special effects make-up

[jmtorres]

Does anyone know anything about casting faces and creating prosthetic appliances? My experience: one undergraduate make-up class, in which we used liquid latex and kleenex to make scars.

My current goal: making custom Vulcan ears for niqaeli. Also pointy eyebrows for the both of us (but I am less concerned about that).

Most of my questions have to do with materials. Like, my textbook here says use alginate to do the cast of the face. echan claims we could do it with papier maché, though I am thinking I don't want to try to get newsprint strips fine enough to deal with the ear. So, alginate. (My book is all about the accu-cast brand; I admit I am looking at mold gel purely for local availability.) Do I want quick set (like, 3 minutes) or slow set (like, 8 or 9 minutes)? I mean, as a beginner at this, will I actually get the stuff on before it sets in three minutes? Or if I get the slow set will I end up going "Hold still, it's almost set... almost..." for like, five minutes?

So then, making the positive plaster cast off the alginate face ear mold (ps: I am thinking I will be casting just her ears since that is all I need to make appliances for. Is there any compelling reason to do a full face cast?). Materials for the plaster cast--is there any reason I need to be using hydro super stone pro stuff, vs plaster of paris I could pick up at Joann's?

Once I clay model the pointy ears and make a negative plaster cast of that, I am then a little waffly about what to make the actual appliances out of. Like, I'm reading about painting layers of liquid latex into the mold which would make an ear that conforms externally to what I sculpted but which would not be perfectly molded to the top of her ear. It would be... hollow, I guess? I get that you can't fill up the whole closed mold (inclusive of the positive cast of the ear) with liquid latex, that that won't set because liquid latex needs air to set? That if I want to do something that matches up perfectly to her ear, I'm looking at foaming materials--foam latex, poly-urethane foam, silicone foam, foam gelatin. Any recs re: my low experience level and affordability of materials? Or is a foam appliance overkill for this--should I just make the hollow latex appliance?



current materials list--
--bald cap
--rubber gloves
--Mold Gel alginate, $16
--roll of plaster bandage (see above link), $5
--plaster of Paris from Joann's, somewhere around $6 or $10 depending on quantity
--acrylic spray for plaster cast (book is all about the Krylon Crystal Clear), $6 or $7, Joann's
--petroleum jelly
--modelling clay from Joann's, somewhere around $2 or $3
--liquid latex (somewhere around $10, frickin' Mardi Gras doesn't have an online catalog for me to look at)

other stuff we'll want (from Mardi Gras)
--eyebrow plastic ($6 or $7)
--orangewood sticks
--yak or human hair
--cake eyeliner
--you could look at your greenish shades of lipstick, eyeshadow, etc

Comments

[laurashapiro]

I've done life casts using alginate and it works great -- you'll get much better results than with papier maché.

I think a hollow latex appliance would be most comfortable for your friend to wear, and easiest to apply to her ears -- if it's a bit hollow you can shape it so that it slides down over the top part of the ear, with the ear inside it, which will help to anchor it.

The main disadvantages of latex are that it does degrade after many uses, and that oil-based products (oil-based make-up, for example) hasten this process. But I don't really see any other downsides.

[niqaeli]

Well, part of the point of making the cast of my ears and doing a custom pair is so that the appliances will A) stand up to dancing and not fall off and B) be possible to remake, since the appliances aren't going to last forever. And since we're going to this much trouble anyway, we may as well go the extra distance so I can keep dressing up as a Vulcan in the long-term.

[laurashapiro]

I think hollow latex will be best for the "not fall off" consideration. Anything you create (latex, foam, whatever) will be possible to remake as long as you keep the original plaster cast.

[jmtorres]

Maybe I was unclear about what I meant by "hollow." Any prosthetic piece I make here will be hollow in the sense of it will go over her ear, not sit on top of it. There will have to be a fine layer that goes halfway down her ear to attach & blend. But the liquid latex slip-casting will be hollow all the way up into the vulcan point.

[laurashapiro]

Gotcha.

I think if it's painted on thickly enough, that shouldn't be a problem.

[jmtorres]

Heh, well. Part of the reason we're casting and making a mold is so I can then make as many ears as she wants in the future. She has this idea she might do this regularly at cons.

[jmtorres]

I've done life casts using alginate and it works great

Also, how long was the set time on the alginate you used?

[laurashapiro]

This was over 20 years ago, so I don't remember exactly, but at a guess I'd say 15 minutes or so.

[kernezelda]

You might also check with eve11; she does costumes and head-pieces for Dragon*Con each year.

[jmtorres]

--LJ, not DW?

[kernezelda]

Weird! I typed in lj user. Yes, she's on LJ and posts every year about how she makes the costumes.

[jmtorres]

(in DW, the tag <lj user="username"> defaults to <user name="username"> as backwards compatibility. To specify a site other than the one you're on, you want, in DW code, to do: <user name="username" site="livejournal.com"> or whichever journal site you want)

Cool, thanks. Have pm'ed her.

ETA for fail code.

[jetpack_monkey]

I can email a friend of mine whose done some special makeup effects and see what he says. With your approval.

[jmtorres]

Sure!