Anne Vavasour: Research
My task was to choose out of nine different Elizabethan women and research into there background story which would relate to Queen Elizabeth 1st. Then when having the information to plan and design different contemporary Elizabethan looks that would best represent my character and her story. I decided to research Anne Vavasour as I found her look and story very interesting and I really wanted to recreate her story into a look that I could present.
Anne Vavasour and Her Story:
• Anne was born
in 1562 and died in 1650 ,
she was a gentlewomen
of the bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth 1 (1580).
• After only working
for the Queen for a few mouths Anne became one of the six
maids of honor to the Queen.
• She became the Mistress to ‘Edward de Vere’,
Earl of Oxford who was married to Anne Cecil on December 1571. They did not have a happy marriage which they separated in 1576.
• In 1581 Anne had
given birth to Edward de Vere’s illegitimate son he was named
Edward Vere but Anne was believed to have hidden her pregnancy for the nine
months. Therefore when she gave birth in the maidens chambers it came to a
shock.
• Anne and her newborn
where sent to the tower the next day along with Edward de Vere after Queen
Elizabeth found he was trying to fled the country.
• Edward was released a few months later and it appeared that their
relationship ended, leaving Anne to look after her son when Edward took no
responsibility to raise him.
• In 1590 Anne was
married to a sea captain named John
Finch but also became a mistress to Sir Henry Lee, which she then gave birth to
his illegitimate son (1589). They
went to then live together and stayed together until henrys death in 1611.
• Despite Anne still being married to her first
husband Anne married again to John Richardson but later she was charged
with Bigamy, charging her £2000.
Main ideas:
• Anne almost has a split
personality, she has raised her
children which gives her a very motherly element to her but she also seems to
crave attention from men shown in her many affairs highlighting her as a slutty
character.
• The slutty
characteristics are
shown within her marrying many times and having two illegitimate children. I
may want to portray this thought colours like red as it means that it
evokes emotions
of passion, lust, sex and energy.
• This may also include
dark
colours with hints of reds,
purples etc, including lace in the neck pieces or hair and having harsh
contours. To portray her as a strong sexy women.
• I want to show both
personalities within
this look with making the hair appear motherly/youthful highlighting her
innocence which she is framed by but then her make-up acts as her other
personality e.g. The dark and seductive colours.
• when having the two
personalities I also want to include the element that she looked after the
Queen and was very close to her and royalty. So by putting small
hints
of gold or even in the hair
having in a crown style or include pearls this could represent this stage of her life.
After brainstorming ideas that are shown above I concluded that my character must have elements of innocence in her look but also a seductive element too which would represent and show her too personalities. I research meanings of colours to find out what colours would be the most appropriate to use in my look. I found out that 'White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection' . I knew my character was not the most perfect at making the right decisions in her life but I assumed that my character would appear innocent to certain men as they found her attractive. On the other hand, the colour 'Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love' . I thought red would be the perfect contrasting colour as it says its associated with the passion, desire and love which would perfectly show my characters seductive side.
My First Design:
This is my first design I started off with a white base mixed a with the 'Bourjour healthy mix foundation' but then I created a widows peak around the forehead and sides of the cheeks as in the Elizabethan era appearing as if you had a large forehead highlighted intelligence. The widows peak also represents the idea of innocence as I have coloured it using white supercolour which is the colour of innocence and which she is now framed by so outsiders see the innocence but once you get to know the character you see the seductive side which is why the reds are in the middle of the face. Around the widows peak I decided to have a shimmer of gold around the edge of the peak to show that the character was always very close to riches and royalty but not royal herself. On the main features of the face e.g. lips being red and the eyes purples these are the colours of seduction. Lastly, I have placed black dots under the eyebrows which are meant to represent black pearls as usually worn by Queen Elizabeth the first who wore white pearl which represented pure and virginity so by having black pearls would represent the opposite. When practicing the look I found that it was quite hard to get the widows peak equal by free-handing it, but I know that when my partner pratisies it, it will get easier but is hard on the first go. Over all the look was OK I really liked my widows peak concept as I feel the meanings behind it really symbolize my character well but I feel the actual make-up on the main features of the face don't do the look justice as its not as Elizabethan and more like high street make-up.
Second Design:
This is my second design which still has similar meanings behind the ideas but with some elements that have changed for example I again made the forehead appear larger as the red outlines a white border on the forehead making it appear larger which relates to the Elizabethan method in cosmetics of showing of intelligence. I had the red creeping up the forehead along side the white to represent the two characteristics of sex and innocence almost competing against each other in this look. I then added in a lace looking detail along the tops of the eyebrows in black, firstly as black being the opposite of white representing danger. the detailing I thought could represent the fact that she worked for the Queen and as lace is very expensive this show her close relationship to the Queen and her wealth. To add to this wealth element I then contoured the cheeks with the Illamaqua liquid gold. However, I did this look by using a stencil and the black supercolour and dabbing through with a sponge but I found this was hard to do as the two products would tend to smudge together. Overall I like my concept of my look as all the element relate to my character and the Elizabethan theme but I find that the colours of my look may make it look oriental with the black on top of the red eye shadow.
My third Design:
For my third design I decided I wanted to use the Illamaqua liquid metal pallet and really make my look be very bold and metallic. I mainly used the colours gold, white and silver as I knew they would represent the other side to my character, I wanted to show in this look her complete innocence and motherly side. I still stayed with the white base and gave her a gold lid to again show the close aspect to royalty and in the eyebrows, eyelashes and lips I used white supercolour as a base to again to show the innocence and then I overlaid this with both the silvers in the liquid metal pallet to make the look more vibrant and relate to the gold as well. I brought the gold around the sides of the neck also to then even further add on to the aspect of the look. Lastly, I gave her peachy blush on the cheeks to show the element, firstly of her natural beauty which I believe she would have had to match her innocence personality. Secondly, I thought the each colour cheeks represent the idea of youth and this can relate to her motherly instinct as she raised her two illegitimate children on her own. Also on my designs I have again put the black pearls under her eyebrows to show a little glimpse of her other side of the personality but I decided to leave it out when performing the look as I wanted to only show her motherly and innocence character in this look. Overall, I really like this look as it very different to the others as it only represents one side to the character and the colour pallet is very different which I think makes it very pleasing to the eye however it come across a bit more of a contemporary sci-fi look more than an Elizabethan contemporary look.
My final design:
This is my final design and the design I am using in my final assessment as I think its the best design overall that represents my character and her traits. I took the element from my first design of the widows peak as I really thought this made the look, look Elizabethan but at the same time makes it very contemporary with the blurred out gold highlighting the widows peak. I thought would keep the colours quite simple by using only red, gold, black and white which I think makes the look stand out more, especially because the red stands out on top of the white making the whole look appear very bold which is what I wanted to aim for as I believe my character was a very confident women. I used red as a main feature colour on the face as 'Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love' and as it states its the colour of passion and love I believe this relates to the characters story and makes this seductive trait very clear as its so bold on the face. I wanted the eyes to be a important feature to the face so I made the eyes into a cat-eye shape which is a very modern look but I believe its a very sexy look which I think my character would have been in our modern day. Overall, I think this look speak the best for my character and her traits by having the elements of; red meaning love and lust, white showing her innocence, pink cheeks showing her motherhood and youth, the widows peak to show her intelligence, the gold to represent her relationship with Queen Elizabeth 1st and finally hints of black to represent her dark side in relationships.
By Amelia Richmond-Knight
