sculpting part 3

I made some alterations to the nasolabial folds, completly resculpted the jowls, finished off the neck and just made final refinements to the texture before i start moulding.

sculpting part 2

i have removed the top lip which will be sculpted and cast separately but also the clay was getting too thick on the lips and i had lost where the underlying lips were, this doesn't help in visualising how it will look with a lip because at the moment it looks like it has a moustache! which doesn't look very feminine.
I still feel it needs some work, i might bring in the nasolabial folds this might help fill out the cheeks without having to add more to the width of the face which will make the eyes look too close together.

Sculpting

Before i started sculpting i drew up some concept sketches on photoshop. i tried drawing over a photo of Rowen along with altering the shape of his face with the liquify filter, i also manipulated my reference picture to fit the shape of Rowens face, it was a fun exercise but not that helpful i needed to spend more time on it but didn't have the skills to properly do what i wanted, below are the results of my efforts, they helped me in desiding what i wasn't going to do and how i didn't want the sculpt to look.

sculpture in progress.... work still needs to be done on the nose, lips and around eyes and just the general shape of the face but it is getting there. The head scarf is there to help me visualise how it will look when finished because i found the shape of the bald head too distracting.



After studying the reference picture and comparing it to my sculpt i think that i need to widen the nasolabial folds, define the form of the eye bags and upper folds. add more to the nostrils just to give them a bit more shape. The neck and jowls still needs a lot of work to create the wait and effect of gravity on the sagging skin. I think over all it needs to be a bit more feminine, softening the jaw line and work on the brow as well as making the lips a little fuller should help.

casting the head

unfortunately i didn't take any photos of the process of casting the head in fiberglass, the way i did it was to gel coat and layup the fiberglass into each side separately then join the mould together and then fiberglass along the join line inside the mould, this was a tricky thing to do but with the help of a paintbrush on the end of a stick it was possible.

the picture above shows the join line which needs to be sanded back and filled with car body filler also the holes around the hair line need filling.
there were a few small air bubbles on the lips and one eyebrow but these are easy to filled.

once every hole is filled and sanded the head is secured to a board and is ready for sculpting.

opening the mould

All it took to open the mould was a tap with a mallet along the flange and a screwdriver to prise it open, everything came away very easily. On the back of the head quite a bit of shellac came away with the mould but this is easy to clean up. there doesn't seem to be any air bubbles in the mould and the join line looks tight but i will have to wait and see how the the cast comes out.


In this picture you can see how much shellac came away with the mould, maybe i didn't wait long enough for the shellac and the release agents to dry properly, this is some thing to think about the next time i do this. Below is a picture of the inside of the mould showing the join line.

moulding life cast part 2

i came back the next morning to finish off the fiberglassing but the Blue PVA still feels a bit tacky but only on the clay wall the moisture must be effecting it, if it hasn't dried in 14 hours then it probably never will, the blue PVA has gone off on the life cast so it should be ok when it comes to releasing it. several coats of max wax and then a dusting of talcum powder to help absorb any moister it is time for the gel coat.


after an hour the gel coat has hardened on the life cast but not on the clay wall it is still a little tacky so i came back a bit later but it is still tacky so i decided to go ahead with the fiberglassing i think the clay is effecting the gel coat.
the fiber glass went off fine so i trimmed it back and cleaned off the clay ready for the silicone on the front. when i took the clay off the fiber glass was still sticky underneath so i left it for awhile to hopefully go off when there is no moisture on it. after searching on the effects lab forum i have found some useful info on the best way to seal clay walls, http://www.theeffectslab.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7511&highlight=cleaning
the next one is for polyurethane resin but is useful to know: www.theeffectslab.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7765



just leaving it seems to have done the job and is no longer sticky so i can move on to building the retaining wall and painting on the first layer of silicone.
then painted on a thixo layer


then the next day i trimmed the silicone edges to create a cleaner edge for the fiber glass jacket and once the fiber glass had hardened i trimmed the edge and drilled the bolt holes ready for cracking open the mould.

Moulding life cast

in the mourning i remeasured Rowens head to make sure i had taken the correct measurements before commencing with the moulding. unfortunatly i had some how taken the wrong measurements so had to sand back more of the head before i could mould it but it needed to be resealed with shellac first, so in all this mistake has set me back half a day.


i built a clay wall and even though i dont have any ears on this life cast i thought it would be good practice to simulate the need to go round the ears , also i had drilled holes around the ears and this would be easier to mould with silicone, fiber glass would probably become trapped.


i used mod roc to help support the wall when i clean it up and smooth it out and when i fiber glass.
locating holes were pressed into the clay and several layers of lacquer were applied then blue PVA painted on but the PVA took so long to dry that i ran out of time and could not do any fiber glassing so i had to cover it with cling film to stop the clay wall drying out overnight.

life casting part 2

With the mould back together i used mod roc to keep it sealed. i mixed up some casting plaster and poured it in then sloshed it around with my hand to get it into all the areas, but i had forgot to plug the nose so i quickly used some clay to block the holes, but this mistake effected the cast and the nose came out distorted the clay must have pushed the alginate in. also there were several large air holes but over all the detail was very good especially around the eyes.

the left cheek area of the cast also come out distorted as can be seen in the picture below and will have to be built up a bit using chavant, i will resculpt the nose a little using photos and measurements of Rowen as reference.


all holes were plug with chavant, bumps removed and the cast cleaned up.


the back of the head was rasped down to the correct measurements taken from Rowen, it was then sanded smooth with wet sand paper, holes were drilled along the hair line and around the ear this will come out in the mould and fiber glass cast for when i sculpt the prosthetic.
the life cast is secured to a board sealed with shellac, screws drilled in at an angle then mod roc wrapped around them, screws were then drilled into the base of the head cast to length of 20 mm.
so far everything has run smoothly and attaching the head cast to the board went without any problems, i mixed up some plaster and placed it on the board around the outline of the base of the life cast and the mod roc, then it was cleaned up and the back of the head was painted with shellac to seal the plaster for moulding.

Life casting

Originally i had someone else lined up to me my prosthetic model but unfortunately I was unable use him. so on the morning of my planned life casting i found three other possible people, i talked to them all about the processes of life casting and prosthetic application. i wanted to make clear what would be involved and to make sure they would be ok with the life casting process which can cause some people to panic. All three said they would like to do it so i had the luxury of choosing the one that would be best suited for the transformation into an old black woman.

I asked Rowen Brooks and roped in Lisa to help with the life casting then got everything ready for the already planned life casting that afternoon with Julia.

Material: Bin bags, Mod roc, Alginate, cotton wool, petroleum jelly, skull cap.

First all of Rowen's eye brows, eye lashes and uncovered hair was covered with petroleum jelly.

we built up the split line to a good thickness then smoothed out the edge of the connecting wall.

We then covered the whole back of the head with Mod roc.

strengthening ribs where added across the back of the head, the shoulders and vertically down the center. once the back of the head is done Vaseline the flange.

quickly mix the alginate, covered face starting at the top always keeping eye on nose to make sure it stays clear.
once head is fully covered fabric was added to help the alginate grip to the Mod roc layer.


Then a layer of Mod roc was applied.

Then it was time for it to come off carefully.


Rowen did amazingly kept calm and was very patient even though the process took longer than intended. The mould came out nicely with very few air bubble, overall a very successfully life cast thanks to everyone who help.