Day of the Dead Headdress and Mask Ideas

Ideas for my chosen theme: Day of the Dead

The theme I picked for my final project is Day of the Dead as I love the idea of creating something with a Halloween feel which is almost bittersweet, which the dark Gothic vibes bit bright colours on the face. 

I originally designed a headdress and forgot it had to be a mask. As I liked my design for the headdress I didn't want to change it too drastically with a mask so I added a paper mache bit at the front. I had a pattern on the forehead which I was going to paint but what would now be covered by the mask so I decided to put the design on the mask piece and paint it on. 

I was going to use crosses, roses, a skull and a black veil as key elements to decorate my piece. I picked a colour theme of black, red and white for the head pieces and mask. 

Original Headdress and Makeup Design

Finalizing my mask design - 

I kept the head dress idea and still came across a few complications. I had trouble getting a skull of the size I needed so I have actually got a skull which is used for a gear stick. It quite heavy but once on the head feels fine as it is in the middle so doesn't fall to one side. I also removed the idea of crosses as I ordered some which came up too big and they didn't fit on the head dress nicely. 

Makeup - 

I really wanted to paint the face and the body for this look but as I don't have loads of time I will only be painting the chest (what is visible from the costume). A sugar skull would be on the face in UV paint and a skeleton chest and neck will also be painted on in the same paint. I will be testing this out before my final design. 

Practice - 

I practiced the makeup on myself before I did it on my model. I bought Kryolan's White UV Cream which I wasn't particularly fond of. It seems to streak a lot which is understandable as many UV products can. It also doesn't show up very well once the UV Lights are on the makeup, some areas seemed to and others not so much. I really wanted a white base for this look and one that glowed ideally. I had to change my design to a UV Yellow in order to get the glow I wanted. I don't particularly love this makeup before the lights are on it as I don't think yellow looks as good as white but once it is glowing everything seems to come to life. 

Makeup practice on myself

Makeup practice on myself in UV lighting

I then adapted the makeup when practicing on my model to see if I swapped some of the colours around would it still work. Here is my outcome of my second attempt - 

Second attempt of makeup on my model with completed headdress/mask

I think the yellow looks better than the white so I was quite happy with this makeup. 

Hair - 

I want to french plait the hair as I feel I need more practice at this skill and it will keep the hair from getting in the face when I am painting or getting frizzy if the veil roughs it up. I can also stick roses in the tail of the braid to decorate it. 

Practice - 

I practiced the plait on my model beforehand and found that it was easy to do but hard to get neat. I will spend more time on the day to try and perfect it as much as I can. I also need to remember to use hairspray on flyaways. The roses were quite big and my models hair is quite thin on the tail of the plait so I wasn't too sure about the idea to put roses in the hair unless I bought smaller ones but I don't have time. The roses came with wires in so I will cut them down and play around with them on the day. 

Costume Idea - 

I already had a costume in mind when I was creating this theme but I kept an open mind about changing it if I found one better. I have a multi-purpose Halloween costume which could be a witch or vampire. It is dark and spooky which is the vibe I was going for and exposed enough of the chest so that I could body paint it.