Painting & Sculpting Marie-Antoinette+18th century Painting Masterclass

I highly recommend to read Elisabeth Vigée Le Prince's memoirs. Today we are going to travel in the 18th century at Versailles with our brushes, paint and paper to visit Marie Antoinette and those who knew her, her portraitist Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun and her mischievous brother Joseph too. Among all the historical characters who haunt the past centuries, no doubt that Marie Antoinette is certainly the one who has been the most represented along with Napoleon. Living before the discovery of photography, there will always be a mystery regarding her face, no matter the modern digital trick invented to supposedly recreate her face and are just doubtful suppositions that can't be trusted as no death mask remains of her face. We can wonder how pretty she was and what people who lived with her or who knew her in the flesh thought of her. Women in general thought her very pretty while men are more reserved though they all celebrated her grace, her charm and her beautiful skin. Interestingly enough, the Duc de Lausanne, who almost became her lover or at least was very close from her for a few months, completely forgets to give us a portrait in his memoirs. Madame Campand in her memoirs writes Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, her painter who painted her many times, writes in her memoirs She had inherited that long and narrow oval peculiar to the Austrian nation. Her eyes were not too large, in color they were almost blue, her nose was slender and pretty and her mouth was not too large, though her lips were rather thick. But the most remarkable thing about her face was the splendor of her complexion. I never have seen one so brilliant, and brilliant is the word, for her skin was so transparent that it bore no umber in the painting. Though all those who knew her agree on the beauty of her skin, Alexandre Dutille, who was one of a page in his teenagehood, writes in his memoirs I have heard many people speak of the beauty of this princess. I must confess I have never entirely shared this opinion. But she had what on throne counts for more than perfect beauty, the face of a queen of France, even at these moments when she most tried to appear only a pretty woman. She had eyes that were not beautiful. I'm not sure that her nose rightly belongs to her type of face. Her mouth was decidedly unpleasant. Her skin was admirable. If you are interested in portraits in the 18th century and Marie Antoinette, I highly recommend to read Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun's memoirs, who did so many portraits of Marie Antoinette and hundreds of other portraits of all the important people of the time. And she also gives very precious, very interesting advices on making a portrait, the different things you have to say to men, to women, to compliment them while they are sitting so that they are still smiling and still happy to be portrayed, all of that. It is so interesting. Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun writes in her memoirs a wonderful lesson on painting faces and portraits and all the mistakes to avoid. Among those advices, some points can be remembered and quite interesting even when you sculpt and paint a face or a head in paper. For the cheeks, a tricky and important part in a portrait is the limit between the hair and the skin and here she emphasizes the nuances and shadows necessary for this part. I would say that the harshness and lack of nuances and softness is probably the biggest mistakes beginners do when they start to create a portrait in 3D and paper. It's a bit like if every part, every detail of the face is considered on its own while every part depends on the other. For the shapes, the colors, the shadows, everything is mixed together and should be considered as an ensemble. The ear. The challenge of doing any portrait, whether on canvas or sculpted in plaster, marble or paper, no matter the medium, is always to give the most vibrant portrait as possible, capturing this magical spark of life with brushes and paint and using the chosen medium in two or three dimensions to the limit of its possibilities. The whole purpose of a portrait is to ultimately reveal life under the colors and the essence of the person painted, regardless if she is alive or a queen who waned a few centuries ago. To sculpt and paint a character like Marie Antoinette, you will need to gather a lot of different portraits and profiles of her from every angle, but adapting these portraits into a 3D face comes with a few challenges. First, putting each part of the face at the right place. The eyes, the nose, the shape of the face and the forehead, which is often very difficult for beginners, the forehead very often is completely misplaced. There is also the question of the eyes and the eyelids and the eyebrows to sculpt them or not, or to do nothing. And the part between the forehead, the nose and the eyes. And there is the question of the delicacy of the skin. And in the case of Marie Antoinette, she had a very fair, bright skin, according to all the memorialists of the 18th century. The skin tone has to be approached with a lot of care and delicacy. And here it's important not to apply our modern contemporary beauty ideals to a portrait of the 18th century. At least those shown in our media, with the big eyes, the thick, unrealistic eyelashes, the turned-up nose or the exaggerated thick mouth. None of those traits would have been valued in the 18th century. The beauty ideals, though a bit different, were still pretty stable. A regular face, a straight nose and a rather thin, small mouth. The mouth had to be rather small and narrow. That's why you see all these small mouths in 18th century paintings. There was also the pink cheeks. To do a portrait of Marie Antoinette, it's important to capture her long face, her rather small eyes, her beautiful, delicate skin, her big forehead and her slightly crooked nose. And to keep the nuances of the powdered, delicate color between the skin, the cheeks and the hair. Of course, when doing the portrait of a woman in the 18th century like Marie Antoinette, the question of makeup can come to mind. Applying a modern makeup to her face is a complete historical nonsense. Madame Campon, in her memoirs, relates a fun anecdote between Marie Antoinette and her brother Joseph too, while he was visiting her at Versailles and he was constantly criticizing her looks, her clothes and her makeup. And this is what Madame Campon writes. And if you also want to create a Marie Antoinette in paper, almost in the flesh, but in paper, doing a portrait, doing her hair, sculpting her hands and also creating in paper all her matching wardrobe, accessories, fan, royal cloak, roses, two dresses and a corset, you can join the Marie Antoinette workshop for a few weeks but there is an opening offer which is about to end. So go on my website at LearnTheMagicOfPaper.com to catch the offer before it disappears. There are only a few hours left so be sure you don't miss it. And the workshop is going to be open till September 20th. So be sure you don't miss it. We are also having a series of group calls to keep you motivated and help you along the way. You can find all this information on my workshop's website at LearnTheMagicOfPaper.com. Thank you very much for spending this time with me. I have many other videos coming in the upcoming days so be sure you stay around. For now, I will leave you here and I hope to see you maybe in the Marie Antoinette workshop. Thank you and I will see you very soon.