Portrait Research
To begin my research into portraits from historical eras (pre 18th Century) I looked at a selection of books detailing portraits of various men and women. I found that most depicted wealthy or influenctial characters, therefore suggesting that a sense of grandure will be a prominent part my eventual chosen painting. The first books that I used for research had many interesting portaits with a large amount of detailing which would be suitable for the project. Through my research I found that most paintings of a historical era were created from the male gender thus influencing me to choose a male subject. This choice will also allow me to experiment and create facial hair which I believe to be an important skill to develop. These are a selection of portraits I believe would be suitable to explore and potentially use as the final selection.
Click on the individual portraits for more detail:
 Portrait of Agnostino Barbarigo |  Portrait of Catrina Cornaro |
|---|---|
 Portrait of The Doge Pietro Loredano |  Portrait of a Man |
 Portrait of a Man |  Portrait of a Bearded Old Man |
 Self Portrait By Girolamo Romanino |  Portrait Marcantonio Trevisani |
 Achille Deveria |
 Sir Henry Lee |  Sir Walter Ralegh |
|---|---|
 Sir Francis Drake |  Sir Robert Dudley |
 John Fletcher |  Sir Thomas Gresham |
 Self Portrait Titian |  Portrait of Jacop Trip |
 Self Portrait |  The Cellist |
 William Shakespeare |
 Self Portrait, Albrecht Durer |  Self Portrait Albrecht Durer |
|---|---|
 Self Portrait By Vincent Van Gogh |  Charles Darwin |
 Self Portrait with Sunflower |  Self Portrait, Rembrandt Aged 51 |
 The Desperate Man |  Queen Elizabeth I |
 Self Portrait |  Self Portrait of Jacopo Tintoretto |
Archille Deveria Self Portrait (1835) [Online Image] Available From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achille_Dev%C3%A9ria Date Accessed: 25/10/2014
Louis Boulanger Citizens and kings portraits in the age of revolution 1760-1830 royal academy of arts
2007 London;Royal Academy of Arts
This is the portrait the I have chosen to create for my final portrait recreation. It is the portrait of Archille Deveria by Louis Boulanger. I found this portrait particularly striking as the face is very structured, almost skeletal with very pronounced features. The shaping of the nose and cheekbones is very pronounced with large areas of shadow. It is likely that I wil need to create brow pieces to pronounce the temple shaping and gie the face the more rounded shape at the top. A nose piece will be neneccessary as the nose is very slender and the tip falls very low on the face. Other pieces that may need to be included are eyebags and cheekbones. I shall experiment and research these to find out if I can successfully create a makeup that looks effective and recreates the portait to a high standard. The colouration is important to take note of as it will effect the entire piece. In this photograph to the left the hue is very yellow based, however in the original photograph found in 'Citizens and Kings, Portraits in the Age of Revolution' the skin is more realistically coloured. I will focus on the shadows of the face to give depth to the makeup and make the detailing as true to the portait as possible. I will conduct experiments to work out the most productive way to apply the colour to the face as the oil paint in the portrait is quite thick. An important aspect to consider is the hands in the portrait as they will need shadowing and detailing to make them look as similar as possible.
The costume is another aspect of the portrait that need to be created within the final portrait, I shall look into the costume department at university and theatres in the local area as they may have costumes for hire that look similar.
This selection of portraits were the first that I found whilst looking through many portrait books and they have a very interesting style and elements that would make for an interesting makeup design. I focused on the shaoing of the face and its structure predominantly and also the amount of facial hair and wig work that would be neccessary in the design.
This second portait shows Archille Deveria from a slightly different angle to give me a better idea of how his face shape and features appear. As he has a different beard shape in this portait it allows me to see properly the shaping and angling of the lower half of his face. It is also clearer the shape of his nose, with the slight bump on the ridge of the nose. I wil focus my attention to the cheekbones making sure that there is a strong structural shape, to do this I will either shade strongly or create prosthetic pieces to enhance the shape of the face.
I felt it necessary to look briefly into the history of the portrait to understand what kind of man Archille Deveria was a 'curator and lithographer of portraits and genre scenes' (J. Paul Getty Trust, Archille and Theodule Deveria) he was appointed director of the Bibliotheque Nationale's department of engravings in 1849. Deveria taught his work to his son Theoduledrawing and lithography. Deveria was French born in 1800 and died in 1857. His work has been displayed in the Louvre Museum and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
Things that I will need to consider when creating the design for this makeup is the lighting of the portrait, the direction from which it hits the subject and any shadows that it creates. The lighting is directly on Deveria from the left hand side creating shadow on the right side of the face, enhancing the skeletal structure of his face. I will consider this in the design as I do not think I will be able to successfully acheieve this lighting by myself against the small studio canvas. I therefore consider it likely that this will be included in the makeup itself.
As the project is to create a portrait it will be necessary to consider the texturing of the piece and any blemishes or marks that appear on the canvas. There is potential to create the texture in the makeup itself however I worry that it will cause the look to become muddy and less detailed. I will therefore create any texture on Photoshop after the assessment.
It is crucial that the model selected works well with the chosen portrait. The facial shapes must match to a certain extent as this cannot be altered too drastically with flatpieces. I believe that my model - Gavin - suits the portrait very well as he has an elongated face with a long forehead similarly the eye placement and shaping is very similar. This is very helpful in the creation of the character as it means that the prosthetics and structuring of the face does not need to be too drastic. I have taken a selection of photographs to show the different angles of his face in order to make sure that I make the portrait recreation is successful from all different angles of the face. As the portrait is from a direct front view the most important aspect of the makeup will be from the straight angle. This means that the structure of the face must represent the angles seen in the portrait and the different angles seen on the rest of the face may not neccessarily match the sitter in the portrait. I have only been able to find two images of Archille Deveria and they are both from centre angles therefore I do not have much concept of the depth of his face from different angles. However I can clearly see the shadows and structure of the face from the front to give me a good understanding of how the face might look.
Before application of the lifecast I analysed Gavin's skin to determine what type he had. I found it to be quite dry, he has quite loose skin around his eyes, jowls and cheeks. The dry skin will prove helpful for the application of prosthetics as prosiade grips more successfully to dry skin, however this may mean that the removal is slightly harder as Gavin will not be in the makeup for long and have time for perspiration to loosen the pieces. He has quite coarse hair on his chin and patches around his jawline which I will need to make sure are shaved for the assessment.
Gavin's hair is quite strong in structure, it stands up tall at the front of the head, I will have to be sure to make it lay flat against his head when applying the bald cap otherwise it may cause an irreggularity in the shaping of his head. His hair is also quite long so I will need to consider the way in which I wrap it for the bald cap to ensure that it is fully covered by the cap.
Patch Tests
I conducted patch tests on Gavin's skin to make sure that he is not allergic to any of the materials. I placed a small piece of the material on the inner side of his elbow, as it is an area that is kept out of the way. I tested all the materials, Mastix, Prosaide, Duo, IPA, Acetone, MME Remover , Tea Tree Oil. All of these came back clear, there was no reaction and I could therefore use the products I had selected for the application of the makeup.