Jean-Luc Moerman

Jean-Luc Moerman is a Belgian artist who draws tattoo style designs on top of classical paintings, fashion shots, and other photography. Below i have selected two images from his work; Kate Moss and Barrack Obama.

My Attempts

Below I experimented with Jean-Luc Moerman style using a black sharpe pen and images from magazine advertisements.

Doing the experiments really helped me to see that i could incorporate traditional tribal designs in my final looks, with it still being modern and chic. I have to admit, at first I felt using tribal designs would look quite dated and obvious, but the images above may have swayed me.

Rodarte Runway Show: NY Fall Fashion Week 2010

MUA - James Kaliardos
Hair stylist - Oldie Gilbert 

How they created the look...

The models arms were painted to create 'tribal-like' tattoos, combined with minimal flawless makeup, dark red/black goth lips, and hair wrapped in webbed wool.

Tattoos!

Tattooing is a long standing tradition in many cultures, interestingly marking the skin came about independently within individual cultures. Tattoo's can mean status, marks of bravery, belonging and also sexual lures, signs of beauty and fertility.

Maori Tribe

'It is about beauty, and belonging' 

Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Tribes date back to even as early as 950 a.d, and still today they make up a fairly large percentage of the New Zeland pop. Many Maori tribesman can be identified by facial tattoos. Full faced tattoos, also known as the 'moko' are predominantly seen on men. Female forms of 'moko' are usually found around the chin area, as you can see in the images I selected above. 

Tattoo's are something i am experimenting with at the moment. Have a look below at a couple of 'attempts'.

Here i had a little a play with the Maori tattoo style on the fella, using a small angle brush and the black from my supracolour pallet. 

This image was just an experiment really, I started with a Maori style design but decided to play about adding highlights in between the black lines. 

FINE ART STUDIO - INGRID BAARS L'Afrique C'est Chic !

l’Afrique C’est chic!

I looked further into Ingrid Baars, ( photographer from 1st image in previous post) and was absolutely thrilled, she is currently showing her exhibition l’Afrique C’est chic! in London this month at the Whitford Fine Art Gallery. Hopefully I will be able to view her work myself. Bellow are a few images I've selected from the exhibition, which has just been viewed in Brussels. She has a incredibly unique style. Ingrid has combined sculpture, painting and photography, to create these AMAZING photographs. She has said to be inspired by 'classic African art' and contemporary creation. Enjoy the pics!

Love, love love the colours on this images; rustic gold yellow, mixed with the sweet berry purple. The black eyeliner and contouring around the nose, definitely gives it a lioness feel.

This image really shows the sculpture element in her work. 

The shoes definitely gives the image the 'c'est chic!

I discovered some very inspiring imagery from 'Neekid Black Gurls' exhibition that was held early 2012 in NYC. The exhibit, presented a number of photographs from different artists, showing the black female figure. One photograph that really stood out to me was taken by artist/ photographer Ingrid Baars.

The image is so powerful, the hair and the gold threads in the accessories gives the model a 'tribal goddess' look. She almost looks like a sculpture, the skin looks so polished and i love the tribal markings on the arms and face. Below are a few more images i selected from the exhibit.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY J. QUAZI KING

PHOTOGRAPHY BY saddi khali                                                PHOTOGRAPHY BY a. campbell                              

Wodaabe Tribe

After looking at several images from the Surma and Mursi tribes i wanted to discover more imagery from African tribes. I found a french photographer / photo-journalist Marie-Laure de Decker, who has photographed the Wodaabe tribe,  who are found in many regions of central Africa. The Wodaabe people are known for their beauty, particularly the men. Unlike in many western cultures it is the men who cover themselves in elaborate make- up and costume to convince the Wodaabe women they are the 'best suitor' for marriage.

It was the accessories in these images, that drew me in, The badges and buttons appear to look like military ribbons and i love the combination of primary colours. below are a number of images taken from different photographes as well as Marie-Laure de Decker.

Above is my face chart inspired by the Wodaabe tribe.  I feel this would make a good design for my catwalk look. As it is a very simple design, I would really have to consider the hair and styling for the look. 

Similar design to the face chart above but i have added darker shading around the eyes and have created a graphic brow.  I hope to further develop the two designs. I'm going to continue looking at different tribal imagery.