I have found Stuart Bray's tutorials very useful when researching for my old age plasterline face. This tutorial is an expanded version of the shorter Bray skin texturing tutorial.

In this tutorial, Bray starts creating his texture without a clingfilm and adds 'pores' by making small lines with his look tool all going in a similar direction. He creates bigger pores when going around corners of the face and in some places the pore often join up. He notes that pores are a lot more obvious the older a person gets. He suggests varying sizes of the pores as they are not all the same. He drags stipple sponge over the form to soften the pores, this is something he does not do in his shorter tutorial.

He then uses plastic wrapping under his tools and the stipple sponge wrapped in clingfilm. Following this, he uses a needle tool to point into the clay and 'displace the material' which gives the skin texture a raised bump. He gives a slight flick at the end when pulling out the tool.

Bray creates a clay 'slip' or 'slurry' by using a rasp to grate clay into a pot mixed with solvent. He then covers it and later mixes it together with a brush, He then brushes this onto the surface and into the 'holes' previously created using the pointed tool. This creates a goosebump effect.

The tutorial also shows Bray putting wrinkles into the lips, something which I had forgotten to do to my plasterline face and did after watching this.

TUTORIAL BY STUART BRAY ON WRINKLES

Anatomy of a wrinkle

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Stuart

What skin does
Skin stretches but it does not compress – instead it bunches up and creates folds. When you scrunch up your face and cause the facial muscles to contract, the area of skin that makes up your face is suddenly squished into a smaller space- inevitably creating folds of skin and wrinkles.

When creating prosthetics, it is often useful to take reference photos of the subjects face in a neutral, relaxed pose and also pulling a scrunched up smile, so those places where the skin bunches up become much more obvious and can be included in the sculpt to allow for better, more realistic movement.

When joints move, skin on one side of the joint is stretched, the other is forced to compress, invariably creating folds and wrinkles of varying degrees. The elasticity of the skin will dictate how smoothly it appears when it is again relaxed. As the person ages, so their skin remains increasingly wrinkled as the ability of the skin to ‘ping’ back is diminished. I find as the ageing process works it’s magic on me, I become my own reference material.

(Yay – I win).

This is an important thing to be aware of in larger appliances or body suits. Usually the original lifecast of a body is made in a position with all the major joints semi-flexed so that the suit made on it does not need to stretch so much at the joints.

Imagine in the legs where cast straight, and when the final suit is worn and the knees are fully bent. The amount of stretch require on the front is huge, as would be the compression on the back.

This step by step image on Stuart Bray's wrinkle tutorial has shown me where I was going wrong with creating my wrinkles. I was scoring lines into a flat surface and was disappointed with the result. This will be really helpful for when I create my ageing sculpt.

This image above is of my own 'wrinkled' sculpt, I was aware that the lines were too sharp and did not look like wrinkles however I was unsure how to create them. This tutorial has really helped my understanding.

Stuart Bray tutorial. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAc2hDCHlQ

STUART BRAY AGEING TUTORIAL

TENSION LINES

This diagram of tension lines shows how wrinkles form and explains their placement. This is very beneficial to me and will be a good reference when creating my aged sculpt.

Available from: http://www.cosmexclinic.co.uk/conditions/lines-and-wrinkles

The wrinkled skin in this photo follows many of the lines shown in the diagram and is also a useful reference however I do not know the age of the individual.

Available from: http://www.cosmexclinic.co.uk/conditions/lines-and-wrinkles

Our faces tend to be one of the areas most affected by the aging processes. This is partly because they are the part of us that is most exposed. The other key areas that tend to be affected include the neck, hands and décolletage.

Factors which affect how we age:

Our skin type
Area of the face/body - The thickness of skin varies from less than 1mm around the eyes to several millimetres on our backs
Exposure to the sun
Skin Hydration - Loss of moisture from the skin increases the appearance of aging
Gender - Men tend to have thicker skin
Climate - Temperature, humidity and wind exposure affect the condition of our skin.
Intrinsic aging - we all lose collagen from our skin as we age which results in sagging skin

AGEING RESEARCH

Available from: Rogers Peck, S. Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Debrecini, T. Special Make up Effects for Stage and Film. Focal Press. Abingdon, Oxford.

I found that this was one of the most useful references (apart from actual pohotgraphic references) as it gives a clear indication of where particular ageing occurs and the time frame that this often happens. The above illustration is also a great indication of where the wrinkles form. The biological name of the various wrinkles also helps to support the information found to the left.

I also found the age sculpt of Brad Pitt very useful as reference and to see the direction of some of the smaller wrinkles. This sculpt is for an older age however I still found it useful.

This illustrated view of wrinkles is particularly useful for my ageing research and a helpful reference for when I age my plasterline face. It describes more names for some of the lines and grooves that are not mentioned in the Todd Debrecini book which is interesting. For instance, the 'oblique nose furrows'.

Previously, I did not realise why wrinkles form where they do and in the direction that they do. I now understand that they are 'at right angles to the direction of the muscle action'. For example, the forehead muscles are vertical and therefore the wrinkles on the forehead are horizontal.