Pre-Colouring The Hand
I had never experienced pre painting silicone before, so it was all new to me.
When I was advised to use silicone sealant and white spirit, a part of me thought it wasn't going to work.
I wanted to use my illustrator palette as my previous project didnt allow me to use it, as it went wrong.
I wanted my prosthetic to appear realistic and human like. It had to still appear animal like, but I wanted it to seem like it wasn't fake, more or less so it blended in with the skin, as if it was apart of the human hand.
White low odour white spirit
Clear Bathroom Silicone Sealant
Mixture of both
With the mixture of bathroom sealer and low odour white spirit, I applied a thin layer over the entire prosthetic, and waited for it to dry, and this allowed the silicone to be painted onto. Silicone is an oily material which is impossible to paint onto.
I then, with illustrator palette, painted a light red/pinky tone to the skin to create a fleshy skin colour , as the look I was trying to create, was to make the hoof look as human as possiblee. Illustrator was mixed with IPA to give it a wash of colour.
I then added brown tones to the hooves to bring out the bold and block colours.
I spent a while adding various colours to the skin, using different techniques, using the flicking motion to add freckles and skin textures.
Side profile of the colours added so far, I loved the skin textures.
I loved all the various colours I used, and showing different angles of the prosthetic made me aware of where I needed to change the colours.
Side Profile.
Front profile.
I then decided to experiment with different lighting to see how the prosthetic appeared.
Without the flash, the texture was lost slightly, which was disappointing, but the colour was accurate.
I love this image of the entire finger/hoof , the angle of the photo focuses more on the bottom of the hoof, and blurs the tip of where it blends.
I started adding colours up onto the prosthetic, to ensure the skint tectures, pigments and appearance looked realistic.
It really frustrated me that the seam line on the side of the prosthetic was noticeable, and no matter how much i tried to hide it with colour, it didn't seem like it would be able to blend out fully.
My favoutite photo, I love how natural the prosthetic looks, and even the dark patches look like dirty marks, which would be ideal for my character. The freckly marks also added more effect.
The overall look I was really proud of, I just hoped the illustrator paint didn't crack, as I hard heard many say that when they experience using it, it cracked when it was applied to the model.
What did you like/Dislike?
I liked the appearance of the illustrator palette, how it made the silicone look very fleshy and skin toned. It only required a slight wash of colour to bring the silicone to life, and I really enjoyed using the splatter method to create liver spots, which gave the prosthetic a more realistic appearance.
I didn't like the mixing of the silicone mixture with white spirit as it became quite messy. It seemed like the base coat wouldn't stick properly so I am not entirely sure what went wrong. Illustrator palette always tends to crack after a while if a few layers of colour have been added, resulting in the colour to flake off, which is what I experienced.
How could you improve?
Before my next project, I will be sure to research into how to pre-colour and pigment silicone without the problem of the colour cracking. I managed to find some useful websites and dvd's on how to colour silicone, but I looked into this a little too late into the project, would be more useful to my project if I make sure I thoroughtly investigate how to produce a good base coat for the colour to stick to it.