Creating my Estella design...

Creating Estella...

Great expectations was set in early Victorian England. This became a very important and interesting factor when beginning to create Estella's inspired look. In that era in particular head pieces were very popular as people were aiming to portray a very formal and classy image. People were either seen wearing jewels in their hair or embellished hats. The hair itself was even created to look like some sort of large head piece with their tight, small ringlets that were built to amazing heights but still included amazing, intricate detail.  

Uknown, (2013), Uknown [ONLINE]. Available at: http://monicc96.blogspot.co.uk/ [Accessed 10 March 14].

I wanted to include these details in my own styled interpretation of what I think Estella would have looked like. This particular image seen below inspired me a lot as I knew I wanted to use this type of headband which I already owned but just wasn't sure how to style it within an up do.

(Pinterest- 17th March.)

Face chart...

I kept my Estella make-up design quite simple due to her character mainly being represented as a classic beauty that is seen dressed in expensive long dresses paired with a flawless complexion and perfect make-up. However even though we commonly saw Estella presented in this way I chose to create her less glamorous side unfortunately. Towards the end of the novel we find out that she has married a horrible, heavy handed man. So I decided I wanted to include a black eye and cut lip in my final design. I also thought the juxtaposition between both the formal, clean, sleek hair paired with the opposing make-up was quite interesting visually. 

These are some shots from when I was practising my hair design but also added a mild black eye to see what they looked like together.

The hair design...

The hair design went better than expected when I practised it on a model before my timed assessment. I struggled to figure out how I was going to include the headband within the the structured bun and pulled back hair. To be able to include the head piece I had to add it to the style right at the beginning and work around it. It was pretty difficult trying to get the hair seen beneath it all slick back so no fly away's were visible. My Estella model has a fringe so I aimed to keep that featured at the front but smoothing it down with either hair mousse or wax. After perfecting the front section I then went on to pulling the excess pieces of hair into a pony tail. The pony tail was then crimped and back-combed to produce hair with a lot of body that I could shape into an over sized bun.

Model: Georgie Dennis

Georgie has light combination skin with no shown contradictions. 

 



Miss Havisham; the first shoot...

Miss Havisham...

This is my first shoot creating my Miss Havisham look.

Overall everything went to plan when creating my look however I think my design ended up looking much more contemporary than originally anticipated! A lot of my peers created a much more light, in complex design of her character.  

I had only attempted my hair design once including the flower head band. I thought it might look slightly to modern due to it bright colours but I didn't want to dye them or make them look more grotesque when the rest of my design was already quite grim and dark. I always thought it was important to include a pretty and feminine element in my interpretation as her appearance is based on her how she looked on her wedding day. I wanted her to still look quite elegant and pretty but with a more gloomy, decrepit version of this.  

The crimped hair worked out to be much more effective than I planned, which was lucky as I only decided to this at the very last minute as I didn't know whether it would suit the flower headband.

However after prepping the hair by crimping it, it was much easier to style during the assessment. I back-combed the hair, heavily then pulled it through the headband and then pinned it up in a similar way to the French pleat but a much more informal version. Due to prepping the hair beforehand I was left with more time to focus on the make-up which I felt I could then concentrate and relax more on due to the extra time. 

Model: Nicole Eyres

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...