Visual Narrative; Character Interpretation Make Up.

For the visual interpretation part of this terms uni project, we are studying Bartok's opera, 'Bluebeard's Castle.' To look into the personalities behind both main and side characters, my group and I decided to turn our interpretations into real life characterisations through makeup. Each different makeup style was either based on an alteration of the original character, e.g. gender swap, or  fashioned around one of the themes we're contemplating to base our future collaborative set piece on; in this case, the themes I concentrated on where 1920's Toy Shop and Fantasy Woodland.

This image shows me glueing eyebrows down so I can powder over them, then re-draw new ones in. For this character, I wanted to create a doll like appearance so a wistful and exaggerated eye is want I wanted to achieve. This was based around one of the dead wives that appear in the opera, and I wanted to style it in the theme of the Toy Shop. By using a male to create a feminine character, I also played with aspects of androgyny. 

This character was also another female from the play, that I based around the Fantasy Woodland theme. I wanted to recreate a fantasy creature, therefore introducing ideas of rare and beautiful animals. Bluebeard could be collecting and mounting these imaginary beasts for their value and aesthetic. I mostly used eyeshadow and face paint for both the contouring and the coloration's. 

For my own makeup I wanted to experiment with what a female version of Bluebeard's character. I feel that she would be very intelligent and have a slightly intimidating aesthetic. As a modern version, she could be a high ranking business woman, seductive and smart. However, I feel that if she didn't get her own way through flattery or mind games, she could turn nasty and emotionally manipulative, or even abusive. To create this look I used dark colours, reminiscent of the namesake 'Bluebeard'. I also used sharp pointed shapes for the cheekbones and eye area to create 'evil' looking facial features.