Cinderella's - The Ugly Sister

My third shoot was the character of the Ugly Sister in the well known story of Cinderella. All though the Disney remake of Cinderella is well known the original Brother's Grimm story isn't so well known so for me the main purpose of this character was to show the violence and gore that featured in many of the Grimm's tales. I also wanted to use this look to experiment with new special effects techniques as when it comes to prosthetics I am always keen and enthusiastic to learn new skills, for example I had to use a new self taught technique using black cardboard, latex, wax, bruise colour and blood to show at the end of the story when the Ugly Sister's get there eyes plucked out by birds. 

Although the characters name has always been the Ugly Sister, in the original tale the only thing that depicts her as ugly is her evil ways, in appearance she is described as 'fair of face', so within the shoot I wanted the first make-up look to show an attractive make-up and throughout to show a change in the make-up showing the model as getting more 'ugly' as in the story she becomes more evil - I also asked the photographer to change the lighting to become more and more dark as the make-up looks changed, I feel the lighting here is successful in creating an eary mood. 

Here are some of my favourite images from the Ugly Sister shoot - 

Make-up 

As in the story the Ugly Sister is described as fair of face, I wanted the first image to show the complexion of the skin as fresh and natural looking and just to use a darker lipstick and eye colour to depict elements of her evil personality. As the make-up looks changed and  the character became more evil I added darker lines on the face into the creases around and  under the eyes and on the forehead to accentuate her natural lines and to give the illusion of older skin - in editing I also used the clarity tool which gives the skin a pigmented look. The last and final look needed to show the eye missing as it had been plucked out by birds, I used black cardboard, derma wax, latex, a bruise wheel, blood and a stipple sponge to create this self taught effect. In test shooting this came out well and looked realistic however under time pressure I felt this make-up look wasn't as successful, as the cardboard wasn't sticking completely to the skin and this created a raised look to the cardboard which gave it quite an unrealistic effect and caused me to have to darken the image dramatically  If I had more time I would have cut the circle of cardboard smaller and used more latex to stick the cardboard to the skin. 

Hair 

I wanted to create a Victorian look with the hair styling of the Ugly Sister, to create a successful hair I researched into classic Victorian hairstyles in order to create my own design. I noticed that a lot of the styles included a lot of volume at the top of the head with pieces of hair hanging down at either the front of the sides , so I used this as the basis of my hair look. To create this hairstyle I used a handmade base using a pair of tights shaped into a circle and stuffed with tissue paper - this would be the template for me to mould the hair around, this is the only way to create such height with natural hair, I then curled the remaining hair with curling tongs. The styling of the hair is my favourite part of the characters appearance, I feel that it adds to the overall look and feel of the character. 

Styling

I again used Victorian references for my styling and found a frilly, lace Victorian style dress hidden away in my attic that I felt was perfect for the shoot. Ideally I would have liked the dress to be a darker colour however upon reflection the lighter colour of the dress makes the model stand out from the darker background and dimmed lighting. I felt that the dress would be to plain on its own so I added an old style flower necklace that reflects the type of costume jewellery worn in that era. At another gory and violent point in the story the Ugly Sister cuts off part of her heel to fit into the glass slipper (in hope of becoming the new Queen) but her blood stained stockings prevent her, I bought a pair of cream tights and hand stained them with blood, with the lighting used the image is quite creepy and hopefully shocking to an audience unaware of the original Cinderella plot - Overall I am very happy with the styling of this image.

Props 

The only props used in this shoot is that of the heart. In the original story, the Ugly Sister is described as 'fair of face but foul at heart', I wanted this element of the story to be shown in a very creepy and eary way, so I made the decision to use a real heart (a lambs heart), held by the Ugly Sisters hand in my shoot. With the way in which its been shot with dim shadowed lighting, it almost creates this second glance image whereby it isn't initially obvious what she is holding until you look closely, I'm hoping this effect of the heart and blood will create quite a shocking reaction to an audience.

I have always wanted the overall mood of my book to be dark and something of the horror genre, I feel that this shoot with the make-up effects, props and lighting is the darkest of my images so far and sustainable in creating the eary atmosphere throughout the book that I had hoped for.