Eleanore - Character Design

Creating Eleanore was a bit of a challenge; from the start I had decided she should be based on one of the silent movie starlettes, since I imagined her acting in a similar manner, though not quite so overstated. I began by working from photos of the likes of Louise Brooks to get a base, until I reached something I was more or less satisfied with. The idea was that at first glance she should come across as a frail little thing, put upon by circumstance, a classic, albeit faded, English beauty, the stereotypical colonial wife. Naturally, however, her character could not end there; she needed some bite, some substance, which is were the angles in her face came into play, her pointed chin and defined jawline. In the final tweaks (which occured when the character was more or less fully modelled) I brought her eyes slightly closer together, and lengthened her chin. Minor Hairfarm details such as her rather long, dark eyebrows enabled me to give her more structure, and make her more atypical. The rest was left up to her acting.