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Bebhinn Alexandra O’Reilly 

BA [Hons] Character MakeUp Design

My name is Bebhinn O’Reilly, I am 23 years old with a passion for design. I’ve always wanted a creative career working with like minded people. I have a range of different skills and interests that I bring to every project I work on. I’ve learned to work in different mediums, including digital, 3D and painting. I love working with people and collaborating on projects. I am dedicated to everything I do and I am constantly pushing myself to adapt my skillset. This course has brought out many skills in myself that I will take moving into the future.

The character of the Little Mermaid has beauty and innocence, however she is melancholic. She lives in a world where she doesn’t feel she fits in, she craves life above the ocean surface, and her curiosity about the human world was her demise.
Close up images of my character of The Little Mermaid. I added 20 silicone prosthetics, a mixture of ear pieces, a forehead piece, scales, barnacles, gills and a bald cap. I added colour and gold accents to her look to show her royalty.
In the story, the mermaid dies. I had this idea to show the mermaid in human form, dead, washed up on the beach, lying in a bed of seaweed. Her skin is rotting, decaying, and we see a reveal of scales under her peeling skin.
Close ups of rotting skin, done with latex, slimey starfish and barnacles made from silicone, coloured with alcohol paints.
Some background design work done for the world of the mermaids underwater sea kingdom. An initial moodboard of the world, a character design and breakdown, and designs of the secondary members in that world.
Posters I made to showcase the cast members for my project. One poster includes work from my fellow collaborator Molly Lynch, who designed the Evil Witch
An image that shows what my character would look like on film. Done in film ratio 16:9, I have the mermaid in shadows in the foreground, with the silhouette of the evil witch lurking in the background under a light shining in a dark cave in the depths of the ocean.
Wise Children is a novel written by Angela Carter written in 1991 and has been adapted by Emma Rice for stage performance in 2018. Here I have designed the wacky theatrical family of Dora and Nora Chance. The story follows the familial struggle between the characters through many comedic and circus elements.
The story spans over 100 years. One part of the story takes place in the late Victorian era in Brixton. I decided to add some freak show elements into my characters and here I have designed ‘The Bearded Lady’
Another character I have designed is ‘The Clown’. Each of these freak show characters are designed for stage performance
Theatrical makeup I have done for the character of Grandma Chance and also showgirl Dora and Nora from the 1930s. Underneath I have a poster I created for the showgirls as Siamese twins, another freak show element I added to my project. I also have a character breakdown for the character of Dora detailing her step by step makeup, reference imagery and also a concept design for her costume and headpiece.
The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid is a danish literary fairytale written by Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who falls in love with a human prince and is willing to give up her life in the sea to gain a human immortal soul. She is put under a spell from the Evil Sea Witch. If the prince chooses to marry her, she will become human and gain an immortal soul. However, he chooses to marry a different bride, and the mermaid dies and is turned to sea foam.

I did this project as part of a collaboration with a fellow makeup student Molly Lynch.



Women’s Magazines in WWII Britain: Beauty, Duty and Dress

Women’s magazines have been used worldwide as a vice to aid women in their everyday lives; From beauty and fashion advice to home renovations, advice columns and gossip sections, women’s magazines have been in publication in Britain since 1885 with The
Lady being the longest-running women’s magazine. In this Dissertation, I discussed women’s magazines in Britain during the years of WWII, and why they played such an important role in women’s lives as they battled on the home front. The recognition by the British government to use magazines as a way of communicating important war-related information and encouraging women to do their part was both a positive and negative move as there was a thin line between motivating women and pressuring them to look beautiful and remaining cheerful throughout this wartime austerity.


Character MakeUp Design
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