Dramatic Contexts
By Kate Garrett
Sculpting.
Rough Guidelines to Creating your Scuplt.
1. Roll Sausages and block out roughly your desired shape
2. smooth out the edges to attach to the surface for a smooth seamless edge
3. Remove any excess edges and tidy up
4. Start to add and build up layers of texture using your sculpting tools. (see examples below)
5. Powder using talcumpowder and a soft brush to remove any bits- do not use your hand as this will chanag ethe texture you have created.
6. Keep building up your texture untill the required look have been achieve powdering as you go along (if needed)
Neil Gorton's Sculpting techniques.
Blocking out.
- draw in where the natural lines/folds in the skin sit. If you are going to do an old age makeup especially you want to see where these sit so it loooks realistic and so that the prosthetic piece works with the facial movements.
- use sausage shaped clay pieces to create the focal forms on the face
- build up using refrecne images- Neil Gorton surgests that you have one focal refrenece image and have a libary of other photos to use to focus on individual features such as eye bags or the chin.
Preping clay for texture (smoothing out the forms).
- Going over the whole sculpt with a wooden tool dragging it creating a criss cross pattern this will help to blend all the shapes but still give you an organic look (see in photos above)
- For larger areas you can use a serated kidney, as seen below.
Texturising.
- Layer up texture is isn't always the same, find close up detailed images to use as a refrence
- Think of adding lumps on top to make it have more depth rather than just digging into the clay, you can use a mixture of ligther fluid and clay mixed into a paste then either flick on randomly or applied with a brush
- Pores aren't round or all sit one way for a realistic look think of the way the skin is being dragged or sitting to help influence there size, shape and direction
- Powder before using a wire of pet brush so the little beads of clay can easily be sweapt away
- Brushing light fluid over your sculpt will break down the surface to make it appear more natural and not designed
Serated Kidney
This can be used to blend clay together and edges, with the serated edge the smoothed over with the smooth side.
Tooth pick over Plastic.
Laying plastic ove the sculpt then making marks over the top add a definate line with a soft edge.
Figure 13.0
Blocking out process - Start
Figure 13.1
Blocking out process - Half way through
Figure 13.2
Blocking out process - Final stage
Figure 13.6
Neil Gortons sculpting tools
Serated rake tool.
Plastic wire brush.
Wire bristtled brush and Wire pet brushes rubbed over other added texture will soften the lines and details and add a broken up surface texture
Figure 13.3
Wooden tool blending texture
Figure 13.4
Right half blended out
Figure 13.5
Blended out forms
Figure 13.7
Serated kidney
Figure 13.8
Texture created by the serated side
Figure 13.9
Texture using the smooth side
Figure 13.1.0
Plastic and a tooth pick to create pores
Figure 13.1.1
Plastic and tooth pick creating wrinkles
Figure 13.1.2
Texture created by serated rake tool
Figure 13.1.3
Wire brush softening out texture
Me trailing some of the tools.
Le beau touche
Positives- easy to work with and add tetxure into
- can use straight from the packet
- Quick to remove from the casts
- Stays soft and workable for a long time
Negative- becomes sticky/too soft quiet quicky, I have quiet hot hands so I speed up this process more than people with
cold hands.
- small amount blends quiet far so needs edge taking back alot
- Once it becomes too soft I needed to leave it for a while before working back into it, which makes it quiet time consuming for me
Figure 13.1.4
Moster Clay
Facial Expressions.
Creating facial expressions are made by subtle changes, as seen in the image above the crinkle between the brows and the buldge being made under the eye give the impression of a angry look. Philippe Faraut talks about using very small changes to give the biggest impact, the slight change in position of the brow or change in the eyelids can completely transform a look. To do this you need to study and understand the muscles of the face and how they would contract and expand to create the expression therefore informing where you position the creases.
Below he explores how subtle changes to one face change change there ethnicity, the sculpture starts as a caucasian and then transformed into a Asian the main ferature was the chnaging of the eyelids flattening them out and making them more protruding. This is not a technique that I need to use in the unit however in the future I may need to give someone a different ethnicity and this demostrates what parts you need to focus and make the biggest impact. The nose for example has been flattered to loose its bridge and the nostrils rounder doing this makes her instantly chnage your perception of her, whereas the lips are more minor and intally less focused on.
Figure 13.1.5
Figure 13.1.6
Figure 13.1.7
Figure 13. 1.8 Painting the life cast
This is tip that will help you visialise the blend of the pieces into the skin when sculpting and for directors or producers in industry visualise how it would look on the face so they can approve or alter things when you work in indusrty. To colour your cast pigment acrylic paint and brush on then allow to dry.
Types of clay.
Figure 13.1.8
Le Beau Touche
Monster Clay
Positive - Doesn't get sticky very quicky, which is good with my hot hands
- Smooth out well and texture layers well
- Cleanly and quicky removes of the cast
- Lots of working time
Negative - Preperation of the clay takes longer as you heat it through, it can be done with hands but takes longer
- when it cools it does go slightly harder than the le beau touche
Here I have used a pointed metal tool over the top of a plastic sheet, The edges of the groove are very soft and less harsh then when the tool is used directly into the clay. I could use this technique to add wrinkles or detail over the top of texure that has been put into the clay already with out disturbing it too much.
Here I have used a wire brush and brushed it one the clay indifferent directions. I thin k this would work realy well for adding depth to creating skin texture as our skin have many tiny lines on our face that are only visiable when up close so this brush creates that effect.
Here I have used the wire brush again but rubbed over some lines in the clay to see the effect of different levels of surface and it breaks up the hard edges of th eline to porduce a more organic look and layer this would work well as it doesn't break th esurface and make it looked placed.
On the left side I have used a circle loop tool and you can see this takes more off width ways compared to the triangle loop tool I used on the right which digs more depth out of the clay and producing a slimmer line this would be good for making grooves.
Here I have used a stipple sponge and rubbed it over the grooves in the clay to see how it breaks down the harsh lines, compared to the wire brush this keeps the lines more defined but still brings an organic broken feel but not as strong as the wire brush.
This is a fine sand paper that has been rubbed over grooves in the clay our of the three i have experimented this is the one hat removes the most away from the edgesand blends the forms into the clay however I think the different grains would change that and each would leave it a little more defined.
This is the end of a plastic tooth pick dotted into the clay over a plastic sheet, as liks th eimage above using th eplastic has taken the harsh strong edges off the tool marks, this could be used for pores as yo ucan control how big they are and what shape.