I have found project ‘New Elizabethans’ really interesting, I
have really enjoyed learning about the Elizabethan lifestyles and fashion of
the time. Because they didn’t have the resources we have today I was really
interesting learning about how they used what they had and made it beneficial.
One of my favourite things was learning about the different products they used
as cosmetics, for example using cochineal on the lips to achieve a red lip.
Learning about how using these products damaged them but they still used them
because women wanted to express their personality through the beauty of their
makeup.
I also really enjoyed learning about the different
techniques that we could use to achieve an Elizabethan look for example, learning
to block out the brows. Something I would have liked to have done better would
probably be maybe looking at some more Elizabethan portraits for influence and
incorporate them into my final design. At the beginning of the course I was
slightly worried about my makeup skills, I felt that we were slightly thrown in
at the deep end but now I have completed the project I feel confident that it
went well.
By doing research into Elizabethan portraits I built up my
knowledge on what an ‘Elizabethan look’ is and then incorporated into my
design. Also having the technical file was really helpful to me, being able to
look back and see how I could achieve makeup techniques that I wasn’t confident
in so I could practise them was really helpful.