CLARE HEDGES
MAKE UP ARTIST
SCULPTING TECHNIQUES
My notes from Bray's tutorial
- Vaseline all over the cast and then wipe excess with tissue.
-Mark out in pencil exactly where sculpt will finish on life cast. Also pencil in hairline and some of the wrinkles to make them easier to see.
- ( using lebautouche) flatten small 'blobs' of clay onto the surface - 2mm thick.
- Preserve the wrinkle pencil line by putting two sausages along the line and nuding them towards the line. Preserves the original position.
- use either a tool or your thumb to smooth the area
- Roughly start carving in wrinkles - when carving wrinkles, shave the edge into a more natural shape rather than a hard line.
- Stuart uses a brass tool to shave around the edges, once enough clay has been taken away he smooths down with his thumb.
Refining the surface
- cheap plastic brush cross hatched over the surface which reduces the tool marks without taking away too much of the form. retain original form.
- makes it look like a continuous shape rather than a series of blobs which is what it is.
- make them too bold and then it is easier to reduce them gradually
'sands' it down but without making it flat. can cover large surface at a time.
lighter fluid with a cotton pad and wipe over the edge - taking off the thin which is not adding anything 3D dimentially to the form.
Todd Debrecini's chapter on blocking the sculpture makes the same points as Bray in his tutorial however there are several additional points made.
Debrecini suggests checking that there is a minimum thickness around the sculpt to prevent overstretching of the appliance as well as to ensure a uniformity.
He also suggests creating some rough ears as a point of reference to help make the head look more familiar.
Debrecini advises that some of the detail may be lost when using the lighter fluid and that recarving detailsmay be necessary. He suggests using a soft brush to take away the hardness of the crease. This may be a helpful tip when ageing my plasterline face.
He also suggests leaving the sculpt for 24 hours to ensure that the surface is hard enough to work into again and will not be too sticky from the solvent.
Skin textures
- Powder with talc
- Thin plastic packaging wrap use a pointed tool to work into the wrinkles. The harder you press the deeper the fold will be - play with the pressure
- Use thicker plastic and more pressure for more severe creases
- Trying folding the plastic over a couple of times and vary the pressure - will vary the marks made
- Create pores the same way. Will always looks wrong at first, like a "blank canvas invaded by tiny dents" the more of them there are, the less wrong they will look - "Safety in numbers".
- next use clingfilm and press stripple sponge into the clay firmly. natural looking skin testure. add over the
- plastic brush - stipple in
- building up areas will give a more natural result
- be sure to extend the texture right over the edge so that it doesnt suddenly stop.
Important to use baby powder when using the pet brush as otherwise all the little bits of clay will stick to sculpture.
I think the suggestion to use clay slurry to create tiny bumps on the skin is brilliant and is certainly something I will use in the future. When working on my plasterline face, I created these bumps using tiny bits of clay and then disolving them with solvent whilst on the face which did not work as well as this method would.
Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66V7egZo308#t=13
Available from: Debrecini, T. (2013). Special Effects for Stage and Screen. Second edition. Abingdon, Oxford. Focal Press.
SHAUN DONAHUE TUTORIAL
I contacted Shaun Donahue after seeing his texturing tutorial on the Neill Gorton 911 group as the images were no longer viewable. Shaun kindly sent me the PDF is an incredibly useful and in depth tutorial in skin texturing. Shaun uses different materials such as a dog brush to create his textures which I intend to try myself.