1. Take the ears you cast in Chapter 3 and begin placing small bits of clay onto them. Have your reference images handy so that you can sculpt from them. Remember that if the clay doesn’t seem to want to stick to the Ultracal, you can try brushing a thin layer of petro­leum jelly into […]

Ear appliances can be tricky, too, mainly because parts of them can often be quite thin. As we age, our ears get longer; a study by Dr. James Heathcote,3 a general practitioner in the U. K., concluded that our ears get bigger on average by.22 mm annually.

Up to this point we’ve been sculpting for age prosthetics; everything that has been done in the previous sections can be adapted to suit any type of character sculpture. That is true of this section as well. Blocking the Sculpture Pull out some reference photos you have of old hands so that you won’t be […]

It can’t be emphasized enough that the process of sculpting prosthetics demands that the sculpture be defined by the face underneath. Someone, an actor, must wear it and emote through it. A certain amount of the work—the art of sculpt­ing prosthetics—is a feel when something is or isn’t right, and that can only come about […]

Follow these steps: 1. Place the positive of your actor’s face, also known as a buck, upright on the sculpture stand so that it will be easy for you to work with. Take a good look at the cast and become familiar with the face. This is the blocking stage, the roughing stage. Neill Gorton […]

I don’t draw nearly as much as I ought to and as a consequence my skills aren’t nearly as good as I would like them to be. That’s partly to do with being an art­ist; I don’t ever particularly think my work is as good as it could be, but it’s also partly because I’m […]

If teeth are going to be a part of your character makeup, they need to be com­pleted first, before a lifecast is done of your actor’s face. If the teeth are not done before the lifecast is taken and if they aren’t worn when the lifecast is made, the makeup will not fit correctly when […]

Trying to sculpt from memory alone is difficult at best, and practically impossi­ble if your skill level is below "expert." Maybe your ego won’t let you "cheat" by looking at photos that represent portions of what you are going to create, but I don’t know an artist worth his or her salt who doesn’t maintain […]

Chavant® Le Beau Touche is the oil clay I prefer to use; it is popular clay among many makeup effects artists, including Mark Alfrey and Neill Gorton. It’s a firm clay, but it is easily warmed for malleability and takes texture stamps fairly easily without damaging the sculpt by pressing firmly into the clay surface. […]