National Portrait Gallery

Queen Elizabeth I

This portrait describes Queen Elizabeth I perfectly, snow white skin, golden hair covered with head accessory, minimal make up only slightly defined lips and eye brows.clothes were important status symbol in the Elizabethan era. Fur laying on her shoulders symbolizes wealth, only the richest people could afford such luxurious clothing and Queen Elizabeth was one of them. Golden jewelry on her neck once again symbolizes wealth and power, gold color represented power and wealth in Elizabethan era so of course Queen Elizabeth almost every time had some gold jewelry in her portraits letting everyone know her status as a queen and powerful and wealthy woman. Clothing piece on her kneck which is known as ruff was also very popular in Elizabethan era, it was a sign of fashion, Elizabeth always wanted to look presentable and set out fashion rules so other Tudor women would follol.

Technical make up lesson - White base

To create a white base I have experimented with a few make up products, I have tried Illamasqua skin base foundation, Kryolan super colors in white and Aqua color in white. Illamasqua skin base a lot easier to work with, it was gliding a lot smoother, not so many streaks and it was easier to buff out. Kryolan super color and aqua color on the other hand was very hard to work with it was a lot thicker consistency so it was harder to blend it nicely, there was a lot of streaks while applying and much harder to buff it out. I definitely prefer Illamasqua white base because pigmentation is very good, easier to apply and it is a lot less streaky while applying.

 Illamasqua skin base

- Applied using flat foundation brush
-Easy to blend
-Smooth texture
-Medium thickness consistency (not too thick or watery)
-Medium coverage
-Is not matte, more luminous













 Kryolan Supercolor

-Applied with flat foundation brush
-Hard to blend
-Thick consistency
-Streaky applicastion
-Needed to buff out with a kabuki brush
-Semi matte finish
-High coverage

Kryolan Aquacolor

- Applied using flat foundation brush

-Brush needs to be dipped into water constantly

-Dries quickly

-Matte finish

-Streaky application-

-Does not blend (kabuki buffing brush needed, creates less coverage)

Colour Theory

Analogous color scheme - analogous colors are the colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. I chose light blue, medium blue, light green and darker green for this look because these are the analogous colors.












Complimentary color scheme - complimentary colors are the colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel, if combined they cancel each other out. I chose light orange, yellow, medium blue and purple, because those are the colors that are opposite to each other.

Monochromatic color scheme - Monochromatic colors are the colors that come from one single color, they can be as light or dark but has to be that one color. I chose red color and used different lightness and darkness of it to create monochromatic look.

Achromatic colors - Achromatic colors are black, grey and white      

Analogous look

Monochromatic look             

Complimentary look

Key films and actors who played Queen Elizabethan I

Key Films And Actors Who Played Queen Elizabeth I 

Elizabeth I (2005) - Hellen Mirren

Hellen Miren portrayed Queen Elizabeth I pretty well, soft make up was well recreated making it look very convincing to Elizabethan era. 

The Virgin Queen (2005) - Anne-Marie Duff

Anne-Marie Duff's make up I was not impressed with, it was lacking a lot of details such like more red pigmentation on the lips and cheeks, it did not look like Elizabethan make up. 

Elizabeth (1998) - Cate Blanchett

One of the best recreations of Queen Elizabeth I, Cate's make up and hair was done perfectly true Elizabethan, in every scene make up was very accurately recreated from red lips, cheeks, pale complexion, to bleached out eye brows, white eye lashes and shaved hair line.

Fire Over England (1973) - Flora Robson

Flora Robson recreated Queen Elizabeth quite well

Blackadder (1980) - Miranda Richardson

In this film I have noticed that make up was definitely more different than Elizabethan era, skin a lot more sun kissed and tanned, eye brows did not seem to be bleached out nor the eye lashes. 

Shakespeare in love (1998) - Judi Dench

Judi Dench impersonated Queen Elizabeth really well, she committed to have her hair line shaved as well as bleaching out her eye brows. 

Elizabeth R (1971) - Glenda Jackson

Make up was portrayed and presented very well, mask like skin complexion (due to all the damage to the skin), red lips with a lot of blusher on the cheeks, high forehead and white eye lashes definitely represented Queen Elizabeth when she got older and she was forced to have more of a mask like make up on her face.