The Outcome - Timed Assessment

In the timed assessment, my partner, Phoebe had to recreate the design that I have created for my contemporary Elizabethan image. The timed assessment lasted a total of one and a half hours. Within that time, Phoebe had to complete my makeup and hair designs on me. 

The final outcome

Peer-review Evaluation 

Personally I feel that Phoebe did a great job. I feel that we were fully prepared for the timed assessment; we met up and went over the look. We practiced the design on my face twice before doing the timed assessment. The both times that we recreated the look, we made slight adjustments and improvements, for example, at first the eyebrows were to be coloured in, however, we felt that the eyebrows overpowered the looks and found that whitening out the eyebrows complemented the rest of the face makeup much better. Phoebe was very good at the base makeup and eyebrows, she also did well in matching and mixing the eyeshadows that I wanted on the eyes. However, I was concerned about her skills in applying fake lashes (as paperself lashes were used in the look) because she had little experience with them, I showed her how to apply the glue and how I wanted them to sit on my eyes. Phoebe had some trouble with the lips, she had trouble lining the lips and finding the right lip colour. I helped her overcome that by stretching my lips in different ways, making it easier for her to work on, she improved after a couple of practices. Before the timed assessment, I gave Phoebe a list of products that she will be needing, facechart and a step to step guide with simple instructions, I also supplied her with the lashes, gems and lip colour. During the assessment, she referred to my instructions and facechart and did well in executing the look. I was extremely impressed by her eyebrow tinting technique. In the assessment Phoebe looked professional and I was fully confident with her ability.

My timed assessment – recreating partner’s design

When I first saw Phoebe’s design, she told me she was not 100% sure of it. We both analysed her facecharts and she explained all her ideas to me, I gave her a couple of suggestions and we ended up changing her design a little. In her design, she wanted to whiten the eyelashes, I was a little concerned with that because lash pigmentation is not one of my strong points, I was also concerned about creating the freckles on the face, worried that they may look too uniform thus making them look unrealistic. I overcame this as I practiced really getting into the lashes with a disposable mascara wand, I also practiced drawing freckles, drawing them as randomly as I could, and powering over them, softening the pencil and giving a more natural effect.

I felt confident on the day of the timed assessment, however, afterwards, I felt that I should have used a white mascara instead of white foundation to pigment the eyelashes because the foundation was quite heavy and made the lashes drop a little, I also wish I contoured the face a little bit more. Overall, I feel that I did well in executing my partner’s design, I felt that the hair really complemented the look. I am proud of myself for achieving the look in the time we were given, this had made me more confident with my time management skills.

My New Elizabethan: Trial

 After creating my three designs for my new Elizabethan character. I have reflected and I have chosen to use the third design as I feel that it says more to me, there is more symbolism within the makeup. I also feel that makeup will look best with the hair design that will accompany the look. I also really like the colour combination and features of the look. 

So, in the last practical session, I talked to my partner (Phoebe, who will be executing the look on me in the timed assessment)about how the look will be executed on the day of the assessment. 

Phoebe practiced recreating the look on me and afterwards, we made a few adjustments and improvements. 



Chosen design: 































Here is the trial outcome: 


Note: Instead of the black lashes in the first trial, paperself lashes have been used instead to create a more regal delicate feature and keeping the eyes lighter. This also makes the lips stand out stronger, creating more contrast. 














After we tested out the look on my face and added a few adjustments, we spotted that some improvements needed to be made. 

The highlight on the cupid bow is too strong and looks messy, this can be fixed by just adding some highlight powder, or keeping the harsh white but using a thinner brush and make the outline very thin and subtle. 

The eyebrows overpower the look, I suggested that instead of filling in the brows, they can be whitened and the eyeshadow can be raised higher onto the brow bone creating a softer feel. 

The lips needed to be darker, so, I suggested to line and fill the lips with black eyeliner and fill with a wine red lip colour, evoking a more gothic and harsher feel. 

With all that said, I went to create a new face chart alongside a list of products she will need in which she can refer to in the timed assessment when executing the look.

I will be supplying Phoebe with Paperself lashes, tiny pearls and MAC lipstick in REBEL to create the look. 

Practical Session: Contemporary Elizabethan Make-up

In this session, I was told to create a contemporary Elizabethan look inspired by the photo below.

This was the outcome

Products used: 

Illamasque Satin Primer 

Illamasque White foundation

Illamasque Loose Powder 

Screenface neutral eye shadows 

Kryolan lip palette 

MAC black liner 

Illamasque Disobey 

I followed the following procedure: 

1. Gown model and clip hair away from her face. 

2. Prep face and consult 

3. Mix a little satin primer with white foundation and apply evenly to face with flat foundation brush. 

4. Blend and buff foundation into skin with large buffing brush. 

5. Using a disposable mascara wand, comb through eyebrows with white foundation. 

6. Powder with Illamasque loose powder with a large powder brush.

7. Using a matte brown shadow and a base shadow brush, apply to the eyelids. 

8. Using a shading brush, pact a darker brown onto the outer V of the eyes creating a wing and bring down onto outer portion of the lash line. 

9. With the rest of the shadow on the brush, use it to contour the nose. 

10. Using MAC black liner, line the top lash line, creating a wing. 

11. Curl lashes and apply mascara to top and bottom 

12. Contour the face using a large angled brush, creating dark shadows under the cheekbones and a little on the temples. 

13. Line lips with black eyeliner, creating a strong shape and exaggerate the cupids bow. Fill in lips. 

(In the original photo the models lips are filled out and exaggerated but I wanted to keep my models lips small and stern looking) 

14. Using a lip brush, apply a wine red colour to the centre of the lips and blend out. 

15. Powder the lips to give a matte finish. 

16. Using a small angled brush, go round the lips with the foundation used to create a very clean cut sharp edge. 

Hendrik Kersten

The photos of the Contemporary Elizabethan Makeup really remind me of Dutch photographer Hendrik Kersten's work. 

Hendrik Kersten is a Dutch photographer, in 1995, he turned to a model close to hand; his daughter Paula. Time and time again, he uses his daughter as a model, as if he is trying to immortalise her and to stop time. I love the contrast within his work, his work evokes a creepy atmosphere, the white and black reminds me of death , Paula is captured beautifully but also with a ghostly stare.

The use of everyday objects as garments are very inspiring, you have to look closely to see what has been used. I really want to incorporate this into my work in the future, experimenting with different colours and textures.

Hendrik Kersten's work look like portrait paintings, you can see similarities between his work and paintings of the italian renaissance. his work greatly reminds me of the famous portrait, 'Girl with the pearl earring'. 

Practical Session: Elizabethan Period MakeUp

During the Elizabethan era, women wore cosmetics that are radically different to the cosmetics that we wear today. Many were harmful to the skin, including materials such as lead and ceruse ( a mix of vinegar and lead).

One of Shakespeare's most popular sonnets pokes fun at the common metaphors used to describe the ideal beauty of Elizabethan women.

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

Coral is far more fair than her lips fair

If snow be white, why then, her breast is dun,

If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white

But no such roses see I in her cheeks..."

The ideal Elizabethan female is made up of bright eyes, snow-white skin, red cheeks and lips and fair hair. 

Pale skin was a sign of nobility and delicacy, and was sought after by many. In a time period where skin problems and pox was common, sunscreen was unheard of and ointments and creams were out reach for all but the wealthy. Smooth, unblemished and pale skin was a rarity. 

Once an ideal whiteness was achieved,fucus - the Elizabethan facepaint that came in different reds was painted onto the cheeks and lips. Apparently it was painted on rather thickly, one Elizabethan satirist commented that an artist need no box of paints to work but a fashionably painted lady standing nearby.

In this practical session, I was told to recreate a Elizabethan period look using modern day makeup. 

Available from: younghistorian7.wordpress.com
last accessed 28th Nov 2013

Products used: 

Illamasque Matte primer 
Illamasque Rich Liquid foundation 100
Illamasque Powder Blush Tremble 
Illamasque loose powder 010

Brush kit
Disposable mascara wands
Sponge

Steps I followed to recreate the Elizabethan Period makeup:

1. Gown model, it is very important to gown the model because a lot of powder is used to create this look and any spillages must be avoided. 

2. Prep skin: cleanse, tone and moisturise.

3. Mixing the satin base and white foundation, even apply to the entire face with a flat foundation brush. Avoid clown whiteness, you need the real skin to just peek out through the makeup. 

4. Using a buffing brush, buff and blend the foundation into the skin, this will ensure that there are no sharp edges and the foundation is blended in throughly. 

5. Using a disposable mascara wand, brush through the eyebrows with white foundation, making them white. 

6. Again with a disposable mascara wand, brush through the top and bottom eyelashes eyelashes also making them white. 

7. Using a puff sponge, powder the face heavily with illamasqua loose powder. Roll the powder on. Powder until the face is not tacky when touched. 

8. Using a blush brush, apply Illamasque tremble blush to the centre on the cheeks. DO NOT BRUSH UP, keep it concentrated on the apples of the cheeks and in a circular shape. 

9. Finally dab some of the blush onto the lips. 

Note: Make sure to continue down the neck and ears are also covered. 

The Elizabethan look is not supposed to make the face look flawless, Elizabethan makeup was not flawless, it was caked on creating a mask like effect. 

Designing the Contemporary Elizabethan

This semester at Solent make-up, I have been given the topic 'The New Elizabethans'. It is all about developing research and practical skills whilst creating a modern day Elizabethan character. 

My interpretation of the brief is: 

'To portray a Elizabethan persona in modern day through make-up and styling' 

Whilst researching, designing and creating my New Elizabethan character, I am ultimately achieving these aims: 

1.To have researched and have a good understanding of the appearance of women in the Elizabethan period.

2.Pin point aspects of Elizabethan styling and developing contemporary images and ideas.

3.To successfully create a new Elizabethan character.

4.To develop skills in communication, collaboration and negotiation alongside technical skills. 

I have drawn inspiration from many sources, from historical quotes and paintings, other artists interpretations, celebrity images and objects. 

After collecting and analysing images, I went to put together the main aspects that I found were prominent and repetitive. 

Using these thought bubbles, I went on to create 3 different makeup looks that I thought would portray an Elizabethan persona. I kept trying to refer back to Queen Elizabeth as I feel she is the ultimate Elizabethan woman.

Look 1

This is a monochromatic look. I have chosen to use the colour pink because I feel that it is a very warm colour to represent the love that Queen Elizabeth had for her people, but also her inner weakness and innocence. The eyes and lips are kept very soft, the eyelashes are whitened out to give a delicate and innocent feel. However, the eyebrows are kept strikingly bold and harsh, this is done to represent the power and strength of Queen Elizabeth, I tried to keep an intimidating aspect, however, it also has some geisha feel to them, which I am not too keen on. The cheeks are kept very rosy, rosy cheeks have been a repetitive feature to all the images I have seen as it is contextually accurate. Women would keep their cheeks very rosy during the Elizabethan period because rosy cheeks represented youth and innocence and men were drawn to it. I think the lips requires improvement as it looks like it doesn't belong to the face and its too red, a lighter pinker lip with a feathered out edge might look more appropriate.

Look 2

This is a very different look to the first one. I decided to challenge the traditional light Elizabethan eye. I intended to create dark shadows on the face using contouring to represent the harsh reign of Queen Elizabeth, her power and strength. I chose to use the colour purple because it was a colour limited to the rich and royal. I am not too happy with the final look, I feel that this design is too glam: it doesn't look Elizabethan. I quickly dropped this idea. 

Look 3

This is the third and final look that I experimented with. I created a very soft eye using pastel purple and bright pink. The purple makes the eyes look cold and icy, however, the warm pink bottom liner balances this out and evokes emotions of sadness because it makes the eyes look a little puffy and sore. I also added a little pearl to represent a little tear: as if Queen Elizabeth's inner feelings are leaking out, suggesting weakness and fear. However, I do not like how I executed the eyelashes, I think I could have whitened them out to keep an overall lightness in the eyes. On the other hand, the lips are kept quite dark as a reminder of the strength and power Queen Elizabeth had.I feel it contrasts well and adds a dark twist to the entire look.

I have presented these ideas to my tutor and classmates and this is the critical feedback I have received: 

What has been done well? 

The brief is explained well, showing good understanding and her aims and expectations of the end image and aims are very direct. 

There is good visual research. 

Face charts are presented well. 

Interpretation of the brief is very directive and assuring. 

Why has it been done well? 

Yoiwan has explained throughout the different reasons behind why different features were used or created.

What could be improved? 

Should try not to use all the ideas on one design. 

Maybe try out the look on someone other than herself to see the difference of outcome. 

What has been learnt? 

You do not need to use all the ideas on one design, be selective.

What do you need to do next? 

Explore using different colours and pull elements across by combining the designs.