Pro tip: I saw something at the Portland art museum that changed how I think about color

I went to the Portland Art Museum last weekend and spent an hour in the modern painting section. I was looking at this big abstract piece, just a bunch of color blocks, and I realized the artist used the exact same color theory we use for skin tones. The way they placed a cool blue next to a warm peach to make both pop? That's contouring. It hit me that we're not just doing makeup, we're doing color correction art on a living canvas. Has anyone else gotten ideas for their work from places that aren't beauty related?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren_walker622mo ago

That bit about color correction on a living canvas is so spot on. My own attempts at contouring look more like a toddler got into the mud than a modern art piece. I guess my face is more abstract expressionism than I planned.

riley8602mo ago

Stick to cream formulas and blend with a damp sponge.

walker.andrew4d ago

And building on that abstract expressionism idea, maybe that's the whole point with makeup anyway. We're all just slapping color on a surface and hoping it makes sense to someone, whether it's a canvas or a cheekbone. In my experience, the best makeup looks come from that same kind of happy accident mentality where you just let the colors do their thing.