The idea of beauty, and how we perceive it, is continually evolving. Thanks to certain means such as technology, people are now able to define beauty standards in a totally new way. Phones allow people to have a greater control of their image and what was perhaps considered beautiful centuries ago, or even decades ago, is quickly dissolving into a more inclusive and inventive realm. The greatest painters in history have represented beauty in a way that, although restricted, is perhaps familiar to us, but these standards are changing. Artists around the globe are reconsidering this conventional way of viewing beauty and realising an entirely new beauty trend. One of those artists is 3D-make-up artist extraordinaire, Ines Alpha, a digital artist whose postmodern hybrid of makeup and technology is taking the idea of beauty to the next level.

Ines Alpha began her career working as an art director from 2009 to 2017 in an advertising company that specialised in cosmetics and luxury. During this time she started to experiment with 3D software and to “wonder how 3D elements would look like on a human face, accidentally creating my vision of what would be the future of beauty”. She quickly became freelance, continuing to work on beauty, self-image and face transformation, which led her to be at the forefront of the “three-dimensional digital makeup revolution”. “Working in an advertising company taught me how to present my work, how to make it accessible to everyone and to help people project things that are going to be made in the future” she explains. “But what I am trying to do with 3D makeup,” she continues, “is to push the boundaries of beauty and to have more freedom with my aesthetic, by working on digitalised bodies. It can sound abstract, especially as it presents limitations in terms of using it in the real world, but nowadays people are spending most of their time online and that is their reality. It’s all very digital and it’s all very real. I have always been interested in the idea of creating an augmented reality and 3D makeup is essentially limitless.”

In her art Alpha uses creative ways of mixing beauty with existing digital tools, bringing her inventive ideas into reality and as a result, she has realised a completely new kind of makeup: e-makeup. Can she say what e-makeup, or 3D makeup, is exactly? “It’s simple. It’s make-up but in 3D. You could describe it as elements you add onto your face to transform it, using 3D software. With 3D you can do anything you want,” she explains. “You can create your own reality, play with shapes and textures that simply don’t exist in the IRL world. Using all these new digital tools to experiment with makeup, face-tracking for example, came very naturally to me. The way I see it, makeup is about transforming your face, whether you use foundation, powders, pigments, objects, plastic surgery, filters, or 3D software.” Alpha clearly follows her own rules and has managed to create a particular universe that is inspiring and distinctive. “I think my universe is dream-like because I like to make things that don’t exist in the real world. I like to make versions of reality that are fantastical, and with 3D you can defy the laws of gravity and physics. It’s also super-exciting to imagine that the universe I create could potentially exist in another dimension. And maybe even in the near future as well.” 

By developing e-makeup and creating a distinctive style, Alpha has attracted all kinds of artists and has collaborated with a variety of musicians, models, and brands. She created the visuals for Charli XCX’s latest EP Charli, made 3D make-up augmented reality masks for Nike’s Air Max Plus TN 20th anniversary, and worked with Selfridges on The New Order campaign, interpreting some of their top beauty products in 3D. Other names include Bimba Y Lola, Panteros666 (a frequent collaborator), and @madroni_redclock (“she has her own style, transforms her face into a work of art. Her art could be the make-up of the near future.”). Even the virtual Instagram character Lil Miquela, an AI influencer who has a following of 2 million people, describes Alpha’s creations as “the kind of thing a robot might wear to the Met Gala in the year 3052”.

“I love to collaborate,” Alpha informs me. “To me, there is nothing better in the world than finding the right artistic connection, uniting different skills, styles, and backgrounds. I’m not that keen on working by myself. That’s why I began asking around to see if any artists that I like would be interested in wearing some of my 3D makeup.” For Alpha, makeup is a way of expressing yourself, having fun, and playing around. “I draw inspiration from the people I collaborate with and try to fit their personalities in as much as I can. I like to analyse my collaborators, look for colours, shape, personality traits… I am definitely into makeup that reveals personality” Any dream collaborators? “I would love to collaborate with Björk. That would be a lifetime achievement.” 

Lucky for us, Ines Alpha has also made her work accessible to the public by creating Instagram and Snapchat AR filters, so that “everyone can try them”. She wants people to express themselves and have fun with her designs. “It’s just crazy to see how people can play and tell stories with your creations. I see things I would have never even thought of! I am super happy to be able to democratise my art through different social media platforms and one day I hope that 3D makeup will become a casual look we can see on the streets.” Alpha’s work has undoubtedly opened doors in terms of how we see and experience makeup but it also has a very clear aim: to collectively rise above beauty standards. “They need to evolve.” she urges. “Because we need to live in a world where everyone can feel beautiful.”

Credits:
Words by Roxanne Nielsen
Artwork by Ines Alpha

Art Credits:
1# Still Life from 3D Makeup Collaboration with @lokidolor (2018)
2# Still Life from 3D Body Makeup Collaboration with @isshehungry (2019)
3# Video of 3D Body Makeup Collaboration with @isshehungry (2019)
4# Still Life from 3D Body Makeup (2020)
5# Video of 3D Body Makeup (2020)
6# Still Life from 3D Makeup Collaboration with @nana_younggrongkim (2018)
7# Still Life from 3D Makeup Collaboration with @kaya_kozo (2019)
8# Video of 3D Makeup Collaboration with @kaya_kozo (2019)
9# Still Life from 3D Makeup Collaboration with @rubyrubygloom (2018)
10# Still Life from 3D Makeup Collaboration with Asung Ko (2019)
11# Still Life from 3D Makeup Present to @lilmiquela (2019)
12# Video of 3D Makeup Collaboration with Asung Ko (2019)
13# Still Life from 3D Makeup Collaboration with @madroni_redclock (2019)
14# Video of 3D Makeup Collaboration with @madroni_redclock (2019)

Music by @panteros666

Lacy Barry’s artwork can be found in shop windows and the spaces she decorates for special events and commercial projects. She creates paper-craft artwork for installations, both art and commercial, and designs sets for print and web advertisements. She also makes paper and tinsel costumes and headpieces. In her Little Wing and Exploding Florals series, 3D wings and florals embellish a mural canvas, creating the effect of an explosion that breaks the two-dimensionality of the canvas and brings the artwork to life.

Cris Wiegandt is a paper-craft artist who specialises in stop-motion animation – her work comes to life through film. She implements tactile illustration and stop-motion techniques to create 3D, animated and colourful worlds with an extraordinary finish and texture, showing the versatile qualities of paper.

Talking to Barry and Wiegandt, you quickly realise that, for them, paper craft is a creative tool for expressing their visions and ideas, and the medium they work with is a conscious and aesthetic choice. They both love the tactile qualities of paper.

Wiegandt talks a lot about imperfections and how little mistakes can make paper craft look real. Some people love the playfulness and cuteness of what she produces and how it reminds them of their childhood. For others it is the complexity of these meticulously created works that they find fascinating. When telling me about her favourite projects, Barry mentions the many layers of paper and cardboard she adds to her artworks to create a mesmerising three-dimensionality of colours and gradients. Most of Wiegandt’s animated stories are also a good example of the complexity that paper craft can achieve – everything she creates, from little rice corn to the large-scale sets, is made solely from paper. Stunning.

Wiegandt has been working in the stop-motion business for six years and has created a large number of paper-craft animations. She acknowledges that as the technology behind 3D printing improves, it will become a major competitor for paper-craft technique, but she believes many people still enjoy analogue sensations, which require skill and many years of practice to produce. Also, it is often cheaper to produce something crafted than to hire a good 3D artist. And besides, people are still attracted to tactile sensations, especially nowadays, when digital technology is accessible to everyone and every teenager can use a cameraphone to shoot images and videos. This is why so many of Wiegandt’s clients consider paper projects especially creative and they like to see how she creates something that looks so different from the glossy digital images they’re used to seeing all the time now. For Wiegandt, paper is a fascinating material – simple but versatile. “The texture and the finish are so beautiful. I like to touch it,” she says. She believes that, for older generations, paper craft is connected to memories of their younger years, but she is not sure if future generations will feel the same way.

Barry started to work with paper six years ago by accident. “I had just moved from LA to Montreal,” she recalls. “When I was living in LA, my life was all set up. I was doing a lot of work for film, assisting my dad when he was assigned to paint sets [Barry’s father is a professional painter.]. When I moved back to Canada, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I ended up staying in Montreal. I quickly started to integrate. I got a studio place and my first seamstress jobs through Craigslist. I also made props and designed costumes. Through personal connections I found out there was this paper artist whose work I really liked and who had a studio in the same building as me. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I should introduce myself,’ so I emailed him.

“We never met as he was moving out to a better studio, but he referred me to a music-video director who hired me to make props and with whom I ended up working for a while. I didn’t have much experience – I had only done a few prop-styling jobs before. I didn’t know if I could do everything, but I was willing to try. It was like a new adventure for me. And it worked out very well. We did another project together, for which we had to build paper sets. I had low expectations of what I was capable of, but I was so excited about the project – it just set my imagination on fire. I remember having this nasty cold, as I had to work on this project for three days in a row. The video director came by with a bottle of whisky to help me work. At some point he went home to see his kids and to get some sleep and I just kept going. The next day we set up in my studio. It was a mountain scape with a water filtration system. It looked so good. It was my first big project and is probably still one of my favourites. After that, things snowballed. I started to get a reputation and build up a portfolio. Any time I was trying to do something else I was always coming back to paper, so I thought, ‘Why am I trying to fight it?’

” When asked about why she chooses paper as a working material, she says it’s because it’s a fun material to work with: “ You can sculpt, cut and adjust it. You can make something bigger or smaller. You can paint it. And the end result is always kind of surreal. When it’s done, you are looking at it and you see a sort of land – you know, a paper land.”

Barry is not particularly worried about paper craft disappearing, though. “People have always used paper as an art form – just think of origami or painting. I have been working with paper for six years and it has been only three years since paper craft became very popular. For me, paper is still recreating itself as a

medium every day. I am finding new ways to work with it and new ways to form and sculpt it. I don’t think the tactile world will ever go away.

“Many artists still use materials that have been around for ages and they often mix them with new, cutting-edge materials. Of course, now it is possible to create paper renderings on computers and it can look very good, too, but the renderings don’t have that special tactility. Sometimes it is just about the right combination of analogue and digital that can make ideas shine through.

Credits:

Words by Veronika Dorosheva

1: Veolia Markt-Roboter: Art Direction & Crafts: Cris Wiegandt, Client: Veolia
2: Missy_LETTERS_Sex and Missy_LETTERS_M: by Cris Wiegandt
3: Cris working in her studio. Image taken by Natasha John and Lacy Barry working in her studio by Rebecca Paul
4: Pillars – paper craft by Lacy Barry, Image by Jenny Endom
5: Big Bird: Art Direction & Paper Craft: Cris Wiegandt. Client: Publicis Dublin