Death masks

As preserving the dead was a very important aspect either by photographing them, making busts such as Queen victoria did of her husband she was known for moaning his death for 40 years only ever wearing black and she used to make her staff set out his outfit, medicine,bed pan and bed linning out every day which reminds me of Ms Haversham so knowing Dickens liked to promote public issues and play on life it made me think that he was showing how foolish the queen was by almost greating the story as a joke on her by portraying how holding onto that grief and pain will only hurt you and the others around you and wont bring any joy into her life by holding onto the past. As Queen victoria was seen as a celebrity no wonder why the fashion was dark colours and how everyone seemed to be obbesed with death and preserving the dead. So I made my own versions of death masks using makeup these were my results

 My first attempt was on myself I do like the end results as I like the softness of the contouring around the eyes I feel it makes it look more peaceful. Although I think I concentrated  too much on making the face pale and think it would be more effective if I made the contouring more visible and added more depth especially to the fore head. I feel the darkness on the cupids bow works well but I need to blend more of the nose so it doesn't just look like a straight line and to make it seem more 3D. Overall I do like this for my first attempt as I feel it looks quite peaceful on my next 'death mask' I will concentrate more on making it dramatic and blending the fore head in more.

Death mask number two for this example I tried not to higlight as much but to consentrate on the contouring which I feel worked out better I really liked the out come of this espeically the lines of the cheeks and cupids bow I feel they worked well I also tried contouring in a harsher way which I do think looks more powerful on camera although the softer contouring works well on the chin.

My third attempt I feel I went too harsh with the colours although I lik the nose and fore head I feel I could have blended more on the eyes and cheek bone.