Am I old yet?

So today was the start of something new. Something I had never done before. I made someone old!! Well not all of them, just a little part of the face. So for this project we had to pick a character from a book we read over Christmas and seeing as a lot of the books had a slightly darker tone to it, we are starting to learn small amounts of special effects. The first of which is Old Age Stippling. So the things that we will be using today are:

• Barrier Foam
• Latex
• Old Age Stipple
• Acetone
• Hair dryer
• Sponges
• Cotton Swab

Now there are a few safety things which you have to go through before you start. First off, ask if your model knows if they are allergic to latex and if they aren't just place a small dab on the inside of their wrist just to double check. If they react, peel off the latex and don't use it on them, however if they don't react you know that it is safe to use. Now latex can be used all over the body, however be cautious of the slightly hairier areas as peeling it off can hurt!! Latex can be used on the face and neck, but make sure eyes are shut when working on the face just to make sure nothing accidentally gets in them. 

• So to start off by placing a small amount of barrier foam onto your models face around the temple area. Barrier foam is kind of what the name says. It makes a thin barrier between the face and latex so that it can help people with sensitive skin. It can be used for minor prosthetics.
• Place a small amount of latex into a pot and then using a sponge dab it on to the area where you placed the barrier foam. While dabbing the latex on, lightly stretch the area of skin you are working on as when you let go the latex will create the wrinkles.
• You then get the hair dryer, and after testing the heat on yourself, use it to dry the latex. You need to wait till the latex has fully gone clear as that is when you know it is dry. Keep the area of the skin stretched when drying.
• Once dry, repeat the process so that you can build up layers.
• because you are building up layers you end up creating an edge between the latex and the skin. There are two ways you can get rid of this. When dabbing on the skin, make sure you haven't got a whole load of latex on your sponge and thin it out as you're dabbing around the edges. The other thing you can do is using a cotton swab and some acetone dab around the edges and it will thin out the edges as well. 
• Once you've got the layers all built up, you place a small amount of the translucent powder. This allows you to start adding colours to create the correct shade on the face and help making the model to look old. Colours, eye shadows and powders can be added to the latex to change the shade however this is slightly harder. You will need to get the model to change up their facial expressions so that you can see where the lines would be when they get slightly older.
• The last thing that we did was to use Old Age Stipple. It's basically like latex however it is thicker and slightly tinted. Like the latex, use the barrier foam before hand and then dab it on. We placed it on the hand to help see the different shades. Unfortunately I ran out of time to practice on my partner so I was unable to get a go using it. 

Unfortunately it's hard to see in the image, but I placed the latex to the side and slightly under the eyes. This was only two layers of latex and you can already see the slight wrinkles that the latex has created. Overall I really enjoyed doing this lesson as I found it incredibly fun, however I don't think that I will end up using this particular effect as I don't think that it will fit in with the character that I have chosen.