Harry Potter: Dobby

            Well, I’m a big Harry Potter fan. In fact, I was that stupid teenage girl in the audience that cried when Dobby died. It gets me every time. I’m a teenager, give me a break. Anyhow, I got recent inspiration to re-watch the entire series. And as soon as Dobby died, it hit me. This would be a great how-to! This is going to require some special makeup that is often seasonal, so I’m sorry in advance.

 

            There is crème makeup that many people get around Halloween due to the fact there are a lot of Halloween stores around town. People can also get them during football season because so many people like to paint their bodies for games. You will need a skin color, yellow, light brown, and white. This will give you the perfect tone of Dobby’s skin. Green crème will help with the eyes. Something to mix on and with will also be called for. To get the dirty house-elf look you can use a dark powder with a fluffy brush so it is dusted on and doesn’t actually look like makeup. To get the lines and depth of Dobby’s face you can use brown eye pencils and skin wax for extra oomph. You will also need a black eyeliner and crème. You can buy ears like Dobby’s at Halloween stores or you can search for them online. For his nose, you might be better off just using skin wax.

 

 

                Dobby’s eyes are generally bigger than the common human eye, therefore you can use a special trick to get big eyes without using much. Basically, once you mix the color you want for the skin tone of Dobby, you can start applying all over your face and down your neck, until you reach the point that is going to be covered by clothing. Two to three coats should do the trick. Next would be to make the lines of Dobby’s forehead. You should take your brown eye pencil and make sure that it is sharp enough to make a precise line. He has many wrinkles like an old person with a few more characterizing lines. If you make an angry face and lightly draw in the natural lines your face already has, then you have half the work easily done. There are three curving lines on his forehead that really shouldn’t be on your angry face. However, if you raise your eyebrows, you can get a general idea of where and what the lines should look like. If you squint your eyes you can get the defining lines that Dobby has near his bulbous green eyes. There are only a few more lines you should have to draw in. When you smile really hard, you have lines around your mouth. Pencil those in. Last, but not least, Dobby has some pretty bad bags under his eyes. Let’s face it, being a house-elf is tiring work!

 

                The next step would be to blend these lovely lines in. The lighter you applied them, the easier it will be. If these lines didn’t give you the depth you wanted in Dobby’s face then you can add skin wax in between the three major lines in the forehead and smudge those in to make more dramatic changes in depth. Now you have the basics. You may ask, well my eyes look really tiny, how do I get the huge bulbous ones? I’m getting to that now. If you close your eyes and roughly paint a large circle to your eyebrows and a little over then fill in, INCLUDING YOUR EYEBROWS, then you get a large eye started. Dobby doesn’t have eyebrows, so don’t worry about looking weird. Next is to add the pupil and iris. Dobby has very beautiful green eyes. You can mix many different shades to get all the different rings and parts to come out with a black dot in the middle. Just make a smaller circle within the white that you already painted.  The eyes are really based on opinion so I’m not going to go into detail about how to make eyes. If you can mix a light brown that isn't much darker than the original shade you used all over your face to go around the eyes it adds depth and detail. Dobby doesn't have eyebrows or eyelashes so adding hair won't be necessary.


               Now you have every other feature excluding the nose and ears. You already have the ears from buying or making them, not sure what you would like to do. To make the nose we are going to go back to the skin wax. His nose is very large and triangular. You can add layer on layer of skin wax until you get the shape you would like. I suggest using a picture to base the nose off of. Just keep in mind, the skin wax melts very quickly. If you add lotion or Vaseline to your fingers then it won't melt as fast while you work with it.


               Any other details or questions you might need help with, feel free to post as a comment and I’ll get back to ya!


Dramatic exit-- Director J