Ā Ā Ā Most Disney fans would be familiar with Fa Mulan crying then wiping off half of her makeup, leaving the wiped portion squeaky clean. Anyone who have worked with make up or seen someone remove make up that make up will not magically come off unless the wipes they are using are made of unicorn tears and a magic eraser. In this musical number, Mulan asks,Ā āwhen will my reflection show who I am inside?ā Ā In this case, her reflection will show a hot mess.Ā
Ā Ā For this image, I took a picture of myself bare faced and splotchy, as seen here:
Ā Ā Ā I then cropped the photo closer to remove any additional folds I disliked in my make-shift cosplay then cut myself out of the background, placing it on a dark blue-green gradient. After that, I made a copy of the pink portion of theĀ āoutfitā then recolored parts of it so that it could match the color of Mulanās dress.
Ā Ā Ā Regretting my poor bleaching job, I got an image of an updo and placed it on my head as if it was a virtual wig. To make the wig blend in more, I removed extraneous pixels that were a part of the original image the updo was from as well as drew in the fly-away hair that ended up being removed on accident.Ā
Ā Ā Ā For the makeup, I made a copy of my face and created a desaturated layer mask with altered levels and curves so that theĀ āfoundationā would look more natural. The blush, eye makeup and eyebrows were created with brushes at different opacities. For the lips, I put them on a separate layer and recolored them and smudged where the make up would have been wiped off.Ā
Ā Ā Ā To look a bit more true to the character, the earrings were a composite edit of tear drop earrings and just a golden sphere. I altered the color and texture so that the different medals can look more like each other than they originally did. To add depth and have the earring look less like a two-dimensional sticker, I softened the edges and added a drop shadow.Ā
Ā Ā Ā For the foreground, I added a blue layer as a tint. I also wrote the Chinese characters that were in the scene of Mulanās solo musical number. I then added an inner shadow and texture to the characters so that they look like they were carved into polished stone, like the shrine Mulan goes to. This was the image I used for reference: