Great Expectations: Evaluation

The make up look I produced for Estella is one I am rather proud of, it looks very natural and enhanced the model's beauty, the contouring helping to subtly shape the face to make the character more attractive but add more of an edge that reflects her strong personality. The compliment the trends of the era I also darkened the eyebrows to shape them, this being as it was the age that defining eyebrows starting as people found this more appealing. Looking back however, I wish I had made the lips a little redder, they're still very pale and think a tint more of red would make them stand out more and look more luscious. However, despite this one benefactor, I am very happy with the look I produced and think it reflects the character well on the model.

The hair for Estella was the main part I struggled with in my first attempt, but I think I have created a much better look in my reshoot with my redesign. I love the plats reaching back into the bun, this is my favourite part of the hair look for Estella, I think it help make the look more individual and beautiful, especially the one draped into the bun on each side. I am also much happier with the curls at the front of the head, Starting much lower down they behaved better and suited the model's face better, this was a very good change to make and dramatically helped make the look more suited to the character. Unfortunately, I struggled to curl the hair at the back of the head, my model had previously had her hair crimped earlier in the day, and not having time to wash it or any other day to reshoot, I had to struggle with curling it with the crimps in which proved to be a struggle, I think had the hair not have been crimped the look would be much cleaner and pretty, though still think this look is a huge improvement on that of my last attempt.

Though this make up look took a while to create, I think my work paid off, I tried not to use too much aging stipple as this look is based on Miss Havisham from her first appearance in the story, where her aging face is most likely down to her stress and poor diet. I love the colours I mixed to help create the eye bags, I think the subtle changes in colour and darkening of tones helps make the strained and tired effect more realistic and I am very proud of how well I did this. I am also pleased with how I managed to mix a colour to match that of a vein showing through the skin on the side of my model's forehead, when on camera it looks very real and effective. However, the contouring is not as effective on camera and becomes rather lost in the face, though the colour of the new tone does help make the model look more dead and zombified, but needs to be darker to help hollow out the features of the model now that I have reviewed the images. I also feel if I had added latex to the lips I may have been able to make them look more chapped and dry, in the images they just seem pale though this is good for the look also. Though I cannot say I am disappointed in this look, because in fact, I am very proud of it, I do feel there are a few small details I would change if given the chance to reshoot.

I really do like the styling I did for Miss Havisham's hair, but, I had to use a wig as my model's hair wouldn't work and it's very obvious the hair isn't real, so no matter how proud I am about the styling due to my concideration of sleep and hair growth, it will never look as effective until used on real hair or a very high quality wig, unfortunately this was unavoidable due to time and money restraints. If using a model with ages or white hair, I think this look would be perfect for Miss Havisham, I thought a lot about the small details whilst designing it, remembering to include wedding flowers and a veil and find it unfortunate that I had to use a wig to try and create it.

Overall, I feel I have put a lot of effort in to the project and do not feel like it was wasted, for the most part, I am very proud of all of the work I have produced, I may realise things I would like to change, but this will help me in the future and I can learn from my mistakes.

Great Expectations: Miss Havisham Final Images

Great Expectations: Estella Final Images

Great Expectations: Final Design Miss Havisham

• Aging Stipple (Mostly around eyes)
• Pale Foundation
• Yellow Tint Contouring (Eyes sockets, nose and cheeks)
• Eye Bags and Sunken Eyes
• Veins (Side of head)
• Greyed Eyebrows and Lashes
• Chapped Lips

In my final design for Miss Havisham, my makeup design has only a few changes from the second design in my face charts, for the final look I decided to include the veins on the side of the head and the greying of eye lashes and brows. Though these are small details, I feel they will help make the overall look more dramatic and I am very excited about bring this look to life, almost an irony to the fact Miss Havisham is almost dead.

For the hair, I continued to deteriorate from my other sketches, showing the effects of growth and other environmental issues. Nearly all of the hair is falling out, but the bun is maintaining so form as it would be held in place by a lot of pins and clips, it won’t be as neat as it once was and will be falling apart slightly, but the amount of styling gone into it will still be holding the majority of it in place, because of this, the veil and flowers pinned into it will also remain vaguely in their original positions. Although it may not seem like a lot of styling is included in the hair, a lot of consideration has gone into deciding how time would have taken effect on the style.

Great Expectations: Final Design Estella

Having done my first attempt of Estella, I have now improved upon my design to create my final ideas. By doing this, I have created a makeup and hair look I think portray her character in the best way possible and excite me to make my look a reality.

• Natural Base
• Contouring (Nose and Cheeks)
• Pink Blush (Very Light)
• Defining Eyebrows
• Brown Eye Shadow (Shading)
• Brown Eyelashes
• Pink Tinted Lips

I have barely changed the makeup design, only adding a very soft pink blush to the cheek, as the Estella I am creating is a young adult, so the blush will help make her look more youthful.

For the hair, I adapted the design I created for the first attempt of the look, in this idea I lowered the curls from the top of the head at the front of the hair as it helps show the middle parting better, but also helps maintain the curls in a more uniform manner. The curls at the back haven’t been changed, it just comes down to how much I section off whilst actually doing the style, but the other problem I found was the plat became lost with the hair, so for this design I added two more for each side of the head, this will make them more noticeable and will make Estella seem more elegant and beautiful.

Great Expectations: Practicing for Miss Havisham

In preparation for creating Miss Havisham, I practiced using Aging Stipple on another person instead of myself, as I expected, it was much easier to do so and I feel my technique has improved by having a better perspective in which to view what I was doing.

Feeling more confident in my application of the stipple, I tried colouring over the latex to make the model look more aged and worn down, I don’t think it went as well as it could have, looking back I would like to make the eye bags slightly darker so will remember this while doing my look.

In this practice I also attempted to add veins on the side of the face, near the eye, it took a while to mix up a colour that would work, but think in the end I did rather well and now definitely want to use this idea in my final look for Miss Havisham.

Overall, those this is a relatively small part of the makeup, it is also the most important so getting it right is vital, I feel as though I can do a good job now after this practice, learning my strength and how to fix my mistakes made here.

Great Expectation: Designing Miss Havisham

• No Wrinkles
• Pale Foundation
• Yellow Tinted Contouring
• Pale Lips
• Heavy Eyebags
• Messed Eyebrows (Greying)
• Veins

For this look, I explored the idea of not aging Miss Havisham, seeing if I could just use shading and highlights to create just as an effective look as that of using latex to enhance wrinkles. To add more detail I included veins at the side of the head near the eyes, a sign of stress and decaying. Although I like the colours and shading I included, I do think it lacks without more manipulation of the face to create a more aged look, so I have decided against this look for reasons I think are very obvious.

• Aging Stipple (Mostly around eyes)
• Pale Foundation
• Yellow Tinted Contouring
• Pale Lips
• Heavy Eyebags
• Messed Eyebrows (Greying)
• Chapped Lips

I am very much happier with this makeup design, the aging stipple helps give the edge to the look which makes it look like that of Miss Havisham, the stipple will make her look more decayed and almost dead-like as describing in her first appearance of the novel. I am happy with this look, it will most likely become my final idea provided I practice the techniques required to get the best effect possible. In the design I only coloured half the image, this is so I know which areas wll need the most aging whilst applying the makeup, giving myself a more instructive template to work from.

Having chosen the makeup design I moved my sights to designing the hair.

This image was a quick sketch of how I envision the hairstyle Miss Havisham will have had on the day of her failed wedding ceremony. I felt it was important to design this before settling on her styling in the time period in the story, knowing the base of the original design means I can work from it to then break down as it would have throughout the years, considering hair growth, sleeping and any other conditions the hair may have gone under during the years between.

For this sketch, it broke the hair style down more, showing the effects of environmental issues it will have under-gone, excluding the idea of growth, only being the next stage of her hair style from that of her wedding day, I think this is a good next step in the development of my hair styling and for my final look shall include the effects of grow and age on the hair also, but from these two sketches I feel as though I am on to a good idea and style for my final look. I am confident I will create a good final design for the hair and makeup, and then shall successfully tranlate it onto my model to create my own interpretation of Miss Havisham.

Great Expectations: First Attempt Estella

Here are the images from my first attempt of Estella’s makeup and hair, it was originally my final look but now that I have shot there are many things I would like the change and therefore decided that I will reshoot and make a few changes to the hairstyle I chose to use.

I am pleased with the makeup, but it shows up poorly on camera, so when reshooting I will try to make it heavier so that it will be picked up by the camera more, although it’s a natural look, the flash made it so the contouring and shading of the face are rather non-existent, the model’s face seems flat and not giving her the depth and dramatic angles I see Estella having, matching to her personality.

The issue I find I have with the hair is that the curls at the front aren’t behaving correctly and sticking out at strange angles, the plats I included aren’t very noticeable and just fade in with the rest of the hair and the curls under the bun seem weak and thin, almost randomly placed there. Though I still like the initial idea, my execution of it wasn’t up to standard, though I will rethink my idea again before the shoot, considering more plats to adorn the hair with more detail and placing the curls at the front lower down to avoid the over volumised issue I faced with this attempt.

Great Expectations: Designing Estella

For Estella’s look, I am completely certain that the makeup look I will be creating for Estella will be that of a very natural and basic one, as she is naturally beautiful in description of the novel, it should be that the makeup applied shouldn’t be heavy and noticeable, but just make the actor look flawless and alluring.

To achieve this look I will be matching the foundation to match the skin tone of that of my model, shading to only enhance features and bring out natural colours in the face.

•           Natural Foundation Base
•           Contouring Nose and Cheek Bones
•           Brown Eye Shadow (Shading only)
•           Darken Eyebrows to Define
•           Pink Tint to Lips (Or Red?)
•           Brown Mascara

Above is a face chart I created so I know exactly the natural look I will be trying to create for Estella, having done this I can move onto designing her hairstyle which is more important to her character’s styling, this is because the hairstyle is what will help show the era she is from, also showing her high up status in society.

This is a very simple hairstyle from the Victorian Era, the hair has been separated with the back pulled tightly into a round bun, the front around the face having been curled to add more detail to the hair. I do like this simple look but feel it wouldn’t be right to use on the final look, Estella is from a wealthy background and therefore would try to decorate her hair more elaborately to show this, therefore, I will try to develop this style further with more plats and curls which were the desire of the age.

This design was developed from the sketch above, taking a section between the front and back of the hair to create a plat on each side of the head, reaching backwards to then wrap around the bun. To add more curls I also left a section of hair underneath the bun loose, to curl and then pin also though falling out from under it. I think these features help make the look more elegant and richer, working better for Estella’s character. For these reasons and a personal like for the design, I will be using this for Estella in my look.