Silicone | makeup-exploration

Flesh coloured

Blue Pigment

UV Blue Pigment

Green Pigment

Flesh and UV Blue Pigment

White UV Pigment

Conclusion

I first experimented with colouring the silicone with flesh pigment and red flocking to resemble skin. I used 100 % deadner, as wanted the silicone to not look rigid and resemble veins to touch and view. One the left shows the finished piece. The flashing and cap plastic was fully intacted.

I applied the piece and as shown on the left, the pigment is much stronger than the blue acrylic pint but still included translucency.

Then placed the arm under a UV lamp in a dark room, the paint did not create defined lines and therefore the camera had difficulty to focus. In person the lines looked messy and did not show the straightness to resemble a circuit board influence.

Although the veins appeared to look stong in colour, once applied to the skin they looked quite subtle due to the translucency within the silicone.

I found that the white most hold the most UV activating pigment as under the lamp they were very clear and precise. Also due to the lamp being of blue it transfered this colour onto them and therefore had the blue vein tone that I wrequired.

Through many experiments of different pigments within silicone i managed to find that acrylic and UV paint mixes well without creating any patches or streaks and when casted the colour remains even throughout. I have been able to discover that white UV paint, glows most vibrant in the dark with the use of a UV lamp. I feel that I have been able to create some pieces that resemble the idea of cyborgs and the involvment of technology within body modification. I feel that the idea of circuit veins couold work well within a futuristic scene and the glow in the dark aspect would add affect to a character. I will take on the white UV paint and also the blue pigment to see which work best when applied to my models face.

I found that the flesh colour did not resemble a vein appearance but instead looked more like implants under the skin. So i decided to paint blue grease paint over the top.

I felt that the grease paint was too heavy and did not produce a translucent appearance. I also found that it stuck in the edges and made them more visable. Perhaps the skin illustrator paint would be more suitable.

I applied the piece with prosaide with the flashing fully intact
Then i was able to stretch and glue section by section
Dissolve the cap plastic with IPA
Then i used greasepaint to blend the cap plastic.

Some of the areas inbetween the lines had alot of cap plastic and meant that these areas appeared paler on skin. I decided to disolve them but this caused there to be more edges to the piece and therefore more noticable.

I feel that 100% deadner worked well for this type of work as it was able to move with the skin.

I liked the idea of the veins being able to glow, to help show the artifical concept behind the idea. I added blue UV paint over the top and used a UV light in the dark to see the outcome. However this did not work very well as the UV paint came out patchy and also the greasepaint appeared to look much darker and discoloured under the UV lamp.

Instead of colouring the lines ontop, i decided to mix pigment into the silicone. I used blue acrylic and dark blue flocking.

Here shows the silicone outcome, the colour had more of a darker, purple tone to it however is faint so should allow the skin tone to show through.

Here shows the veins applied to the fore arm. I feel that the colour was to dark and purple tones, and although these colours are seen within viens the most common and prominant colour is more of a paler blue. These looked unrealistic, however they are an improvement to the previous experiment. I also did not paint inbetween and felt that the edges and piece overall was less visible.

I wanted to experiment with the idea of glow in the dark veins. So i tried mixing blue UV paint and blue flocking into the silicone. It mixed well and did not leave any streaks or uneven patches.

I decided to try a different coloured UV paint to see if it worked better, and decided that white would be the most vibrant under the lamp.

The outcome colour looked very dirty and did not resemble skin or blue veins.

Once set the silicone became lighter in colour, however this colour resembled the veins main tone much more than the acrylic paint.

I decided to paint inbetween the lines on the left side of the arm, using skin illustrator. Under the UV lamp it made the lines appear to be much straighter and precise and also the alcohol activated paint did not discolour as the grease paint did.

This experiment allowed me to get closed to achieve circuit blue veins that also glow in the dark. But feel that improvement could still be made.

Although I felt that blue would best suit veins, i decided to also try out green as this does resemble a circuit board. I mixed green acrylic paint and dark green flocking into the silicone.

I really liked the colour outcome as it included some slight blue tone aswell.

However once applied i felt that it did not fit well into the skin and looked more obvious that it was a piece stuck on rather than blending into the surroundings. However I do feel that the colour matched nicely with the skin tone so will consider this colour within future projects.

I experimented to see if I could make the blue UV paint less vibrant, and therefore appear more subtle on the skin. So mixed it UV blue with flesh coloured pigment.

I still had a go at applying the piece, but the colour did not work well on the skin as was a pale dirty colour. Under the UV lamp the veins did not sure up as it was not pigmented enough.

By testing this out, i have learnt that it does not work and will make sure that i do not mix flesh colour and other pigment together in my future work

The outcome shows that the veins are strongly pigmented