FINALISING | makeupexploration

HAIR AND MAKE-UP WORK

Finalising the colouring techniques and hair styling

For the bodypaint I wasn’t initially sure which paints I wanted to use or what technique would be best suited and I wanted to see what mud masks and fullers earth looked like on the skin, I was thinking about applying fullers earth, allowing it to dry and then painting over the top of it. I imagined it would look almost like tree bark, representing nature.

Above: The mud mask started to lighten and crack whilst it was drying and the texture was quite thin. I don’t think that it would be seen underneath face and body paint and it was ineffective.

Above: I assisted with a third year make-up application (Taylor Rowe) and we focused on layering the Snazaroo body paint over the chest and arms to create a stone effect, I also added in purple’s and greens with a large flat brush and where the paint was drying it looked like aged stone. We applied fullers earth all over the arms and neck first to add to the effect and the result was very effective. However, unsuited for my bodypaint as the fullers earth was messy and didn’t necessarily crack and split the way I would have liked it to.

Hyper Realistic Silicone Painting with Tim Gore.

Gore, T. (n/a). Hyper Realistic Silicone Painting, Stan Winston School. [DVD] Prosthetics studio: Stan Winston School.

Pro tip: most important thing is the base colour, the colour your starting with in the silicone itself. The colour needs to be at a correct opacity, neutral base.

Human skin isnt translucent only areas are, ears- nostrils etc.

Referencing is very important, it is your own body of skin.

Martin schoeller- close up (book)

Very good close up photographs for reference. Develop an eye for subtlety and realism.

Use a respirator around dangerous materials.

(The more additives to the silicone will affect its shelf life. More oils added the shelf life will go down) they become a barrier between the silicone and paint, seal and paint it quickly

Products needed:

-Soap and warm water to take off any of the release.

-Acetone, to clean the surface of the silicone casting. (Allow time to dry)

-metal ended acid brush. Shift brushes are cheap and leave the bristles on the surface.

-plastic cup which can handle solvents

-stick with a square bottom for mixing and reaching corners

-flocking, small pieces of hair in various colours and used in the base. A dry form. Still adding colour will push the neutrality away from the base head, keep neutral and minimal or it will affect the overall paint job

-oil paints (windsor newton) student rate oil paint, dont want to go too cheap with the paint.

-paper plates to soak up excess oils and wax paper palettes to stop the paints drying out.

List of colours:

Titanium white

Dallo blue- dark

Sap green- yellow olive

Violet- dark purple not magenta

Yellow ocre- off/ darker yellow- aged

Burnt cienna- burnt orange/ rust

Crimson- pinker tint

Burnt ombre- shoe brown- leather

Primary Colours:

Translucent being the key, do not under pigment, you do not want it to be too translucent. Practise by painting translucent on plaster pieces! Perfect the colouring this way for in expense.

Process:

-You dont want to overpaint silicone,

starting with a very neutral paint with the silicone.

-home depo, silicone (window, door sealer) GE SILICONE- CLEAR- NEED SILICONE 1! Important. Quite thick and unusable in its natural form alone. Use VM&P Naptha to thin it.

-oil paints and powdered pigments work. Experiment with first with small samples of skin, for base (keep formulas for the colours mixed). You can buy specific silicone paints but oil paints work equally as well. Try to stay towards the lighter end of the colour spectrum for your base.

-when mixing the naphtha and silicone sealer you want a watery milk consistency around a 10:1. Gradually mix in the naphtha to a syrup consistency and then a 1% -milk consistency. (This mix takes q few hours to dry, a hairdryer can speed up the drying time)

-ambient light is important, lighting all around, rather than directional light.

-turntable enables you to turn the sculpt around and see it in all lights and angles. Eliminate shadows.

Primary Colours:

Translucent being the key, do not under pigment, you do not want it to be too translucent. Practise by painting translucent on plaster pieces! Perfect the colouring this way for in expense.

Apply small dots around the paper plate, skin is not one colour, its a combination of layers. Draw two rings around the blue and orange! Important, two colours which can screw your paint job. The blue can potentially turn it gray or cold and the orange can over tan it.

-only colour which requires mixing is the white, it must look just slightly paler or off from the base colour

- fill the small cups with your sealer mix and use thin spatulas to take rice sized colour swatches and mix in each dish separately. It should still have a washy look. A power mixer is good for ensuring an accurate colour mix.

Keeping the brush length long will allow the paint to spread. Trimming the bristles unifies the spatter and you do not get a colour bleed

Leaving an area of the sculpt unpainted will give you a good reference point.

Start with the lightest colour first (off white) to break up the base colour. Ensure and check you have complete coverage.

Then begin with the blue. You cannot go too blue. Keep the colour alive (clean the brush but there is no need to swap brushes) if the blue is too strong then dab the surface with the brush to take away excess colour. You want to "see but not see" the blue.

Then apply green. The green and the blue will combine, making it look more blue. This means the colours are blending and working. You don't want anything to stand out harshly.

Try to paint in a cool environment, the paint may dry quick and that it why subtlety is important.

Do not use metal to clean an airbrush, use wood.

Certain points on a face are generically highlighted, you do not want to apply thick paint too early

Violet is next. You want the violet to be runny- check it isnt drying. If it is then add some naphtha

Yellow spattering. The yellow and the violet mixed will start to mix up a tanned tone.

Orange. Make sure it isnt dense in pigment- reduce the saturation. Go delicately with the orange, you don't want it to over tan.

Alizarin crimson colour. Pinker red. Then even it out with a brush

Burnt ombre is applied as a spatter wash but can be more pigmented for freckles later

Female faces- there are a lot of subtleties, not a lot of texture in comparison to a man.

Adding clear coat:

Airbrushing, sample first on tissue. The more air pressure you turn on the finer speckling you will get. Dropping the pressure down will enable more paint to drip down, larger speckles.

Add some of your original clear sealer and naphtha mix to the airbrush and spray a clear layer over the sculpt (the sandwiching layer) apply clear all over. Important for when you start layering in the acrylic colours.

To clean: run naphtha through the airbrush onto tissue. Continue to do this throughout.

Use a red to create small figure 8's, a noodling effect. Very lightly, try not to cross the paint over, it will create a dotted effect. Only put red where you want it, look at your reference.

After: apply a clear coat over the top again to seal in the paint, sandwich effect.

Build up the paints in light layers,

Mix a new colour: purple mottling. Reducer can be used to thin down colour.

Apply a clear layer again with the silicone first before adding more paint. This sandwiches in the acrylics.

Brown mottling: take a reducer and a yellow and a green to mix a colour- looks like a sickness green/ bruise colour

Use a water spray bottle in the top of the airbrush to speed up the cleaning process

Go in and add detail with the airbrush, adjusting the pressure and spatter depending on what effect you want to go for.

If there are areas which are heavy on paint, use a cotton bud to dab over the surface

Putting acrylic over silicone and forcing the colour.

On a real head do delicate spattering. Ears are always a little yellower or redder.

Hyper Realistic Silicone Painting - Spattering.

Gore, T. (n/a). Hyper Realistic Silicone Painting, Stan Winston School. [DVD] Prosthetics studio: Stan Winston School.

PRACTISING PLAITS

FOR ALL MAKE UP DESIGNS

I will be incorporating large chunky plaits in all of my make-up designs and I wanted to practise the technique with hair extensions. Above: Dutch plait in my own hair with matching hair extensions added for extra volume. I was impressed with the way the plait looked when I added in the hair extensions (clip in) and I will use this style for my bodypainting design.

For the repressed desires design I was at first unsure of what style to go for with the plait. I wanted it to look like a fashion/editorial make up with an added prosthetic and so I looked at the images from a lecture on editorial hair. There was one image in particular where the hair was wrapped around the neck in a fishtail style. I wanted to recreate this and didn’t like the result, the hair wasn’t straight enough and if I had of straightened it wouldn’t have fit in with the theme of ‘wildness’ .

I also tried back combing the models hair, making it look unkempt, for the final make up. However, this looked too messy and un finished and wasn’t appropriate for the make up. Finally I tried plaiting the hair across the front and side of the head, starting from one ear and across to the other, in a Dutch plait style. The model had micro ring hair extensions and therefore the plait looked thick and large, this was ideally suited to the make up design.

FIINAL HAIR FOR BODYPAINT MAKE-UP

The model had very thin/ fine hair and I had to add in a synthetic wig to bulk up the Dutch braid. I was originally planning to braid the hair all the way down the back of her head but the wig was too matted and tangled so instead I plaited it half way, turned the plait upside down and pinned it to her scalp, this meant the plait was even thicker which worked really well. I then plaited the rest of her hair and the synthetic wig down the back and pinned it to her scalp. Overall, the hair was very big and worked well. I pinned the sides tight up into the plait to accentuate its volume.

HAIR AND MAKE-UP COMBINED

Above: The final hair and make up look for the face and body painting based around disguise in the wild. I started by painting the model with white snazaroo water based paint and allowed it to dry. Whilst the paint was drying I mixed a light yellow silicone based paint in the airbrush with thinning agent and tested the colour and pressure against a white towel I used the white towel as a test sheet before applying each layer of colour. I looked at my design for reference throughout and began translating it onto the models face and chest. I used a yellow, yellow & green mix and yellow and brown mix, through the airbrush. After, I used brown, sage green, yellow and white snazaroo face paints to highlighting and contour any areas necessary, constantly referring back to my design.

SURVIVAL DESIGN IDEAS

I took some photographs of tree bark that I seen in the new forest. The bark was aged and textured and it made me think about texturing the deer skull for a final make up. I went to BnQ and found some thin strips of bark and I will attempt to cut it into strips. However, I am unsure the treebark will be effective on the skeleton or if it will even adhere to the resin.

Using Photoshop inspired me to look at other ways of creating a mask for protection, or being in touch with the natural surroundings. On the designs page I cropped an image of a tree bark photograph onto te skull design and I wanted to attempt the design. The skull is too detailed and delicate to alter to that extent without clay building and therefore I used the positive face of my models cast. It was a good cast to sculpt onto as I’d pigmented it to look like skin and this worked in my favour, I was able to depict what the bark would actually look like on the face and against the skin.

DESIGNS IN PRACTISE

The mask would only be used for photographic purposes and so I have covered over the eye area. However, I could have left the eyes free and if the mask were ever to be created again and required vision then I would re create it.

I used [EVO-STIK] timebond to glue the tree bark down (an adjustable contact adhesive) and both the tape template and the bard had to be covered with glue and left to dry for five minutes before I could begin sticking.

I split the tree bark up into small strips, some larger than others and some very small for detailing or missed cracks, and glued them down onto the template which I used to cover the core with (cling film and tape).

For the survival design I needed rope, I looked at various different ropes and thicknesses in BnQ but came across the rope above, which was the most, suited for the appearance of the make up. I wanted the rope to look natural, from the forest and it was too light when I purchased it. I had to dye it in black coffee for two hours and dry it out in the oven, the result was exactly what I envisioned it to look like and I frayed it using sharp scissors to distort the fibres more.

Colouring and applying:

To colour the resin I used Winsor & Newton Inks in (Canary yellow, peat brown, white, crimson and emerald) I sampled the ink colours on a paper towel before applying it and I diluted some colours with water, some with IPA isopropyl alcohol. I mixed colours together until I got a desired color match to the design and looked at the primary photographs of the skeleton for colour reference throughout.

I used various small and large paintbrushes to build up the colours in layers, waiting in between layers for the colours to dry. I started by trying to apply colour before waiting for the layers to dry and noticed that I was actually wiping the colour away so I knew to wait. I think the result looks realistic and the inks worked well on the skeleton, I think it matches my design very well.

APPLICATION

I plaited the models hair, long with added HK hair extensions for length and thickness to the braid itself. I wanted all of my make ups to incorporate a plait as it runs with the theme of untamed and natural, the skull was also easier to apply with the hair back and I was able to tie the ropes into the hair and down the braid. The rope was too thick and didnt suit the make up during the application. I had to thin the rope down with a pair of sharp scizzors and remove some of the threads in order for it to suit the design.

I wanted the deer skull to look as though it was embedded into the flesh on the forehead permanently and because the make up was only for photographic purposes I used sculpt gel in (flesh) equal parts A and B and a small amount of softener. I used a spatula to effectively smooth on the silicone and bleed the edges out into the models skin. I dipped the spatula into alcohol and began working into the silicone to distort the shapes and edges and refine the shape of the skin, moulding around the edges of the deer skull. I looked at primary image reference of open wounds and scarring whilst I was sculpting the scarred edges and I think the subtlety worked collectively with the make up as I didn’t want the scars to take any attention or focus away from the skull mask. However, If I where to re-create the make up then I would sculpt flat pieces made from silicone for the final application, this way I feel as though I would have more control over the make up application and The skin would have looked thicker, ultimately more correct.

Changes:

I would like to recreate this make up but I would sculpt the deer skull instead of moulding it. The process was long and very time consuming and although I was very pleased with the finished and painted skull, I would have enjoyed sculpting it. Also, if it had of been sculpted it would have fit the models face more accurately. The model could see from most angles but I would have liked her to have complete vision for photographic purposes. I would also use a different expanding foam, the foam was rigid and didn’t seem to expand much, the material wasn’t s light as I had of hoped and this was problematic for the make up application.

MASK APPLICATION TWO

Changes:

The second survival design was very simple but actually my favourite look of all the designs. The tree bark adhered to the template perfectly and although I used a different model the mask still shaped the faced and stayed on without having to use any Pros-Aid glue. If I were to recreate this look I could either take the tree bark further back, reaching the crown of the head, which II think would look more surreal on camera. Or, /I could have given the mas eye holes and the model would have had vision. However, for the purpose of the photograph and the idea behind the shoot, I wanted to cover the eyes.