Experimenting and Developing Miss Havisham's Make-Up

After analysing my face charts of Miss Havisham, I chose the one below as my favourite. I love the witch aspect to it, with the wart on her nose, as Pip describes her as 'the witch of the place'. I experimented with different ways of portraying this face chart onto my model, as shown below.

My Chosen Face Chart

Practice 1

Step by step:

1. I applied a mixture of the white skin base and some foundation colours, to make her skin look slightly more pale than it was naturally, with a foundation brush and then buffed it in with a big fluffy brush.

2. I next added a brown/purple supra colour mixture all round her eyes where there was naturally some darkness.
3. I added some red supra colour along her lower lash line and on the outer corner.
4. I then dabbed some yellow supra colour around the outer edges to make it look more bruised.

5. I mixed some black and white supra colour together and, using a small angled brush, I drew in any wrinkles that she already had to emphasise them. I asked my model to make exaggerated facial expressions to make it easier to see where her natural wrinkle lines were, if they weren't obvious.

6. I mixed some white and yellow supra colour together and, with a small flat brush, I drew a line underneath where I had drawn the wrinkles to give the wrinkles some more depth. If the wrinkles were drawn downwards, I would put the white line to the right side so that they all matched up.

7. I blended out the wrinkles slightly with my fingers to give them a softer edge.
8. I mixed together some supra colour colours to make a grey/purple colour and contoured her cheek bones, her temples and round her chin, with a medium flat brush. I blended the colours out with my fingers.
9. I dabbed a thick layer of duo lash glue to her lips and also on a patch on her cheek and I let them both dry.
10. Once the glue was dried, I started to pick and rub the glue to make it look like dry, flakey skin.
11. I added some red supra colour, with a small angled brush, into the areas where the glue had left holes, to make it look sore and bloody.

Close-up of the lips.

Close-up of the dry skin effect on her cheeks.

12. Using a dense stipple brush, I stippled on some red supra colour to make it look like broken veins.

13. I brushed some white supra colour through her eyebrows with a disposable mascara wand.

I was not happy with the outcome of this look. I think it looks too over the top and obviously fake, which would not be suitable to film or TV. However, I think this makeup look would work well for a theatre performance because the makeup would need to be more dramatic so that it translated to even the people sitting at the back. I think the darkness around the eyes looks too unnatural and too dark; I also think that the colouring is off. I will therefore take a photo my model's eye bags without any makeup on to have a closer look at the colouring. The wrinkles look way too obvious and harsh and if I still wanted to draw on the lines, I would have to blend them out way more and make the colours more subtle. I think that just using white on the eyebrows make them look slightly blue, which I don't want, so I will experiment with adding a hint of yellow in there next time. I am happy with how the broken veins came out as I think they look natural and not too obvious for the camera lens. I don't think that the lips look natural because I think the holes in the glue are too big and they wouldn't be round. I am happy with how the dry skin on her cheeks look, however I mad to be quite rough when rubbed the skin, so I may look into different ways of making dry and flakey skin. 

Practice 2

I wanted to experiment with different materials that would give the effect of dry and flakey skin. I first tried to use some fullers earth. I mixed some fullers earth with some water to make a thin paste and I thin applied it, with a spatula, to the areas I wanted there to be dry skin. After letting it dry, I applied a mixture of the white skin base and foundation all over the skin and over the fullers earth. However, I soon realised that this was not going to work, as the fullers earth was too dark to be covered and blended into the skin properly.

Practice 3

Step by step:

1. I mixed some flour and water together in a bowl to a thin consistency. 

2. Using a spatula, I smoothed the mixture onto the areas where I wanted dry skin. I made sure that I blended out the edges to make it look more seamless and natural. 

3. I applied a mixture of the white skin base and some foundation colours, to make her skin look slightly more pale than it was naturally, with a foundation brush and then buffed it in with a big fluffy brush all over the face and neck. I did this step after the mixture had fully dried.

4. Using a dense stipple brush, I stippled on some red supra colour on the patches where there was dry skin to make it look sore and irritated.

5. I added some flour mixture to the lips and let that dry.

6. I also applied some flout mixture down the right side of her neck because I wanted it to look like she had eczema. 

7. I powdered the face with some loose translucent powder and a big fluffy brush.
8. Using a mixture of the grey toned bronzer in my contour palette and a grey eyeshadow, I contoured  under the cheekbones, on the temples and either side of the nose.

9. I took a close-up photo of her eyes with no makeup on so I could see the colouring and placement of the colour around her eyes.
10. I then emphasised these colours by using my supra colour palette and a small angled brush.
11. I used the purple form the palette on her eyelids and on the inner half of her eye bags.
12. I then made a brown colour and mixed it in with some green and added it to the inner corner.
13. I added a tiny bit of yellow on the outer half of the eye bags and on the inner corner.
14. I then added some red supra colour along her lash line.
15. I powdered all around the eyes to make it look more skin-like and matte.

Eye with no makeup on.

Eye with makeup on to emphasise the natural colouring around the eyes.

16. I added some red supra colour over the top of the flour mixture on her neck to make it look more sore and irritated. 

17. I added some duo lash glue on the centre of the bottom lip.

18. After the glue was dry, I picked and rubbed the lips to make it look like dry skin.

19. I added some red supra colour in any of the holes with a small angled brush.

I was a lot more happy with this result because I don't think it looks so fake and theatrical. I think the main improvement is that I didn't draw in any wrinkles. I chose my model because she was older and had wrinkles, therefore I don't think I need to draw in even more wrinkles. I am so happy with how the flour mixture created dry and flakey looking skin! It dries really quickly and the colouring matches the skin perfectly! I think adding red to the dry skin gives it a sorer look, as if she has been scratching it. However, I don't think the flower worked very well around the lips because I think I put too much of it on. I think if I blended the flour mixture out and applied a thinner layer then it could work a lot better. I also think that the holes in the glue as still to big, so I will work on making these look smaller and less round. I am really excited with how the eye bags turned out because I think they look so much more natural and therefore so much more appropriate for film! 

Note: Half way through this practice I felt that the dry skin down the side of her neck didn't look red enough; I therefore took it off and applied some red supra colour before applying the flour mixture, as it gave a more painful and sore look. 

Improvements on Practice 3

Eyebrows:
I mixed some white and yellow supra colour together and brushed it through her eyebrows to make them look grey and I am really happy with the results.

Lips:

I felt like the lips didn't look sore enough, so I decided to first cover them with red supra colour. I made sure that I used my fingers to really blend out the lines and I took the colour outside of the lip line slightly. I then added a very thin layer of the flour mixture over the lips and blended the edges out very well. After this had dried, I put dabbed some duo lash glue on the two areas that I wanted there to be a split in the skin. After they had dried, I rubbed the lip sideways to peel back some go the glue. I found this worked a lot better in making it look split and not have lots of holes in them. I added some more red supra colour in the splits to make them look bloody.

My Final Makeup Look