My Second Character: Claudia

This is my idea for Claudia. At this point, Claudia has watched the movie 'Jennifer's Body', and has adopted some of the main character 'Jennifer Check's attributes temporarily as she was fond of her and her fearlessness. She is at Jennifer's stage where she has no blood or flesh to feed on and so is weak and ill, therefore Claudia has tired, red eyes, translucent skin and dry, cracked lips. She will be given 'Tru Blood' to drink (the fake blood alternative for vampires in True Blood so they do not have to feed off of humans) by Mrs Laderman who is going along with the fact that Claudia believes she needs this, in order to please her. This also enables Claudia to fit well into the series of True Blood because she will have these vampire-like qualities. I intend her outfit to be simple and quite preppy, for example low rise jeans and a casual vest as the characters in True Blood do not really focus on their fashion and it is stereotypical of areas in the deep south to not follow trends and wear plain clothes. 

Key word

White Rose is my key word for Claudia. I chose this because it signifies neutrality; its appearance can be changed by a single splash of colour, like a horror movie can completely change the demeanour, appearance and personality of Claudia. At times she may appear innocent and angelic especially to Mrs Laderman, but this can quickly change. 

Moodboard and colour palette

My First Character: Mrs Laderman

My idea is that Mrs Laderman will be a mystical gypsy woman who is also a shapeshifter like the character 'Sam' which enables her to appear as all of the neighbours that Claudia meets, therefore she had Claudia to herself and is taking advantage of her magic, much like the character of 'Maryann' does to 'Tara'. This means that she fits into the fantasy theme that True Blood uses. The southern setting and secluded town means that she looks quite different to everyone else, however people are becoming used to weird events and strange people: she is normal compared to the fact humans now knowingly live among vampires. 

I will need to utilise props and styling to make her character believable, and this will appeal to audiences because due to magic she won't look as old as she actually is, and she is also interesting, colourful and elaborate. I may also make her nails dirty in order to reinforce the fact that she lives in the south where there is dust and dirt and she is not 'prim' or 'proper'. 

Key word

Awakening is my key word for Mrs Laderman. This is because she will have a crystal ball and practice black magic, awakening good and bad spirits. I also chose to signify this through makeup and so I intend to make it look as if she has eyes on her eyelids. Her colourfulness provides an awakening for the eyes of the audience. I imagined her stereotypical settings to be in a dark room filled with trinkets, or in a secluded forest where she can practice magic. In terms of styling, she will be dressed like a mystical gypsy woman with a bandana on her head, hooped earrings, a patterned skirt with lots of jewellery. 

Moodboard and colour palette

Production/theme Moodboard

Claudia Face Charts and Hair Charts

Face Charts

For this look I would like Claudia's eyes to be read and veiny, to signify that she is ill, weak and has been crying. I want her skin to look translucent with more veins around the temple area and generally around the eyes, those being red and blue veins. I would also like her to have chapped lips like she is thirsty and weak.

This look for Claudia is one that signifies her desperation, frustration and hunger. She has blisters on her face from scratching. She also has chapped lips and red, tired, exhausted eyes.

Close ups of the scratches and blisters.

Here, Claudia has scratch marks on her cheeks from desperately wanting blood to drink. Blood will drip from the scratches as it will be relatively fresh. Again, she has chapped, bloody lips.

Lastly, here Claudia cries tears of blood. This look is more metaphorical than what would realistically happen to her; she craves blood and is desperately upset about it. 

Hair charts

Mrs Laderman Face Charts and Hair Charts

Mrs Laderman

This is my first idea for Mrs Laderman. I took inspiration from tribal/arabic makeup in order to create a mystical, fierce look. I believe that this look is synonymous with 'gypsies' and powerful women, and so the cat eye eyeliner look accentuates the eyes and draws the viewer to the lids where there will be eyes that I have painted on. 

My second idea for Mrs Laderman is also arabic inspired with the brown eyeshadow, the blue/green eyeliner and the gold head piece. I would apply a nude lipstick to the lips, and so I believe would be more appropriate for a model with an olive skin tone. I also want to put a scar on the eyebrow to show that she is tough and has been through a lot and possibly condones violence. It could also be a result of her magic going wrong.

This look is more garish and elaborate than the other two looks. I went for unconventional eye makeup to set her apart from the other characters as she is noticeable and unique, and gypsies sterotypically have decorated makeup. 

My final idea is a more 'gothic' look that would make Mrs Laderman look more scary and unapproachable. 

Hair charts

Claudia and Mrs Laderman: True Blood

The series that I have chosen to base my two characters on is the show 'True Blood':

I have chosen this series because I have watched it the most out of all the other series, and its elements interest me the most. There is a wide variety of characters which will enable me to create almost any character to do with fantasy, or on the human spectrum. The setting of this series is in a town called 'Bon Temps', which is in the deep south of the USA. This setting gave me inspiration for a character that would fit in with the hot, deserted, rustic atmosphere of the town. 

True Blood appeals to a wide demographic. This is because it includes partially uncensored sex scenes, romantic relationships, good looking characters it addresses different issues and it encompasses reality and fantasy. It explores identity which a lot of audience members may empathise with. Also, it addresses the 'Southern Gothic' and slavery. Urban myths that it deals with include voodoo, Greek mythology, christian fundamentals and vampire myths, which will provide me with a basis for my characters and give inspiration for makeup and also styling, particularly the voodoo element. 

References:
http://flavorwire.com/398558/why-do-we-keep-coming-back-to-true-blood
http://vamped.org/2014/04/04/true-blood-successful/
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lGAxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=appeal+of+true+blood+setting&source=bl&ots=tO81hvF9N9&sig=kTC3VvCHES_2i2IcOQoAMiKdgw8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=v-8SVayILsHhatHxgcgP&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=appeal%20of%20true%20blood%20setting&f=false
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-perreault/true-blood-draws-new-blood-in-vampire-myth_b_1829806.html?

Evaluation of the Project

This project has been very educational for me. Not only in makeup and hair but in the practices that make one a makeup artist, particularly through this continuity module. I faced many problems when it came to creating designs for the characters of Miss Havisham and Estella as my partner has quite short hair and I found that this proved difficult as all of the hairstyles I had come across featured extremely long hair with elaborate designs. However I overcame this by discovering that curling all of the hair at the back provides volume and thickness, meaning I was able to create hairstyles utilising this (after much practice). When it came to researching what would be appropriate for each character, it was useful writing down descriptions of Miss Havisham and Estella from the book so the looks could be accurate in the literary perspective. But watching renditions of Great Expectations was also helpful in order to derive inspiration from what other artists interpreted from the book and their creations for both characters. I found the brief a lot easier than the Elizabethan brief as it was focused on television, film and partially theatre and so our learning and my personal practices were solely focused on the realism of the makeup rather than how to adapt it to fashion like the last brief. Moreover, I had not had much practice in ageing and special effects makeup and so this motivated me to practice more as I also really enjoyed this aspect of makeup. 

Estella Havisham Assessment

 

 

I was very pleased with how this look came out for Estella. The makeup is as plain but healthy looking as I aimed, and the hair is playful but also quite historically accurate and elaborate but elegant looking. My weakness during this assessment however was the fact that I forgot to put a cape on my partner which I realised half way through which will have impacted my professionalism. Despite this, I believe that everything else went okay during the assessment, and I think that my images are cohesive with my face chart and hair chart for this look.

Miss Havisham Second Assessment

Upsettingly I have lost my Miss Havisham second assessment photos. They are not on my SD card or hard drive and I feel incredibly upset and angry at this. I was present and did do this assessment as Lottie will have written notes for this but I am completely in despair about these photos. However here are my images that I took from the first assessment to aid me with the second:

 

 

Death Masks

He that would die well must always look for death, every day knocking at the gates of the grave.

Archbishop Jeremy Taylor 1613 - 1667

Evangelical Victorians wanted to have a spiritually positive passage to the afterlife, and so the ritual of dying was a practice that was important. A notable habit of the victorians were creating 'death masks', of which are available to view on the internet of very famous historic figures that give us the closest insight as to what their faces looked like:

Sir Isaac Newton

Napoleon

Death masks were a way of having an exact replica of the deceased person's face, and were mostly created for the wealthier and famous people of society as they were expensive to create. This could then be used as a basis for the face in portraits that were painted after they died. These death masks would be moulded as immediately as possible after death so that the cast would be as accurate as possible, otherwise the face would change too much because of the process of death. 

To make the death mask, the corpse would have to be sat up so as to be able to get a mould of a good portion of the head:

What I have noticed is that most of the death masks are of men and only a handful are of women. This may be because of the fact that death masks were popular during times of a patriarchal society and men were in practically all of the powerful and wealthy positions. This is unfortunate as there are historic women figures that could have had a death mask which would have benefitted artists and those that study death masks and recreate them in the present day. However it is a representation of the fact that society revolved around men in the victorian era. 

Resources

http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-death/victorians-and-the-art-of-dying

http://onelondonone.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/macabre-look-at-death-masks.html (also photo resource)

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/w/wax_death_mask_of_oliver_cromw.aspx

http://www.kuriositas.com/2012/01/death-masks-of-famous.html