Aesthetic Characteristics of Character Make-up of Villainess and Witch Image -A case study of makeup in ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)-

Abstract

David Ayer’s (2016), a fantasy genre movie based on DC comics, won 89th academy award for best makeup and hair styling, and received attention for the creative makeup by production crew. The Villainess and Witch in the movie are depicted as independent characters who maximize their role as women with their charm, rather than figures that good-hearted leading character should stand against. The purpose of this study is to identify images of Villainess and Witch focusing on Harley Quinn and Enchantress in the movies and explore characteristics of the makeup and hair styling and their aesthetic qualities. It’s expected to see this study will understand importance in image making and makeup in playing characters and be helpful in coming up with design idea and providing basic data in future. Literature review with relevant articles and news reports and Internet information review with international news and YouTube were conducted. For case study, 57 pictures that captured scene of , especially close-up photos were chosen to analyze characteristics and aesthetics of the movie character makeup and hair styling. Harley Quinn, the Villainess showed various costume coordination in colors, jumper, dress, letter stockings, and accessories. Shapes and color variations were brought into her hair design. And her body makeup was airbrushed with some tattoos. She put on dramatic, colorful smoky makeup and tried nail arts in different colors, design and coordination. Enchantress, the Witch got tattoo and put on deep, impressive black smoky makeup with pink lips. And her body makeup, letter design makeup with ancient magic spells, and black color nails were used. Harley Quinn’s makeup and aesthetic quality expresses aesthetics of reality and playfulness. She’s well dressed up with proper coordination to show her social status as a doctor, but she put on natural makeup, wearing real prisoner’s uniform when she was imprisoned. Once she transformed into Joker, excessive hair rollers, tattoo makeup and nail arts showed playfulness in terms of design. On the other hand, Enchantress aims to express aesthetics of surrealistic and playfulness. She put on surreal body makeup with oriental patterns, tattoo, accessories, body makeup with coordination, special effect witch’s eyes. Plus, she styled with playful, over-sized hair accessories. When comparing two characters featured in the film in this study, it turned out Harley Quinn as Villainess has potential to show diversity. And the research findings indicate that makeup is important way in playing dual roles and the digital makeup with special effect has become prevalent.