Making the Props

 In order for each of my characters to be authentic and for most of the creative elements to be my own, I have made most of the props for my characters by hand. I have always enjoyed art and being creative and making things from scratch however I have noticed throughout my degree that styling and costumes haven't been my strongest point. As this whole book and all ten looks are designed and created by myself, I felt this was the best time to try to focus more on not just the make-up and hair but the props as well. Finishing touches and the small details are just as important in creating a full rounded character. 

Crown of Thorns

Here I have made a crown of thorns for my Prince character in the story of Rapunzel. To make this I used a number of twigs from a nearby forest, after using a measurement of the circumference of the model's head, I then entwined each branch together to create a thick and stable base for my crown, once happy with the shape I secured the twigs with smaller twigs at the back to hold the crown in place. To the right is my first attempt at making the base, I really liked the weaving created here but unfortunately when I tried it on the model's head the base was too small so I started the same process again. After getting the base at a perfect size, I could then add the thorns.To create the thorns I painted toothpicks a brown colour with acrylic paint and left them to dry, once dry I then glued them with a hot glue gun to different points in the crown. Once the glue had dried I painted parts of the crown the same colour as the thorns so they blended well. I am very happy with the outcome of my crown of thorns and I feel it will look even more effective under studio lighting and on the head.  

Wolf Ears

 Here for the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, I have built upon a base for the wolf's ears. After buying a pair of plain skin coloured wolf's ears from a fancy dress shop I painted them with two different shades of brown acrylic paint. I used darker paint on the inner ear to create depth and a lighter brown to highlight the more raised areas, I then used light brown wool and PVA glue to create realistic looking wolf's fur. I cut the wool in to shorter bits and pulled away at the wool to create a wispy fur like texture, I then used PVA glue and tweezers to stick the hair to the edge of the ear's. 

I am again very happy with the outcome of the prop's here, I really like the texture and 3 dimensional effect created with the two tone paints on the ears. I then added small segments of wool rovling to create a fur effect on the outside edge of the ears, I feel with the wool attached as fur they are successful in looking like realistic wolf's ears. 

 Wolf's Claws

As part of the wolf's look and as a prop for another close up shot I have created wolf's claws. I used acrylic nail tips as a starting point for the claws, the acrylic tips come with a square end so I began by cutting the tips with scissors into more of a pointed claw like shape, I then used a nail file to round of the edge's into a more curvasious point as opposed to a sharp point. After I was happy with the nail shape I used yellow, brown and green acrylic paints to build up layers of colour starting with yellow then adding some brown and finally some green, I tried to create a gradient effect with a lighter shade at the tip of the nail and a much darker shade at the base. After attaching these to the model's nail, I'm then going to use a dark brown eyeshadow on the cuticle to blend them into the skin. To create a realistic wolf's hand to go with these claws, I'm going to use built up layers of latex, shading with coloured powders and more of the wool as fur. 

Witches Nail's

                                                       

 

In the same way that I made the wolf claws, here I have made witches nail's for my character of the evil witch in Hansel & Gretel. I used the same acrylic nails here but I've cut and filed the nails in to a much more pointed shape as this is how I'd picture an evil witches nail to look. I then used black at the base and a green acrylic paint at the tip to paint the nails in the same gradient style. I'm then going to use old age stipple on the skin of the hand to create an old, aged look.