EMMA FREEMAN
SPECIALIST PRACTICE
I tested the pieces before filming and felt happier with the outcome than I expected. The pieces were really subtle and the colour matched well. The only problem I faced with them is the cap plastic was slightly too thin. I found it very difficult to blend the edges because of this. I coloured the piecces with skin illustrator which is something I need to practise to get improve my colouring skills. To improve I need to focus on blending edges, practise my colour and matte down the face as it looks too shiny (emphasised by the light in the camera). In person the shine was not as noticeable.
I was really pleased with how the eyebags came out, however, the eyelids seemed to be too big and became uncomfortable for my model. I felt like the shape was wrong and they slanted upwards too much. After revising some reference images I saw that the eye lids should droop slightly more than I had sculpted. Consequently, I decided to sculpt the eyelids again and to make them smaller and flatter, this would be more comfortable for my model and would look more realistic. In order for the new eye lids to fit the eyebags, I ran the eyebags in gelatin first and stuck them to my face, this gave me a visual indicator and the size of the eyebags so that I could sculpt the eyelids to suit.
The second time sculpting this felt much easier as I knew how I wanted to sculpt the pieces and used the images from my previous sculpt to help. I tried not to spend too long on this, as I knew it would be partly destroyed when floating. I sculpted the basic shapes, added a little texture and began to float. This time around I added 3 layers of parting agent and left it over night. The pieces floated off much easier this time around and i managed to take them off without damaging the edges too much. I cleaned up the pieces before flattening onto tiles. I cleaned with a spray of alcohol and warmed them up with a hair dryer to help them transfer onto a tile. I applied pressure to the pieces but was careful not to lose the depth I needed. I used a pencil and my previous images to help me outline the edges. I tried to blend these edges out a little futher to help me get a blendable edge. I added skin texture before powdering (which helped me to visualise my texture and pores) and preparing to mould.
once almost completed I prepared my sculpt to be submerged in water. The water reacts with the parting agent helping the pieces to 'float' off. I left the sculpt for around 5 hours, and noticed they were not floating off very easily. With a flat tool I tried to encourage the pieces away, and in the process began to ruin the edges of my sculpt. I knew this would happen to some degree but when I placed my pieces onto a tile and tried to flatten, it became apparent that the shapes were far too distorted. I assumed I did not used enough of the parting agent or I did not leave my sculpt submerged for long enough. I decided to start the sculpts again as I found it too difficult to get them to look as similar as when they were on the core.
SCULPTING/MOULDING FACIAL FLAT PIECES
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I used photoshop to help me design the facial prosthetics. With the help of online tutorials I was able to age Lukaz by 10 years, give him some subtle scars and take away the fresh young look he has. I have never used photoshop to design before, so it was quite difficult at first. I watched a few tutorials on youtube and played around with the tools and different settings available. This way of designing was actually really helpful to understand Lukaz' natural wrinkles and skin tones, I was able to zoom right into his face to see the details and build colours and depth gradually. This is a similar technique to actually doing Lukas' makeup so it has been good practise for me.
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create a new layer to create guide lines for your face-use reference images
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make the opacity to 20% so that you can see them gradually on your face
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now you can go over in the burn tool using the guide lines for help
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use the tool at a small size (3) with exposure around 10, select mid tones
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take away the layer with the guidelines now you are left with just the burn too marks
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now make the burn too slghtly wider, so that it is over both sides of the lines, exposure at around 9. this helps to create the shadow
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use liquify to push the skin around-you can strectch the skin and drag it. Here I have pulled the skin down slightly on his jaw, pulled his eyelids down as well as his eye bags
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i used the didge tool to help highlight areas such as his cheekbones. I wanted to make his face look more hollow so I highlighted the bone on his cheek bone and shadowed below
I used the Stan Winston DVD tutorials to help me through these stages as seen on:
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In order to make a second core I used my silicone jacket and painted a layer of gel coat inside. This time I chose to pigment the gle coat white so that it would be easier to see my blending edges. I fiberglassed on the inside and trimmed the edges whilst the fiberglass was still soft
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For my facial prosthetics I painted two layers of scopas parting agent. I sculpted my pieces using reference images to help me with the forms and textures. I found this more challenging than expected and I spent a long time trying to get the shapes realistic looking. I wanted the pieces to be as flat as possible so that they were very subtle. I wanted these pieces to be seperate so that Lukaz could still have a lot of movement in the face. To check the thickness I constantly probed the clay with a pin to ensure it was thin throughout and even. I went back and forth making my lines and wrinkes, and used alcohol and water to brush away the bits of clay. Repeating this process helped a natural looking texture that I would later begin to define.
SECOND SCULPT
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REFERENCE IMAGES
I used these images to help me sculpt a gaunt looking cheek bone, wrinkles around the eyes and mouth and to get a general feel of the texture of skin
Makeup morgue (2015) Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/507077239271673743/ (Accessed: 1 January 2016)
Garett Franz (2011) Aging Tutorial in Photoshop CS5 part 1. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkbnP07HB20 (Accessed: 1 January 2016).
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stuart bray (2014) Sculpting Prosthetics: Skin textures. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAc2hDCHlQ (Accessed: 1 January 2016).
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I used Stuart Brays step by step turorial to help me with texturing my pieces. Although I wanted to create an older skin, I had to be careful as I did not want to age the skin as much as it is in the tutorials. I was surprised with the difficulty of getting a subtle texture and form in, I wanted the texture to be there but not too overdone. I added more, took away some and repeated all these processes until I felt satisfied with how it looked
I used a clay extruder to make my flashing, and built a wall around the flat pieces. To save material I tried to cut the wall as low as possibe just to cover my sculpt, creating the wall too high would have wasted a lot of silicone. I weighed out equal parts A&B and poured at a distance over my mould to reduce air bubbles. Once my mould had cured I cleaned it out and weighed my clay along with my flashing. this would determine how much silicone I would need.
Measuring the silicone: After my cap plastic layers were painted on (ratio 3:1 3 layers underneath and 3 layers on top) I used equal parts A and B with 100% softener. I also tried a mixture of equal parts A and B with 150% softener which looked and felt more realistic, in that particular area of the face, the movement and texture was suited for the eye sockets because the skin is soft and hollow in that area. I wanted to avoid any stiffness or ridges in the skin.
As I knew Lukas' skin tone had blue and green undertones I decided to use green and blue flock to my silicone mixture. I wanted to avoid adding the blue silicone at this point as the quantity of silicone used was very small and I was worried I would over pigment the mixture
TEST MAKEUP
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For the day of filming I ran two pieces of all of my mould, in case I had any problems with them. I labelled them so that I did not get confused with which side was which.