Lady in Waiting

During our latest session with Sharon we were told about our final fundamentals of makeup project. We were shown each of Elizabeth I’s ladies in waiting and asked to choose who we would like to base our design upon. There were various different girls who had quite interesting backgrounds that I probably could have created designs for. However Bess of Hardwick stood out most to me personally. I’m not sure whether I was drawn to her because I thought she was quite a remarkable woman, the Tyra Banks of the Tudors, working from having next to nothing to be a very respected woman in her field. Sharon asked us to research our chosen lady in waiting and create a background story for them in order to build the character. 

Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury - (1521 - 1607)

Elizabeth Hardwick started her life relatively poor, having married four times she became a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth and was the second most powerful Elizabethan woman, next to the Queen herself, I already knew this much. What I wanted to know is if there was any scandal involved in her climb to the top, with four marriages under her belt I was sure there had to be. 

At the age of 12 she was sent to be a lady in waiting to a couple who worked in court. This is where she met her first husband Robert Barlow who she married at fifteen, their marriage was very short lived as he died no less than a year later. This wasn't all bad news for her though, as he left her with a substantial inheritance meaning she was able to survive without him. In the few years that followed she began working for Henry VIII’s niece, still as a lady in waiting. Through this placement she met her second husband, who at the time was 20 years older than her, William Cavendish. She had 8 children with Cavendish who did when she was still only 30 years old. She was left a very wealthy widow when she entered into her third marriage to Sir William Loe, who was recognised by the Queen. This is how Bess became a lady of the queens privy chamber, moving her into the royal circle and bonding with the Queen herself. Bess’s third husband died after 6 years leaving everything he had to her, making her a very very wealthy woman. However this wasn’t quite enough for her, as it wasn't just wealth that she sought but also status. She achieved this status when she was married off to her fourth and final husband the Earl of Shrewsbury who was one of the most rich and powerful men in the whole of England. 

Their marriage wasn’t a happy one in the end as Bess accused her husband of having an affair with the Scottish queen and many others. Their arguments became so bad that Queen Elizabeth stepped in but even she couldn’t not stop their arguing. Bess was so persistent that the word ‘shrew' (short for Shrewsbury) was often used to mean “​unpleasant woman who is ​easily​ annoyed and who ​argues a lot”. She stayed away from her husband until his death a few years later. After this event she returned to her childhood home and began the erection of a house to show off her new status and wealth. During Elizabethan times glass was a very extortionate commodity to possess and most windows weren't paned, instead they were covered with shutters. Bess wanted to show just how rich she had become since leaving the small village many years before, so she built her house almost entirely out of diamond shaped glass panels. 

She marked her territory by having her initials calved in stone on each of the towers. Her decedents include many of the titled families of Great Britain currently including Prince William and Prince Harry on both their father and their mother’s side. Bess and queen continued to be close friends until their passing and it is said that in some of Elizabeths portraits he is wearing a gown that was given o her by Bess of Hardwick herself as a gift. 

I imagine that there was more to her story than what I had researched, those are just the facts. I feel that by the end of her four marriages she was a cold and bitter woman. During her first marriage she was probably a young and naive soul who was open to the idea of being in love. She was too young to understand true love but she was still heart broken when Robert passed. It was when she was with Cavendish that she truly fell in love, he gave her 8 beautiful children and she imagined spending the rest of her life with him. When he died she was mortified, distraught and devastated and swore never to marry again.  It was only when she met Loe that she thought maybe there was hope for her to love again. Although its well known that it was the Earl of Shrewsbury that she openly accused of cheating on her I believe that it was Loe who damaged her the most.  I image that it was actually him cheated on her and she was too scared of being alone again to leave him. She bottled up her emotions which left her a cold and closed off person. When he died she was relieved and began to enjoy the money that was left to her after his passing. One night after enjoying a banquet and a play, she was walking and was attacked by a man who tried to rape and rob her. He got away with her money but with nothing else. She was shaken by the attack and grew to hate men after everything that she had been through with Loe and now this, they were all animals.  She decided that she wasn't going to be treated like a second class citizen just because she was a women and thats why she married the Earl.  She never loved him she just needed the status that came alone with the marriage. She used the accusations of him being a cheat to keep him away from he until he died and went on to use the money he left her to seclude herself in Hardwick Hall until her demise. 

This research and the story that I have created has given me a few ideas as to the colours and shapes that I plan on using in my final design, I'm inspired and excited to create some face charts. 

The Dangers of Being a Makeup Artist

Having had a lesson with Sue I was aware of the precautions that needed to be taken before working on any individual in order to avoid them being in harms way. From there I thought that it would be helpful to look into the danger that we as artist put ourselves in, in order to work with people. Before working with new clients it important to know what they're allergic to but also if they have any conditions that may prevent you from being able to work on them. If you don't ask, they are very unlikely to volunteer to tell you if they know that they have something that might prevent you from carrying out the design you planned with them. An easy way of finding out this information before the model being on set is by sending them a consultation form and asking them to fill it out and return it you. Consultation forms often cover a large range of questions that allow you to know you client well enough to work with them safely and comfortably. An average consultation form looks something like the one below:

There are various diseases and conditions that can be caught from skin on skin contact and various that aren't contagious at all. Knowing the difference is important as it could prevent you from being at risk and also from putting other clients of yours at risk in the future. In addition to this having this knowledge cold prevent you from losing clients due to confusion as to what you can a cannot catch from someone. 

One of the most common contagious diseases that comes from makeup artistry is conjunctivitis. 

Conjunctivitis is a common condition that causes redness and inflammation of the thin layer of tissue that covers the front of the eye (the conjunctiva) hence the name. Another name for conjunctivitis is red eye not to be mistaken for pink eye. Symptoms of conjunctivitis include itchiness and watering of the eyes, and a sticky residue on the eyelashes which can stick the lashes together temporarily. It can often affect one eye at first, but usually affects both eyes after a few hours.Its usually caused by a bacterial or viral infection and sometimes can be the result of an allergic reaction. Also it could just be the result of the eye coming in contact with chlorine, shampoo or a loose eyelash rubbing against the surface of the eye. 

Ringworm (Tinea) is a common skin disorder which is highly contagious.Its thought to be the most commonly occurring type of fungal skin infection and can affect adults, as well as adolescents.Break outs of tine are often found on oily parts of the body, like chest or back or face. It causes many small, flat spots on the skin which can be flaky or itchy and these small spots can also blend together into larger patches.

Impetigo is found mostly in children however can effect adults, this highly contagious skin condition often happens after a recent upper respiratory infection. Impetigo begins as itchy, red sores that blister, produce fluid, and eventually become covered with a tight crust.

Colour theory

When creating my own looks and designs the colours tabby intend to incorporate are a very important factor. Depending on the theme or style that you are trying to achieve, you will need to choose appropriate colours in order for your vision to come across to others viewing it.  

The colour wheel is a tool that can help you to create the look that you desire. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first colour wheel in 1666. Modern scientists and artists have studied and designed more than a few variations of this concept. The colour wheel itself is made up of three different categories, theses being primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary colours are the colours on the wheel that cannot be made up by adding one colour to another. There are three of these and they are yellow, red and blue. A secondary colour is a colour that you can create by mixing two of the primary colours together, for example red and yellow together make orange. Orange, green and purple are all secondary colours on the colour wheel. Finally there are tertiary colours, which are created by combining both a secondary colour and a primary colour together. An example of this would be mixing together green and yellow and creating a shade of lime green.  

There are various other ways of sectioning off the colours on the colour wheel. By splitting the wheel in half you’ll be able to see one half has all warm tones within it and the other has cool. Knowing about the tones in colour will be very helpful when working with foundation because all skin types have different under tones. You will ned to be able to identify these tones in oder to create the correct colour of foundation for your model. 

As you can see above, reds oranges and yellows are all warm tones, whereas the greens, violets and blue are all cool. This works the same way with tones in an individuals hair, if they have warm tones such as yellow in their blonde then it will be warm, and to cool it down it will need to be counteracted with a violet or blue stain. 

 Colour Harmony is something that we as artists aim to achieve, creating something that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. When harmony is achieved it engages the viewer and it creates an inner sense of order and balance however when something is not harmonious, it can come across as chaotic.The human brain rejects what it can not organise and what it can not understand therefore colour harmony is something that we strive for. 

There are various theories for harmony in colours and we will be working with the following two.

Anagulous colours are any three colours that sit side by side on the colour wheel.

Monochromatic colours are all of the tints, tones, and shades of a single colour. On a more advanced colour chart you will find the monochromatic shades of a certain colour onto of one another as you look from the outside of the circle into the centre. 

Despite the brain striving for colour harmony, it can often work that colours which are contrasting are also appealing to individuals. This is because of nature and the colours that nature itself has put together. This may sound rather far fetched, however if you think about it physically, you never look at a tree and think that the colour of the leaves clash with the bark, nor do you think that the various colours of a flowers petal look like they don't ‘match’. This is a theory that we will also be working with in out designs.

Complimentary colours also create harmony, these are any two colours that are directly across from one another on the colour wheel. These opposing colours create maximum contrast and maximum stability.

All colours have different meanings and symbolisms behind them and this will need to be taken into account when creating our designs. 

Red – anger, passion, rage, desire, excitement, energy, speed, strength, power, heat, love, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence

Pink – love, innocence, healthy, happy, content, romantic, charming, playfulness, soft, delicate, feminine

Yellow – wisdom, knowledge, relaxation, joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard

Orange – humor, energy, balance, warmth, enthusiasm, vibrant, expansive, flamboyant

Green – healing, soothing, perseverance, tenacity, self-awareness, proud, unchanging nature, environment, healthy, good luck, renewal, youth, vigour, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy

Blue – faith, spirituality, contentment, loyalty, fulfillment peace, tranquility, calm, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, conservatism, security, cleanliness, order, sky, water, cold, technology, depression

Purple – erotic, royalty, nobility, spirituality, ceremony, mysterious, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, arrogance, mourning, power, sensitive, intimacy

Brown  – materialistic, sensation, earth, home, outdoors, reliability, comfort, endurance, stability, simplicity

Black – No, power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger

White – Yes, protection, love, reverence, purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, birth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), cold, clinical, sterile

Silver  – riches, glamorous, distinguished, earthy, natural, sleek, elegant, high-tech

Gold – precious, riches, extravagance. warm, wealth, prosperity, grandeur

Elizabethan Symbolism Research

In order to gain a better understanding of make up that was in fashion during the Elizabethan era I conducted some research so that I could begin to gather a better idea of what would be best to incorporate into my own designs. I started on the internet and found numerous sites focused on Elizabethan fashion and the styles of the era.

The Elizabethans were very big on symbolism and they were very good at creating powerful messages in their imagery through the use of certain objects, fashion and places.

What I found out about the symbolism of certain makeup trends in the Tudors was that having a far back hair line was seen as a symbol of an individuals wisdom, the higher the forehead, the wiser they were. Therefore women often bleached their eyebrows or plucked them out completely in order to look wiser. Having a pale face was also a sign of wealth, as the poorer women who had to complete manual labour in order to earn money had tans form being out in the sun all day. There are various other trends that I was aware of but hadn't found the meaning behind so I started way back looking at images created in Elizabeth I's era. She had many portraits composed of herself as queen though very few created of her when she was only a princess. The few portraits of Elizabeth as a younger woman show her in gowns of red and gold, wearing pearls and with her red hair parted in the middle and sleeked back into some sort of hair piece. She wore very little makeup and i assume had naturally pale skin due to her hair colour. This style is very understated and has very few similarities to the styles that she is shown to have worn in her later life, featured in her more well known portraiture.


Instead of looking at the symbolism of the makeup itself I decided to look at the symbols in her portraits displayed in her clothing and surrounding that I could possibly incorporate into my makeup designs.

The Pelican was thought to be one of Elizabeth's most favoured symbols as it represented her motherly love toward her people. It was believed that in times of food shortages, mother pelicans would pluck their own breasts in order to feed their dying young with their blood, saving their lives but killing themselves in the process. During Elizabeth's rein the pelican went on to represent Jesus sacrificing himself on the cross for the good of mankind as well as the sacrament of communion, feeding the faithful with his body and blood. The pelican can be seen in Elizabeth's pelican portrait, where she is adorned with a pelican broach on her breast. I found that the modern equivalent of this is the Christian cross. Pelicans are no longer worn for the same reason as they are in Elizabethan times from what I know of, they are more of a novelty.

Pearls were a very commonly used symbol in almost every single one of Elizabeth's portraits. Pearls as well as moons were used to present Elizabeth as Cynthia, the goddess of the Moon, who was a virgin, making her pure. Sir Walter Ralegh helped to promote Elizabeth being a moon goddess with a the poem written in the 1580s; The Ocean's Love to Cynthia. Furthermore, The Tudor Rose represented the Virgin Mary and her purity and can be seen in various portraits of Elizabeth. She wore this symbol for the same reason that she wore pearls. Both are still worn today however they aren’t commonly incorporated into makeup designs. Pearls still hold some of the same meaning as they did in the Tudors however roses are now a symbol of romance rather than virginity.

In addition Ermine fur was featured in many portraits of Queen Elizabeth I. It was also a symbol of purity due to the legend that the ermine would rather die than soil its pure white coat. Not only was it a symbol for purity and loyalty it was also a status symbol, as wearing ermine was restricted to royalty and high nobility. Fur is still worn as a symbol of wealth now, however it would be difficult to incorporate into a makeup design without making the model look like an animal, however this would be quite an interesting challenge to take on and I may try incorporating fur to one of my face charts.

Heart shapes are often associated with the Tudors. I have looked into the symbolism behind this and have come to the conclusion that the Elizabethans didn't actual see this shape as 'heart shaped'. This style of heart was introduced a long while after the Tudors period, therefore it is very unlikely that they saw it as anything other than two crescent moons. This would make sense due to the fact that Elizabeth was trying to portray herself as a moon goddess. This double crescent/heart shape is something that we still use today, however it now obviously symbolises love rather than Elizabeth being a moon goddess. Heart shapes aren’t uncommon to see in editorial makeup today and are something that I imagine I could incorporate quite easily into my designs. It would be a matter of using them in a way that hadn't already been done that would be hard.

Elizabethan Makeup Ingredients

Elizabethans considered a pale complexion to be be not only a sign of wealth but also a sign of good health. This is because poor women would be tanned from working outdoors doing manual labour, whereas the richer women who didn't have to work would have very pale skin as they often stayed indoors or under shelter when in a situation that they would have to be in the sun. If richer women were not blessed with a pale skin tone then they would use various different things to make their skin look white. One of the most common ingredients used to achieve this look was Ceruse, which is a foundation type makeup that was make up of a mixture of poisonous white lead and vinegar. Some women preferred to use sulphur, tin ash or alum. Mother of pearl were used by the richest of the rich, ground up to give a luminescence and shimmer. White eggs were also used to achieve this paler complexion but mostly as a method of hiding wrinkles. Its not only today that we see wrinkles and blemishes an issue, this is something the stretches all the way to Elizabethan times meaning both women and men during the tudor period used various different concoctions to prevent these problems form occurring.

Quite like today, the amount of makeup we wear contributes to the amount of blemishes that we get, however in Elizabethan times this was taken to a different extreme.  All of the makeup men and women used in order to achieve a perfect white complexion, would often be the root of all types of skin problems. The ingredients wouldn't just leave the skin dry and covered in blemishes it would often burn the skin causing lesions that were itchy and flaky which would only take more and more makeup to cover.  To remove blemishes, wrinkles, spots and freckles the Elizabethans would use ingredients such as rosewater, lemon juice or mixtures of eggshells, alum, mercury and honey. The wealthy would also bathe in goats and donkeys milk.


Women used black kohl to rim their eyes and make them look darker as well as Belladonna, which enlarges pupils so that eyes look larger and sparkly. Belladonna is often called the devils berry or deadly nightshade due to the fact that Belladonna’s so toxic even eating a small quantity of its leaves or berries can be fatal to humans, particularly children, and some animals. Simply touching the leaves can irritate your skin. No pain no gain I suppose.

 Eyebrows were trimmed to be thin and highly arched creating the illusion of a higher forehead. Some women wold pluck their eyebrows completely out in order to achieve this look. Cheek and lips were often altered to look rosy rouge and to achieve this women would use various plants and animal dyes. It was common for women to use madder; an Asian plant with red roots to tint the lips and crushed cochineal beetle on the cheeks. There were various other ways of achieving this look, one using a mixture of egg whites and ochres; a natural earth pigment containing hydrated iron oxide. All of the ingredients used above could be reddened further by using vermillion which is a red pigment obtained from mercury sulphide.


Having been given the task of finding and making my own Elizabethan makeup using the same ingredients that would have been used during the Tudors, I had decided after doing this research that even if I did manage to get hold of all of the ingredients to create one of my own, I definitely wouldn't be applying it.  My skin is in poor enough condition on its own without me slapping white lead and vinegar all over it. I had considered for a small time bathing in goats milk, however I don't have a goat nor do I have a bath so it was out of the question, the best I could have done is semi skimmed cows milk in the shower and I didn't think it would have had the same effect. However, I have actually tried one of the Elizabethan skin care recipes before now even prior to doing this research. Egg whites are still an ingredient that is considered helpful when trying to improve the clarity of skin. Obviously we now have a lot more information that has lead to the introduction of genuinely helpful products, however they are rather a lot more expensive than a box of six free range eggs.


The ingredients I used to try and help clear my skin where egg whites, lemon juice and sugar. The original Elizabethan recipe uses egg shells rather than sugar but at the time I didn't know about this, nor am I willing to try it again with eggs shells as I don’t want to cut my face off in order to see how the Elizabethans lived.  As you can imagine the mixture had a very strange consistency, its was what I imagine it would feel like if you tried to apply really watery unset jelly to your face. The sugar was for exfoliating purposes and it actually felt no different to using a store bought exfoliant. I left the mixture to set on my face and it was quite refreshing at first, not to mention it tasted delightful, however nearing the end of the time i was instructed to leave it on for the mask began to become very very sticky making my face feel quite taut.

The results of the mask never really became apparent which makes me think that it doesn't really work and that its a method that should be left in Elizabethan times. I only did this once a day for a week so maybe it works with more constant use but from what I could tell, it wasn't really having any effect on my complexion and if it was then the results were that minor that it wasn't worth the time, effort and stickiness.

'Elizabeth' 1998

As homework, in order to ease us into the rather mammoth task of researching the Elizabethan era, we were asked to watch the film ‘Elizabeth’ starring Kate Blanchett, released in 1998. Due to the films date of release it was quite a modern and contemporary representation of fashion standards and beauty from Elizabeth’s time as a princess and throughout the earliest and some of the most important years of her reign.



Having researched the Elizabethan era further prior to watching the film, I realised there were deeper meanings to certain scenes in the film that had gone straight over my head beforehand. For example, one of the first scenes in the films shows a young protestant woman getting her light auburn hair quite violently cut from her scalp prior to being burnt at the stake. I first assumed the removal of her hair would have been to humiliate the girl and take away her sense of personality, as I had seen a similar scene in an episode of Game of Thrones where the act was carried out for this purpose. However, I found that it was instead to do with the colour of the woman’s hair. In Elizabethan times, red was a very valuable colour of hair to have as it was at the height of fashion, therefore it was more likely to have been removed and then harvested for wig making for those wealthy enough to afford such accessories.



At first my focus was entirely on the Queen herself and the way that she was being portrayed in the adaptation of her time of the throne. Within history her style and her image became her trademark and her portraits were very important to this as they helped her to become somewhat of a ‘royal pin up’ during her era. You can see the relationship between the portraits painted of her throughout her life and the way she was styled based on these images throughout the film. When Elizabeth is shown at her youngest, she has been given a quite a youthful version of the styles worn during the Elizabethans that symbolised the standards of beauty at the time. Her hair is shown as being quite a yellow blonde with warm red undertones, making her at the time a celestial beauty. The lower layers of her hair fall quite straight naturally with the front layers plaited and

pinned softly into buns either side of the crown of her head. The whole look softens her features making her look more childlike, naïve and innocent. Because of her hair colour her skin appears to be naturally very pale, which at the time was a look women were constantly trying to achieve through the use of many different and sometime disgusting concoctions. There are no blemishes or scars on the face which also suggests her youth, only a soft rogue blush on her cheeks and on her lips.  As well as this, her eyebrows and eyelashes are very fair as a result of her hair colour, making them both look almost none existent. However, women during the renaissance would pluck out their brows in order to make the forehead appear higher than it really is, as it was believed that the taller the individuals forehead, the wiser the person was. This first look has some similarities to Elizabeth’s look in the final scenes of the film, however some features have been exaggerated in a way that makes her look a lot older, harsher and more powerful.



Throughout the film I came to realise that colours of individuals clothing, hair and makeup were used to express and emphasize the divide between classes. Queen Mary is shown in her few scenes during the film wearing all black, a colour that suggests power, most probably used intending to reiterate her valued position as the Queen of England, over powering the protestant up rise. The Queens advisors were also clothed in black garments; this could have been in order to lead the viewer to making the association between the Queen and these individuals or it could have to show them as having almost as much power and control as the Queen herself. There is a dissimilarity of the dark clothing Mary wore compared to the garments worn by Elizabeth throughout the film. The scene that I first noticed this in, Mary was wearing black as she always did, while Elizabeth was wearing a sapphire green dress, a colour that held quite some religious symbolism during the renaissance period. It was also a colour of the very wealthy, as only those with power and high status could afford to wear green, re-establishing Elizabeth’s high status as Queen/Princess. Mary is also depicted with no eyebrows and therefore a high forehead, as I mentioned before a high forehead was believed to be a sign of being very knowing, suggesting that she wanted her people to see her as a knowledgeable and wise dictator; this being one of the very few things that both Mary and Elizabeth had in common in terms of styling.



All of the extras in the film wore clothes in colours that were fitting to their character and the occasions as well, even if they were just part of the background. For example, peasants were always shown wearing clothes in colours of beige and browns, in shabby and rough materials, whereas those individuals attending occasions with Elizabeth all wore bright colours and a large amount of jewellery but never anything quite as lavish as Elizabeth, showing her status over others.    

The scene in which Elizabeth is draped in the ermine fur and wearing a gown of gold was one of the first scenes where I really began to notice her transformation. This is a portrayal of the gown Queen Elizabeth wore in one of her most famous portraits, painted in 1585, referred to as the ‘Ermine portrait’. Despite her still having a very loose and natural hair style, quite similar to the one in her very first scenes, paired with neutral makeup keeping her looking very youthful; the costume is so much more elaborate compared to everything else she had worn so far in the film enforcing her new position as Queen. In the renaissance era, it was believed that an ermine

would die before allowing its pure white coat to be besmirched. When being chased by hunters, ermine would supposedly turn around and give itself up to the hunters rather than risk soiling itself. The throw around her shoulders is made to look like ermine fur dyed with black spots, and her gown made up of various shades of gold, as gold is a color that often represents wealth and wisdom, suggesting that these are reasons for her place on the thrown.



This is one of the last scenes that we see Elizabeth looking youthful and naturally beautiful, as in a scene that follows this, all of her hair is cut off and she makes a transformation. From this point onwards she wears peri style wigs that are adorned with jewels and accessories, tangled into intricate plaits and buns, braided with contrasting ribbons of greens and gold. In truth, Queen Elizabeth actually had alopecia and this was her reason for wearing wigs, as years of wearing elaborate hair pieces that were the height of renaissance fashion at the time permanently damaged her scalp.



The final transformation scene is where we are really able to see the Queen Elizabeth that we are used to seeing in her portraits and imagery. Her hair is of a darker, more vibrant red, shaped into a rounded, voluminous up do, covered in pearls to represent her virginity. Her hair line is strong and defined, making her forehead appear a lot larger. Her face is completely white and her brows near to invisible, with a rouge blush on her cheeks well as on her lips. She wears a blue gown in this scene in a shade similar to that of the Virgin Mary’s, paired with many pearls in order to reinstate her name as ‘The Virgin Queen’ as well as showing her value for the catholic religion. This final adaptation of Elizabeth’s look made Kate Blanchette seem almost alienesque and completely unrecognisable as herself. The pure white of her skin is another symbol of her purity in her marriage to God and her devotion and loyalty to her religion. As part of her transformation, when Elizabeth cuts off and as  her hair, similar to what nuns would have done during this era, and the application of the heavy white lead makeup suggest her purification as during this scene she also states that she wants to ‘become a virgin again’.  

My Freshers Week

My first week down in Southampton was quite the adventure, almost every task I was undertaking was challenging me on various different mediums. During this week I was very rarely in a position where I considered myself within my comfort zone, consistently being pushed to be innovative and independent in areas that are mostly alien to me personally. Despite the fact that I was surround by people in exactly the same situation as me, I cant say that it made things a whole lot less intimidating, especially when presented with an independent task with little to no time for preparation. Planning ahead is something that I have realised I took for granted in my lower levels of study during this first week and that over this short time I have come to the conclusion that working with out preparation is not playing to my strengths. However, I still think that I gave this first weeks tasks my best shot and provided impressive outcomes under the circumstances.

Despite it not being what I'm used to and feeling thrown in at the deep end, it doesn't mean that I didn't have fun, I actually had an incredible first week at Solent.

Mood Board

The first task that I completed for induction week was done over the last few weeks of summer. This obviously gave me time to plan what I was hoping to achieve as well as the time necessary to carry it out, which allowed me to produce a piece that I was confident in portraying what I intended it to. We were set the task of creating a mood board that represented where we wanted to be in 5 years time. We shared these mood boards within our groups in one of the first sessions, and I found it interesting to see what different people were aiming to achieve from their time at university and how much it varied from person to person.

My mood board shows my current indecisiveness towards my future career. There are numerous  different aspects of media hair and makeup styling that I currently would like to explore and find my likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses in. I like the idea of doing beauty work in editorial magazines or behind the scenes on runways, as well as having a strong interest in film and theatre makeup and hair design. I also aspire to maybe have my own make up line one day in the future and be an independent business owner. Until I have experienced working in all of these aspects of hair and makeup then I don't feel I will know for sure which of these career paths I would like to take, which is exactly why I'm here and what I'm aiming to learn.

My mood board drawing

I drew an image for this mood board as its something that I enjoy doing and that I feel is a strength of mine, also its something that I can manipulate to be specific to my portrayal. Each aspect of the drawing represents an area in which I would like to work in the future. The prosthetic ear in the piece represents film and theatre work, the big hair and her makeup represent my aspirations to work in these two fields whether it be as an artist and designer or a business owner. The other pictures I compiled were all related to the career paths that I intend to explore in the future, I found these in magazines such as Elle and Vogue and others I gathered from the internet.
Having taken a small trip to the library in the first few days of my arrival, I found that the it is most likely going to be one of my major sources of knowledge from this point onwards. Its a lot more reliable than I find the internet to be and it held a surprisingly large amount of information on various different areas of the topic at study and I intend to utilise these resources.

Style Review

As well as our mood boards we were asked to analyse the styling of one iconic film from a long list provided. The film that I chose to review was The Great Gatsby (2013). It was only a few months prior to writing this review that I had seen the film and fallen in love with the aesthetic of it. Yet I found this task quite difficult to carry out, as writing is not one of my strong points as I am sure you will come to learn from my blog. One of my biggest weaknesses being that I tend to concentrate on issues that aren't always particularly important, for example I feel as though I didn't pay enough attention to the impact of the styling of the hair and makeup for this review, which was the main focus of the brief. However, being capped at 300 words for this review was overall helpful to me although it being quite a challenge. It forced me to cut out some of the information that wasn't specific to the point that I intended to make. I feel that continuing to analyse books, films and images in future, as well as reading other peoples reviews, I will develop my writing skills and become more precise, as this is something that I feel I need to focus on.

The Great Gatsby – 2013 

The plot of ‘The Great Gatsby’ portrays both drama and romance, making it fall under both genres in my opinion. After numerous failed attempts of portraying the book through film in 1926, 1949, 1974 and 2002, the 2013 depiction was the first to do so successfully, winning various awards and making this film so iconic. Catherine Martin was the costume designer for ‘The Great Gatsby’ who won awards for her work on the production, alongside Maurizio Silivi and Kerry Warn; hair and makeup artists who won BAFTA’s for being best in their fields.

The heavily beaded, nude flapper dress that Adelaide Clemens (Catherine) wear’s, is what defines the style of this film for me, as well as the ruby red lipstick, black smoky eye and finger waves worn by most women in the film.  This particular adaptation of ‘The Great Gatsby’ was released in 2013, almost 90 years after the book was written and based in 1925, meaning that the styles and fashions shown in the film are not reflective of the styles that are most popular today. However, over the past two years the styles worn in the 20’s have made a comeback prior to the film being released. Drop waist dresses, decorative head bands and T-band shoes are all worn in the movie and these can be seen worn with a modern twist on catwalks and sold on the high street currently, making this film iconic in terms of style and fashion in my opinion.

Leading man Leonardo DiCaprio was very likely chosen for the role due to his already pre-existing classic style and look, however, his role in ‘The Great Gatsby’ has been noted as one of his most iconic, alongside his work in the movie ‘Titanic’, bringing him back into the eye of the media and putting his personal style back into high demand.    

Review by Kate Hall

Alter Ego

One of the first tasks we were set during induction week was to create a mask that acted as an interpretation of what we considered to be our own personal alter ego's, using nothing other than magazines, some crepe paper, pipe cleaners and a brown paper bag.

My Alter-Ego

We had no more than half an hour to produce our masks which instantly made my brain shut down. For the first 10 minutes I was rapidly flicking through magazines, tearing out anything aesthetically pleasing in the hopes that an idea of who my alter ego might be would just come to me like an epiphany. To my surprise, it did. I noticed that everything I was ripping out was brightly coloured, it was bold and glittery and shiny and eye catching. However, personally I present myself in a way that's almost the opposite of this. The colours in my wardrobe range from black to grey, occasionally some white or navy if I'm feeling adventurous but never much colour. This is where the idea for my alter ego came from. My alter ego is the part of me that confident enough to wear the glitter and bright colours that I like but feel that I couldn't ever pull off. She's loud, bold, and glam and I think I did a reasonably good job at portraying this with my mask, especially considering the time frame given to consider this project. The standard at which I was still able to work in this small period of time made me realise my abilities are greater than I think, as well as helping me to understand the way that my mind works through accepting and changing ideas and looking for alternative inspirations.      

Three Photos



Photo 1

Photo 2

This task was one of my favourites. We were essentially given the day to explore Southampton having been asked to take photos in black and white of places or parts of Southampton that we thought were picturesque, artistic or that just appealed to us. We were to pick three out of the how ever many pictures that we took and post them to Facebook, tagging another member of our group, aiming to post an image a day for the next three days to come. I didn't travel too far from what I already knew due to the fact that I'm very inclined to getting lost and terrible at following directions, however I still discovered a lot. Having only arrived in Southampton the day before,  I hadn't yet had the pleasure of looking around the place that I was planning on living for the next three years of my life, so it was nice to begin familiarising myself with the area. I'm not the best photographer but I tried my best and I think they all look pretty good considering they were all taken on an iPhone with no retouching.  

 

Kryolan Demonstration



Probably my favourite part of this induction week was when we were given a Seminar by Kryolan makeup artists. We were talked through different techniques that we could use with different products, given general tips on how to achieve particular looks and also given a demonstration on how to create an editorial look using some of the Kryolan products that we had in our kits.  We were also spoken to about achieving the job that we wanted in the competitive industry that we are trying to imprint on. I have come to realise that I won't instantly fall out of university and into the career that I want to have, when I finally make up my mind what it is that I want to be doing. Through hard grafting and creating opportunity's for myself I may be able to get my foot in to the door and get to where I want to be but that may mean I'll be sweeping up dust in a makeup shop for a few years before I begin to move up the business ladder.

The notes that I made during this seminar I will definitely be referring to when I come to create my own designs as well as attempting to apply some of the techniques demonstrated.