Miss Havisham makeup designs

I am choosing to create Miss Havisham post-break up, after many years of decay and sunlight deprivation. For my first Miss Havisham makeup design, I played around with the idea of a grey palette with subtle ageing.

 The second Miss Havisham design had focused detail around the eyes in a bid to emphasis her haggard, exhausted state.

My third design places a lot more emphasis on the ageing.  

Ageing Research

In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham is considered to be a woman of her mid-fifties. In order to create a realistic Miss Havisham look, I want to incorporate ageing techniques to make my model appear older. I researched ageing of the skin and hair to give me a wider understanding of the appearance I am going to have to create. 

One of the most obvious signs of ageing on the face is wrinkles, creases and sagging of the skin. This is caused by the loss of elasticity in the skin. The ageing changes in our skin are determined by a variety of factors including our genes, nutrition and environmental factors such as weather and sun exposure. 

In fact, the greatest single factor of ageing is sun exposure. An important part of Miss Havisham’s lifestyle is the fact that she hasn’t seen sunlight in many years which makes me believe she wouldn’t be severely aged. 

Sun exposure can cause:
- loss of elasticity
- noncancerous skin growths
- pigment changes
-thickening of the skin 

The decrease of pigmented cells in the skin gives a thin, pale complexion. Also, sebaceous glands produce less oil making the skin dry. The eye area will look sunken and bags will develop around the bottom eyelids.

Also, as we age, we are made less responsive by the shrinking of muscles and bones are made more fragile by the loss of minerals. This can lead to Osteoporosis. 

As far as hair aging is concerned, it’s likely that greying will begin in a woman’s 30s, from the temples and then towards the top of the scalp. Eventually the hair colour becomes lighter before eventually turning white. As we age, our rate of hair growth slows down, often causing hair loss. Eyebrows and eyelashes will also turn grey.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/004014.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2006/12/04/GR2006120400761.html

Image : http://deniseardenkjm.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/stressed-is-just-sugar-spelled-backwards/

Cuts, bruises and black eyes

Products & Equipment:

·        Plasto wax

·        Palette knife & tee pin

·        Supra Colour Palette

·        Red eye pencil

·        Kryolan fake blood

·        Wound filler

·        Bruise wheels

·        Sealer

·        Brush set & disposables

Method:

1.      Consider the age of the wound/bruise

2.      A recently wounded black eye will be red and as it ages it’ll get darker before turning yellow

3.      Use grease products from either the bruise wheel or supra colour palette as they’re easiest to blend

4.      Begin with the lightest colour and apply using fingers with a patting motion onto the area where the bruising has occurred

5.      For a black eye, run a red pencil into the lower water line and blend away with a cotton bud

6.      Use Vaseline to create a swollen effect

7.      Creating a wound…

8.      Use plasto wax to mould to the shape and size of the wound you want to achieve

9.      Smooth the wax onto the skin using a palette knife and blend away any edges using moisturiser

10.   To create the cut, use the edge of the palette knife

11.   Seal the wound with sealer using a cotton bud

12.   Colour the wound to create a realistic appearance

13.   Use a tee pin to fill the wound with wound filler

14.   Using a stipple sponge and red supra colour or blood, you can create scratches around the wound

NOTES:

·        Don’t add any liquid blood to a wound until you’re on location

·        Add coffee grounds to wounds to create dirt and give depth

Creating sapes with Victorian infuence

Divided into 3 groups in our practical session, I had to create a shapes using padding whilst incorporating a Victorian influence. Ultimately, I tried to create a variety of shape and, tying into previous and future lessons, give an interesting silhouette.

How I created this particular look…

Products & Equipment:

-     Brush set

-     Hair grips & sectioning grips

-     Padding

-     Small barrel curling tongs

-     Heat defence spray

-     Hairspray

Method:

·        Have to hand, 3 wadded pieces for padding for this hairstyle, 2 equal sized ones for the side rolls and a slightly shorter one for the top

·        Begin by sectioning the hair, leaving a band of hair around the whole hairline free for curling as well as a section of hair at the crown of the head for twists

·        The hair should be divided into the top and either sides

·        Beginning with the top section, backcomb the hair, creating volume at the roots, before wrapping tightly around the padding to and securing with grips

·        Similarly with the sides, after backcombing the hair, roll the sections around the pads, directing the roll towards the centre back of the head

·        Use a smoothing brush to settle any flyaway pieces of hair

·        Spritz the band of hair around the hairline with heat defence spray before using small barrel curling tongs, to curl the hair, carefully pumping and sliding the hair from the barrel to create small ringlets

·        Spare the section of hair at the nape of the neck and secure this in a barrel curl directed upwards

·        With the loose hair from the centre of the head,  section into smaller parts and create intricate twists in the hair, backcombing them at the end in order for the style to stay without the use of hair ties or grips

·        Finally, secure the style with hairspray

Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter dominates the role of Miss Havisham in the 2012 film adaptation. In this interview on YouTube, Helena discusses her portrayal of the iconic role and shares the various concepts and ideas she had for the character prior to filming. It’s enlightening to hear how much input she had exactly and it’s great to see how involved she was in the initial research and design stage.   

Theatrical Ageing/ Creping the skin

Products & Equipment:

·        Concealers & foundations

·        Supra Colour Palette

·        Grey coloured hairspray

·        Old Age Stipple – Ben Nye

·        Disposable mascara wands

·        Brush set

Method:

1.      Decide how old you would like to age the model to, consider that everybody ages differently

2.      Beginning with a clean face, apply a base to the model and take out any spots or imperfections and DO NOT powder the base

3.      Have the model screw up different parts of her face so you can see the natural ageing lines

4.      Using colours from the supra colour palette and a fine brush, follow these lines, removing the harsh slightly with your finger as you go

5.      Apply a lighter skin tone above these lines as a highlighter and blend out to create dimension

6.      To age the hair, use grey coloured hairspray, working it out from the root like a natural ageing process

7.      To grey the eyebrows, use supra colour and a disposable mascara wand, working the product into the eyebrow from both directions

8.      Ben Nye – Old Age Stipple is a product you can apply to create a creped skin/aged effect. Apply it to areas where natural wrinkles occur i.e. crow’s feet around the eyes and lip lines. Stretch the area of skin when applying and do not release until the product has dried. 

NOTES:

·        Avoid using white colours as it can show up in blue tones under studio lights

·        Old Age Stipple is a latex product so model’s should have a patch test before use to check for allergies

·        Remember to match the age of the hair to the age of the makeup

·        Work down onto the neck and the back of the hand to create an overall look

Gillian Anderson

This image is from the BBC 1 three-part series adaptation of Great Expectations that aired in 2011. Miss Havisham is portrayed by American actress, Gillian Anderson. The many interpretations of Miss Havisham, in film and television, have varied in accordance to the actress. I find Anderson’s performance to the most diverse considering Miss Havisham is such an iconic role.   

When I read the book, my initial impression of Miss Havisham was a woman virtually immobile, who is cold and harsh and confident in speech. Anderson, however, presents different characteristics. Anderson’s version seemed to flit about quite actively and looked healthy and clean considering she has spent so long away from daylight.

In fact, I feel the film, as a whole, is wrong to include so much daylight in Satis House. A very crucial detail in the story of Great Expectations is Miss Havisham’s sun deprivation. Make up wise, Anderson has been realistically withered to present a character not only deprived of sunlight but deprived of love and emotion. However, from the offset, we first see Miss Havisham emerging from a staircase with sunlight cast over her from a break in the curtains. Sure this gives us an eerie silhouette but it entirely negates her physical appearance. 

I think there are particularly poor aging techniques used on Anderson in this series. Her curls look far too intact considering they would have been styled many years ago. They hang so tight and neat, they look almost childish. Also, her wedding gown looks more like a night dress, no veil or train, and is considerably white considering it has been worn for such a lengthy period.

Anderson hasn’t any bridal flowers in her hair or jewels around her neck. She walks around barefoot as opposed to the traditional detail of Miss Havisham having only one shoe on. She also speaks with a soft, high-pitched voice, which doesn’t come across as authoritative as the book describes Miss Havisham to be.

Finally, the contemporary trait of self-harm suggests a very insecure character which negates the bold, eccentric details of Miss Havisham in the book.

http://kooltvblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/pips-progress-dark-road-of-great.html#!/2011/12/pips-progress-dark-road-of-great.html