Starting the Experimentation Process & Prosthetics

 

Starting the Experimentation Process & Prosthetics:

13^th April 2021

Today I used the practical skills I have to start to experiment different elements of my look and I started to experiment with different ways I could create the tears for my look, I was aware that I would most likely use silicone, but I wanted to try different techniques so that I could evaluate each technique to see which I liked the most and which was the most practical. I tried using just silicone:

I really liked this as I thought it looked like tears, but I felt as though it could’ve been shinier to give a more realistic appearance which will allow the camera to pick up on the easier as the final look will be mostly matte. 

I then tried adding glycerin on top of the silicone to give it shine:

I really liked this result, and it gave me the result I had imagined in my head, from a distance it looked quite realistic, but it was also clearly seen, and it showed up well on camera, this would work because it doesn’t need to be in place very long as it’s for photos.

To experiment with other techniques so I tried using just glycerin:

This would work extremely well for realistic tears, but it wasn’t as obvious from a slight distance which isn’t the look I wanted, so I won’t be using this for my final look.

I then decided to play on the water aspect of the sign and added some white and blue grease paints to the silicone to give it some colour and create the appearance of water. This is the white on its own:

I liked this appearance on its own but it wouldn’t work very well for my look as the skin will be red so it will be too obvious.

This is the blue on its own:

I really liked the appearance of this as it gives an amazing colour to the tears and it will contrast really well with the red skin so I will consider using this as it will also prevent the clear silicone blending into the red skin too much. 

I then decided to experiment with swirling the blue and white silicone to give the appearance of waves:

This came out amazingly and it gave such a pretty finish, and it gave the appearance of waves so I will consider using this for my final look however, I am more likely to use the silicone topped with glycerin as that gives the best result for this look and it’s the closest to what I had imagined.

After experimenting with the tears, I began to test different products to use on the lips, I began with using a blue eyeliner pencil:

Personally, I wanted a very vibrant blue and this is very transparent and not very pigmented, so I won’t be using this for my final look.

I then used a blue grease paint:

This is the look I had hoped to achieve for the lips, this shade of blue would contrast extremely well with the red skin, grease paints would also be used rather than alcohol paints for health and safety reasons, this will reduce the possibility of my model ingesting any of the isopropyl alcohol.

After experimenting with the tears and the lips, I began the sculpting process for the neck prosthetic, this is the symbol prosthetic. I used my practical knowledge of flat moulds and began by flattening the clay and smoothing it as much as possible before sculpting my symbol, this is so that it blends into the skin a lot more seamlessly and it won't stand off the skin as much which will increase the chance of it looking like it's part of the skin. Then I added texture so that it would look more like skin when applied before building my 2 walls so that I could make my flat moulds, and these were then used to create prosthetics. These are my steps:

The blue flat mould is made using alginate and this is best for creating silicone prosthetics as the silicone won’t stick to the surface of the alginate and it will come out easily, whereas the plaster flat mould is better for latex prosthetics as the latex will peel out of the mould quite easily and it won’t be affected by the texture of the alginate.

Peer Assessment: 

Drew said that my clay sculpts were very thin and I had smoothed them out really well which means when I apply the prosthetics, they will have thin edges which will help them blend into the skin more seamlessly. 

I agree with this evaluation and I also believe that the clay sculpts being very thin can help with the realism of the prosthetics as this will prevent the prosthetics standing off the skin too much and this will also ease the blending process.  

14^th April 2021:

Today I started to make notes for my developed design as I had lots of ideas and wanted to write them all down so that I could then mentally evaluate which ideas would compliment my look best. I used my research when contextualising each idea: 

I then used these notes and my initial design to create my developed design and the moodboard for this is also in my sketchbook:

I have changed the piece in the hair as I wanted to create a crown of stingers as Scorpios are incredible leaders and the animal is still involved in this, there are also 8 stingers as 8 is one of the lucky numbers linked to Scorpio. I have also changed the bold blue lip to a zipped mouth due to the fact that Scorpios can be very secretive, the zip is still a bold blue to represent the water sign and have the blue contrasting the red. I will experiment with painting a zip on and attaching an actual zip to see which method I prefer. If an actual zip is used, it will be a nylon zip rather than a metal zip to reduce the risk of the zip nipping the model’s skin at any point.