Creating Miss Havisham

I decided i wanted to follow with the description of the original character, written by Charles Dickens.  I decided to work on an older lady, but emphasise her wrinkled areas in order for her to appear worn, tired and old looking.

A sketch of my idea for Miss Havisham

I wanted to gain some practice on making a face look older so I decided to use myself.  To achieve the look i used 3 tones.  One lighter, one slightly darker and one considerably darker to emphasise and shadow the creases in my face.

Trials for ageing

Trials for ageing

My model Suzette is a 45 year old woman, I wanted to make her look like she was mid-fifties, but appear like she'd had a very tiring existence.

Suzette my model in her natural state

Make-up for Miss Havisham

I wanted my model to appear ghostly so i started by paling her face down......... I then began to add tones to the creases of her face to give a more sunken look..........

Paling face and emphasing wrinkles

Paling face and emphasising wrinkles

Paling face and emphasising wrinkles

Hair for Miss Havisham

I wanted to create a look with the hair that looked like it had been done, but then left for many years.......

My model had short bobbed hair, so I knew i would need to use either a hair piece or a wig to give the effect i wanted to achieve.

My models short hair

The wig I decided to use

I wanted to keep the look as natural as possible so i sectioned the hair from ear to ear, i then pinned the wig at the back.  This left all the front to style and tease so it looked like her own hair.

Parting made to hide the wig

Parting made to hide the wig

Wig attached and front blended over

I finally sprayed the wig and her natural hair with white hair spray.  This blended all the tones and kept the hair in theme with a grey old, ghostly woman.

Hair sprayed then manipulated to appear natural

Styling - Miss Havisham

For the styling of Miss Havisham I wanted to keep it in with the traditional theme.  I hired a wedding dress and made a veil from lace.  I also wanted to bring some of Satis house into the shoot so I borrowed a Candelabra and covered it with cobwebs to add to the effect of the shoot.

Wedding dress used for shoot

Veil made from lace

Candelabra used with added cobwebs

Test shots - Miss Havisham