Eating Disorders- A Different View

Have we ever thought of Miss Havisham being over weight here is another view and a different take on viewing the lonely woman. It could work, she is wealthy so can afford plenty of food compared to Pip. She could comfort eat, just sitting there eating to fill the hole her Fiancée left, she also never gets up and walks so it could all make sense. Maybe this would be depicted in a American modern version. A very over weight woman who just sits and eats. 

Or would she have a different kind of eating disorder, would she have had anorexia or bulimia? Eating her wedding cake and then throwing it back up or would she have just given up eating entirely and given up on life being a tiny skeleton. 

Vlogging - Fever,illness,Cuts and Bruises

Miss Havisham - Hair Experimenting

After creating the messy back combed bun, I began tweaking the hairstyle to add parts of bridal decay and illness. I began to back comb the bottom half of the back more and pinning it under to create extra volume and then created the normal back combed bun.

I started to pull hairs out around to face to create a viel of hair over the face, almost ghostly looking and I adorned the hair with a couple of decaying flowers to create a dying look as if it hadn't been touched in months. 

My inspiration came from this original Victorian hair style of the bottom right hand image, the low  voluminous bun. But as if decorated for a bride and hasn't been touched for a decade or two. 

This was my final creation which I think I will be using for my miss Haversham creation, my partner is Neomi who already has brown hair which I do not wish to change. 

Victorian Eyebrows

After almost finishing my final ideas for my finished Miss Havisham design I  found myself forgetting eye brows. I began thinking, Miss Havisham probably wouldn't have plucked or defiantly not waxed her eyebrows as in that era makeup and beauty was frowned upon, if a woman was seen wearing makeup she was thought of as a common prostitute.

So this started me researching Victorian style eyebrows:

So I have decided as they would not have cared for their eye brows that I will have Miss Havishams very bushy, brown and slightly sweaty.

Miss Havisham - Complexion

I started experimenting in class and also outside to try and find the perfect complexion for my Miss Havisham, I began imagining her with a very pale and slightly blue complexion

After further thought and practise, I began experimenting using blotchy skin due to illness and sweat around the forehead, and then using the bruised pallete around the left hand cheek bone as if so show self harm and madness. So combining my two intional ideas to form one. 

Fever, Illness and Blotchy Skin. - Instructions,Effect and Conclusion

So on to creating fever, illness and blotchy skin, this is the most interesting and I would be more likely to use on Miss Havisham. The finished part should look like a very Ill, blotchy skin, sweaty woman.

Fever - what they have got, how ill are they, is it a progression, rash,how it reacts and what the symptoms look like. 

Tired,sweat,blotchy skin:

Glycerin -you can get it from Boots, for sweat! 

Eye drops - models eyes can dry out under photographic lights. 

Pipettes- good for anything blood, glycerin. 

Latex- Charles Fox - smells strong

Stipple sponges - sweat,texture and broken veins. 

Get rid of spots etc.

Green,yellow and red make brown. 

Brown colour under the eyes and on top right at the lash line. 

Then dab red with your fingers and use a stipple bush all over the face to create a blotchy skin tone. 

Use the glycerin to create sweat dabs on the forehead and under the eyes. 

Then use the latex from the cuts and bruise technique to create flakey ill skin. 

Conclusion: I loved this effect, and how it looked through the camera.It began me thinking about how ill and horrible Miss Havisham would have looked being indoors, wearing the same clothes and never washing, also being around the hot oil lamps day in day out. 

Cuts and Bruises - instructions,effects and conclusion

Learning  to create theatrical Cuts and Bruises, was very instructing and fun. I loved being able to go over the top and just experiment with old injuries and fresh ones. I have been thinking about using these effects in my final Miss Haversham creation or my Estella creation.

Bruises- first work out when the bruise was sustained. 

Black stipple sponges 

Do not moisturise 

Use grease based colour and use fingers 

Usually the points of the body that get injures 

Glass and dirt - fake Charles Fox

Black eye - Start with a yellow around the eyes and begin to  rub into the skin with your fingers- lift lid up to get the colour right down to the lashes- red eye pencil inside the eye, also under the eye but not below the eye socket bone.

Broken nose - two black eyes then use a darker brown on the inside and around the inner eye.

Cuts:

Wax cuts: first warm the wax up on the back of your hand so it's pliable 

Then smooth onto skin and make sure you smooth down all the edges then cover in sealant with a cotton bud and leave until it's dry (not sticky)

Then cover in a skin colour base but be careful not to mess up the wax

Then get a pin with wound filler on which is red and start to create depth to the wound using coffee granules.

Then use runny blood around the area and the wound if it is a fresh wound but not if it was a day old wound. 

Conclusion: 

I enjoyed creating the wounds and cuts, but I can't help but think that they would be slightly over the top for miss Havisham, I want her to look more ominous and ill rather than bleeding and injured. 

Ageing make-up - instructions,effects and conclusion

We have learnt how to create an aged charecter effect in class in case we wanted to use this effect for our Miss Havisham creation.

Ageing/character make up 

Always age the hands not just the face everywhere in shot.

When ageing or using the models natural wrinkles and under eye bags to create a more natural looking characters. 

Lift eye brows up to draw in the wrinkles on the forehead, under and around the eyes 

Crows feet wrinkle up the eyes  

Around the mouth and nose 

Screw the lip up to get lines and dryness 

Against the grain with eye brows to grey them down
Get crepey skin - Ben nyen latex - close the eye and use a stipple sponge to dab on- to create a flaking skin effect and then use the hair dryer on a low heat to dry the skin. 

Health and safety- always latex check for allergic reactions. 

After creating the aged effect, I found it very effective and I found it very realistic underneath the photographic lights. But I am unsure about using it for my Miss Havisham as the death toll age would have been around 40, so a lot of Victorians would not have even made it to look this old. 

Vlogging - Hair Designs Miss H

Shooting the Silhouettes

In class we had an hour to create our decayed look and then had an hour to shoot the silhouette. This is a photograph of the look I completed using the back combed low bun, a beehive and then decaying the whole style using flowers and leafs also by pulling out strands in front of the face.
Whilst i was shooting the silhouettes it was inspiring me incredibly toward my Miss Havisham final creation under the lights she looked almost ghostly, and very bridal.

Back Combing Bun

In class we learnt to create a back combed bun, which we would then create next week and photograph the sillouette of. After creating it in class, I then went home and started to re creat the look on a dolls head and adding features of decay and bridal themes to the look.  These are some photos of my practising -

Miss Havisham - Character Mood Board

I have created a mood board surrounding the charecter of Miss Havisham, her personality,story, colours and texture. Inspiration around her make-up and hair.

A dead thing suspended in time as if it was alive - Miss H 

These are some notes I thought of: 

Veils diffuse the make-up Victorian weddings!! 

Scar tattos, white tattoos, the veil/dress and the lace imprinted on her skin. 

Very matte alabaster 

An outfit is finished by the silhouette of the head 

Dust leaking dust 

Bruised eye or pallete 

She always wants to look good because she never knows when he will come back, insistent he will return 

Gauze all over her skin 

Cobwebs 

Red lipstick? 

Smashed mirror 

Modern miss haversham 

Beautiful from a for a glance and then decaying at a closer look 

Preserver 

French Pleat - changing to match charecters

After creating the standard French pleat, we were asked to change the silhouette of it to match some characteristics which  I had chosen: Romantic, Cold and eccentric.

Romantic:
As the standard French pleat is pulled off the face it looks quite stern. I would change the front into more of a beehive, pulling hairs out from the sides of the face to create a gentle fringe around the edges. I would even think about as the French pleat goes back plaiting it in gentle loose plaits and embedding flowers.

Cold:
I would pull the hair tighter off the face so there was not even one wisp of hair falling down onto the face to create a stern and emotionless look. I would also give it a centre parting.

Eccentric:
For the eccentric I would add parts of the romantic, so pulling parts of the hair out to make them look more disheveled and messy. Then I would add bits and bobs, such as dead flowers, old lace.

French pleat - instructions

French pleat:
Start by brushing and creating a centre parting
Section the front into three different sections
Then begin tonging/curling the back of the hair pulling toward the front of the head! Then hold into a barrel curl and pin in place- brick work, one turning into two below it.
Pin the barrel rolls
From the ends toward the roots, the tongs arm facing the mirror
Start back combing the roots all over then begin smoothing over the top of the hair but not through the hair
Criscrossing the grips to hold the hair over to one side in place
Section off the top bit for later and begin combing the hair into a spiral over the hand then around the hand. Put your thumb in and twist and hold It into place and use geisha pins to hold it into place  then get the top section and twist it round on top of the pinned bit to create a spiral
Then unpin the front and begin spirally it round the rest of the hair at the back scraping it of the face to make it for stern. 

Great Expectations - The Fog

On my way to university this morning, it was a cold dank morning and at around 8:30am, I began to walk through the park, when this wave of fog had covered the park Infront of me, it made me think about the fog in great expectations, how there was always a low smog in Victorian times. The fog over the park almost looked like the fog over the moors I the beginning of the book. I love the colour pallete of the trees in the fog for my Estella and Miss Havisham designs. 

Shape,Colour and Texture

Colour, Shape and Texture

When you see an image, the first things that run through your mind should be three words, colour, shape and texture, in our lesson Yvonne had created a slideshow related to Miss Havisham, which showed images containing colour, shape and texture.

It began with Damien Hurst’s Famous ‘The physical impossibility of death in the mind of something living’

I began to form an image of my own person Miss Havisham in my mind; I was inspired by images ranging from scarification to bridal gowns. Miss Havisham would be someone frozen in time, like the rats which froze on the street in America a few months ago.

Here are some images from my Pinterest Miss Havisham mood board which represent the colour pallet I would consider using, the shape and the colour:

:

Miss Havisham - Flickering Madness

Whilst I was wondering into my local Chinese take away, just looking around I noticed this big, beautiful, grand ( a little over the top for a Chinese takeaway) chandelier, as I looked closer one bulb within the mass of glistening bulbs, had began to flicker and slowly fade. 

The more I looked at this chandelier,the more it reminded and inspired me of Miss Havisham, how she was once a grand beautiful woman and now one by one her bulbs where flickering and slowly fading. So by the time Pip goes to her, all her bulbs had gone out and she had become a exhausted and deranged woman. 

This began to make me think about my designs for Miss H, starting with something beautiful and pulling at it until it becomes worn out and eccentric. Was she trying to make herself beautiful everyday just incase her came back for her?