It features the areas in which the hybrid lives - both rural areas, as well as built up cities
It has a purple theme running through it to represent the colour scheme of my make-up and the butterfly
It shows the outline of a butterfly pattern very similar to the one I will be using
It shows the process of females growing up and becoming a woman; which is the underlying theme for my hybrid, and this when the hybrid transformation takes place
I actually often found myself wanting to include drawings/face charts to demonstrate my hybrid and my ideas, but I had to ensure that I remained focused on the Brave New World theme, and not my hybrid itself.
My human butterfly hybrid features in all environments and continents across the world. It basically can be seen wherever you can see any teenage girls - so thats the countryside, rain forests, cities, etc.
The reason for this is because it is a sign of adulthood for all females, therefore, wherever you find females, you will find these hybrids!
I did not want my character's styling/clothing options to be too overwhelming or too obvious - I want there to be small subtle hints, but I do not want it to be noticeable that it is a butterfly hybrid, just from looking at the clothes. I want the focus to be mainly on the face. Ideally, I want the audience to take a look and at a fast first glimpse, not necessarily notice or be able to tell why is different, but then as you look closer, you see the alterations in the face structure, therefore I do not want the styling to be a give away. I also feel that I have quite a lot of butterfly influence within the face anyway, and some of the best hybrids, you can clearly still see the majority of the human. The clothing that I did want is to be quite flowy and free - keeping with the theme of girls blossoming into women, and with butterflies being quite free.
However, it is key to remember that in the brief it states that we must have close up and mid shots, so I feel that you would not see that texture/idea of the dresses, like shown above, in a mid shot. Therefore, I thought that something like a kimono might be a good idea, because it is quite floral and natural, as well as being quite free-flowing, but at the same time, quite cacoon-like.
So I am thinking of having just a fairly neutral/white top under a more colourful floral kimono. I feel that this provides a subtle hint and is relatable to the butterfly, but at the same time does not reveal too much, and is still relevant to humans.
Also, as we are styling to whole body, and not just the face, I am going to include small areas of the butterfly pattern on the body parts that are visible, e.g. the neck/arms. It will match the pattern of the face, but only be in small patterns that fade out at the edges, as though it is incorporated into the skin.
The basis of my concept is playing on the fact of how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly... Basically, in this Brave New World, as a girl begins to grow up and reaches adulthood, she will begin to develop traits from a butterfly. So as a child, there will be nothing that really relates to a butterfly that is visible, but as time goes on and she ventures into her teens; this is when she will start to transform and become a hybrid. In this Brave New World, there are a number of reasons for this:
Family relations/long lost relatives will be distinguishable because the pattern that emerges on them will be extremely similar - there are billions of different designs
It will allow males to see what kind of age the females are, e.g. if they are of child-bearing age
It allows woman to feel extremely in touch with nature, and thus creates more harmony between nature and humans, since there is not necessarily any distinctive boundaries anymore
This can be quite a tough process for females, in terms of painful physical changes that happen to the face/body, and psychological changes that make girls realise that they are now becoming women
Caterpillar to Butterfly process:
The First Stage:The Egg
Butterfly Eggs on a Leaf
A butterfly starts life as a very small, round, oval or cylindrical egg. The coolest thing about butterfly eggs, especially monarch butterfly eggs, is that if you look close enough you can actually see the tiny caterpillar growing inside of it. Some butterfly eggs may be round, some oval and some may be ribbed while others may have other features. The egg shape depends on the type of butterfly that laid the egg.
Butterfly eggs are usually laid on the leaves of plants, so if you are actively searching for these very tiny eggs, you will have to take some time and examine quite a few leaves in order to find some.
The Second Stage: The Larva (Caterpillar)
Butterfly Caterpillar
When the egg finally hatches, most of you would expect for a butterfly to emerge, right? Well, not exactly. In the butterfly’s life cycle, there are four stages and this is only the second stage. Butterfly larvae are actually what we call caterpillars. Caterpillars do not stay in this stage for very long and mostly, in this stage all they do is eat.
When the egg hatches, the caterpillar will start his work and eat the leaf they were born onto. This is really important because the mother butterfly needs to lay her eggs on the type of leaf the caterpillar will eat – each caterpillar type likes only certain types of leaves. Since they are tiny and can not travel to a new plant, the caterpillar needs to hatch on the kind of leaf it wants to eat.
Caterpillars need to eat and eat so they can grow quickly. When a caterpillar is born, they are extremely small. When they start eating, they instantly start growing and expanding. Their exoskeleton (skin) does not stretch or grow, so they grow by “moulting” (sheding the outgrown skin) several times while it grows.
The Third Stage: Pupa (Chrysalis)
Caterpillar Becoming a Chrysalis
The pupa stage is one of the coolest stages of a butterfly’s life. As soon as a caterpillar is done growing and they have reached their full length/weight, they form themselves into a pupa, also known as a chrysalis. From the outside of the pupa, it looks as if the caterpillar may just be resting, but the inside is where all of the action is. Inside of the pupa, the caterpillar is rapidly changing.
Now, as most people know, caterpillars are short, stubby and have no wings at all. Within the chrysalis the old body parts of the caterpillar are undergoing a remarkable transformation, called ‘metamorphosis,’ to become the beautiful parts that make up the butterfly that will emerge. Tissue, limbs and organs of a caterpillar have all been changed by the time the pupa is finished, and is now ready for the final stage of a butterfly’s life cycle.
The Fourth Stage: Adult Butterfly
Butterfly Emerging from a Chrysalis
Finally, when the caterpillar has done all of its forming and changing inside the pupa, if you are lucky, you will get to see an adult butterfly emerge. When the butterfly first emerges from the chrysalis, both of the wings are going to be soft and folded against its body. This is because the butterfly had to fit all its new parts inside of the pupa.
As soon as the butterfly has rested after coming out of the chrysalis, it will pump blood into the wings in order to get them working and flapping – then they get to fly. Usually within a three or four-hour period, the butterfly will master flying and will search for a mate in order to reproduce.
When in the fourth and final stage of their lives, adult butterflies are constantly on the look out to reproduce and when a female lays their eggs on some leaves, the butterfly life cycle will start all over.
Web reference: http://www.thebutterflysite.com/life-cycle.shtml#sthash.adxu5J0P.dpuf
As I did not have a glue gun to seal the cup around the outside of the pieces, I decided to build a clay barrier, ensuring that it was taller than all of the pieces it was surrounding.
I then carried out the mould-making process (following the previous instructions) making sure I remembered to stir the mixture! I then left the moulds to set, and they were within under a hour, so I knew that I had done it properly this time - thank god!
I was now happy with my moulds and ready to move onto casting the pieces.
First of all, I sculpted my pieces out of clay - the butterfly body to go down the nose, the pieces for the cheekbones, and for the forehead. I only created one of each because this means I can cast 2 cheek/forehead pieces using the same mould.
I then went on to create the moulds (step-by-step instructions are in a previous post).
However, as I watched my moulds begin to set, I knew that something wasn't right...
The top looked quite bumpy, and gloopy, and I knew this was not supposed to happen. At first I thought this may have been due to transporting it between uni and school, and it may have moved out of place slightly. Then as time went on, it had been over 2 hours and it was no where near set - this confirmed my initial thought that something had gone wrong. I left my moulds for about 2 days, and they were still not set, therefore I decided to take them out. They were still quite sticky and gloopy, and they had not hold the shape of my sculptures very well. I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong!
After days and days of deliberation I realised that I made one of the stupidest mistakes possible, but a vital one! I did not mix the 2 silicones together when pouring them into the cup - I was in such a rush to pour them on the sculptures because I didn't want them to set (and because I had to keep adding more of each to be enough to cover the whole piece) that I just totally forgot to mix them together. Therefore, the 2 silicones were not able to combine and thus set and create the mould.
I couldn't believe what a silly mistake I had made, but everything is a learning curve, and it has taught me a lesson - I know that I will NEVER forget to mix them together again!
When discussing my idea with Kat, we decided to take away the antenna prosthetic pieces from the head because we thought it would be too much, especially as the 2 pieces on the sides of the forehead were already quite big. Furthermore, when talking about the actual butterfly design Kat said to consider perhaps toning down the butterfly patterns slightly, as there were already quite a lot of butterfly elements incorporated into the design, and we want the outcome to be realistic and organic. Therefore, I am going to do a trial of the make-up to see how it actually appears on the face (without the prosthetic pieces), and then go from there. If I feel the butterfly pattern is too much on the cheeks, forehead and down the neck slightly (as there must be a mid shot, thus cannot forget about the rest of the body), then I will think about just incorporating the butterfly pattern in much smaller areas, for example, to replace the eyeshadow or lipstick.
Butterfly Eggs on a Leaf 
Butterfly Caterpillar
Caterpillar Becoming a Chrysalis
Butterfly Emerging from a Chrysalis
