My new Elizabethan is the 'alter ego' of Queen Elizabeth's Maid of Honour and lady in waiting; Elizabeth Brydges. I chose to base my Hair and Make-up design on Elizabeth Brydges as her dull and depressing life stood out to me when reading about her life, in comparison to Queen Elizabeth's other Ladies in waiting whom all experienced scandalous affairs and royal tragedies. Because of this I decided that I would create a morbid and revengeful alter ego for Elizabeth Brydges, who would be reincarnated as creepy, evil, powerful and wealthy and all the things Elizabeth wanted to be but was never able to be. When creating some face charts to communicate my design and character, I first began making designs that included colours such as gold, bronze and green so that I could use symbolism to communicate my contemporary character, similarly to how symbolism was used in traditional Elizabethan portraiture e.g green shades could communicate the emotion envy and greed. After creating a few different face chart designs I felt that colour wasn't working for me and that I wanted to create a character that appeared more creepy with the use of minimal colour, because of this I began creating monochrome face charts consisting of only black and white.
I created some face charts and decided on a final look for my partner to recreate in our timed assessment. When we practiced outside of practical sessions I was happy with the outcome but I decided to change the subtle gold detailing under my eyes to a silver colour instead. I chose to change the gold to silver instead because I felt that the silver colour was more subtle and expensive looking, also you could only see the silver when reflected in the light which I thought was a nice touch. The silver colour for me symbolised wealth and aristocracy similar to what gold and silver colours symbolised in the Elizabethan era. Incorporating this colour also allowed me to bring my abstract makeup design and Elizabethan theme together more.
The information below is sourced from the site; http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-gold.htm
The information below best describes my reasoning for experimenting with the colour gold in
my makeup design and the Elizabethan symbolism it holds.
The Meaning of the color GoldThe color and material used in Elizabethan Clothing was extremely important. People who could wear the color Gold was dictated by English Law. These were called the Sumptuary Laws. The colors of Elizabethan clothes, including the color Gold, provided information about the status of the man or woman wearing them. This was not just dictated by the wealth of the person, it also reflected their social standing. The meaning of colors during the Elizabethan era represented many aspects of their life - the social, religious, biblical and Christian symbolism was reflected in the color Gold.'
The information below is sourced from the site;
The information below best describes my reasoning for experimenting with the colour silver in my makeup design and the symbolism it holds.
The Color Silver Represents:
Illumination: silver opens the mind and lights the way forward.
Reflection: it reflects back the energy sent out, whether that energy is positive or negative.
Prestige and Wealth: silver is seen as glamorous and sophisticated, and relates to the professional and corporate market.
Feminine Power: it is related to the femininity of the moon's energy, sensitive, emotional and fluid.
As I reflect on my primary research and contemporary and historical references I feel that the influence of a monochrome theme has been continuous and as I began looking more at Elizabethan portraiture and the work of the photographer; Hendrick Kerstens I recognised the influence it had on my design. The similarity of the work of Hendrick Kerssens and also Elizabethan portraiture was that they both had very contrasted, dark backgrounds painted or placed behind the sitter. After discussing this with my partner Beccy I discovered that this style of photography is called 'Flemish Photography'. The art of Flemish painting began in the early 15th century following onto the 17th century. Flemish painting appears to hold the same style of the sitter or object painted in oil paints with bright or pigmented colours, making them almost look like a photograph. Flemish painting derived from the Netherlands and became extremely popular in Ancient Rome and Belgium. Some Flemish paintings are very intricate and surreal and others are very abstract and rich in colour. After researching more about this art form, I found that many contemporary artists such as Hendrick Kerstens have used this art form to either create or influence their own work.
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| The Ermine Portrait by Nicholas Hilliard c1585. Image sourced from Google. http://www.gogmsite.net/_Media/1585_elizabeth_ermine_portr.jpg The above portrait best describes the monochrome colour scheme and contrasting colours that I felt were influential on my make-up designs. Queen Elizabeth appears to be wearing a black gown with gold, red and green detailing. Although the dress is covered in beautiful detailing and embroidery it seems to give the illusion that her body is disappearing into the dark background painted behind her. Whenever Elizabethan portraiture is like this and the sitter is dressed completely in black, blending into their background I feel the portrait becomes very creepy and cold, almost like the sitter is a ghost. Realising this, I feel that I have included the monochrome illusion into my look without even realising it. The collaboration of Alexander Khokhlov and Valeriya Kutsan in the series 'Weird Beauty and 2D or not 2D, have inspired me a lot when looking at contemporary examples of my final makeup design. I have previously researched and used the collaboration of these two artists before in my work, and when I thought of my final design I remembered that the makeup artist Valeriya Kutsan had made some very similar illusion makeup looks. This is an image that best describes how I find these two artists perfect, when comparing my final design to a modern example. 
The above image is called 'Newton's Cradle' created by Valeriya Kutsan and photographed by Alexander Khokhlov, this beautiful image is featured in the Shapes and Illusions section on the official website. I have chosen to feature this image in my blog and talk about it because, It is the main image I found that best presents a contemporary example of my final contemporary Elizabethan makeup design. I am unsure of the inspiration of the series of these makeup images but I admire them a lot. In this image the model appears to have makeup applied on her in a way that makes her blend in and form into her environment and the hanging objects beside her. Similar to my final design the makeup style is monochrome and the application on the two contrasting colors are very precise, exact and neat. Black face paint covers the models chest up to the neck and then neatly applied around the face and possibly the top of the head in a precise circle shape. I like that the white makeup applied on the model looks similar to the traditional Elizabethan makeup worn in the era and that the hair is also white not only the eyes and face, this makes the model look completely consumed in the color perfectly matching the objects beside her. Although in my contemporary design the black precise line of colour begins at the top of the lip and then covering the neck, the placing of the colour is very similar to mine, following facial features to decide how to create the final circular shape. After observing her precise shaping I have become intrigued as to how Valeriya created such a perfect circle shape, I created a stencil for my partner to use in our timed assessment so that it was much easier and even.
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Bibliography and References-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_painting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_and_Flemish_Renaissance_painting
http://www.britannica.com/art/Flemish-art
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/flemish-painting.htm
http://www.gogmsite.net/_Media/1585_elizabeth_ermine_portr.jpg
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