"T R A U M A"
..facial editing.

˓ ִֶָ𓄲 ☁️ BEFORE WE START 𖦹 ࣪˖ ˒
Now this is basically an additional section for the whole "model manipulation" chapter. With even more "decorative" adjustments that you can easily mess up.

Disclaimer again: not everything that works for me has to work for you too and something that may not work for me could still work for you. We all have different techniques and styles, use different devices and programs, nothing will ever be the exact same. So do not expect any in depth explanations or tutorials.

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˓ ִֶָ𓄲 ☁️ WELL... FACE STUFF 𖦹 ࣪˖ ˒
You can honestly do so much with your characters face, some stuff is kinda required and other stuff is just decorative and for the funsies. I may or may not hint at certain (former) trends every then and now, do not take anything I say as a personal offense, it is not meant to be one.

₀₀₁ proportions:
This is something I have messed up a lot of times too, especially when experimenting with facial expressions. Even if you just want to adjust the lips with the warp tool to add a slight smirk, you can really mess up the facial structure and proportions already. So whenever you re-draw facial features (like lips or eyes for example) or play around with the warp tool, or just try to make something bigger/smaller, pay a lot of attention to the proportions and overall positioning. Sometimes you may need to take a step back and wait for a day or two in order to recognize anything that may be off. At least that is an experience I have made throughout my journey.

₀₀₂ contouring:
Now here comes the first section where I will refer back to "trends". And I have seen A LOT of these. Of course you can contour accordingly to facial structures and shapes, accordingly to light sources or just touch up/intensify already existing contouring on your model. So there is no „right" or „wrong" set in stone and everyone has different taste and opinions. And I am not saying the techniques or „trends" I will point out are ugly or straight up „wrong", but boi are they intense at times.

I do not want to point my finger at anyone directly, so I tried my "best" to recreate what I have in mind when talking about this. Someone please explain to me why I see so many people do contours like this. Where did this come from and why has it become so popular? It surely would be a whole different thing if you plan on doing more intense and artsy make up, like „traditional" drag queen make up for example. But if you have nothing except for such intense contouring on your model? I mean, yeah, sometimes I tend to mess up the intensity and positioning of contouring as well. Maybe blend it too much or not enough. Recently I struggle with changing up facial structures while simply trying to adjust the overall lighting on my model's face. Suddenly the model I used looks like a whole new person, despite me not even adding strong "make-up" or contouring. So, always be careful with changing up anything on the face, especially contouring or shadowy areas in general.

Another important advice is to pay attention to your model's skin tone/hue as well. If your model's skin is more cool toned, a warm shade for contouring is most likely gonna look off.

(Image from: https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/skin-undertones)

This obviously a very very simplified overview and does not include every skin tone, shade, hue and so on. In general it may not be the most accurate, but it helps get the basic message across I guess.

For comparison I added an example for what I like to do with contouring. Sometimes more and sometimes less, according to whatever plan I have for my model and the environment I want to put it into. Overall the placements are quite similar to the more "extreme" example from earlier, but I like to use less intensity, a softer appearance and more blending. Tho, again, that is up to you and your model.

₀₀₃ highlights:
Here it is basically the same as with the previous topic of "contouring". I mean, of course you can do highlights accordingly to light sources, to whatever make up concept you are going for and so on. Tho I have seen quite a few trends these days, that happen to be rather intense as well. Often in combination with the previous contouring trend, which just adds to the overall intensity and mostly clashes with the rest of the adjustments on the model and scenery. Again, it is not necessarily something "wrong" or "ugly" per se, it just depends on execution i suppose.

As you can once again see, my placements for highlights are also quite similar, but I (again) like to keep the overall appearance softer and less intense. Tho I do sometimes like to add sharper or more glittery highlights as well, it totally depends on the environment I place my model in, the respective light sources, whether or not I want to do "actual" make up and overall artistic choices.

Another trend that stood out to me was adding straight up "highlight lines" and "contour lines" or whatever you want to call them. Sometimes it's not even just lines, but single dots and circles as well. Not blended, not smudges, just a random sharp line on the cheek for example. And despite it being totally fine to do so for rim-lights or highlights on the edge of facial parts (jawline or edge of the nose for example, maybe even inner corner of the eye), it does appear rather "weird" and "raw" when there is just a straight line on the cheek or forehead.

Once again I tried my "best" to recreate what I am referring to and those lines/dots are intentionally that sharp, whacky, non-blended and stuff. I mean, glassy/dewy skin has become a very famous and desired trend in real life at this point, which I am a fan of too. But this "glazed donut" stuff is really something else. Especially if those facial highlights do not even match the overall lighting of your overall scenery/setting. There is "creative freedom" of course, which I like to rely on too for some (facial) highlights, but even that "creative freedom" has a line that can be crossed. So, experiment all you want and do whatever brings you joy, but are we all just gonna collectively ignore how weird this trend is, kinda? Like, the trend itself is not too bad or anything, as I lowkey do it myself, but I feel like its execution is rather "questionable" at times.

₀₀₄ make-up:
Originally I wanted to talk about make-up and how to "correctly" research and execute it. But honestly, it is a form of art in itself, so you can basically do whatever is required for your concept. Intensity of colors, placement, glitter, or god knows what else, just do it the way you want it to look like. We should just try to keep it somewhat "reasonable" or "aesthetic". Despite it prolly offering the most "creative freedom" I feel like make-up can have a certain limit too at times. So let us have fun, but let us not overdo it haha!

Of course it also depends on culture, trends and all that. "Western inspired" make up can be very different from "eastern inspired" make up. Natural "no make up" make up obviously requires different adjustments than more exquisite and fancy "drag queen make up" for example. And even "drag queen make up" can be either very simple or really intense at times. And this goes for contouring, highlights, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner and all that stuff.

One thing I do want to mention tho is a little tip for those that want to accomplish a very natural/subtle look, "sometimes less is more". Instead of deep dark black, you can use more washed out (darker) brown shades. This gives lashes and brows a more natural look and looks less plastered onto the face. Same goes for eyeliner and such, which you can also smudge or blur a tiny bit, to make it look less like a sticker.

₀₀₅ decorations:
Now this sums up anything alongside piercings, tattoos, masks, bandaids, scars/other wounds and god knows what else. Do whatever you want, but do not forget to pay attention to perspectives, proportions, lighting, colors and all those kind of (optional and required) adjustments. For example, just some red dots and lines on a cheek are not gonna look like a realistic wound. You gotta add some darker and brighter parts, highlights and soft reddish "bruise like" outlines. It is difficult to explain with words really, so I advice you to just do some research and look at examples on the internet, which you can compare your own result to.

₀₀₆ showcase:
DISCLAIMER: you are NOT ALLOWED to save, download, screenshot, redistribute, repost, recreate, copy, print, sell, further edit or claim any of the following works of mine as your own. You are not allowed to do anything with them, except look at them within this chapter. Ignoring this disclaimer and proceeding to do the things I do not allow you to do with my works, may lead to financial or legal consequences, as well as a direct DMCA report to wattpad. They are not perfect, but they are my babies and I am not afraid to take legal actions if I have to. Feel free to reach out to me if you happen to notice anyone breaching these rules.

Now, these are a handful of some of my works from 2020 up to 2023, obviously very much zoomed in, so excuse poor quality. Long story short, I just want to show you what I used to or still like to do for facial editing. And you may happen to notice that I have also done or tend to do mistakes or things I pointed out in this chapter or previous chapters. As mentioned, practice never really stops, you always learn new things or how to improve. And mistakes are just a part of the journey.

P.S. the one above with Taehyung (upper left example) is actually a perfect example for when I totally messed up facial proportions and structure. So be careful, especially when you draw anything from scratch by yourself.

AGAIN, you are NOT ALLOWED to save, download, screenshot, redistribute, repost, recreate, copy, print, sell, further edit or claim any of the these works of mine as your own! Thank you.

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˓ ִֶָ𓄲 ☁️ SOURCES 𖦹 ࣪˖ ˒
SOURCES 𖦹 ࣪˖ ˒
Down below is a summary of all sources used for this chapter.

₀₀₁ Text(s):
No external ones actually, everything said are my personal opinions/experiences

₀₀₂ Image(s):
Examples are my very own (intellectual) property unless stated otherwise.
Otherwise:
https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/skin-undertones

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© eggyeuls, 2023