Miss Havisham; Research + Face Charts

I am still exploring and researching and trying to decide between 2 ideas. One being the older Miss Havisham in Pips eyes when he first met her, and the other being young Miss Havisham on her or her wedding day, when she was about 20 years old.. 

Miss Havisham on her wedding day

I would like to capture the way she looked just after she read the hearbreaking letter, in the moment when her world turned upside down. That is why I have been researching at looking more into Victorian weddings, expecially Queen Victoria's, as it was the biggest wedding of the 19th century. Miss Havisham did not have a dream wedding a happily ever after. In fact, it was far from that. Never the less, like for any other bride, it was a life changing day for her, just not in the way she hoped it to be. At 8:35 she was ful of life; happy, cheerful, trying to look her best for her husband to be. The house was decorated, the breakfast table was set. Five minutes later, at 8:40, it was all gone; the happiness and the sparkle in her eyes. Something inside of her had died, and from that moment on, she fell into this huge hole of her own depression and sadness and never found a way out.

Victorian Portraits - research

Before I started creating the face charts I started the research. I looked at Queen Victoria's images, but also portraits of other victorian upper class women, as Miss Havisham was one of them, too. I mostly focused on finding portraits taken on their wedding days, as there I could see the most accurate Victorian bridal make up looks, and then I tried to recreate them in my face charts. Paintings by a german painter and lithographer,Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873), really caught my eye.

Here are some of the images that I took my inspiration from...

Portrait of an early victorian woman on her wedding day; Thought to be a member of the Pardoe family
unknown artist
(early 19th century)

Nantgarw China Works Museum

(source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/portrait-of-an-early-victorian-woman-154307)

Queen Victoria in her wedding dress 

(1842)
Oil on canvas
Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter

(source: http://thedreamstress.com/2011/04/queen-victorias-wedding-dress-the-one-that-started-it-all/)

Princess Olga von Wurttermberg
(1856)
Oil on canvas
Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter
(source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_Duchess_Olga_by_Franz_Xaver_Winterhalter.jpg)

Elizabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria
Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna
(1865)
Oil on canvas
Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Xaver_Winterhalter#mediaviewer/File:Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria_with_diamond_stars_on_her_hair.jpg

Face Charts 

From what we can see in these portraits, they wore hardly any make up. A little bit of orange, pink and red toned rouge on their lips and cheeks, and the skin was pale and flawless. I can see that in these images the women had no mascara, maybe only Elizabeth of Bavaria, but I added some in my face charts, as well as a bit of contouring. I gave myself a little bit of freedom as these are just a few of my brainstorms and I won't recreate any of them in my timed assessment. Even if I did, I'd use the products sparingly, just like they did in the 19th century. Taking the images and everything I know about the Victorian make up so far, I created these few face charts as a starting point to see where I could go from here in my final design. Also, the colours came out slightly different and stronger on camera.

When creating the face charts, I usually use eyeshadow brushes, blusher brush, a lip brush and an angled brush.

Look no.1

Products used:

Contouring + Eyeshadow: Bronzing Sun by Kryolan
Blush: Blush Muave by Kryolan
Eyebrows: Caraway by Kryolan
Lips: Libido Cream Blusher by Illamasqua

Jan 31st 2015

Look no.2

Products used:

Contouring: Natural Tan by Kryolan

Blush: TO by Kryolan

Eyebrows: Caraway by Kryolan

Eyeshadow: Caraway + White Pepper + Fennel by Kryolan

Lips: LC002 by Kryolan

Jan 31st 2015

Look no.3

Products used:

Contouring: White Pepper by Kryolan

Blush: TO by Kryolan

Eyebrows: Caraway by Kryolan

Eyeshadow: Caraway + White Pepper + Fennel by Kryolan

Lips: LC142 by Kryolan

Feb 1st 2015

Look no.4

Products used: 

Contouring: Caraway by Kryolan
Eyes: Black Mascara
Eyebrows + Eyeshadow: Caraway by Kryolan
Lips: LC003 + Black Pepper by Kryolan

Jan 26th 2015

Look no.5

Products used: 

Contouring: White Pepper by Kryolan

Blush: Annatto by Kryolan

Eyebrows: Caraway by Kryolan

Eyeshadow: Anis + Ginger + Fennel by Kryolan

Lips: LC001 + LC006 by Kryolan

Feb 1st 2015

Look no.6

Products used: 

Contouring: Natural Tan by Kryolan

Blush: Blush Muave by Kryolan

Eyebrows: Caraway by Kryolan

Eyeshadow: Glamour Tan by Kryolan

Lips: Red (079) Aquacolor by Kryolan

Feb 7th 2015

Look no.7

Products used: 

Blush: Youth Red by Kryolan

Eyebrows: Caraway 

Eyeshadow: White Pepper 

Lips: Supracolor Red

 Feb 7th 2015

Look no.8

Products used:

Blush: TO + R21 by Kryolan

Eyebrows: Caraway 

Eyeshadow: White Pepper + Fennel by Kryolan

Lips: LC001 + LC142 by Kryolan

Feb 7th 2015

These were the first face charts I've done since the Elizabethan project. I have to say it was quite a challenge not to make some of the drawings look at least a little bit Elizabethan. I will try to work on that in the future.

reference found 30th jan-7th feb 2015