UNDERSTANDING QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Brief

Looking at the brief for the Elizabethans Project, i was told to look into painting portraits, books, film etc base on the Elizabethan era. We was told not to just look at Queen Elizabeth, but as she was one of the biggest influence not just in her own era but today too, i feel it is important to start with her.

Facts I know about the Elizabethan era are that Queen Elizabeth 1st was a rainbow of characteristics, she was cunning, vain, kind, smart and was very manipulative. Elizabeth was a natural red head with a natural pale complexion, later on in years she does enforce more colour to her hair and face.Elizabeth Loved beautiful clothing and jewellery. Leaders of the sate were to travel around the world to show their leadership but Elizabeth had a lot of catholic enemies so  she had her self painted in fabulous outfits to symbolise her leadership of the state.

The cosmetics worn by women during the time of Queen Elizabeth differed radically from those we wear today. Not only were the materials used--kohl, ceruse, vermilion, etc--far different, but the look that women tried to achieve was different as well. Standards of beauty change over the centuries. To understand the cosmetics worn by Elizabethan women, it's important to understand the effect they were trying to achieve--that "ideal" of beauty that they wanted to imitate.

The following video gives a brief speech about Queen Elizabeth's 1 life. 

I have also written parts if the video underneath for future references.When Henry the V11,Father of Elizabeth and his son died Mary, Elizabeth's half sister was made queen and due to religious differences she locked Elizabeth in the tower. Mary Died in 1558 making Elizabeth queen at 25 years of age.

Because Elizabeth was a female monarch she new she could use her appearance in court to create a loyalty and affection to her from the courters. 

Fears 
My fear of doing this brief is that we have to list out our imagination of how we would like our look and leave it in the hands of our partner. I myself is little more nervous to be given someone else's picture and do it totally different on how they expected. Considering it will be my first time exploring make up and i will try my best and hopefully they will like the final piece.

I am really looking forward to hearing more about the specific way they made their makeup and the tricks that they did to show how they thought beauty was. 

Another fear is combining a modern look with an historical look to come up with a final idea, but researching into it more will give me more depth about the elizabethan era.

One of my favourite sonnets from shakespeare is below. 

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Coral is far more fair then 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..."

Why?

why is this information relevant you may ask? 
This information will be useful me in future reference throughout my first semester. It will give me, the reader/ designer a visual image of how i would like my interruption of Queen Elizabeth to look like. 

reference website :http://www.elizabethancostume.net/makeup.html