Character Makeup with Overlapping Silicone Appliances (Witch)

Application of a latex bald cap with ears under the cap for a face cast. How to deal with long hair and how to define the area to be cast using water-based makeup.

Life casting the face in alginate and plaster bandage; the most traditional way to take a life cast. Bonding the alginate to the plaster bandage jacket using strips of plaster bandage inserted into the wet alginate.

Casting a plaster positive of the face from an alginate face cast. De-moulding and cleaning up the plaster cast.

Preparing the life cast for moulding and then brushing up a silicone master negative mould using quick cure silicone and silicone thixo additives.

Casting in plaster from a silicone negative. Casting a plaster positive copy of a life cast from a silicone negative mould, making it hollow to reduce weight and to make it more efficient for use when floating appliance sculptures.

From clay to character. The step-by-step process of sculpting a prosthetic character witch makeup on a life cast. The sculpture is done in plastiline and we follow the process of blocking out the forms and working the surfaces to develop our character’s features. The sculpture is taken to the point where all the forms and some of the details are finalised.

Separating a prosthetic sculpture into the pieces that will make up the overlapping appliances and then floating the sculpture. A plastiline sculpture of a prosthetic makeup done on a plaster cast prepared with a water-soluble separator needs to be ‘floated off’ to prepare it for final moulding. Here we show the steps of both floating off and of preparing some of the sculptures for taking snap moulds, which enable us to create overlapping appliances.

Making individual moulds of the forehead and cheeks. Creating new cores to transfer the floated forehead and cheek appliance sculptures on to. We cast a rigid foam copy from the silicone negative mould to help define the best shape and make a guide for producing plaster copies.

Making snap moulds in alginate from a floated sculpture to transfer the floated chin, lips, and nose appliance sculptures to. We create snap moulds in alginate and cast plaster copies from these, which are shaped in readiness for moulding in silicone and casting positives in PU resin.

Making block moulds of the cheek cores in silicone and casting them out in PU resin.

Using and adapting containers for block moulding in silicone. Block moulding the chin, lip, and nose in silicone using various found containers.

Making a brush-up silicone mould with plaster jacket of the forehead core.

Casting cheek cores in PU resin and fillers from a silicone mould.

Casting positive cores of the chin, nose, and lip in a hard PU casting resin form a silicone mould.

Casting the forehead in a hard PU resin from a silicone mould – back-filled with a fast cast resin and filler – and embedding bolts to create screw threads for mould-opening.

Taking the floated prosthetic sculptures and adhering them to the new cores. Once attached, all the finishing, detailing and texturing work is done.

Creating the cutting edge and adding areas of flashing in preparation for making a negative mould.

Preparing the individual prosthetic appliance sculptures for moulding, then casting PU resin moulds of the sculptures. Preparing the base and building retaining walls with mounting board.

How to carefully open and clean out PU resin moulds, once they have completely cured, in preparation for casting the silicone appliances.

Preparing the moulds for casting out the prosthetic appliances in silicone gel with a cap plastic encapsulate. Steps include cleaning the moulds, application of release agents, spraying the cap plastics, pigmenting the silicone, pouring the silicone and closing the moulds, and once cured, properly de-moulding the appliances.

The conclusion of the witch character project: the final application and colouring of the multi-piece appliance makeup. We go through the steps of applying the pieces and adhering them to the face, blending and colouring the silicone appliances, and experimenting with two different ways to finish the character and make her camera-ready.