The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-02-09

SlTIStef look
Then the Thespian painted his upper
lip white and carried the color down to
his mouth, and the high light of the
color gave the features very long
look. like that of an 1rishman. Next
he rubbed his beard and upper lip with
a blush gray paint and Immediately
an unshaved expression was given to
the face. The eyebrows were entirely
obliterated with heavy coating Of
flesh" foundation color, and new eye
brows painted diagonally across the
forehead. resulting in a quizzical ex-
preston to the eyes. He took a stick
of nose putty" not unlike the COM
mon commercial article in looks. and
worked the sticky material under the
surface of the water in a nearby wash
basin. When Ii was soft and pliable
he fastened 1T upon his face, being care
full to always keep his fingers wet. In
this way he changed the contour of his
nose and made moles and similar blem-
ishes ad libitum. afterwards covering
the putty with melted grease paint un-
til the artificial portions could not be
distinguished from the rest of the face.
The lower lip was made to protrude
ing to its prominence. and leaving the
upper lip unpainted. The size of the
mouth was increased by drawing lines
on either side and emphasizing the
whole with red. Teeth were knock, q
out most recklessly by covering them
with shoemaker's wax: the eyes were
given an expression of soreness by
drawing red lines along the lower
lashes. and of heaviness by shading Of
dark red along the upper lids.
These tricks are very useful" he
explained. "in what are known as
character make-ups. or when the
actor assumes a role with strong pecul-
iarities. But the face is given the ap-
pearance of age by simply holding the
mirror up to nature, as it were. For
an old man the actor has a foundation
color that Is either extremely pale or
has almost any degree of sallowness.
Then he uses one of the dark shades,
brown, gray or deep red, to create
shadows around the eyes, across the
temples. from the bridge of the nose to
the chin, in the cavities of the neck
and on the cheeks near the ears. Just
as red gives prominence to any part Of
the face and kills shadow, so gray
or brown will decrease the size and ac-
centuate the shadow.
Except in a few instances where
shadows are created arbitrarily, to give
a peculiar expression. the safest guide
in this class of makeup is to follow
the natural depressions of the face, or
create shadows where they would ap-
pear should the face grow thin and
pinched As a consequence of this the
ory, an actor when he appears upon
the stage and gives full play to his
facial expression will find the shadows
an aid to his work, because they are
reflections of himself, and the audi
ence will be the more deceived because
every shadow is in its proper place and
therefore looks prfectly natural.
THE same rule applies to lines and
wrinkles. The face is first drawn up
into wrinkles and the lines are painted
exactly where those wrinkles occur.
and as a result an actor when he
wrinkles his face while before an audi
ence. causes the painted line to empha-
size the natural one. without the ap-
pearance of artifice 1t will be noticed,
however, that in the wrinklcd features
of old age, "a depression is generally
accompanied by IL parallel ridge Of
flesh, and when Il young actor with Il
perfectly smooth skin wishes to re-
produce this wrinkle and its parallel
ridge he is forced to resort to artifce.
He draws the wrinkle in dark paint
and the parallel ridge of flesh with very
light paint, afterwards blending them
by passing Il finger over the two and
deadening the whole with powder. In
the same way the shadows upon the
cheeks or about the mouth are empha-
sized by contrasting lines or areas of
light paint, the high light of the one
increasing the depth of the shadow"
These remarks were illustrated as the
talk progressed, and now the actor put
on bald wig and a pair of spectacles,
and his transformation from youth to
old age was complete.
The general principles Of make UPS"
he continued. vary but slightly in their
application to half dozen different
characters. and in order to make the
face different for each occasion, the
actor resOrtc to the use of hair. This
branch Of the work calls for as much
care and skill as all the painting put
together, and is the greatest feature of
this branch of stage work" He then
initiated the novice into the mysteries
of his wig box. First he brought out
couple of long boards, in which the
hair was fastened. strand by strand.
upon fine silk gauze, shaped to tit the
chin. and held in place by an elastic
band that passed over the top of the
head. When in position this band was
concealed beneath the wig, or had the
hair of the wearer combed over it. pro-
Vided no wig was worn. These boards.
as well as moustaches, similarly con
structedwere fastened about the mouth
with spirit gum" glue made for the
purpose out of ether, gum mastic, resin,
or perhaps white shellac.
"These boards built on gauze," he re-
marked, ARE used when some arbitrary
shape is required, where the whiskers
are very long, or where an actor must
makeup very quickly. for it is an easy
matter tn apply them. One of thei.'
disadvantages. however. is that they
always look artificial, and it is almost
impossible To regulate their contour
The most natural boards, and the class
which are capable of the finest work i'm
detail, are made out of this crepe
hair He displayed long rome of
hair plated around two lines of twine,
but easily unraveled from either end,
so as to leave closely crimped tufts.
This hair is bought by the yard, and
comes i'm almost every shade, from
snow white, or jet black. to brilliant
red and Hibernian green. the latter
shade being used by burlesquers. The
writer's informant pulled out hand
full of this from the coil and worked it
with his fingers until every knot and
tangle was pulled out. Part of the hair