Character Research - Estella

The Book:

Estella is a strong, bold and cold woman with extreme beauty. I would describe her as a typical femme fatal. From a young age in the early scenes of the book, Estella is rude and disrespectful to Pip. Although we aren't particularly warmed to her character, Estella is very much a victim of Miss Havisham's spiteful plans. Miss Havisham created the plan to raise Estella to torment men and "break their hearts". Being raised in this way has destroyed her ability to express emotion or fall in love. As a result of this, she ends up with completely the wrong man, Drummle, who beats her and makes her life miserable. Dickens allows us to sympathise Estella's character and we soften to her character as she comes away from the brutality of her struggling marriage and says, “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.” In general, Estella is raised to be something cold and cruel, yet she is a vulnerable woman who's beauty has been used as a weapon.

BBC TV Series:

First Impressions:

Estella is a young, fresh faced, beautiful, little girl, "Grows prettier everyday". Her appearance is very contrasting to Miss Havisham. Yet her personality is just as cold and cruel, demonstrated instantly as she is mean to pip. She laughs at him and taunts him for being of a lower class. She has a harsh look to her and is very stuck up. She is dressed immaculately with expensively made dresses and lace gloves. Her look is pure and perfect and asks if pip thinks she's pretty, as if she already knows it. Her insulting personality is displayed as she says Pip smells of dirt and sweat, "Why would I want to be friends with you" and slaps him. Estella is demanding, intimidating and perfectly horrid. 

Estella Inspiration

Hair Inspiration:

Makeup Inspiration:

Miss Havisham Look - Assessment For Continuity

First Assessment:

Second Assessment:

I am very pleased with each final outcome of my Miss Havisham look. I feel I captured my idea of how Miss Havisham should look. In my eyes I imagined her to be old, mentally unstable, depressed and unhealthy looking. Creating the wrinkles and bags helped me achieve this effect. The matted and decayed hair with discoloured roses helps emphasise her unhealthy and unwashed look. I greyed her facial hair, which matched the greyed hair that I created with dry shampoo. The contouring emphasises the aging and the redness around the eyes makes the appearance of tiredness and crying lots.

I felt that the first assessment went slightly better than the second. Out of habit, I used primer on the face in the second look, which made the skin appear softer and more youthful, not the look I was after or what I created in the first look. I also created a more dewy effect which was not my intention. Unintentionally, I also applied more base which actually looks darker in the second assessment photos. Other than this small error with the skin tone, I feel that the hair was completely accurate and the detail on the eyes and lips are very similar. Overall, I am very pleased with the final outcomes. 

Practising Final Miss Havisham Design

Makeup Product List:

Skin:

Screenface foundation base

Illamasqua loose powder

Illamasqua powder blusher – Disobey

Supracolor palette – beige shades

Eyes:

Supracolor palette – beige shades + red/burgundy shades

MAC pencil – red

Supracolor palette – white/grey for eyelashes + brows

Lips:

Supracolor palette – Dark reds/browns for inner lips

Duo glue

Hair:
Dry shampoo
Hairspray

Illness Makeup, Theatrical Aging, Dirtying Down

Equipment:

·      Moisturiser

·      Supracolour palette

·      Black stipple sponge

·      Brushes

·      Duo glue

·      Glycerine

·      Water spray

·      Pipette

Instructions:

·      Heavily moisturise the skin to allow easy blending.

·      Hollow out the face using sepia browns from the Supracolour palette. Apply with brush and blend in with fingers.

·      Emphasise tired eyes by making the red round the lash lines.

·      Make the skin appear flushed and rashy using a black stipple sponge and dabbing on red onto the cheeks, forehead, nose and chin. Blend and dab with fingers.

·      Darken the lips slightly and blend out round the mouth slightly to create the effect of sore lips.

·      Apply duo glue to the lips. Allow it to dry and start moving the glue to create the effect of sore, dry lips.

·      Darken areas of the dried duo glue to create the effect of cracks or sores.

·      Dab glycerine onto the skin to create the effect of sweat. Focus on the forehead, cheeks and upper lip.

·      Spay water onto the face and around the hairline to make the skin look damp with sweat.

·      Using a pipette, drop glycerine under the eye to form a tear drop.

Theatrical Ageing

Equipment:

·      Cleanser, toner, moisturiser

·      Base

·      Supracolour palette

·      Brushes

·      Disposible mascara wand

·      Mixing palette

·      Latex

·      Sponge

·      Hairdryer

Instructions:

·      Prepare the face.

·      Apply a small amount of base, the same colour as the skin.

·      Take the base over the lips whilst the model pinches her lips. This creates a cracked effect.

·      Using the grease based supracolour palette, apply a dark brown/grey around the eyes, nose, cheekbones and temples to make the face appear gaunt, emphasising the hollows.

·      Blend in with fingers.

·      Ask the model to screw their face up to show creases in the skin. Apply a darker shade in the creases of the skin and blend in with fingers to create the effect of wrinkles.

·      Get a lighter shade and highlight the raised parts of the creases to emphasise.

·      Using a disposible mascara wand, apply grey to the eyebrow in a backwards motion.

Creping of the skin

·      Stretch skin so it is taught.

·      Apply latex onto skin using a sponge.

·      Pinch skin to create ‘wrinkles’.

Dry the latex using a hairdryer, making sure that the temperature is suitable.

Dirtying Down

Equipment:

·      Kryolan colour tube

·      Supracolor Palette

·      Fake Dirt

·      Brill cream

·      Dry Shampoo

·      Coloured Hairsprays

·      Cotton buds

·      Toothpicks

·      Moisturiser

Blackened Teeth

·      Open the mouth and dry the tooth with a cotton bud

·      Apply the black onto the tooth and keep the lip raised to allow the colour to dry

·      Shade around the edges of the teeth to create a 3-D effect

·      Always check the teeth throughout the shoot and have toothpicks to hand

Dirtying Down

·      Apply any moisturiser to areas that will appear the most dirty on the skin

·      Rub on fake dirt or spray coloured hairspray to make the area darken on the skin. Always remember to use the correct dirt or colour for the surroundings that you are shooting the model in.

·      Apply water or moisturiser to make the roots of the hair appear greasy, as this is the area that becomes greasy first. You can also use brill cream.

Spray dry shampoo on the hair to make it dull. 

Victorian Hair Silhouettes - Decayed

Hair charts and practising designs:

1. 

The hair is smoothly scraped off the back of the neck to form the typically clean silhouette from the neck. This is then twisted into a fairly loose french pleat. Rather than the hair being brushed back at the front and twisted into the french pleat, the hair has been curled and messily twisted down over to one side of the face.

2.

In this design, the hair has been heavily backcombed and left messy and out of control. The hair has been pulled of the neck and face and meets at the same point of the head. Padding has been used at the front to create even more volume. Strands of hair have been loosely left at the sides of the face to emphasise the decayed effect.

3.

For this look, I've taken the traditional french pleat and taken it into three sections whilst bringing it over the head. I have done this with no precision so the hair looks dishevelled and messy. Strands of hair are coming down from the pleats everywhere to emphasise this.

4.

For this style I have decided to pull the hair up off the neck and bring it towards the face. The front of the hair, it is heavily backcombed. I also added padding to help create the shape. Again, i have loosened the hair and pulled sections out to make the hair look messy and worn. 

5.

For this look I just improvised on the dolls head rather than doing a design. I just wanted to see what i could create without any instruction and just go with my instinct. So for this look, I created a loose french pleat at the back to create the neat silhouette of the neck. On the crown of the head i parted the hair slightly to the side. I then created two rows of small rolls on each side then a roll of hair each side of the face to bring the rest of the hair up. I thought the individual shapes may create an interesting silhouette. The strands of hair at the side of the face would be curled, but I didn't have the correct equipment at the time of creating this. Again, the hair is heavily backcombed and messy.

6.

This design is very similar to the previous one. Instead of creating two rows on rolls on the top/front on the head, i decided to make three next to each other. Also, below the french pleat I decided to create another roll of hair which created the impression of a frame for the french pleat. The hair that is loosely pulled out of the updo are curled using tongs. I liked this design the most and decided to use it for my final design for the professional photograph.

Final Image: