Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1058399
44 • THE ARTISAN FALL 2018 tribe, Merchant tribe, Kingsguards, Step Town, Shaman, Orphan Children and the Dora Milaje. All of which would need to have separate make-up looks. Creating the looks of the Black Panther characters was very much a collaboration between the costume, hair and make- up departments. The Dora Milaje were female warriors in the Wakandan military. The original concept for the Dora's was to have a ranking system. An entry-level Dora had the sides of their head shaved. As a Dora advanced in rank, they would next have more of their head shaved and start sporting a ponytail. The highest ranking Dora would have their heads completely shaved. Danai Gurira played Okoye, the general of the Wakandan military, head of the Dora Milaje, as well as the pilot of the Royal Talon Fighter. Director Ryan Coogler had originally asked for Danai to have the face of a photo-realistic black panther to be tat- tooed on her bald head. After testing different variations of that type of tattoo, it was determined that the photo- realistic detail of the black panther tattoo was not visible on dark complexion skin. My original thought when coming up with the concept for the Okoye head tattoo was to come up with a design that resembles the shape of a fighter pilot's helmet. I also wanted the tattoo design to be visible on dark complexion skin, while also complimenting her amazing costume design. We started with a few different stylized fighter pilot helmet out- lines. Within these outlines, I tried out various design pat- terns, ultimately coming up with triangular weave patterns with red tones that tied in well with the Okoye costume, as well as being readable on dark skin. I designed similar weave patterns with red tone tattoos to surround the lower ranking Dora's mohawk and ponytail hair styles. Blue Whale Studios Inc. took the life cast of the Dora's and provided polyurethane resin/foam head forms for Kentaro Yano and me to draw Dora head tat- too patterns on. From these tattoo patterns, Blue Whale created Vacuform stencils of the tattoo outlines. These stencils were used to air brush K.D. 151 fifty percent-aged tattoo ink on to the skin. After the airbrush lines were cleaned up with 99 percent alcohol on Eye Tees, the stencil gaps were drawn in with K.D. 151 fifty percent-aged ink tattoo pens. For the Okoye head tattoo, Kentaro Yano created 16 numbered triangular tattoo trans- fers that we applied inside of airbrushed tattoo outlines. Any necessary line touch-ups were done with the tattoo pens, and the red tone touch-ups were done with Skin Illustrator. After the touch-ups were completed, I sealed the tattoo by spraying of a combination of two parts Bluebird Gloss Sealer, one part Bluebird Matt Sealer thinned with 10 parts 99 percent alcohol. That made for a very durable, non- sticky surface. I then applied a sheer coat of Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24H liquid make-up to make the tattoo look like it was under the skin and not painted on the skin. For the last step, I applied a red powder blush all over Danai's head. The red and golden hues from Okoye's costume were also incorporated into elements of Danai's beauty make-ups. The Dora's Milaje were the first group of Wakandans that were scheduled to be shot, but we had a last-minute change and a group of Jabari warriors were moved up in the schedule. Doing extensive research of many different African cultures and designs was an important first step when coming up with the make-up design concepts for many of the Black Panther characters. All of the facial painting and scarification for the Black Panther characters were inspired from this extensive research. The five different types of Jabari arm band tattoos were inspired from design carvings on African wooden masks and from African fabric designs. A few days after shooting the Jabari warriors and a few days before we were to shoot the Dora Milaje, Ryan Coogler informed the make-up and hair departments that after watch- ing the stuff we had shot with Jabari warriors, he felt that their haircuts too closely resembled that of the lower ranked Doras and that in the end battle scene, he did not want Mohawks fighting Mohawks. Ryan decided that we would get rid of the original haircut ranking system and that all of the Doras would have clean-shaven heads. We now had to quickly change directions for creating the lower ranking Dora tattoos. In a very early conceptual design, Ryan had asked to see tattoo bands running down and across the Dora's faces. Kentaro Yano and I took some of those early band tattoo concepts and added a technology circuit board design to the inside of the bands. Kentaro then simplified that circuit board design and that is what we went for. • Danai Gurira, right, as Gen. Okoye with the Dora Milaje