The National Portrait Gallery

10 - National Portrait Gallery

Last Wednesday we visited the National Portrait Gallery as art of our research for Dramatic Contexts. We focused on Tudors, Stuarts, Victorians and any portraits before World War Two. I wrote down some of the portraits I liked best in the rooms:

For the final piece I want to chose something relatively simple so I can concentrate on perfectly sculpting the pieces and making it as intricate and true to the portrait as possible. The portraits I was most drawn towards at the gallery were:

11 - Elizabeth I

12 - Anne Boleyn

13 - Richard III

14 - Christabel Pankhurst

 I feel that going to the National Portrait Gallery was an invaluable experience as it was a lot more inspiring to see the paintings up close where the textures and brush strokes were clearer. It also allowed me to see the way portraiture changed over periods of history and the way portraits weren't necessarily anatomically accurate to the sitter - some important figures in history were painted in a more flattering way in some portraits than in others. I will not be deciding between the four portraits above for my final piece.

Timeline Of Portraiture

In this post I will be doing an overview of how portraiture has changed throughout time from the 1400s to modern day. Mediums, size, and positions have all changed drastically over 600 years.

1400s

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Geoffery Chaucer
-unkown artist
-after 1400




































1500s

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Elizabeth of York 
- unknown artist
- 1500

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Thomas Wentworth , 1st Baron Wentworth
- unknown artist       -1449-1450

1600s

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Queen Elizabeth I
- Unknown English artist
- 1600

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Thomas Killigrew
- William Sheppard
- 1650 





































1700s

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Sarah Churchill (Duchess of Marlborough)
- Sir Godfrey Kneller
-1700

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Rhoda Lady Astley
-Arthur Pond
-1750





































1800s

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Jem Bletcher
- Unknown artist
-1800

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Sir Francis Beaufort
- Stephen Pearce
- 1850

































1900s

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Lytton Stratchy
- Dora Carrington
- 1916

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Anna Zinkiesen
- Anna Zinkiesen
- 1944






































As can be seen from these portraits, between 1400-1900 portraiture did not change too drastically. Most of the portraits are very regal and poised with not much emotion to them. They are oil and the majority are on canvas. The depth of the portraits does seem to have improved over time making them looks more realistic as time progressed. After 1900 the portraits are obviously more modern in their appearance and are often more abstract as attitudes towards art began to change and the class system began to break down throughout the 20th Century. It is interesting to see that in the centuries where monarchs were the leading influence of the day and society was very regimented portraiture remained relatively constant. 

Life-casting Research

Safety Risks

- Lifecasting can pose some potential safety hazards
- Materials must be safe and approved for use directly on the skin
- There is a potential for injury if a person faints from standing for too long - also risks of claustrophobia and anxiety in some actors
- The nostrils must be kept clear the whole time but not with straws - the straws change the shape of the subjects nose and can cause nosebleeds if the move even slightly

Do

- Release eyebrows and eyelashes with vaseline
- have subject sitting up unless prosthetic is going to be on someone who's lying down as gravity will pull on the body and the appliance may not fit right
- Make sure you've cast enough of the subject face and neck to be able to sculpt usable prosthetics with good blending edges.

Don't

- Put plaster directly onto skin as it gets hot when it cures and will absorb the skins moisture. it may even fuse with skin if not released properly
- Use straws

Other Things to Consider

- Algenate dust can be harmful so try not to breathe it in
- Silicone should only be used in a well ventilated room
- Should always do a small test on the back of the models hand to ensure there is no allergic reaction
- If you where gloves they have to be vinyl or nitrile not latex as the sulfur in latex will inhibit if not completely prevent the cure of silicone rubber.

Materials

- cling film
- plastic cups
- rubber spatula
- vaseline
- masking tape
- alginate
- acetone
- pros-aide adhesive
- q-tips
- IPA
- sculpting tools
- water
- scissors
- plaster bandages

Lifecasting the face and neck

1) Cut the plaster bandages into lengths of about 8 inches, 10 inches and 12 inches, make several of each also cut into thin strips
2) Premeasure the alginate into a plastic container also the amount of water - ratio of about 5 ounces alginate to 1 pound of water
3)Cover subjects body and clothing with plastic
4) Apply bald cap to subject or cling film at tape - bald cap makes a very smooth perfect lifecast.

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5) Draw a line where you want the facecast to go with eyebrow pencil
6) Glue the bald cap down
7) Apply vaseline to eyebrows, eyelashes and any facial hair - and on the edge of the bald cap.

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- Fill the negative mold with a gypsum stone material to make the positive.
- It is important that this is done very soon after the alginate mold is completed because it will begin to dry out almost immediately and it shrinks as it dries.

49 - the finished cast then cleaned up.

Debreceni, T (2013) Special Makeup Effects for stage and screen. 2^nd edition. Abingdon. Focal Press

Floating Off Technique

The floating off technique is a method where a piece sculpted onto a face cast can be floated off the cast to then be put somewhere else eg. another face cast, a flat board etc. It is often used when a piece is sculpted that will contain overlapping prosthetic pieces so that they can be sculpted all together but cast separately. 

1) Initial cast needs to be coated with a separating agent (eg. Dentsply's Al-Cote) 

2) Make up a large tub of water, deep enough to submerge entire face cast in. Carefully place the sculpture into it.

3) Let it soak for about 24 hours to make certain the water has had time to reach the Al-Cote and liquefy it.

4) Pieces can now 'float' off the sculpture.

5) Can now put the floated off piece onto a new face cast or a board to become and flat piece - blend the edges and cast.

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Debreceni, T (2013) Special Makeup Effects for stage and screen. 2^nd edition. Abingdon. Focal Press

Anne Boleyn

For my final makeup I have decided to use this portrait of Anne Boleyn. This was painted somewhere between 1533-1536 by an unkown artist. Anne Boleyn was painted as she was the second wife of King Henry VIII.

It was sometime in-between the end of 1525 and the middle of 1526 that Henry fell passionately in love with Anne Boleyn. Sir Thomas Boleyn had had the knightship of Bath created for him at Henry's coronation. This enabled him to give his eldest daughter Mary the opportunity to experience foreign countries. Anne and Mary attended Queen Claude's household, a very exclusive finishing school. When Mary came back to England she found a place in the court and became one of Henry's mistresses. Her father at this time was the treasurer to the King so when Anne finished school he also found a place in court for Anne. During her reign as Queen Catherine had failed to produce Henry the son he so desired and he had become despairing. Before even meeting Anne he had been considering how to divorce Catherine. When Anne arrived Henry fell for her but unlike her sister she refused to make do with being his mistress - she dared to insist on marriage and this to Henry made her unattainable which in turn made him want her all the more desperately.

During the time whilst Henry fought for a divorce Anne had a lot of suitors and attention at the court. Henry sent Anne love letter throughout 1527 begging her to be with him and that she would be his only mistress. However Anne didn't relent - she wanted marriage and nothing else. It took a full 5 years for Henry to divorce Catherine and came to claiming that she had been married to her half-brother before Henry. Finally in December to 1532 Anne moved into the palace with Henry and was pronounced pregnant by mid-January. They were married in private on the 25th of January. Anne was hated my most of the country as she had seduced Henry, they suspected witchcraft and deceit. on the 7th of September 1532 Anne gave birth to a girl. Henry was most dissapointed at her not managing to produce a son and no celebration was held in the child honor. By April Anne said she was pregnant again but later had to admit that her hopes were false. After Christmas of 1534 Henry had begun to plan how he could now get rid of Anne and had started taking mistresses again which Anne was most against.

 In Autumn of 1536 Anne became pregnant again and whilst she was away for the health of the baby Henry fell for Jane Seymour who would become his third wife. In mid-January Henry had a riding accident and the shock of it reportedly caused Anne to miscarry (doctors said the fetus had the appearance of a male). By now Henry new that Anne would not give him the son he desired and he had fallen out of love with her. He accused her of having an affair with five men and she was imprisoned. All five men were executed before Anne herself was beheaded on May 19th 1536.

I chose this portrait because I feel it has a beautiful simplicity to it. The features are distinctive from the narrow face with elongated nose and chin to the distinctive eyebags yet they are still subtle and believable. The prosthetics will all have to be small and subtle yet they will hopefully make a huge difference to recreate this iconic portrait. When I saw this portrait in real life it captured my attention therefore I want to recreate it as my final piece. The painting doesn't have a great amount of texture and is distinctly smooth meaning I will have to make the skin look more perfect and painted-like. The look is very classically Tudor. I believe the history of Anne Boleyn I have given above is important to my research as it helps me to understand her character. It is interesting to note that as Anne was a figure of huge importance at the time this was painted, her beauty may have been enhanced to give a more striking and regal air. This was done with many monarchs of time quite notably Henry VIII himself. I will now chose a model who has a similar look to Annes.

Knotting Recap

In case I do do a lace re-front I did research into knotting as I hadn't done any in nearly a year. I looked at Wig Making step by step part 2 to see steps of equipment, basic knotting and how to knot a parting .

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We were also shown examples in class of facial postiche that had been knotted to show how to and how not to go about it. Although I will not be doing facial postiche I thought it was useful in my knotting research.

The mistake on this piece is that the beard and mustache are attached. This prevents the actors face from moving properly 

The colouring on this beard is very patchy and it's not shaped naturally below the mouth

This beard is unfinished therefore you can see the darts in the lace.

The shape of this beard is a lot better but it looks unrealistically think like every hole has been knotted. This means it looks fake as hair naturally peters out around the face.

Flat Plate Moulds (Penny Delemar)

Sculpting

- sculpt piece using wet clay
- scars, wounds, bumps and flaps of skin are all suitable for flat plate moulds
- leave plenty of room around the piece

Casting

- make a low wall in wet clay around piece, leaving 6-12 mm of clear plaster around edge of piece
- apply Vaseline all over piece
- mix batch of plaster and fill the box that the flate plate is in to the brim
- allow plaster to set ( about 40 minutes)

Removing Mould

- take mould out of box and separate the two halves carefully
- clean all traces of wet clay from mould
- put both halves in oevn to dry (just over 100c) for two hours

Filling Mould - gelatin

- mix the liquid sorbitol and glycerin with the gelatin. Heat
- mix zinc oxide and pancake scrapings and a little gelatin together until happy with colour - add this to the heated mixture
- place mould in a moderately heated oven for fifteen minutes
- remove from oven and wipe with vaseline
- pour the hot geltain mixture into the mould, making sure whole piece is covered - no air bubbles
- close the mold halves, matching the keys to one another and apply pressure evenly. leave for about two hours.

This method described in the complete makeup artist by Penny Delemar is very different to how we learnt to do a flat piece mold. It's like a mixture between our closed mould and flat piece methods. It uses plaster instead of silicone to cast the piece and has a top half of the mold rather than it just being an open piece. Although it seems interesting it is a lot more time consuming that the method I am currently using although it would be interesting to see how it works at some point.

Delemar, P (2003) The complete makeup artist, working in film, fashion, television and theatre. 2^nd edition. Berkshire. Thomson

Closed Mould Making (Penny Delemar)

Modelling the features

- Place a small amount of wet clay onto the part of the face that you wish to change
- begin to put in the details of the face
- sculpt in very thin edges
- remember to add in texture

Casting the Mould

- it is necessary to build a wall around the features
- spread a thin layer of vaseline on the nose and surrounding area inside the wall
- paint on a thin coat of plaster with a brush then pur plaster to cover the piece
- when plaster is dry remove the clay wall and seperate the nose mould from the lifecast
- remove the modelled nose from the interior of the mold

Making the Prosthetic Piece
Painting Method

- the painting method is done with liquid latex
- brush the mould with liquid soap
- pour a little latex into the mould and use a brush to paint the inside if the mould until it is covered. Allow each layer to dry before painting the next
- paint the next layer beyond the edge of the piece
- apply about 15 layers so that the piece will hold its shape, concentrate on the middle  part of the piece so that the edges are thin
- leave to dry about 6 hours, it will become darker in colour.

Slush Method

- slush method uses latex but without painting it in layers
- pour the latex into the mould and sluice it around, tilting it gently so the latex runs everywhere
- build up the thickness in the middle, but leave the edges thin
- leave to dry overnight

Using Plastic

- involves bald cap plastic
- spread a layer of Vaseline inside the mould
- paint in layers of cap plastic, allowing each layer to dry before painting the next
- more layers should be concentrated in the middle part of the nose so that the edges are thin.

Gelatin Method

- seal the mould with vaseline
- heat the gelatin (using same recipe and method as for flat plate mould)  and heat the moulds in oven
- sluice a little of the gelatine around the mould to pick up any surface detail, then pour in more gelatin to fill the mould
- close the mould and leave for two hours or until cold.

It was interesting to learn about the different methods in closed mould making. I chose not to experiment with latex as I don't think a prosthetic where you build up the edges to blend is a as subtle as something where you melt away the edges. However I didn't know you could make a prosthetic piece with just cap plastic, presumably it would be similar to a bald cap. The gelatin method is the same as I have been using for my gelatin and silicone closed mould prosthetics,

Delemar, P (2003) The complete makeup artist, working in film, fashion, television and theatre. 2^nd edition. Berkshire. Thomson

Silicones

- Silicone is a synthetic polymer which cure, or valcunizes at room temperature into a rubbery material
- Comes in very firm to soft forms

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- It is inert, heat resistant and flexible
- Tin silicone = catalyst is a tin-based chemical
- Platinum silicone = catalyst is a platinum-based chemical
- They can also be named by the manner of combination and valcunization - curing process
- Tin = condensation-cured
- Platinum = addition-cured
- Tin based systems have two different types

One-Part
Typical uses:
- building sealants
- high-consistency rubber compounds
- coating for electronics
- medical bonding adhesives
Advantages:
- easy to use
- low or room temperature cure
Disadvantages:
- can take 24 hours or more to fully cure
Examples include window and bathroom coating. Not suitable for mold making or prosthetics

Two-Part
Typical uses:
- high-speed, high-volume operations such as application of silicone release coatings
- injection molding of liquid silicone rubber
- soft skin adhesives for healthcare applications
Advantages:
- longer shelf life
- high speed cure
- ability to carefully control bath life and cure time by manipulating the formulation
Disadvantages:
- mixing required
- often requires more sophisticated processes and formulating/application expertise

Platinum or Tin
- Both types have unique properties that make them suited to certain applications
- If high temperature then addition cures are typically better
- For economy, general mold making and prototype applications condensation cure would be preferable

Tin
Advantages:
- cost
- resistant to catalyst poising or substrate inhibition - it sets over almost anything
- adhesion
- versatility
Disadvantages:
- it leaches silicone oil over time and becomes brittle
- tin molds can't be used for casting platinum silicone
- need air and moisture to cure

Platinum
Advantages:
- cures without by-products and can be accelerated by heat with no loss of 'library' life
- clear, deep-section cure, no shrinkage
- cures in a vacuum, so good for multipart molds
- textures can be altered with additives to make a fleshier more flexible product
- good adhesion
- some formulations are safe to use directly on the skin
- certain formulations used for medical adhesives or to attach other silicone pieces, some are self-adhesive in their uncured state
Disadvantages:
- potential for catalyst poising and substance inhibition
- catalyst cost can be prohibitive in large amounts

- Silicone can look and feel remarkably like real skin when coloured intrinsically with pigment

- Human skin is actually translucent

- When silicone is coloured internally with pigments and flocking silicone has actual depth just like skin.

- There is no set formula for colouring silicone, although many agree that pigmenting roughly 1% of the total silicone volume is good.

- You want to maintain a slight transluceny with the pigment - not make the piece opaque

- The method the writer learnt from Neill Gorton is marking a mixing stick with a sharpie marker. You add the pigment into the silicone a few drops at a time. Once you've stirred it in let the silicone mostly drain off the stick and if you can just barely see the marker then the amount of pigment is just right.

- If you colour the silicone extrinsically you need a silicone-based colouring system

- You can achieve relatively decent results with a creme foundation but the moment the actor brushes the makeup at all the foundation is going to come straight off

- There are silicone-based air-brush paints and makeup foundations designed for use on silicone appliances which can be used and won't wipe off so easily.

Debreceni, T (2013) Special Makeup Effects for stage and screen. 2^nd edition. Abingdon. Focal Press