With all elements of my character make-up completed it was time to bring weeks worth of work together in my final application/summative assessment. I had finalised my design to include all of the aspects that Charlie and John had requested and drawn up something that I was happy with.
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| Stretched chin |
The process began by applying a latex bald cap that I had made previously, this was, however, reasonably quick as the cap would not be seen and therefore the edges did not have to be neat at all. Next came the task of removing the prosthetic from the fibre glass head and pulling it over John's head - which proved to be easier said than done! Despite having already released the prosthetic from the the fibre glass head and brushed the inside with talc, it would not come free very easily a took a lot of manoeuvring. As I pulled the piece over John's head, by concerns were confirmed and the illustrator colouring the surface of the prosthetic began to split and crack. I also noticed that either in the process of releasing the prosthetic from the mould, or from the head, the chin and neck area had stretched quite significantly and now did not fit tightly to John's face. Unfortunately this meant that it needed to be padded out with a little cotton wool which instantly changed the overall shape of the face and almost made it appear as if there was a growth on the neck. On the one hand this was quite an interesting effect and added to the overall grotesque-ness of the character, but on the other, it was not the sharp featured face that I had envisaged.
Next I began the glueing process, however, this proved to be the biggest issue of the entire assessment. After 3 or 4 attempts at glueing the prosthetic down around John's eye and having no success I was forced to switch from my AquaFix to a much stronger glue; Snappy G. Even with this I struggled but eventually got the eye pieces to stay down. Unfortunately, in my haste at trimming the centre of the eye out I had lost any really thin areas of silicone and my edges did not blend down at all. This may also have been due to the fact that I forgot to include cutting edges inside the eye sockets, mouth and around the base of the prosthetic; a mistake that I will certainly not be making again. Next I moved onto the glueing of the mouth area which transpired to be even more difficult than the eyes. As I had had to bulk out the prosthetic with cotton wool to counteract the areas of stretching, the edge of the prosthetic had been pulled downward so that it now exposed quite a large amount of John's chin. I had thought that I could get around this problem using sculpt gel, however, getting the piece to stick down at all was once again an issue. John had been quite animated throughout the morning and kept opening his mouth really wide when talking which was causing the prosthetic to pop up. I had mentioned this to him a few times but it appeared to be having no effect so I resolved to tackle the mouth area at the end of the 4 hours when everything else was completed. Once all of the other areas had been stuck down to the best of my ability, John admitted to me that he had been out drinking a lot the night before, despite my requests that he did not as alcohol in the pores would cause the glue to be less affective, and that Charlie had instructed him not to say anything to me about it. I was, understandably, very unhappy about this revaluation, however, there was nothing I could do to fix the problem so was forced to carry on regardless.
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| Sculpt gel edges |
I next went in with some sculpt gel to try and combat the edges of the prosthetic that were too thick to blend into the skin. I was a little apprehensive about using this as I had never done so before and knew that some people had struggled with it previously. At first it did not create the smoothest edge as I had been applying it with a wooden mixing stick, however, once I switched to a metal sculpting tool it was much easier. The area around the mouth still appeared a little bumpy, however, the beauty of the texture on the prosthetic meant that it was not as noticeable as it would be on a prosthetic for a more human character.
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| Flat piece |
The next task to be tackled was the application of the flat piece I had made for the brand on the upper arm. Unfortunately when removing the flat piece from the mould I found that the central part of the sculpt would not come out as I had foolishly not sculpted any clay into the centre to join it and therefore the only thing connecting the central piece to the outer piece was a very thin layer of cap plastic, which obviously was not enough. I decided to leave the central part and just apply the outer piece to texture with gelatine afterwards. I then went on to make one of the simplest mistakes - putting glue onto the wrong side of the flat piece!! I realised in enough time, however, and was able to glue the other side and get it down onto the skin before it was too late. The downside of this, however, was that my cap plastic edges had curled up in areas and no longer blended seamlessly into the skin. This meant that yet more sculpt gel was necessary; not something that I had expected with something as simple as a flat piece. On a positive note, the gelatine inside the flat piece worked really well at creating the texture that I was aiming for and would definitely be something that I would use again, although it did take a little while too cool down sufficiently to be safe to put on the skin. Now that this was completed it was time to start the airbrushing process.
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| Tattoo visibility |
I would be using my professional Iwata airbrush on this occasion and some silicone based airbrush colours from Temptu. When I put the colour into the airbrush, however, it did not come out at all. It was only when I had removed the back of the airbrush to expose the needle that colour started to flow, so in the interest of not wasting time, I was forced to continue working with the airbrush in this condition. I struggled to get an even coverage with the airbrush at first as when I held it too far from the skin there was barely any colour visible, and when it was held closer it became really patchy; darker in some areas, lighter in others. Eventually I found that the best way to combat this was to go in slightly closer and then use a stipple sponge to dab the skin as I was going to even out any patchy areas and also add back in some skin texture. This technique worked pretty well in most areas, apart from on John's inner forearm. I had noticed previously that he had a tattoo here and had had my concerns about the best way to cover this up. Initially I had considered using a silicone flat piece, however, that would have been a) a more expensive option and b) more chance for edges to appear if not applied correctly. I therefore decided that the best option would be to use a red concealer to cover the tattoo and then airbrush over it. The use of the stipple sponge, however, not only lifted off small amounts of airbrush colour, but also of the concealer, meaning that the tattoo was revealed ever so slightly. This took a few attempts to get right. Due to time constraints I was also only able to use one of the airbrush colours that I had bought and did not get the entirety of the back coloured. If I had had a little more time I would have liked to break up the colour slightly with a darker tone that I had bought and made more effort with creating surface texture as I had done on the face.
After adding a little grease paint to the face, in the eye sockets particularly and in any areas where the colour had cracked, I felt that it was time to apply the wig. I had had my concerns that it would be very difficult to secure the wig down to the prosthetic as the only area of support would be the lace front hair line, however, the wig was so snug on the head (not even coming down far enough to reach the nape) that even without glueing down the front it stayed on perfectly fine. This may not be secure enough for an entire day's filming though so may need to be given further consideration. I pulled the front sections of hair back off of the face and secured them at the back using hair grips. I was pleased with how this had worked as it meant that the face and ears were properly exposed and also that any problem areas of netting at the back of the head were instantly covered up. I also felt that it didn't look too styled or precise, which is certainly something I did not want. I then added a little extra dry shampoo to tackle any remaining areas of shine and ran some Fuller's Earth through segments of the hair.
It was nearing the time for final touches so I pushed the bone through the stretched ear hole and asked John to put contact lenses in before I airbrushed his hands as he was aware that because of health and safety restrictions I was unable to do it myself. John really struggled with this, especially because of how low the prosthetic came down in the brow area he was finding it difficult to get a decent grip on his eyelids. This is something to be taken into consideration for future applications; I had already decided that the brow piece was coming down too low and would need to be raised slightly. This would mean that the eyebrows would need to be blocked before the prosthetic piece was applied as they had been visible when I had lifted the piece up in the initial application stages. It may also be worth considering whether or not it would be best for the actor to apply the contact lenses before the application process even started, however, this would mean wearing them for an additional 4 hours which would be very uncomfortable.
Once all of the final details had been taken care of I finally made a last attempt at securing the prosthetic around the mouth. I also reminded John that this would be a last attempt and that he needed to make a conscious effort not to pop it off by talking too animatedly. It did eventually go down using the stronger Snappy G glue and I was able to colour the sculpt gel using grease paint to blend it into the face slightly better before adding a final tough of some smeared black around the lips; I did not what it to look neat in the slightest. I also attempted airbrushing some glycerine mixed with water over the face as I wanted the Orc to look constantly moist, however, this did not appear to have much affect. Perhaps if I had had the time to repeat the process a number of times and build the glycerine up in layers it may have been more successful.
I decided that the best place to take the photographs of the make-up would be in a wooded area as this was the suggested setting for the film. I had Grace Noble, one of the costume designers, kindly lend me the abs piece of the costume for John to wear, however none of the other pieces were available, but it was still a useful contribution to the final image. John, myself, and the film stills photographer Benjamin Horrillo, headed out into Talbot woods to take the photos. I was happy with the range of settings and positions that we achieved, however, when getting into character, John had a tendency to open his mouth a growl or snarl, which would have been appropriate, however, I had been unable to source the false teeth that I really wanted before the assessment and therefore had left John's teeth as they were. When he opened his mouth the teeth did not look right as they were too white, something which I would have to try and fix in photoshop once the pictures came through.
Evaluation
There were a number of factors that have had a slightly negative affect on my final make-up application, some my own mistakes, and others elements that were out of my control. Despite all of the negative aspects, however, I can honestly say that I can be proud of what I have produced. Tackling a make-up of this magnitude in my second year was always going to be extremely ambitious and although I have made mistakes, I feel that I have produced something to the very best of my ability. Factors that I were particularly happy with were the way that the wig turned out, the texture and flexibility of the silicone (I believe that the choice of using 120% deadener was the right one) and the skin texture that I created on certain areas of the prosthetic using skin illustrator.
I have learnt an unbelievable amount about prosthetics and the processes of both making and applying them through this experience, and that is perhaps more valuable to me than having a photograph of a flawless makeup application for my portfolio.
Application montage video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFvP6nn-rQs
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