Fantasy Make-Up

Three fantasy films with interesting make-up is Roald Dhal's The Witches, Harry Potter & The Chambers Of Secrets & Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.


Majority of the make-up used in the Harry Potter films have now been replaced by the use of CGI special effects, however here is how I would recreate Hermione's cat look in the Chamber of Secrets film after she'd taken the polyjuice potion.

Prosthetics could be used to create the appearance of the prominent feline nose & mouth features which would be held onto the face by a special glue. The facial hair could be made on a malleable block, like that of a fake moustache or eyebrows, & applied to the face & held on using spirit gum to make it look like fur. Contact lenses could then finish the look to create the overall realistic cat appearance.


Jack Sparrow's 'Tribe Leader' eight eye Make-Up would be simple to recreate but is really effective as a make-up illusion.

The overall look can be recreated using greasepaints or face paints. The eyes are just an example of the illusions make-up can create on a person, although they look like real eyes they are infact painted on his eyelids - creepy! To create this look I would first use a foundation on the face. I would then block in the colour, like the green on his nose & the yellow on his cheeks, using greasepaints. To start the eyes I would start with the white, as drawing the outline in black to start could be smudged out by the white when it gets filled in. I would then mix some colours on my hand to make an eye colour which is natural looking & apply this ontop of the white to create the iris - once I have done this I could also add some subtle strokes of darker & lighter tones of colour to make the eyeball look more realistic - & finish with the pupil & some light reflections. Then I would outline the eyes in black & add the lines leading upto his nose. As I would use greasepaints for this particular look (as I can blend colours together easily, for example the eye colour) I would need to set this well using a generous amount of translucent powder - particularly on the eyelids as the colours may smudge & crease.


The Grand High Witch - from Roald Dahl's 'The Witches' - is transformed into her true appearance by prosthetics & special effects make-up.

A silicon mask was used in the film to create the Grand High Witch's scary apperance, however, I'm going to explain how I would recreate this look as a simplified version. I would apply a bald cap & blend this into the skin first. I would then apply the prosthetic pieces, for example her nose, chin & the stretched skin on her ears using a glue to make them stick. I would then use dermawax on the face to create her prominent cheeks & forehead & latex to create some extra stretched, hanging skin which I could fill with tuplast in some areas to make the appearance of warts. With all of this blended into the skin appropriately, I would then start her make-up - greasepaints could be mixed together to make her almost decaying looking skintone & also be used to highlight & shade any areas such as her cheek bones or temples to make them look sunk in. I would also use a purple on her eyelids & a red on her lips as shown in the picture. To finalise the look I would use some brown teeth paint to emphasise the disgusting, scary witch look.