Visual artist Shibani Mitra has more than 5,000 followers on Instagram. This may not seem like a significant milestone in the world of social media influencers but what makes Shibani’s portfolio special is that she started creating visual artwork — combining photography, makeup and design — less than two years ago. And what has taken her labour of love to the covers of indie fashion labels and magazines is, among other things, her fresh take on makeup.
For a shoot for ‘Harper’s Bazaar’, Shibani’s model was her teenage sister and the theme was joy. Instead of using the brush to conceal the natural pimples that adolescents get, Shibani used the strokes to style her with minimal makeup and a blanket of fresh, colourful flowers that effortlessly evoked blooming, joy and youth.
“I learned everything — photography, makeup and designing — recently from scratch. If there’s something that has resonated with me as well as anyone who appreciates my work, it is that make up has the untapped potential of transcending conventional beauty standards to capturing a whole new idea and bringing it to life,” says Shibani, who is based in Puducherry. “I want to highlight the essence of every person I work with, not conceal it. ”
Conventional makeup has typically been understood as an enhancer of beauty. But somewhere between the art of contouring your chin and using SFX or prosthetics for cinema, lie a whole league of makeup artists who are using the face and body as canvases to create fantastic characters. They could be drag queens, bruised goddesses or your favourite comic character.
Mumbai model Subiksha Shivakumar started experimenting with makeup art during the pandemic, mostly on herself. Having always been influenced by the drama and flamboyance of David Bowie, Lady Gaga and Madonna, Subiksha used bright carnival palettes in her face art to recreate Neytiri from ‘Avatar’, Cruella De Vil from ‘101 Dalmatians’ and her own twist to the characters of the American drama series, ‘Euphoria’. And the shoots she modelled for herself, also saw her breaking gender stereotypes through makeup. “With Instagram, makeup has emerged as a form of art. It’s a space for me to express how I perceive popular characters, or even new ones,” says Subiksha.
With the digital boom, conceptual makeup artists often find opportunities to collaborate with musicians, photographers and content creators to design a series or concepts. Digital content creator and male beauty influencer Deep Pathare has been among the most popular in this league, playing with colours, music and light in his videos that break down his unique looks.
When Chennai’s
Xen
Aerat quit her day job four years ago to do hairdressing, makeup and concept photography for drag shows, this was a nascent space. Much of her breakthrough work happened with Bengaluru’s drag star Maya. “While drag is experimentative and bold, queens still lay emphasis on ‘looking beautiful’. But what you can do with makeup is limitless — you
can recreate characters that are scary, sexy, ethereal,” says Xen, who has used makeup to depict domestic violence as well as create her own characters like an undersea goddess, Neptunia.
Deep Pathare is a male beauty influencer; (below) model Subiksha Shivakumar (left) experiments with face art
Start a Conversation
Post comment