Mask making
Lesson #2
Last lesson we discussed sculpting materials, lighting needs and the basics on how to come up with a good mask design. We started the sculpture and discussed its progression from the beginning of the sculpting process to around the 8th hour of the sculptures development. That's where we left off. Since then I have put in about 4 more hours into the sculpture. The sculpture is fairly refined and I have begun detailing it. Lets start by looking at the sculpture as it is today.
It looks very much the way it did during lesson 1 except for some refinement and some small design changes. I redesigned the left eye lids and the way that some of the skin twists and flows. Before we go on lets take a look at the sculpture from the beginning up until now.
I have reached a point with the sculpture and its design that makes me comfortable enough to want to start the detailing. This is when the clay starts to look like skin. I should tell you that you don't have to wait for the sculptures surface to be perfect and smooth before you start detailing. For me, there is no difference between creating tiny wrinkles and pores in the skin when the clay is perfectly smooth or if it still has some minor defects in it. The process of detailing and texturing a sculpture will in itself remove most if not all minor defects in the sculptures surface. Don't misunderstand what I am saying. You must not depend on detail and texturing a sculpture to camouflage or conceal defects in the form of the sculpture.
Detailing a clays surface to resemble skin starts with refining the sculpture so that there are no strangely abrupt angles that you would not be characteristic of skin. I.E. Make sure that the nose does not have flat spots that do not belong. Flat spots and sharp angles can ruin a sculpture.
Wrinkles are something that take study and practice to get right. There are many kinds of wrinkles that can be formed on skin. You have to ask yourself, is the wrinkle permanent due to old age or dry skin? Is the wrinkle pronounced because of the expression on the face such as around the eyes when a person smiles? Is the wrinkled skin sagging? You must understand why the skin is wrinkled and what caused the wrinkles. Wrinkles on a hand are much different than wrinkles on a face or wrinkles on an elbow. Study skin....
Some people don't understand how to make a wrinkle in the clay. They simply use a thin tool and cut a groove in the clay. The problem with this approach is that the wrinkle will never look real. There are a few steps you need to take to make a wrinkle. Refer to the drawing below.
This
simple drawing shows a cross section of what the clay will look like then you
cut a groove into it. This is how some people make wrinkles. The
problem is that skin does not act this way. It does not make sharp corners.
I make wrinkles by cutting grooves into the clay that represent the wrinkles
that I want to make. I use these grooves to establish wrinkle patterns.
Once the patterns are established I start working on the grooves to make
them into wrinkles. The difference between the cut grooves and a good
wrinkle is the roundness of the edges of the clay. Take a look at the
next drawing.
The drawing shows
a cross section of a cut groove. The lower cross section shows what the
clay will look like once you round the edges of the clay.
The grey areas of
this drawing show the clay that has to be removed in order to make a wrinkle.
Wrinkles that are close together will usually not have a flat spot at
the top of the wrinkle. The skin will roll from one wrinkle valley to
the next. You also must consider if all of the wrinkles are on the same
level or if some of them stand up above the basic plane of the skin. Maybe
some of the wrinkles are deeper than others.
An important fact about wrinkles is that not all wrinkles are primary. That is to say, not all wrinkles stand out equally. There are primary wrinkles or major wrinkles, then secondary wrinkles. Secondary wrinkles usually cross primary wrinkles at an angle, creating diamond shaped patterns. These secondary wrinkles are not as deep as the primary wrinkles but there may be more of them. The tertiary wrinkles are finer than the secondary wrinkles and help to develop the look of skin. Remember, primary wrinkles are not necessarily deep wrinkles such as those around the eyes of an old person. Sometimes they make up the leathery pattern on an elephant's back. Also, if you make primary wrinkles and do not augment them with secondary and maybe also tertiary wrinkles, the skin will look too smooth. Even when you add pores over the primary wrinkles, it will look less realistic than if you completed the wrinkle pattern with secondary wrinkles and tertiary wrinkles.
I use 2 different techniques to create pores on the surface of the clay. Most of the time I like to create the pores by putting small depressions in the clay with a tooth pick or a small ball tip sculpting tool. I will cover the clay with these small "holes", usually more than 100 pores per 1 square inch. The marks that you make with the tooth pick or small sculpting tool need to be softened just like wrinkles have to be softened so that they do not have sharp edges. We will discuss how to do that in a moment but first lets talk about the 2nd way of making pores. Did you ever look at an orange peel? The surface is very much like our skin. It has pores!!. Sometimes I will make a rubber mold of an orange peel and use that to make pores in the clay. You can make the mold out of hot glue or latex rubber or silicone caulk (found in a hardware store) You simply apply the rubber to the orange peel and allow it to cure or dry. You then remove it from the orange peel. This piece of rubber that you made is a rubber stamp that can be pressed against the surface of your clay sculpture to create pores in the clay. Sometimes I slightly soften the surface of the clay by heating it with a blow drier . You have to be careful not to melt the clay when you do this.
Skin texture is a combination of wrinkles and pours and skin surface irregularities. Sometimes I like to sculpt all of the skin texture by hand and sometimes I like to enhance my sculpted texture with textured rubber stamps. Look at the pictures of a chimp head that I sculpted.
The texture on the muzzle is the result of first sculpting a spider vein looking wrinkle pattern over the skin. I softened the wrinkles a lot then sculpted another wrinkle pattern over the first one. I softened this pattern a bit but not much. I then used a silicone stamp that I made off of a leather jacket. I pressed the stamp pattern into the clay very carefully. If you press too hard you can leave depressions in the clay from too much finger pressure. That's it. I ended up with a pretty believable texture.
To soften the edges of wrinkles and pores you can brush the clay with a mild solvent that will actually dissolve the clay a little at a time. If you are sculpting with Roma, I suggest that you use Isopropyl alcohol, 90 percent or better. You can find it at any chemical supply house or a drug store or a grocery store. Use a soft paint brush and brush the clay with the alcohol soaked brush in circular motions. You don't need much pressure to make it work. The alcohol will evaporate quickly so you won't have to wait long to see your results. Don't over brush your work or it will become too soft and dull. If you are using a clay that has a lot of wax in it like Chevant brand clay then alcohol will now work very well. For Chevant, I use Naphtha which can be purchased at a hardware store or a paint store.
That's all for now. Here is a list of companies that you can contact to buy clay, tools and other makeup FX materials:
Burman industries (They sell most materials you will need to
do all kinds of FX work)
14141 Covello st.
Suite 10-C
Van Nuys, CA 91405
818 782-9833
Sculpture house (They sell Roma Plastilina, sculpting tools, books etc)
100 Camp Meeting Ave
Skillman, NJ 08558
609 466-2986
Both of these companies have catalogues. Call or write them for a copy.
If you have any questions about any of the material presented here, please feel free to write me. I will answer within a day or two.