Make a Tudor limning
1 You have two ways to do this first step: either paint a familiar face onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out, or stick a photocopied face on instead. Let it dry.
2 When your piece of cardboard is dry, cut it into an oval shape with the face roughly in the centre.
4 Paint around the face. Add a Tudor outfit, a ruff, lots of jewels and a bright blue background.
5 Embellish your portrait with gold pen / paint.
6 Glue a piece of string around the oval – this is optional, but it adds definition to the frame.
7 We just happened to have some dimensional gold paint lying around so we used it to create a raised pattern for the frame. Feel free to improvise here with beads, stick-on jewels or twisted paper to create something really opulent.
FUN FACT TRUMPET Bright blue was a very expensive and fashionable colour in Tudor times. It was made from ground-up pigments, like lapis lazuli and azurite. These pigments had travelled a very long way, from places like Afghanistan, before arriving on an artist’ s palette. Having them included in your portrait showed how rich and worldly you were.
8 Don’ t be afraid to add some funny extras to your Tudor portrait. Some headphones maybe, or your cat?
9 Using a pointed object and some modelling clay to protect your fingers, poke a hole in the top of the frame.
10 Cut the whole thing out. String it with gold thread and hang it on your Christmas tree or in pride of place for all to see.
18
Marvellous Miniatures
Make a Tudor limning
Did you know that Tudor miniatures aren’ t called miniatures because they’ re mini? They are actually called miniatures from the Latin minium meaning‘ red lead’, which was the colour painters used for the important parts of the illuminated manuscripts, from which miniature portraits derived.
The Tudors called miniatures‘ limnings’, which comes from the Latin luminare which means‘ to give light’, and refers to the art of illuminating manuscripts.
Instead of being painted with oil on canvas, limnings were painted on vellum( animal skin), which was then mounted onto a piece of card, often a humble Amazon envelope playing card. Sometimes you can still see playing cards on the back of Tudor miniatures.
Enough info-dumping about obscure Tudor painting techniques – let’ s get making. Ed
Fine. Just make sure you’ re wearing pure silk the whole time you’ re doing this activity, OK? We wouldn’ t want you shedding fibres onto our pictures now, would we?
OK, whatever, let’ s GO!
FUN FACT TRUMPET
Well-known Tudor miniature artists include:
Hans Holbein Nicholas Hilliard Levina Teerlinc
YOU WILL NEED:
– Thin cardboard – Scissors – PVA glue – Acrylic paints – Detail brushes – Gold pen or paint
1 You have two ways to do this first step: either paint a familiar face onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out, or stick a photocopied face on instead. Let it dry.
2 When your piece of cardboard is dry, cut it into an oval shape with the face roughly in the centre.
3 Stick your oval onto another piece of card using PVA glue. Leave this to dry.
4 Paint around the face. Add a Tudor outfit, a ruff, lots of jewels and a bright blue background.
5 Embellish your portrait with gold pen / paint.
6 Glue a piece of string around the oval – this is optional, but it adds definition to the frame.
7 We just happened to have some dimensional gold paint lying around so we used it to create a raised pattern for the frame. Feel free to improvise here with beads, stick-on jewels or twisted paper to create something really opulent.
– A photocopy of a face( optional) – String( optional) – Doily( optional) – Sharp-pointed object – Modelling clay
FUN FACT TRUMPET Bright blue was a very expensive and fashionable colour in Tudor times. It was made from ground-up pigments, like lapis lazuli and azurite. These pigments had travelled a very long way, from places like Afghanistan, before arriving on an artist’ s palette. Having them included in your portrait showed how rich and worldly you were.
8 Don’ t be afraid to add some funny extras to your Tudor portrait. Some headphones maybe, or your cat?
9 Using a pointed object and some modelling clay to protect your fingers, poke a hole in the top of the frame.
10 Cut the whole thing out. String it with gold thread and hang it on your Christmas tree or in pride of place for all to see.