Fish Skin Graft | clairegolbymue

As I want to manly focus on the painting with this piece, the sculpture wasn't overly complicated; I basically just tried to replicated scale shapes in a relatively neat and even formation.

I added the small holes as an afterthought in regards to the skin graft element of the piece. I thought maybe I could try attaching string or staples in them as a form of attachtment to the skin.

IAfter applying vaseline to the mould, I applied 4 layers of IPA and cap plastic encapsulator in a 3:1 ratio. I then poured in the silicone, which I deadened 100% (again looking back, for scales I could have dont without any deadener at all) and I didn't colour this piece. Because of the shimmery, translucent nature of scales, I thought not intrinsically colouring it could be more helpful than adding colour when It comes to painting it.

This piece actually came out worse than the other two, which is bizarre as I ran them all with the same silicone, at the same time. For some reason the silicone wasn't sticking to the top layers of the encapsulating layer, so when i removed it, I used a sculpting tool to push up on the scaley area, rather than pulling the cap plastic straight off it and ruining the piece.

You can see some distortion is present in this photo, although I think applying and painting the piece will be fine.

Fish-scales Skin Graft

Design

Painting the Silcone

I started off intending to paint this piece entirely with skin illustrator. I started by using the black colour, doing a dark wash over the whole piece, knowing the colour would sink to the lowest points of the sculpt, therefore creating more dimension throughout the piece by defining the lines more.

I think because the colour wasn't showing up very much on the top of the scales, I decided to try painting the majority of the piece with aquacolours.

I really like the way it turned out; I used the dry-brush method (from my painting prosthetics research) which ensured that the paint hit the highest points of the scales without seeping into the darker crevices where the skin illustrator was. I created an organic, natural look but spontaneoulsy adding different shades so it didn't look routined or ordered. I also worked from an actual image of real scales which helped a lot.

Because of the nature of aquacolours, I did loose the translucent quality I had that I maybe could have maintained with aquacolours.

However, I think painting it with vaseline or glycerine (after sealing it) will maybe bring that back a little. I still think it looks great.

I actually tried painting a layer of sealer over it, as the sealer doesn't try totally matte. I also tried mixing in a little of a silver MAC powder pigment (which I hoped would add a slightly more reflective element to it). It didn't give an effect as glossy as I wanted, and it also removed some of the aquacolour from the prosthetic.

Back to Skin Grafts

Fish Scales (2013) [online] Available from:http://th01.deviantart.net/fs20/PRE/i/2007/297/8/4/Fish_Scales_for_Mermaid_Stock_by_Enchantedgal_Stock.jpg [Accessed: February 21st 2015]

Painting for a Wet-look

The problem I have with painting this piece is not with colouring it - I will experiment with painting colour onto all of these flat pieces - but giving the piece a shiny finish. If it was just for photoshoot purposes then I could just use glycerin or KY Jelly, but I feel that for performance purposes, I want it to be sealed and painted to have a lasting glossy look. I know that glycerin or jelly would also be acceptable for a film, but they wouldn't create a sheen, all over gloss, but more of a dissapated wet-look, like sweat. I want to create that sheen that scales have. Also with a tacky finish, the actor would have to mindful of the prosthetic, and I don't think a makeup should ever hinder an artists performance.

After painting my lizard piece with PAX paint, i'm beggining to think that PAX paint might give me that kind of effect. It might not be too opaque, especially if I water it down enough. I think if you don't powder it, it remains shiny, but it will also still be tacky which isn't exactly practical. I was thinking maybe just painting a layer of Pros-Aide over the top would give it that shiny look, or maybe a thin coat of gelatine. I don't like the idea of a piece being tacky if its being worn for performance purposes.

I have found a product that is used for creating a wet-look effect specifically for prosthetics (perma-wet) , but its quite expensive and I was hoping of finding an alternative, cheaper method.

In my search, I actually came accross a website forum where people can post questions about SFX and someone had posted asking about cheaper alternatives to perma-wet. (http://www.therpf.com/f62/alternative-perma-wet-latex-169731/)

One suggestion was to use gloss medium, which is available from art stores and can be thinned down with water.

Another had a simple recipe to make it; casting latex mixed with water-based polyeurathane (from home depot) in a 50/50 ratio.

Unfortunately its too late for me to order any of these products, but now I know for future reference.

The Monster Makers. (2014) Perma-wet gloss coating [online] Available from:http://www.monstermakers.com/product/perma-wet-gloss-coating.html [Accessed: December 29th 2014]

"high solids gloss coating which boasts the highest shine in the industry. Forms a tenacious, highly flexible bond while sealing and waterproofing the mask. Has a 600% elongation. Used primarily to simulate realistic wet areas on props and masks. Can also be used on urethane foams and urethane rubbers which can be difficult surfaces to paint."

Running and Painting in Gelatine

Running this piece in gelatine was quite difficult. I'd never run gelatine in a flatpiece mould before so I applied a layer of vaseline to the mould and then measured out my gelatine - I knew I didn't have enough to fill in all the flashing, but I thought it would be fine.

The gelatine was incredibly tacky before I started to try and scrape it over, despite the fact i'd just taken it out of the microwave. This made it very difficult to spread, and although the piece didn't come out very well I think it's salvageable - I can atleast experiment painting it.

I decided to try intrisically colouring the piece with a silver MAC powder pigment, as its very reflective and shiny. I think I put in a bit too much, as the piece basically came out solid silver.

I will try painting it with skin illustrator and if that doesn't work well then i shall try PAX paint.

I found that by painting the gelatine with skin illustrator, it produced a really similar effect to the silicone with aquacolours. I thought I could try lightly dry-brushing on some of the silver pigment mixed with some pros-aide to create a sheen over the skin illustrator.

- I had planned on running all my skin graft pieces in bondo, but unfortunately there were problems for me being able to acquire enough cab-o-sil.

- I decided to try mixing in polyfibres instead as a replacement, to try and create bondo with polyfibres.

- Mixing the polyfibres into the pros-aide, I found the consistency of the mixture to be a little gritty. I couldn't get it to be as smooth as bondo.

- I used vaseline as mould release, and tried to spread the mixture into the mould, which was a little difficult with the consistency.

- I left it over night to dry, and then tried to apply it like a bondo 3D transer. However, beause the material wasn't as sticky, it was tacky against the skin, but the piece wouldn't transfer onto the skin.

- I managed to remove it from the mould and there were many small holes in the appliance. I don't know why this happened, but the piece was stretchy and totally unuseable for any purpose