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Project Evaluation

Since starting the course I have thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of make-up but have known that Special Effects is something I want to go into once I finish this degree. I think I struggled from the start of this unit as I have found it hard to balance my time between this project and Goodbye To Berlin as well as dealing with matters outside of the course. Though it was really enjoyable the stress took over and now it's over I can see that clearly.

I think I could have come up with a much more imaginative creation for the tribal project and I definitely want to research into this topic more and maybe re shoot something similar to this in the future with different patterns and textures. It was a really interesting part of this unit and I think I could come up with some great designs in my own time.

The mould making was my favourite part I just wish we had more even more time to create them! I wasn't overly happy with the shape of mine until I put it onto the skin and saw how effective they can be so I am going to be purchasing my own products to practice these techniques at home and also use them for a future shoot.

I wasn't so successful with the research part of this either as like I said I found it hard to balance my time between both projects that I had going on which I something I really want to manage better next semester and going into my third year.

Technical Post - Application & Colouring your piece

• Using a cotton bud apply prosaide on the area of skin you want to put the piece and on the back of the prosthetic
• Leave it to get tacky and place it on the skin getting it as flat as you can
• Once fully dry use a cotton bud and acetone to start melting away the edges and blending it into the skin as best as you can
• When that's done take your foundation and alcohol activated palette to start colouring the piece
• You need to really study the skin to see what colours are in it and a good technique to break up the colour of the mould is to get some on your brush and flick it, it's subtle but adds colour to take away the block colour look

Technical Post - Making the prosthetic piece

You will need:

Plastic cups

Wooden Spatula’s

Digital Scales

Baldiez

Acetone

Silicone Gel 25 A, B and C

Mould Release Spray

Hairdryer

Colour Pigment – alcohol palette

Gloves

Well Ventilated Room

IPA

• Once your sure the silicone is hardened you can take the cup off using scissors and it should come apart quite easily, it will come away from the clay too then clean with IPA
• Spray the mould with petroleaze and then using a mixture of 1 part acetone and 2 parts baldiez brush on around 3 layers to the mould making sure there dry in between each layer
• You can now measure your silicone to pour into the mould, 50% A & 50% B then 90% C
• Mix them all together and add a small pea sized amount of colour and mix well
• Put your mould on a flat surface and pour in the silicone, use a ruler or spatula to scrape off the excess so it doesn't over spill
• Take some nepatha on a cotton bud and clean around the mould to get rid of excess silicone, this doesn't melt away the baldiez and acetone mixture
• Leave to dry, powder with baby powder once your sure its dry to take away stickiness

Technical Post - Sculpting & Preparation

This week we have begun to sculpt our clay shapes so we can then make our silicone moulds. I found the clay quite difficult to work with at first but once it starts to warm up it's quite simple

You will need:

Clay

Hairdryer

Sculpt tools

Spatulas

Plastic Square

Plastic cups

Fixer spray

IPA

Gel 25 Silicone – A,B & C

Digital Scales

Wooden spatulas

• Cut a square of plastic out to carve your mould onto, make it as big as you would like as long as it’s big enough for the shape you create
• Blow a warm hairdryer onto the clay to make it easier to cut some off and start moulding your shape on the plastic
• Make sure your edges go flatter towards the edge, this is so the mould isn’t too think and will make it easier when stick the silicone piece onto the skin
• It’s best to get the clay as smooth as possible so the silicone is smooth too, use a spatula or your fingers to do this
• Once your happy with it clean it with some IPA to get rid of any dirt or bits of hair that might be on there and spray with fixer spray
• Then cut the bottom off a plastic cup and glue gun it onto the square around the clay, this will stop any silicone from coming out from under the cup when you pour it in
• You need to measure out 75 grams of part A and 75 grams of part B on your scales into separate cups, it's important you do not contaminate the tubs so use different spatulas and gloves for this reason as it can stop the product from working
• Make sure they weigh exactly the same and then mix them together thoroughly, you can then pour the mixture into your cup covering the clay

Prosthetic piece final image

 The week coming up to shooting this final look I had some problems with my moulds and a couple that I had left to dry were knocked around in my box resulting in them spilling out everywhere! I finally had 2 pieces that I was happy with using thought one of them (the one on the right side) was a bit thinner making it look more flat and I found it really difficult to blend the edges away. The left one came out a lot better and I'm pleased with the blending apart from the bottom left corner which folded onto itself making it thick and hard to disguise.

I'm pleased with the colouring, I have only tried this a few times so taking that into consideration I think I did a good job but I could have worked more on shading around the edges to pull the piece out in the image more. Although I did use the colour flicking technique that Sue taught us I didn't think about how it would show up on camera so I should have done more to make it visible and break up the colour more. 

I would like to continue to practice these skills at home as I really enjoyed it and would like to improve on perfecting it. 

Image 2 - Tribalism

I realized after getting feedback from Sharron from the previous image to keep it simple but to show more than one technique that we have learned from our practical sessions. I liked how the wax flowed into the rice and latex texture I added so I decided not to get carried away by adding more but looking back at my images I think I could have been a bit more inventive. I found this task quite challenging and I got worried that I was going to do it wrong again so that's another reason why I stuck to such a simple design. 

I'm pleased with the colour match I achieved but could have melted the latex away a little more in between the rice grains as you can see it slightly in the images.  I would like to re shoot something similar to this in the future so I will continue to try out more textures and products that work well on the skin.