Lifecasting

Life Casting Model

Step 1

Making a bald cap.

For this cast I am making a latex bald cap. Often in industry they will use a plastic bald cap so that they can blend off the edge, so there is nothing the clean up in the cast. And also if you are using casting silicone then you would need a plastic bald cap, because latex would inhibit the cure.

However because I am using alginate to make my life cast I will use latex.

The best latex bald cap for the life cast, is thin but strong.

Checklist

-latex bald cap

-prosaide

-Algenate

-plaster bandage

-cups

-mixing sticks

-mixing bowls

-masking tape

-watercolours

-bin liner

-makeup wipes

-proclean

-cotton wool

-cotton buds

Multi piece makeup snap process.

Process

Fig. 14.1

Fig. 14.2

Fig. 14.7

Fig. 14.8

Fig. 14.10

Fig. 14.13

Fig. 14.15

Fig. 14.19

Fig. 14.22

Fig. 14.25

Fig. 14.26

Fig. 14.24

Fig. 14.20

Fig. 14.23

Fig. 14.14

Fig. 14.17

Fig. 14.21

Fig. 14.18

Fig. 14.16

Fig. 14.11

Fig. 14.12

Fig. 14.9

Fig. 14.3

Fig. 14.4

Fig. 14.5

Fig. 14.6

To create a snap piece mould, artists will take a full life cast, clean it up and then use alginate to cast from the full head, then fill this with plaster and then remould the partial cast with silicone, and create a resin core.

This can then be sculpted onto and a resin mould can be made of the piece. As seen in Fig.13.2- Fig. 13.7. Work created by Michael Nockiforek.

These pieces often do not need grounding, the locking points are drilled into the core and then when moulding the mould resin fills these areas and create a fitting mould. These types of moulds don't need injecting, they act as squish moulds.

I have done a full head cast before, so the process is not totally new to me.

For this life cast I am doing something different, as I only need one half of the head, I’m only going to cast the side of his head. The problem I have with this is to make sure I have enough space for grounding.

I am finding this a little challenging because I have not got a final design for my makeup yet.

Below are the images of the plaster out of he cast, Fig. 14.24 and Fig. 14.25 are photos before cleaning up the cast.

The watercolour hairline has been transferred to the plaster really well, so the hairline is visible and I can work with it, as it is an important part of my makeup. As you can see in Fig. 14.26, I have drilled small holes around the hairline so that when I cleaned the cast, it is still visible.

When filling the mould with plaster I also used scrim to strengthen the core, however I made a slight mistake with the scrim and laid it too close to the surface, so that in the cast it comes through. In this cast it is fixable, however I have learnt from this that the next time I do it I will lay in a layer of plaster first, and then use scrim after, in the middle to strengthen it.

Evaluation of Process

Despite the problems, and mistakes I made with the scrim, the cast came out well, and I think I managed to clean it up nicely in the end. The alginate was applied well, and there were minimal air bubbles, in the cast and a lot of detail and skin texture was captured.

In hindsight this may not work out totally in terms of visualising the final makeup. I am not sure whether to have cast the whole head, sculpted onto it and then taken a partial cast of that. This would help me visualise the character was a whole. But for a 20 Credit unit I believe this was the appropriate about of work.

The bald cap on this life cast worked really well, it was the right fit, and covered all my models hair, and was not too thick, i believe that the edge will be easy to remove on the plaster cast.

Above you can see where I have drawn in the hairline with watercolour paint. But also I have outlines where I am going to apply the alginate. This will be just over half the head to make roof for grounding.

in industry this is not done really but I have done it this way to save on resources, and make it easier to sculpt and mould the piece, and also create the core.

Above and below are the photos of the process, for this I had Claire Brandt and Josie Parrish helping me, as I needed someone to watch the nose and extra pair of hands. I believe this was a very neat cast, and although I was nervous I think that it worked well, my model was very calm.

I applied the back of the cast first, just with plaster bandage, because I did not need full detail, just the form. The edge of this was very neat, and I have to thank Claire for her part in that.

The front of the cast I did with alginate, and then made a plaster bandage jacket. the nose was clear the whole time, and I believe a lot of detail was captured.

The good this about this cast is that the left ear was still out, so that my model could hear the whole time. Which helped with the casting.