Bringing Characters To Life - Rapunzel

Each of the characters within the book will have their own stories and their own pasts as to how they came to be that character. All the characters have different stories and different interactions with one another that will ultimately reflect upon their appearance and actions. The fairy tales I'm using are the source of my characters so it is key that I use each detail of the original fairy tales to come up with unique and also changing make-up designs, as I want each character to have more than one look by using elements of the story to change their appearance throughout.  

I have now complied my final 10 characters from 5 separate fairy tales and I have begun to start my research development for each character using art, fashion, film and character imagery in order to begin the designing process. I will be posting these design elements and my inspirations in my reflective journal as I feel the research process is the most important part of the project. This post will discuss the character's from the story Rapunzel - 

Rapunzel -

There was once a man and a woman that lived in a small house that had a little window from which they could see a beautiful garden that held a very rare plant, the woman wanted to eat the plant but the garden was out of bounds as it was surrounded by a very high wall that belonged to an evil enchantress. When the man tried to climb the wall he was met by the enchantress who offered him as much of the rare plant as he wanted in return for the woman's unborn child - this unborn child was Rapunzel. Rapunzel then belonged to the enchantress who locked her away at the top of a tower and completely isolated her from society.

     With this story of Rapunzel's past in mind I feel that her character should reflect venerability  and innocence as she is yet to have any contact with the real outside world. It is clear that the enchantress wants her to remain pure and young as she doesn't cut her hair and also gets extremely angry when she finds out Rapunzel has had contact with a man. I feel the most successful way for me to show innocence here is through natural, clean make-up and neutral colour tones such as white and cream running throughout the make-up and styling.

 I am hoping to create a similar makeup style seen here - using a white or cream eye shadow on the eye is a very natural colour and brings out the models eyes, a light pink blush again gives a very natural but pretty look, also using a highlighter on the cheek and eyebrow bone seems to add an innocent glow to the face. All of the elements to this make-up look are successful in creating a fresh, natural look that portray innocence and purity.

Neutral Colour Palette

After the enchantress finds out Rapunzel has been in contact with the Prince she cuts off all Rapunzel's hair in a fit of rage. I want to use my love of special effects here using tuplast to create scars in the same style of Edward Scissorhands as a symbol of the cutting of the hair.

Rapunzel has extremely long hair as it has never been cut. When the enchantress calls up to the top of the tower, Rapunzel lets her hair down and the enchantress climbs up with it. As the fairy tale goes on the main focus and  plot of the story seem to center around Rapunzel's extremely long golden hair, so I wanted to use this as the main focus of the overall look. 

This image immediately caught my eye, as well as the obvious elements such as the hair, I also really like the lighting here as the light is shining brighter from the one side it could resemble a window at the top of the dark tower.

I am going to try to re create the above hairstyle with my character of Rapunzel as it shows both length and untidiness, the fact that Rapunzel has lived in a tower all of her life, her hair would in reality be both tangled and messy.


The hair styling seen here L'wren Scott's recent fashion show at this years London Fashion Week as inspired me to include as much volume as possible within my Rapunzel style hair.


              

                                     



I am hoping to use a wig with a few metres of crepe hair to create the both the length and volume that I want to achieve. I'll spray the crepe hair the same colour as the wig and once pulled apart I will entwine it within the wig to make the hair both big and realistic.

    The Prince - 

The prince isn't seen in the fairy tale until towards the end of the story. As Rapunzel is singing in the tower to pass her time the King's son rides through the forest and passed the tower on his horse, he hears Rapunzel's voice and think's it is so beautiful that he returns the same time every day to hear it again. He wants to meet the lady who's voice he hears so badly that after seeing the enchantress climb the tower he decides the following day to do the same. When he first meets Rapunzel she is shocked by his good looks and charm so it is obvious here that my model should be both young and handsome to portray the typical prince image. A typical prince will have long, or mid length flowing hair, a strong jaw line, a good physique and a smart, tight sense of dress.

It is only towards the end of the story that the Prince's perfect image starts to change and deteriorate, when he returns again to the tower he is this time met by the enchantress who pushes him out of the tower window into a bed of thorns that pierces his eyes causing him to be blind. This is a darker side to the story that most people wouldn't of heard of, I'm going to use here white contacts, a handmade crown of thorns and bruising and blood to resemble this part of the story, I hope this will be quite a strong symbolic image.

 For the second make-up look of the Prince I have taken inspiration from the film 'Passion of the Christ' whereby Christ is forced to wear a crown of thorns that pierce and wound the surrounding skin of his head. Although this look is much more extreme than I want for my character of the Prince, I have taken inspiration from the crown itself and the blood and wounds that you can see on his face.