Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Born Free USA

http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?more=1&p=431

Animal Cruelty - Animal Abuse Facts and Statistics

As humankind has progressed, there has been an increase in governance and rules and regulations of everyday life. These governance and rules rise from general disgust over happenings and concepts all over the world. One such rapidly growing concept is animal cruelty.

Animal abuse simply put is cruel unwarranted treatment of animals. Such treatment generally has a single point program - to subject animals and sometimes pets to unnecessary harm and pain. One major type of animal abuse is torture. 

Animal cruelty is an ambiguous term and the terminology depends from region to region, state to state and country to country. The definition may be anything between comprehensive and non-existent. While abuse amongst individuals may either be existent in a lesser manner or go largely unnoticed and uninformed, various institutes involved in factory farming, fur farming and animal testing are accused of animal cruelty. Apart from these, other institutes where abuse is thought to be rampant is the entertainment industry, especially the circus and film industry. The circus industry is said to have rampant cruelty towards animals. This general concept has now given birth to the thought of 'animal-free' circuses. Countries like Sweden, Costa Rica, Austria, Finland, India, and Singapore have come forward and banned or restricted the use of animals in circuses.

In a recent report, People For Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have come out with embarrassing facts about the circus lives of animals. According to their reports, various prominent circuses do not practice what they preach and indulge in cruelty on a routine basis. No institute or individual looks after the training sessions of the circuses. Tight collars, whips, beatings and torture are the order of the day for the animals of the circus. 

PETA also says that the behavior of the animals during the circus shows is not at all natural, in the sense that tigers don't hop around and then lay down in unison, elephants don't walk trunk to tail and female elephants don't mount each other. All this is possible only by extreme training, which may translate into extreme torture.

The animals in circuses are also routinely and dangerously exposed to various diseases. In some cases, they were not provided with basic medical first aid. Tuberculosis is seen as a major disease for the elephants in circuses. Some instances show that the elephants were not treated medically for wounds inflicted during beatings and other natural causes. Circuses have known to keep a large amount of topsoil ready, to camouflage the wounds and the blood on the elephants.

Some elephants have also suffered from lameness, arthritis and food abscesses. Elephant deaths in circuses are commonly caused due to osteoporosis. Elephants suffer from osteoporosis simply because they do not have wide spaces to move around. Due to the inhumane treatments, it has been proved that circus animals are dying at a higher rate than they are breeding. 

Possibly, the worst case of animal cruelty in film is the movie, 'Cannibal Holocaust'. Though the movie waded in troubled waters ever since it was released, it was proven than at least six animals, a muskrat, a pig, a monkey, a snake, a turtle and a large spider were killed for the sake of the film. It has been said that the scene depicting the monkey had to shot twice, and therefore, two monkeys were sacrificed for movie realism.

Despite widespread concern and condemnation, animals are subjected to enormous torture and abuse. It is not only the responsibility of the government and NGO'S to fight for the welfare of these creatures, but as a society, the onus is on us to make a collective effort. We shed a tear on the condition of animals and move on to get that latest collection of 'fur-dress'. There are many explanations that have been given in support of animal slaughter, but nothing justifies taking away someone's life - even if the stakes are too high.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/animal-cruelty-animal-abuse-facts-statistics.html

Saturday, 22 September 2012

Package Design

Layout


Back


Front


Package Design

Below is my first attempt at designing the package and my plan was to print it on parcel brown coloured stock, however I found the design boring and thought I'd push myself into using some colour.



Packaging Design// Clown Makeup Kit

Measuring up the net for the box/packaging for the make-up set.  I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't find a better make-up set to design a package for but decided it doesn't really matter.  






The net, made to measure on illustrator


I found this image of a clown online and really liked it so thought I would play around with it











Wednesday, 19 September 2012

Collection of Images

Throughout summer I have been collecting as many circus posters as possible and I also took a trip to Leeds Library on The Headrow to see what information I could find.  I found some lovely old books with great pictures of the circus back when they were in their prime.

















Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Functional Item - Stage Make up




These tips work for all face painting. Clowning, Krumping, Painting Up

1. Start with a clean face. If you have sensitive skin- put a light layer of moisturizer on.

2. Using the makeup sponge, spread a thin layer of base makeup onto the face (for powder make-up- wet the sponge) using a stroking motion. Even out any inconsistencies and lines in the makeup by adding more or thinning heavy areas. For a smooth finished look, pat the base makeup with the make up sponge.

3. "Setting" your base makeup is next. First you need to "pack" your powder puff. To do this: pour about a tablespoon of your super white (fair for Auguste) theatrical face powder onto your powder puff. Now take both sides of the puff and rub them together using a back and forth rubbing pattern. When almost all of your powder seems to have disappeared into the powder puff, you  are ready to begin. Pat powder puff lightly onto the base makeup. Do not skip the setting of your makeup. When you do not set your face makeup, it tends to soften and the colors start to blend together. Thus creating a melting effect instead of nice crisp colors.

4. Adding Color and Design. This is where your individual design preferences come in. Do you want solid large designs? The large areas like the mouth, around the eyes, or large designs can be filled in using the makeup sponge. The crayons come in handy to draw the outline of the area to be filled in first, thus eliminating design mistakes. Do you want fine details? Use a paint brush (if you use a cheap one, you will be picking the hairs out of your creation).  Paint on the details with the brush. After each color, you need to "set" the color. Use your neutral set face powder and powder puff to lightly press the powder into the color. Setting each color as you use it prevents your colors from smearing or blending into each other.

5. Rouge. Yes, even the boy's! I prefer a cream rouge for the men. It has a brighter look. If you are doing a girl clown, think about trying a powder rouge. It's look is very soft and pretty. You can apply the cream rouge with either your fingers or your makeup sponge. With the powder rouge, dampen your make up sponge and apply lightly. "Set" your rouge with your neutral set face powder.
    

The Whiteface

There are two basic types of Whiteface:
One is called the Neat Whiteface and has simple features with black and red accent colors. The mouth is your own mouth size and there is no false nose; sometimes the end of the nose is painted with red.
The second, called the Comedy Whiteface, has bold features that are often in colors other than red and black. This type of clown often uses a false nose.

Auguste

Because the Auguste is the most comical and silly character, his face has the most distorted and fun style. His actions are larger than the other styles and his facial features are created larger to match, with lip outlines far beyond the actual lips and an eye area that stretches up onto the forehead!The Auguste

The Tramp or Hobo/Bag Lady

While the Whiteface and Auguste Clowns have their origins in the European Circus, the Tramp or Hobo clown is of American origin. The bag lady is the female counterpart to the Tramp or Hobo and has evolved even as homeless women have appeared on the streets alongside males.
This character uses a base of flesh colored pink or tan. Designs usually include a beard and highlights of white around the eyes and mouth.
The Tramp usually wears a forlorn expression and the Hobo is happy and always wears a smile.The BagLady can be either happy or sad.



Fairground

Today I took a trip to the Circus to find out it wasn't there anymore but a fairground instead.  I decided I would take some snaps anyway as they have a similar culture of travelling and providing entertainment.  Both things have similar styles and are very colourful etc.  The fairground hadn't opened yet but they kindly let me in to take some photographs, this gives the images quite an eerie look which I quite like.