Final Images - Before: Conservative Mrs Laderman (Early 1940's)

PLEASE NOTE BLOGGER BLEACHES OUT PHOTOGRAPHS - FINAL IMAGES APPEAR DARKER THAN THOSE UPLOADED HERE.

An important concept of my whole character design for Mrs Laderman was the before and after as you can follow her decent into the world of madness and clairvoyance. For the storyline behind my character of Mrs Laderman is that of the contrast between her past and present. Previously my version of her character is that of a happily married, conservative early 1940's housewife who is every bit the cliche of the 1940's that is perceived within modern recreations. As my final version of Mrs Laderman has no hair as a result of Alopecia I felt it was important for me to include a version that contained a hair design, therefore my before version of Mrs Laderman provides me with the opportunity to create a contrasting look between the two versions of her character. By creating a before version I am able to tick off the box for hair design by demonstrating how a character can develop and change through styling alone. For this look I created a simple hairstyle that was common of the era with ringlet curls brushed into large waves at the the front of the head and the hair rolling underneath itself at the back of the head. I then clipped the hair away from the face on one side of the head as was popular to do so in the era. As my version of Mrs Laderman for the before images is a heavily conservative woman I wanted to keep her costume very respectful and modest. The high neckline is concealing of her figure and therefore enhances that idea of middle class conservatism.

In regards to the makeup I wanted to keep it very classic of the era but also age appropriate, as my model is within her late 40's - an age appropriate to reflect that of Mrs Laderman, it was not essential to add heaps of makeup onto my model. I began by applying a light, moisturising base as my model did not require heavy foundation and it would not have been reflective of the era as heavy foundations were rarely used in day to day life. The eye makeup was also kept soft and natural with a subtle cut crease but maintained the classic flicked eyeliner. To do this I kept the line as thin as possible so that it would not look to heavy on the eye, when applying eyeliner onto an older model obviously the skin around the eye is not a tight as on someone in their teens therefore I had to adjust my technique and apply the liner with the eye open so that it would appear even. This means that when the eye is closed the liner appears more like a crisp lightening bolt as opposed to a smooth line. The key focal point to the makeup look was that of the red lipstick (again another convention of the period) and for this it was important that I made the lips as neat as possible so that the line was crisp and clean. Overall I was really pleased with how the overall look and styling turned out as I feel that it gives off that conservative aspect that makes Mrs Laderman's transformation so dramatic.