The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1886-02-20
The Actors Makeup.

hung between two lights. He has
ready to his hand sticks of grease
paints of all colors, and cosmetics,
pencil brushes, spirit gum for stick
ing on noses or whiskers, and
hare's foot. Now, suppose he is
going to make up for an old man.
He takes a stick of flesh colored
grease paint, warns it slightly and
rubs it over his face, just the same
as a scene painter sizes his canvas
before painting the picture on it.
Then if he is going to make up for
some historical character he has a
picture of the original before him
and he must line his face according
to it. Otherwise he goes to work
and makes the face he fancies. After
the first coat of flesh-colored paint
he covers his cheeks and lips with
vermillion. He next draws two
short lines wide apart at the top and
almost converging between the eye
brows, and straight line between
them. These lines are put on with
India ink applied with a pencil
brush. Crows feet with three little
lines at the outer corner of the eyes
give them the old wrinkled express
sion. Two parallel lines on each
side of the face, one beginning near
the inner corner of the eye and the
other beginning at the base of the
nose just at that wrinkle back of
the nose, each about half an inch
long, with an ordinary face and
slanting downward, give the len eth
ened expression to the face. A line
across the chin, blended downward
at the ends, with the short stroke in
the dimple, completes the lining re-
quired with an ordinary old mans
face. Different old man characters
must, of course, be given different
expressions about the mouth, and
these are made with lines to suit the
expression. To make himself look
as ii he was couple of weeks with
out shave is the simplest thing
imaginable All he has to do is to
burn a newspaper and rub the ashes
where the barber put the lather and
he will have a strong two weeks old
black beard. He can tone that down
by rubbing in ground chalk.
ITO make the arms thin a line of
brown or green grease paint run
along the viens will make a fat
round arm look like that of a shriv-
eled old woman. For a young man
or a hero character the same ground
work is laid on; vermillion or rouge
is applied to the lips and cheeks
with the hare's foot. The eyebrows
are blackened with India ink, and a
thin line is drawn on the under eve
lid extending from the inner corner
of the eye to a little beyond the
outer corner and right under the
hair line of the lash. In backing
the eyebrows the ladies frequently
use the SCOT of gas smoke, collected
by holding a piece of glass over the
burner 1t is one of the best colors
and the least harmful.
"For q snub nose a small line
drawn over the nose and another
drawn under the point of the same
organ will give it beautiful snub,
but if he is the unfortunate poses
sor of natural snub he can't take
it off with all the lines he can draw
He has to build it out with putty or
dough. An acter cannot enlarge his
mouth nor diminish the size Of his
ears with paint.
"To take off the grease paints
cocoa butter is generally used. 1t is
applied over the paints and the
whole mass rubbed off with a dry
towel, after which the face is wash
ed with water False noses of paper
are seldom worn any more, Dough,
putty and cotton, shaped and made
as the wearer wills, is the rule nova
days. Hollowness of the face is
made by rubbing paper ashes on
the cheeks and the eyes are sunken
by putting red paint on the upper
eyelids.
"Burnt cork artists have the cas-
lest makeup used ON the stage. All
they have to do is to get few corks,
burn them completely, grind them
fine to remove the grit and apply
damp. They paint their lips with
rouge and they enlarge their mouths
by rubbing off the cork about half
an inch on each side. They seldom
moisten the cork with anything ex-
cept water, as grease and things like
that would make the cork stick into
the skin. Grease paints and cork
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