I will be portraying the Grounds Keeper for the play Tilly, based on the book by Frank Peretti.   In general, the makeup should indicate that he spends a lot of time in the sun.

I have always been puzzled by the issue of making up a face of someone who has been out in the sun a lot.  The parts of the face that get more sun (i.e. the parts that face upwards more) the darker would be, because of tanning. But, at the same time, normally we highlight those areas with a lighter color.

So, which theory wins out?  Studying photos, the lighter highlights are definitely there.  But, the wrinkles are definitely deeper and darker than on a non-weathered face.  It also seems like the highlights are more on the front (i.e. vertical) portion of the wrinkle, rather than being on the very top.

The wrinkles themselves seem to be finer wrinkles, rather than the kind of deep ones caused by sagging skin with age.  So, the sunken cheeks, etc of an aged makeup is not necessarily needed.

Here is my current strategy.  I should mention that I am a man in his 50's with a light complexion. I plan to make the overall ares more exposed to the sun darker than the rest of the skin.  But, when it comes time to do the wrinkles, I will use darker colors than I might otherwise, and also apply highlighting.  I will apply the highlighting by wrinkling my face physically, and then applying the highlight by brushing over the peaks, as opposed to drawing each highlight individually.  I will also try to add some fine cross-grain wrinkles at about 60 Deg from the main wrinkles.

-Joe