Photographing and creating my hair silhouette...

Photographing and creating my hair silhouette...

After being taught how to create the French pleat I decided to recreate it when it came to producing my hair silhouette. I included both the Victorian shaped technique described below plus elements of the French pleat. I  then cut up a bouquet of flowers I bought and added these around the crown of the head. It was quite difficult trying to get more or less symmetrical with no obvious gaps that would have been visible in the shadow shot.

This task defiantly inspired me when it came to deciding what I was going to do with my Miss Havisham hairstyle. The structure of it was something I defiantly wanted for the character as its quite big and formal up-do something Miss Havisham could have had the day of her wedding day so my version would be an overgrown more decrepit interpretation.  

This is the example of the gap seen between the heightened hair and the flower. Its definitely looks more effective once the flowers and hair are adjusted to sit side by side.



Before shooting our final silhouette shapes we were given a practice seminar beforehand where we were given a dolls head each to practice on. Our group was split up into three and given three different Victorian inspired hairstyles to practice on the heads. Personally I really liked the technique my group were shown, I think its was the most effective as it included a lot of height and texture. 

 It was a quite a simple technique;

• Section the hair at the front of the head behind each ear clipping the parted hair with sectioning grips. 
• Then begin to back-comb the hair from the top of the head leaving the section hair at the front out. It helps to section the hair whilst moving down the head to back comb to ensure you include all the hair. 
• (Back-comb technique: Select a strand of section hair brush through normally then raise above the head and gently pull the comb from the end of the hair to the root. This creates a clump of hair near the root pull this further towards the root to create a bigger back-comb. Always back-comb at the back of the selected hair.)
• As you get towards the bottom of the head back-comb the hair on top rather than underneath.

After creating the given style we were then asked to create shapes on top that would stand above the hair. This was quite difficult as the final outcome we were aiming for was a striking quite unusual hair shape that would be shot as a black and white silhouette. This meant colour was irrelevant, height, texture and shape were the main elements that would count when producing it. 

Adding the objects...

Creating Miss Havisham...

Creating Miss Havisham...

It was pretty difficult trying to effectively portray Miss Havisham through a face chart. It all depended on what make-up I used when trying to create the look but the base in general was hard to translate onto paper. The make-up ended up looking a lot heavier to making it look bruised and beaten rather than withered and aged.

I wanted my interpretation of Miss Havisham to have a pale/ill complexion due to her lack of sunlight which would make her skin lack colour and nutrients resulting in an aged and ill look. When I first applied the look to myself it was pretty difficult to effectively achieve the look I had created on the face chart. It was the first time I had experimented with her image and how I was going to portray it.

I first attempted to create the ill white/green base colour which was quite successful. I mixed the Kryolan foundation palette with the white and teal coloured supra colours to create my base coat. I found this sat much nicer on the face compared to the Illamasqua white foundation which always dries out my models skin and sits quite heavily in the pores. However my alternative base coat gave almost a wet, glow to the face adding to the overall ill effect I was going for.

Testing the base out on another model...

After testing the overall look out on myself I thought I would test mainly the base coat on another face. I already knew the base had way to much green pigment in it and knew after the second application that the green colours in the Supra colour palette was to strong to use on the face. So when finally applying it in my assessment I focused on using more of the white mixed with the Kryolan foundation palette to still form a thick paste type substance like a wanted but with a more realistic and effective colouring compared to beforehand.

Practicing the hair...

At first I wasn't to sure whether I was going to prep the hair by backcombing it all through section by section like we were taught when creating the French pleat. This method was very effective when creating my hair silhouette however after that particular shoot I decided I was going to use the flower head piece I had made. Due to the large size of it the hair would have to be made twice and big to first be seen and second of all be just as effective, I didn't want the head piece to be to overpowering.

That is when I thought that crimping the hair might give it that extra bit of texture and height like when we were creating big hair for the Elizabethan project. I did worry that I looked like I was just being lazy and using the same skills I had learnt last semester but there was only really this particular style that would create the texture I wanted.

I crimped all the hair then went back through section by section and lightly backcombed to make the texture much thick and bigger, enabling it to be styled easier. I then pulled it through the head piece so that the flowers were sat at the front of the head. After this it was much easier to play with the remaining bit of hair left at the back of the hair as one simple twist or quiff made could be easily gripped and stay perfectly in position due to the prepping of the hair.

The model I'm using during the assessment actually has brown how so the dry shampoo and talcum powder I plan or using will be much more effective on her coloured hair. However I still tested a little when practicing and thankfully it created the effect I was planning! This can be seen in the picture at the bottom of the page. I think the white spray is even more effective on the crimped hair as its really visible sat on top of the texture. I plan on also sprinkling the talcum powder onto the roses on the flower piece to create that 'haunted bride' type of look and to also add a little all around the head. When creating the French pleat in my silhouette shoot I parted my models fringe ( the same model that I'm using for Miss Havisham) then hairspray firmly to either side of her forehead, creating a quite formal, front of a beehive styled look. I aim to style the fringe in the same way when creating Miss Havisham's hair as I think the face definitely needs to hair visible on he forehead otherwise I will not be able to successfully smooth the hair down under the front of the head piece due to it being so hard to reach and smooth down.    

Hair designs...



Cuts, cuts lips and scratches...

Cuts, cut lips and scratches...

Creating old scaring...

• Rub Collodion(scaring liquid) onto the top lip then add derma shield on top and pinch skin together gently and blow dry. (Always check heat on yourself first.)
• Build layer by layer. (Ensure the lids are on both products being used, if anything burns your models skin then remove straight away.)

                                     Model: Nicole Eyres

Creating scaring using Tuplast on the wrist...

• Add Tuplast to your models wrist in lines and blow dry.
• Using supra colours and a fine brush add colours from the supra colours to the scars mainly red, brown and sepia tones. Dabbing the colours on with your finger gives a good more natural effect rather than red lines. (Newer scars are brighter, and older scars are darker.)
• Powder over the top to make it look like its under the skin.
• Its create a good effect if you also pick at the latex so some of it is flaking off or has gaps in-between making it look more grotesque and realistic. 

Creating scaring using Tuplast on the face...

•  I applied the tuplast the same as on the wrist but onto the cheek. (However when using the hair dryer on the face you have to twice as careful with checking the heat.)
• I also added another layer to create a bigger, deeper looking cut. I included darker and lighter tones of red to. The lighter reds mainly in the middle to represent a more raw cut then darker red surrounding it to show healing/scabbing of the wound. (Fixer spray can be sprayed over the finished look to help it stay on the face.) 

Products used:

Collodione- Buy non-flexible.

Tuplast- Clear

DUO glue

Fixer Spray

Derma Shield

Tuplast Duo

Supra palette

Kryolan Concealer palette