Hello I'm Rebecca,
A character and makeup artist with specific interest in prosthetics,
the stranger the better.
I love creating characters from scratch and watching them come alive through the design and creative process.
My response to Max Ernst's "A Week of Kindness"
a booklet of illustrated collage work from 1934, with images some might consider bizarre. Animal/human hybrids depicted in all walks of life from the mundane to outright
heinous acts of murder.
With this work Ernst poses the question of mankind's morals,
"If you could get away with it, would you?"
The lion, a symbol in many cultures around the world, is representative of a king.
Loyalty, strength, leadership, bravery, and resilience.
Except in Ernst's world, a king is simply a man and a man is human and humans are greatly flawed individuals.
My re-creation of Ernst's Lion is just that, when a man loses the battle against himself, allowing greed, arrogance, and the need for power to dominate him.
This is the story behind my character He is the embodiment of someone who has given into the temptations of the ego.
Before I fully committed to Ernst's lion I played with a few of his other characters including his bird creation "Loplop".
Designing a character/makeup template for the possible character,
I was very happy with this design and although I did not ultimately go with it, it is something I plan on making in the future.
A passion project.
Process: This is a 1 piece full face prosthetic of a human/Lion hybrid set in the 1930s.
The prosthetic is made by casting the model's face, sculpting my designs on top and re-casting.
The prosthetic is made from silicone (soft and flexible) to move with the model's face to translate emotions, as I feel like this is key to a great prosthetic, is giving the model the ability to still show their acting ability.
I also did originally have a chin piece for this character, but due to my model being an actor and having work after this he needed to keep his bread, therefor rather than powering through and trying to stick the prosthetic to hair I re-designed the lower half the face a removed the chin piece.
ultimately in my opinion creating a better blend of human/Lion hybrid
Here is a collage of pictures from each part of the making process of the head, we had 4 days in Galway with lecturer Paul Mcdonald where we tried to get as much work done as possible under his guidance.
It was an amazing experience.
Process: Making the head was the most intense piece of this whole project.
The model face was cast 360 degrees, cleaned out and filled with melted chavant clay, then re-sculpted.
Once set, it was opened and cleaned out again, then washed with 4 layers of silicone dyed with silicone pigments (fair Caucasian skin colour) and filled with expanding foam.
Once set and opened I painted the head with psycho paints and novocs, for a more natural skin tone. This is a great material as this type of paint allows the silicone to stretch and bend without the paint cracking or chipping off.
For a more realistic decapitated head suffering from the beginning stages of death/decomposition, I painted bruises, veins and shadows to hollow out the under eyes while adding a blueish tint to the lips for a more realistic look.
The victim of the Lion.
whether his death results from disloyalty, questioning, or pure opposition to his reign, none are tolerated.
I then hairpunched the brows, lashes and moustache adding a wig for the hair.
Originally I wouldn't say I liked this wig but after cutting it into a short, neat male style appropriate for the time, I started to like the head with hair.
Adding the crepe hair was such an underrated step in this process, although one I was looking forward to as it was my first hair punching, once the brow and lashes were done it was incredible just how much this small step can add to the overall look of the finished piece.
Process pictures: makeup trail
I'm thrilled I got to do a makeup trial as these are prime moments to work out any last-minute issues you might face.
From this I worked out how long it would take me to do the makeup and how long it would take me to get a blending edge I was happy with, as well as having an added opportunity to see how I wanted the beard to lay as it was crepe hair added to the model's original beard.
This shot was one I had planned in advance of the shoot I felt l knew my character and knew how he would interact with his victim.
He glorifies his work, proudly showing off what he has done, and in such a way that it is clear that there is no remorse, he views the head as an object, not a person, taking complete ownership of it and presenting it as if it was a prize.
This was one of the two prosthetics I had ready to go, one for trial makeup and the other for the finished look.
Both are painted with alcohol paints, and hair punched with crepe hair.
Because I had two prosthetics I decided to play around with the colouring of the hair on the lion. One I matched to the references of real lions the other I matched to my model's natural hair colouring.
Having a trial makeup is key as it allows you to understand just how long it will take you to complete your final look, as well as iron out any last minute issues you might face.
Trial makeup: As stated above having trial makeup is key to having a good final look.
This trial allowed me to understand how important placement was for this piece as any deviation meant that the eyes would be affected creating a droopy eye effect that I was not going for, as well as showing me that cutting the beard too severely resulted in an unnatural appearance.
The shoot for this character was something I thought about in detail.
To do this I decided on a
presidential/royalty theme for my shoot, wanting images that convey power, control, and
totalitarianism
these references were the images I looked at for shooting my character.
I wanted my work to convey a domineering and aggressive overall tone.
I wanted to communicate that this character was in complete power, a dictator and a tyrant.
Overall I am beyond proud of the piece I have created.
This is a response to "A Week Of Kindness" by artist, Max Ernst.
A piece of art that poses the question "if you could get away with it would you?"
The moral dilemma.
My piece brings to life a character from Ernst work,
The lion.
A ferocious and ruthless character, half man half lion that represents mankind at its worst.
How individualism, ego and greed can topple the strongest of society.
Thesis Title : The strengthening tropes of women in horror.
This thesis aims to show the lineage of tropes given to female horror characters.
How in the last 50 years female, horror characters have gone from helpless victims to knife wielding revenge seeking main characters.
I look through the Femme Fatales of the 1950s,
The Final girls of the 1990s, and
finishing on the Good For Her girls of the 2010s.
