Creating Estella - Informal Times Assessment

Overall Im fairly pleased with the outcome of the look. Overall I think the make up looks good and has subtle hints of a doll-like nature without being too over the top. I feel that the hair lets the look down a little, I needed to back comb and volumes the side sections of hair as they're a little too flat to her head. I also left a couple small segments of hair uncurled which I didn't notice until I got to taking my pictures. I think the hair looks better from the side than it does from the font du to the lack of volume but this could have been rectified with further practice with my model. In hindsight, I wish Id put further thought in to the styling of these pictures and my character, I feel the shirt I put her in is a little too modern and I lose some of the victorian essence. 

Developing Estella's Hairstyle

For Estella's hair I wanted something that was traditional in terms of the period in which the novel is set as well as something that accentuated her beauty and was also reminiscent of my porcelain doll concept. 

I then remembered a style I had previously looked at in my research in to victorian hairstyles. 

Character Katherine Pierce (Played by Nina Dobrev)
scene set in 1864
http://shessmart.com/fashion/katherine-pierce-dresses-on-the-vampire-diaries/

In brief the episode features a flashback to the year 1864, having recently returned from exile to ENGLAND Katherine Pierce begins life again in Virginia. I consider this a victorian hairstyle due to the time period as well as her previous location in England. 

I think this hairstyle is quite relevant to my representation of Estella due to the fact that the time in which Dickens places Estella as a adolescent, hair trends had changed and the tight curls of the early era had loosened and often cascaded down the back. I also find other elements of the victorian traditions in this style including the ringlets and centre parting. 

I find this style quite reminiscent to that of a china doll as well, due to the vast amount of curls. Take for example this image.

China doll with ringlet hair
http://ohgirl.ru/art/kukly-tak-pohozhi-lyudey

From this research Ive practised and devised the following hairstyle to coincide with my make up look.

Developing my Estella look

Estella - A high fashion, editorial look
Mostly for fun I decided to take what Id researched in to china dolls and Estella's character and create a face chart that was suitable for a fashion environment, so something more elaborate that wouldn't really be appropriate for film, tv or theatre. I thought this would actually be quite a good idea as I could then reign this design in and come up with another design following from it that would be more suitable for a theatre environment but still embodied the same concepts in a more subtle manner. 

As you can see Ive taken the china aspect quite literally but also tried to incorporate elements of victorian traditions of beauty as well. For example, I've kept the complexion very pale and natural with minimal contouring, but mentioned using a matt primer and powder to set which would enhance this doll-like porcelain complexion. Ive manipulated the lips in to a small heart shape, typical of that seen on dolls and featured it in a red tone - I find this quite poignant as red is a very sexual colour and actually one victorians steered clear of but in this scenario i think its quite suitable for estella because of the way in which she was brought up as a man-destroyer, I think the red tone fits her dangerous persona. Ive featured white and black liner around the eyes to give the appearance that they are much larger and think this works well with the addition of very long lashes and gives the overall look a more artificial feel. Again to emphasise this doll like manner as well as estella's character, Ive introduced some cracks to the skin, painted in supra colour, to further this idea that estella is cold and hard like a doll and has no warmth or capability of love. 

However much I love this look, its not suitable for film or tv quite simply because its not realistic. So Ive taken this design and adopted it, focusing on highlighting typical traditions of victorian beauty and enhancing them to give a slight, but overwhelming, sense that estella has doll like features, perfect and almost unreal. 

Ive added some contour to the face, to give the face more depth and seem a little more human than the previous design. Ive also lessened the heart shape of the lips, maintaining the shape but lessening the effect. Ive also reverted to a much more natural tone of pink which I think is still quite bold and doll like but is much more victorian-esque and appropriate for the media outlet. The brows in this design I've made more natural, as victorians never really styled their brows. Ive kept the effects around the eyes from the initial design because I think these work well and give a feel of intense beauty, the beauty that Pip admired and commented upon often. I think that this effect around the eyes would work extremely well on the stage, as from a distance the lashes and enhancing of the eyes could still be seen from a distance. 

Overall, Im pleased with this final design and look forward to producing it. I think it embodies victorian ideals of beauty and thus, fits estella's representation well. I also think Ive incorporated elements of the china doll in to the look subtly as to still uphold the appropriateness of the look for the media outlet I have chosen (theatre). 

I now need to complete my design by deciding on a hair style that will coincide with the look. 

Estella - A cold, hard, porcelain doll

 To further my ideas for Estella's character Ive been looking at images of china doll's as well as contemporary and artistic adaptations using make up.

Close up of a China doll -
http://tinyurl.com/qgfxtwx

On this example the cheek rouge is quite over the top and the eyebrows are very defined and symmetrical. 

Elegant victorian doll -

http://tinyurl.com/keby4em

This example is typical what I image when I think of a china doll with matt porcelain skin, ringlets, long lashes and a small neat mouth.

http://tinyurl.com/n5pyr32

This artist has taken the idea of the porcelain doll to the extreme and I love it. She's used liner around the eyes to give the appearance that her eyes are much larger and false falsest to lengthen her natural lashes. Her skin as well looks very flawless and gives that idea of artificial perfection.

http://tinyurl.com/onym89v

This example is a more toned down take on the look but you can still see influences through the exaggerated lashes, the heart shape of the lips, the boldness of eyebrows and the deep rouge on the cheeks. 

http://tinyurl.com/p33ynwv

I find this particular example very alluring, I like the effect the artist has created with the addition of cracks on the face to give that idea that she's a doll that been mistreated or dropped reinforcing the idea that her exterior is made from fragile porcelain or china. 

Miss Havisham Recreating Continuity - Part 2

 For this post I will be comparing images taken from my initial timed assessment and my second timed assessment where I was attempting to recreate the Miss Havisham look for continuity.

Initial timed assessment

Second timed assessment for continuity

On the day of the assessment I felt i had rushed the whole thing due to the fact that i finished much earlier than the previous time I created the look. I also realised after shooting my look that I forgotten to contour down the nose which i knew would make the overall face look rather different to photos of my previous attempt. I was also a little disappointed that I ran out of dry shampoo, used to whiten and a dusty effect to the hair, which meant the hair looked bighter and less dull and dusty than the time before. 

When I compare the photos taken on this day to the ones from two weeks previous I also notice a couple of other details Im not happy with. I found that although id forgotten the dry shampoo, the hair overall wasnt too different in tone. However, the hair on the second attempt was much curlier than previously. I did notice this during the timed assessment and tried to remedy it but trying to straighten the curls out a little but found that in the end they sprang back up too much. 

I also find that the lips in my second continuity assessment are brighter and much healthier looking which takes away from the overall effect of the look. 

Overall, I think I made a good effort on this look and the continuity of it but the result is by no means perfect. I think overall my Miss Havisham concept of self neglect has good groundings and is suited well to its purpose (theatre play) sue to its realistic nature and dramatisation of features such as the hollowed cheeks and sore eyes. In future, when working for continuity I will pay further attention to small details and make sure that I am fully prepared to recreate a look to the the exact same standard. 

Initial Ideas for Estella

Who is Estella?
Estella is the adoptive daughter of Miss Havisham. We meet her at the beginning of the novel on Pip's first visit to Satis House. She is cold, mean child a few years senior to Pip. Pip Grows fond of Estella and remarks on her beauty many times. Although throughout the book, as the pair grow Estella often treats Pip with disinterest and reminds him frequently that she has no heart and is incapable of love. We discover that Estella has been raised by Miss Havisham as an act of revenge on men, by teaching her to stifle emotion and empathy to break the hearts of young men, most notably Pips. She Marries Bentley Drummle, Pip's enemy, purely for money. Her marriage to Drummle is an unhappy one and it is suggested that drummle is abusive towards Estella. The marriage eventually ends when Drummle is killed and in the last chapter of the book Estella has become somewhat of an independent woman and tells Pip “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.”

Which part of the book do I want to represent?
My depiction of Miss Havisham was centred around our first encounters with her in the novel and the descriptions Pip gives us. I would like to do the same with Estella and focus on representing her as the youthful girl raised and manipulated by Miss Havisham. 

In Pips first encounters with Estella, he is far less descriptive towards her than Miss Havisham which I actually consider to be quite a good thing as it allows me a little more freedom to play around with concepts and ideas of what she could have looked like. 

“…the young lady, who was very pretty and seemed very proud…”

From this we can gather that Estella is traditionally beautiful, therefore she would possess natural features that coincide with victorian norms of Beauty i.e a pale complexion, a youthful blush

The fact that Pip describes her as 'proud' suggests that her appearance has an air of perfection to it, she wouldn't be seen looking anything less than perfect.

“…being a girl and self possessed”

The use of the term 'Posessed' again reiterates this idea that estella is quite proud and aware of her beauty, making it all the more obvious to Pip. 

“..her fair young bosom…her pretty brown hair…”

Pip remarks on her bosom, which suggests to the audience that she has reached the stage of puberty and has a womanly figure. One of the only specific comments Dickens makes about Estella's appearance is the fact her hair is brown. 

My understanding of Estella's appearance is that she is a typical beauty of that period, therefore she would adopt traditional conventions of victorian beauty which from my research we know to be somewhat like a porcelain doll including large dark eyes, rose bud lips, subtle rouge and a pale complexioned face. 

I find the idea of having Estella looking like a doll to be very intriguing due to the fact that it coincides with her character traits very well - she's cold and hard towards Pip, she describes herself as having no heart and incapable of warmth, she very much resigned to a life of loneliness. 

It is this reason that I have decided to look at ways of representing young estella as a cold china doll, a toy of Miss Havisham's created to entrap the hearts of men and break them. 

Here's the quote I found during my initial research back in january that's spurred this concept. 

Further in to Fenja Gunn's 'The Artificial Face' the author states that the 'Victorian Image of Beauty' was reminiscent of the 'innocent face of a China doll' with a 'rosebud mouth, dimpled cheeks' and 'small neat features'. 

Miss Havisham for Continuity - Part 1

When it came to Assessment day, I prepared myself by gathering the items I had listed that were required in my make up and hair look. I also packed additional items I may need. 

On the day of the assessment once I had completed my look, I was fairly pleased with my performance as a make up artist. I felt i had acted professional and managed well under pressure. Although I did feel I could have managed my time a little better considering I was one of the last to shoot my final look, but I mostly put this down to nerves.  I felt looking at my model that the make up and hair matched my face charts well and another make up artist would be able to recreate the look if necessary. 

Looking at the photos taken of the assessment look Im a little disappointed that the camera didn't pick up as much shadowing on the face as I had intended. In hindsight, I should've have accounted more for the studio lighting. I did recognise this on the day though and take a number of pictures in dimmer lighting to enhance the contouring effect I had produced. as you can see, the picture directly above is a little too overexposed. The thing I wish i had done the most was deepen the contouring as I feel this would have furthered my idea of a self neglecting Miss Havisham. Im particularly pleased with the shadowing around the eyes and feel that my character really does look like she has tired, sore eyes as if she really hasn't slept in years and only circulated herself in stale air. 

Examples of Victorian Hair in Popular Culture - TO DO

An example of an early victorian hair style in a TV Series

Character: Emily Reid
Series: Ripper Street
I found this example of what I believe to be an early victorian hairstyle. It features typical aspects such as a middle parting with tights curls concentrated at the sides of the head. The hairstyle is quite frizzy and looks like its hasn't really been cared for - suggesting perhaps that this character is poor or is undergoing some emotion turmoil. 

An example of a late Victorian Hair style in a TV series

Character: Katherine Pierce
Series: The Vampire Diaries
In my research, I came upon this style featured in the TV series The Vampire Diaries. I found the hairstyle to be quite reminiscent of late Victorian hair due to the relaxed long curls and centre parting. I found that in the series The character Katherine Pierce, was exiled to Britain in the early 1800s and in the episode pictured above returned to her original home in the US. So it would seem that the producers of the show have taken her characters background in victorian England to influence her hair styling. I really like this style, I think its very feline and quite sexy.

Pre-Assessment Practice

Now I had both my hair and make up designs completed, I wanted to practise the entire look on my model before my assessment to make sure i was completely comfortable with it and to ensure that i fit within the commercial timings. 

 My two final designs:

So a few days before the assessment I got in to the studio with my partner Aine to practice the whole look. I needed to be wary that I had 2 hours which included prepping, completing the look, photographing, having it checked by the assessor and packing away my station suitably. So all in all, I would have 1 hour 30 minutes for actual practical work. I found from previous rehearsals that my hairstyling only took roughly 40 minutes to complete, although my make up design is somewhat a bit more detailed and meticulous therefore would probably take a little longer.

Overall really pleased with the outcome and I think it represents whats on my hair and face chart rather well. I didn't have any dry shampoo with me at the time, so I wasnt able to complete that stage of the hair design but I will ensure that for the real thing I will have plenty of dry shampoo to complete the design. 

For the assessment I will need:

Hair: clips, hair grips, curling tongs, hairspray, dry shampoo, a tail comb, a backcomb brush, clear hair bands, a hair tye.

Make up: Foundation Palette, supra Colour palette, Illamasqua skinbase 01, Illamasqua translucent powder, Eyeshadow Palette, Black mascara & wands, Duo eyelash glue

Practising my Miss Havisham Hairstyle on my Model

As discussed in my previous post, I found that practising my intended hairstyle for Miss Havisham quite difficult on the mannequin therefore I arranged to practice the style on my model in order to thoroughly iron out any issues before assessment day. 

Here are some finished images from my practice session with Aine, my partner. 

Using the same method as my previous post, I parted, sectioned and plaited the hair. 

Aine's hair is a little bit dry so i encountered a few fly away hairs, but for this look it really doenst matter because the end result is supposed to look disheveled and I had planned to backcomb the bun slightly to give a more 'messed up' look.

After curling the hair, i placed the veil part of the headdress on top of Aine's head just to see what t would look like. I then loosened the curls and mussed them up by backcombing them lightly. When I looked at Aine face on, I found that there was just too much hair around the face and it just looked very overpowering and i felt that it would take away from the make up.

So I rectified this by undoing the knot at the back of the head and incorporating more of the curls in to the bun at the back, I then took photos to see what effect this achieved.

I found that incorporating more hair in to the bun at the back was a success and I felt much happier with the look from the front now. 

I made a note of where the new parting was and took a photo to remind myself of this for future practice and the real assessment. 

When I got home that evening I decided to take it upon myself to construct the headdress properly so that it looked seamless and realistic.

The veil I originally purchased with the dress came with this gaudy silver crown attached to it, which for starters I didn't need as the headband would sit on top of the head nicely and also it really wouldn't have fit in with the look.

So I gently detached the veil material from the crown and disposed of the crown.

I then took the headband and applied glue to the back where the veil would be attached ensuring that I had the right side first. I knew placing the veil here would be fine as I had tested it previously and the backcombing and volume of the hair disguised and joinings. 

Et Voila! A make shift Miss Havisham Headdress!

Testing my Miss Havisham hairstyle

Now I have my finished hair design in place, I wanted to test it before going any further with it.

I started by parting the hair down the centre of the head.
I then sectioned off the back part of the hair roughly in line with the back of the ears on the mannequin head. 
I clipped the front sections out of the way for the meantime.
I continued by putting the back section in to a fairly mid height pony tail with a elastic hair tie.
I then plaited this, using the conventional plaiting method, and secured with a clear elastic at the bottom.
I then coiled the plait around itself to create an elegant looking bun shape, making sure to keep it fairly flat to the head and not to pronounced. 
Starting with the right side of the head, i released the hair from the clip at the front of the head and began creating ringlets. for this I used my remmington pearl wand which wasnt really the ideal tool to use as it doesn't create an even curl but its all i had at the time. I took inch wide section and twisted the hair around the barrel making sure to have all the curls going in the same direction.
I repeated this on the left side as well.

Unfortunately due to the type of wand I was using the curls didn't really come out quite right and looked quite wavy. But for a practice Im quite pleased with this outcome, I pulled on the curls and back combed them slightly to give a more disheveled appearance. I also placed a floral headband at the parting which i intend to become part of Miss Havisham's bridal veil. I think the overall style does look quite traditional and with the addition of a veil will elevate my characterisation of Miss Havisham even further.

However, my look was not yet complete. I still needed to spray the hair to give an aged and dusty effect to further the connotation that Miss Havisham is neglectful of her well being and has allowed her hair to grey prematurely and gather soot and dust. 

In the picture above you can see I've sprayed the hair using dry shampoo. I love that you can still see the natural hair tone through the shampoo and i feel this fits well with my representation of Miss Havisham as I don't really want her to appear old..more disheveled and unkempt. 

Another issue that arose from practising on the mannequin is that it has quite uneven, short hair which can be quite a pain to style. My model for Miss Havisham has actually got very long thick hair which will be entirely different to work with so I feel a practice with her would be most ideal to prepare myself for the assessment. 

Make up in motion - What is HD Broadcasting? What is Continuity?

HD Broadcasting

HD stands for High Definition. This means that it projects an image resolution that is substantially higher than that of a standard television.  

But what does this mean for make up on TV and Film?
With higher image resolution comes greater and sharper detail on screen. In Make up artists on tv and film this means much greater attention has to be paid to every detail of a look. With greater clarity means that flaws or imperfections previously not seen on standard definition may become problems on HD broadcasting. 

Some cosmetics companies have addressed this new innovation in media by creating products that are tailored to use on HD productions.

Professional cosmetics company Kryolan have devised a range of cosmetics that are produced to give flawless skin even under HD filming. These products promise to control reflection levels for a life like radiance on screen. 

What is continuity and why does it matter?
Continuity in film and TV refers to ensuring elements of production are maintained throughout filming so that when a film is edited together no differences or anomalies can be seen. 
A make up artist may be required to create the same look on an actor several times on different days throughout filming. This means the look has to be identical (unless specified otherwise) to ensure continuity. If there is bad continuity this could put the films credibility in jeopardy and your likelihood of being rehired for a similar project.

Here is an example of poor continuity

For the first scene pictured the beauty mark has been placed on the led side of the face, in this later scene the beauty mark now appears on the right side of the face. DOH!

Memento Mori - Deathliness & Consumption

During the Victorian period there was very much an obsession with death. Unlike today, the victorians emerged themselves in all things to do with death, the supernatural and the afterlife. In todays society, we are quite detached from death. 

This could be due to the fact that death was much more common back then. Common causes of death included:
- Infant mortality
- Cholera
- Child birth
- Fatal diseases
- Industrial accidents

Common diseases caught in early adolescence included small pox, tuberculosis and cholera. 

It is said that Queen Victoria mourned her Husband's death for 40 years. She set the archetype on how to have a good death. 

From this the fascination with death extended. Mementos became popular to recognise death and celebrate the life lost. 

One way of practising the theory of Memento Mori was post mortem photography. When a family member died, the living relatives would gather around the corpse to be photographed, often propping up the body to appear alive.

In this example, you can barely tell who is living and who isn't. I personally find it incredibly creepy. 

Another tradition associated with death that was often adhered to was the creation of death masks. When a person died their face would be preserved forever by creating a mould from clay. Here is an example.

I had a go at creating a make up look inspired by these death masks. I first took a picture of my model in shadowy lighting to create some shadow and highlight on the face. I then used this picture to help me create a look.

I actually really like the effect created, it looks quite artistic. I think it looks almost gargoyle in style - which is quite a gothic concept.