Mrs Laderman

I have completed the make-up of my character Mrs Laderman. She is the victim in my storyline that I introduced into the TV series of Dexter. Before creating my final look, I researched and thought about what make-up would suit her and help portray her storyline. I then designed the hair, make-up and styling for my character. 

Products used
- Kryolan foundation
- Kryolan concealer palette
- Illamasqua sculpting palette
- Illamasqua translucent powder
- Kryolan supra colour palette - red, pink, yellow, blue
- Maybelline mascara
- Fake Blood
- Wound filler
- Glycerin
- Ben Nye wax
- Spatula
- Range of brushes
- Cotton buds
- Comb
- Bandage

I wanted Mrs Ladermans make-up to be visible under the cut, bruises and blood. When she was held hostage, she was going about her normal life therefore her make-up is something that she would wear everyday. I wanted to really experiment with my character because there were no boundaries. I really enjoyed learning about special effects this term, therefore I wanted to incorporate some of the wounds that I had learnt. The biggest aspect of my final look is the cut on the side of the cheek. After watching Dexter I saw that he gave every one of his victims a cut on the side of the cheek. I wanted to complete a cut on my victim to show that Dexter has had some influence. I had practiced the cut before I completed the final look. As well as this a cut had been the main aspect of my previous character assessment. I felt confident in creating this and I was really pleased with the realistic outcome. Using the supra colour palette I created bruised and tired eyes. I placed this in the inner corner of the eye, underneath and slightly on the lid. I found that using my finger allowed me to blend out the colours. I also applied some on the forehead to create a graze and on the lips. Over this I stippled on blood. On the lips and nose I applied the blood in a larger quantity so that I dripped down the face. I wanted her to have a bleeding nose and a cut lip for the torture that she has endured. For her hair, I wanted to create something very dramatic that showed the viewer what she may have been through. I backcombed random sections of hair and then applied blood at the front of her head and in her hair. Secondly, I placed sweat across her forehead and in her hair. This really complimented the whole look and made her look even more like a realistic victim. My chosen word for Mrs Laderman was 'Bandage'. Dexter often bandaged his victims with cling film so they could not move and escape the torture. I did not want to copy this and complete something similar, therefore I took the word literally and tied a bandage covered in blood around her neck. I want this to look like it had been around her mouth so that she could not talk. 

I wanted to shoot my character of Mrs Laderman in a location setting. I wanted to experiment with where I was shooting and felt that photographing her against a white background was very simple. I had the idea to shoot her in a setting that made it look like she was being held captive in a dark room. I tried to think about how I would achieve this and looked around my house for the best place to do this. When I came to shoot my final look, I had decided to turn the lights to a dim setting in one of the rooms in my house. I then had my model sit on a chair with her hands tied behind her back. I then photographed my model from different angles. In post production I then added minor changes to the lighting to darken the back ground. I am really pleased with these images because I was unsure how it was gong to turn out. The make-up is still visible and I feel like they exaggerate to the audience that she is the victim.

Overall, I am so pleased with my final outcome of Mrs Laderman. I was really excited about completing this final look because it had so many aspects to it. I had completed a fake cut on the face before, however I decided to research into other ways of creating this but still using the same products. I saw one make-up artist take the wax and roll this into a sausage shape. This would then act as the cut. I found this to be a better and more effective way of creating the cut. I loved the added scratches and grazes on the face and I feel that this really shows the audience what she has been through. If I were to re-design my character, I would look at adding more blood on the face and incorporating more bandages. Finally, I have really enjoyed creating a character for a TV series and making up a storyline and designing the hair and make-up for them.