THE DESIGN: Steampunk under the skin

DESIGN STATEMENT:

I wanted to design a character inspired by the image on the top right. It started with the character in the top hat and exposed eyeball from Doctor Who and evolved from there into having attached metal pieces. I love the idea of a whole eyeball, classed up with a monocle attached to the face. I liked the idea of potentially adding a removed panel on the cheek to show that this character is a bit worn and what they might have under the skin. After developing the evocative design, the inside of the cheek may turn into more of mechanical jawbone and teeth instead of strictly gears. The monocle will have a piece of "glass" over it and the seams of the panels may be cast or drawn on depending on time constraint. I'm looking forward to this design tremendously as it is highly ambitious and a very full face of sculpting and casting plus using lots of found objects to make the cast perfect.

RESEARCH

I like the look of the metal pieces being attached to the skin and the somewhat irritated look around the attachments.

The original start of the inspired look and the inspiration for the eyeball.

I love the one-eyed looks from all these images. This one looks so classy, though, which gives me some of the monocle inspiration.

This is my favorite image with the metal bolted to her face. She also inspired the mouth seams which lead to the rest of the panels in the drawing as well.

This is the full monocle inspiration image. I don't want the gore, but I love the idea of the exposed eye being protected and yet given the high class of a monocle.

This is part of the exposed cheek inspiration with the gears inside the skin.

I love the half glam look and the full blown mechanical side of the face.

This image also inspires the inside the skin look with the exposure of the mechanical bits inside.

I just super love the combo of steampunk and the skull. It is just beautiful steampunk.

The tubes in this inspired some of the work inside the eye socket.

MAKEUP, MATERIALS, AND TOOLS

Makeup: Products & Colors

Athena grease pallet
NYX Translucent powder HD
Eyeshadow pallet
Kryolan Foundation

Other Products: Lotion, Alcohol, Etc

Made Prosthetic
Prosaid
Prosaid Remover
Acetone
Makeup wipes
Facial lotion
Fake blood

Tools: Brushes, Sponges, Etc

Paint brushes - assorted
Powder brush
Q Tips

THE PROCESS

Moisturize face very thoroughly
Line up prosthetic where it will sit and mark lightly on face with light pencil
Apply prosaid inside the line
Let dry and stick on prosthetic
Use acetone to melt/smooth edges using qtip
Make sure it is set and stuck
Blend any extra edges needed
Use foundation on rest of face and powder
Add glam makeup to eye not covered
Using grease paint - paint prosthetic piece with metallics, and the eyeball
May have to go back and forth to blend up to the edge of the "skin" on the prosthetic
After painted, set with powder
Touch up with grease paint to help it stay shiny

REFLECTION AND CRITIQUE

I expected this to take so much time. I honestly don't have an estimate for how long. I knew the sculpting would take at least 5 or 6 hours if not more, and it took maybe 8 or 9. Then casting the sculpt went just fine, but casting the silicone piece was very time consuming. I didn't think my first piece would be the best one and it definitely wasn't. I went through 3 iterations of the cast for this project. The first didn't have enough material, the second was okay but had a weird texture due to casting the foam almost immediately after casting the silicone skin. The third I tried without any pigment to the silicone and waiting over 24 hours after casting the silicone to cast in the foam for filler. The final result was pretty good but I didn't have enough edges to adhere to my skin and the prosaide did not want to stick to the foam inside so there wasn't much surface area to work with. However, it looked really good after casting. I chose to redo the project later with the desire to try again with an inner layer of the silicone skin and a different adhesive agent. Due to the revamping and adjusting, I wasn't able to complete the rest of the look, however, after improvising with a little blood, the look actually resonated with my design title more than the design did, where it felt like this eye piece was recently implanted under the skin.

These prosthetics are 100% necessary to know how to do if you want to get into makeup for stage or screen. Prosthetics are everywhere in the entertainment industry. Knowing how to at least how they're created, used, applied, and removed is key to prepping your actor's face, knowing how to blend to the prosthetic, how to cover edges, etc. I want to know more about this, quite badly. I loved this process, even though I like fast results, I was able to hold my patience through this project to achieve some really interesting results and I learned so much.

SCHEMATIC (FACE ONLY)

PHOTO OF FINISHED PROJECT

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