Cranial Makeup

The very first thing I learnt in my Cinemagraphic Makeup course was how to do a Cranial Makeup.  Little did I know that this skeletal style undercoat was the base makeup for all character makeup that has ever existed or ever will.  Even some beauty makeup, particularly photographic,   makes use of the Cranial base coat.

Cranial makeup is the basics of makeup – contouring and highlighting.  The idea is to contour the parts of the face you want to push back using darker tones and highlight the sections of the face you want to bring forward and emphasise using lighter tones.  The rule of thumb is 2-3 shades darker than the skin tone for contouring and 2-3 shades lighter for highlighting.  The key areas of the face that need attention are the eye sockets, temples, cheekbones, jawline and for added effect the muscles and tendons of the neck.  However, for beauty makeup the eye sockets are not contoured, rather highlighting is applied around the sockets area to bring the eyes forward and make them stand out.

Cranial makeup left as is with slight additions such as red around the nose and eyes can be used to create the illusion that a person is sick, ill, or with extreme contouring and highlighting, even dying or dead.  The other end of the cranial makeup scale is when the base is then used as the first layer to an elaborate character makeup that consists of several layers, effects and styles.

We had a bit of a play with applying a character makeup over the top and came with skeletons and skulls, evil witches and vampires.  We even ended up creating a decaying corpse look – with the skin looking like it had been rotting underwater for a month or so. 

From Analogholiday.blogspot.com.au

The character makeup used for Johnny Depp in almost all of the Tim Burton films he has starred in showcases the use of cranial makeup.  Depp has a very sharp and skeletal facial structure to begin with and by emphasising his natural contours and highlights his makeup artist has been able to create some very interesting effects.  

Characters such as Edward Scissorhands, Barnabus Collins, The Mad Hatter, and Willy Wonka are among some of the best examples of the transformation of Johnny Depp into Tim Burton characters using cranial makeup. 

The benefits of Cranial makeup is truly underestimated, and the use of this base coat within the makeup industry is clearly prominent. I hope that this post showcases this and the art of Cranial Makeup is appreciated.