The Queen was incredibly brave and stalwart to keep working until her very last days. One of her last gifts to us all. I appreciate the ultimate Mama Matriarch.
Seven Decades
To witness a woman through seven decades on the throne and see her progression through life has been something remarkable. I was born long after the Coronation, but my Grandmother had an illustrated book of the Coronation so I was familiar with the history. Recently the Netflix series The Crown absolutely fascinated me with its chronological portrayal of the Queen and British Prime Ministers.
My favourite fact this week:
The Queen's 'first' Prime Minister Winston Churchill born 1874.
The Queen's 'last' Prime Minister Liz Truss born 1975 over a 100 years later!
The series is a great blend of drama and history - worth watching and Series 5 and 6 still to come.
Heavenly Ascendance
Because I love fashion and colour, I felt inspired to draw the Queen earlier this year and I created a kind of Queen Cartoon Icon of her. Following from that, I had to design a special outfit for the Queen this week! Entitled 'Angelic Queen'. All in white, of course except the handbag, sensible shoes and stockings. The main feature is a hat with angelic wings.
Here are a few versions I sketched.
I love the smile of drawing number one, but I like the wings of drawing number three best as they really look as though they are flying. Drawing two hasn't got quite the right expression (she seems to be thinking 'how long will the queue be at the Heavenly Gates?). I will blend the first and last drawings together in Photoshop as it is sometimes impossible to draw the 'perfect' image freehand.
The freehand drawings each have idiosyncracies. Not that perfection has to be the aim, but the meaning of the lines is really important. For example the ruffle neck needs to be a bit neater and less organic. Everything was very formulated in the Queen's outfits. Not exactly a uniform, but there was a firm structure.
I would love to know how much input the Queen had into her fashions and how much input the 'Firm' had. I like to think it was down to her. I love her comment:
"I have to be seen to be believed."