Character makeup: Mrs Meers of ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’

This week in makeup class I was assigned the task of designing makeup for a real character. I choose Mrs Meers from the play Thoroughly Modern Millie because she is over the top, and makes for interesting makeup choices. Her character is a  retired actress who is white, but is now pretending to be Chinese (but she doesn’t do a very good job). She is evil, but also comic relief so, her evil isn’t too threatening…it’s more tacky.

I choose to make my face look a little older, with smile lines, an older jaw and more bony cheeks, but I didn’t want to appear too old, because surely an actress as full of herself as Meers would take care of her face.

Meers makeup with green eye shadow and brown lip liner.

The strangest part about this makeup is the eyebrows. I wanted to block out my own and redraw them higher for more drama! But I have such dark eyebrows that up close you can totally still see them. I made a paste of white makeup and brushed it into my eyebrows to attempt to cover them. Then I drew new ones with a thin brush and eye-liner color. In the pictures this looks quire strange but from far away, it actually doesn’t look that weird.

I also added green eye shadow and ugly brown lip liner to get that tacky, tasteless look. Seen in the pictures above.

Next time we’re going to experiment with other methods of blocking out the eyebrows, which may work a lot better on my very full, dark, brows.

Read Full Post »

Stage Makeup: Middle age

This semester I am enrolled in a stage makeup class. I think this class ties in nicely with my quest to find out how and why people alter their appearances; with stage makeup the goal is often to look like someone else through the application of heavy make-up. This week, I learned how to age my face. Here is my face, modeling the “middle-age” look.

Depending on the environment in which an actor is performing, the makeup can be darker and more prominent, or softer and more evenly blended. The larger the auditorium, the more dramatic the makeup needs to be in order for everyone in the theatre to see the features of the face. This makeup is suitable for a somewhat small theatre, yet up close it still looks quite strange.

Above is a close up of the makeup. I used two different shadow colors, as well as a highlight to move the features of my face downward, and to create a more spherical quality to the planes of my face. As you age, your facial features go from angular, to cylindrical. I also added deep creases to the nasolabial folds (smile lines), as well as crows feet, and more prominent under eye bags.

Then I used a stippling sponge and a darker color base to create an uneven texture and age spots to the skin. My professor also suggested that I lighten my eyebrows because as one ages, the eyebrows get thinner. I have very strong eyebrows, and it may not look it, but those are significantly lightened. I look very frowny in these pictures, but really that’s just the makeup.

As you can see, from a distance the stippling and shadow doesn’t look so harsh, and from a distance of ten feet or more, the makeup looks completely natural.

I hope this post will inspire a few Halloween costumes! Thanks for reading.

Read Full Post »

Stage Makeup: Altering the Face (as in I don’t normally look like this)

Today was my second day in Stage-makeup class where I applied makeup to my face. Today’s goal was to play with my features and make myself look like someone else. This makeup may look strange in a photograph, but from far away (like you would be if you were in the audience at a theatre) it actually looks completely natural. I choose to make two of the photos black and white to help with the illusion since this sort of makeup does not photograph well unless under stage lights.

Also, not awesome quality photos, but that was again due to lighting restrictions. You get the idea. And if you know what I look like, you know that’s not what I look like. I made my forehead more prominent with highlight around its edges, my eyes farther apart with liner and highlight on the outer edges, my nose longer and thinner with strong shadows on the sides, I lowered my cheek bones, made my jaw smaller but chin more prominent, and I made my mouth tiny!

I am not pursing my lips, that is the makeup! I think I look like some sort of strange bird person.

Here is a photo of the makeup in color under typical directional lighting that you might get in any room or by a window, but not necessarily on a stage. You can see the difference in the illusion between the black and white photos with soft lighting, and the color photo with directional lighting.

Read Full Post »