this done!


Love, Dovey.

13 comments:

  1. i love the armor photos, the inspirational idea, and how you mixed things already in your collection to make your vision!

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  2. I love your makeup mood boards!

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  3. Lovely idea, and nice collection... :)

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  4. I love it! The weapons up top are really badass, imho! This makes color combos so much more interesting. I didn't have any time to find inspiration this morning but I've got on coppery orange, peach, and electric green. I swear it isn't as scary as it sounds! I've probably got halloween pumpkins and candies on the brain :-P If I did a feature like this on my blog it'd wind up all inspired by food rather than art ^.^;; I like your high-brow take!

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  5. this looks amazing! I'm totally going to use these colors in my makeup soon!

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  7. How creative :) I'd love to see an eye look like that. You came up with some gorgeous colors (and I love the pictures). I wouldn't have put anything like that together but it totally works!

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  8. LOVE LOVE LOVE this post. I'm so happy we can be art geeks together.

    Your combination of UD Buck and Grand Palais is absolutely incredible. I'm going to go experiment with it right now as we speak. Pairing metallic winged liner with it would be incredible and unexpected.

    Thank you for sharing your inspiration with us!
    ♥ Jessica

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  9. It takes certain kind of artistic eye to see what you see! I was at our local museum not too long ago and loved the armours but it never got me thinking about makeup. Fantastic post, Dovey. :)

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  10. Jamilla, Fakhra, Kelly, Sidney - Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.

    Sarah - lol on the weapons comment, haha. I think your combo actually does sound quite Halloween Candy. I like how you're not afraid to use bright colors!

    Jessica - Me too =) I hope the combo works for you. Mixing is something I didn't try until recently =)

    Liz- Thanks! What a coincidence that you saw armor too =)

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  11. Dovey,
    This is great. I need to start reaching out of my comfort zone for inspiration.

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  12. What a great post! Love the photos of the armor and your swatches as well. I really like to mix warm and cool shades on eyes like this :)

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