Assessment Evaluation

I found my assessment very challenging. With my design having scales it was very thin and could easily break. Although I found the application of the pieces difficult I really enjoyed painting the skin, for my design I had a yellow base and then around the edges blended green into it. I also plaited the hair in two for a scaly kind of look and blended the colours into the hair. I found the application hard because I feel that I hadn’t had a lot of practise at using the silicone mould, I could have improved this by practising more with the silicone to ensure I was happy with my final outcome. The main problem I faced was making sure the silicone was blended into the skin and appeared seamless. I overcame this in the end by using wax and blending that into the silicone and skin. These new skills that I have learnt will help me for the future and I am really glad that I completed my look to the best of my ability. I really enjoyed learning about how to make the moulds and the whole process that is involved, when I first started the term I had no idea the process would be so intricate and detailed and therefore have learnt some really good new skills. 

Brave New World Moodboard

My Lizard Hybrid

Now that I have decided what kind of animal I would like to incorporate into my design I then looked at what aspects of that animal will be a part of my design. The most obvious part is going to be the green scales, but I also looked at the different types and look of scales that I would incorporate. The Chameleon and knight anole lizards both have a bright green colour to them with some yellow aspects blending in, therefore in my design I am going to have a yellow base and then for the green to fade out to where the scales begin. I also thought that I might add contact lenses but I still want my hybrid to have some human aspects so may not use them. I want my lizard to have a smooth kind of texture and not rough, as though if someone were to touch it it would be smooth and snake skin like not rough.

Hybrid Assessment

This is my favourite image from my assessment, I took quite a lot of images and played around with the camera settings until I got what I wanted. I really like the way the light catches the colour, and you can really see the green blending into the yellow tones. I really like how the scales and the darker green tones blend into the hair, but if I could of changed something about this design I might of used a bald cap and carried the scales back further.

Final Design

Consultation notes:

·         Model: Hannah Whalley

·         Age: 21

·         Skin Type: Combination Skin

·         Tone: Fair

·         Allergies: n/a

·         Skin Conditions: n/a

Products used:

• Prosthetic Pieces
• Prosaide
• Isopropyl Alcohol
• Cotton Buds
• Green and Yellow SupraColour
• Kryolan AquaColour
• Neills Materials Key colours flesh tones alcohol activated palette

Method:

1. Make sure the skin is clean, make sure that you don't moisturise the skin otherwise the prosthetic piece will not stick
2. Remove the flat mould from the silicone using a cotton bud and talcum powder, being careful that you don't rip the piece
3. Once the piece is removed apply prosaide to both the skin (where you are applying the mould) and the piece
4. Once the Prosaide is dry (it has gone completely clear) apply to skin, making sure it is firmly in place and where you want it.
5. When all the pieces are applied, using the Isopropyl Alcohol and a cotton bud blend away the edges of the mould so they blend into the face 
6. When you are happy that it blended fully into the skin you can apply colour to the face
7. Start off with yellow tones in the centre of the face and blend out to lighter green to then darker greens 
8. Make sure the green blends into the hair to make it look as real as possible, then using a thin brush go over some of the scales in a darker green to enhance them
9. I also blended the green to go down the neck to make it look like my character is transitioning into the lizard

Process of making my hybrid mould- part 3

Remove the silicone mould from the cup and plastic tray

2.       Clean the mould with alcohol and a cotton pad/baby bud to get the fine details

3.       Use the ratio 1 baldiez: 2 alcohol and measure out

4.       Once the silicone mould is clean spray with petrolease, make sure you wear a protective mask and do this by a window or outside.

5.       Then apply 2/3 layers of the 1:2 ratio with a brush to mould making sure to get into all the crevices, cool with a hair dryer (on cool setting)

Then measure out 20g of Gel A and B following the steps in the previous post, making sure to change gloves and use different sticks to prevent any contamination.

·         Measure out 25g of the deadener 

·         Once mixed together add a pigment to get the correct colour for where the mould is going to be placed on the skin. (take into consideration models skin tone or the design of hybrid)

·         Fill the mould with the product, then using something like a ruler or with a smooth edge flatter out the edges and make sure the whole mould is covered with the mixture and is seamless. 

Process of making my hyprid mould- stage 2

When you are happy with the mould cover work surface with cling film

2.       Label 2 of the wooden tongue depressors with A & B.

3.       Get a plastic cup and cut the top off, cutting it in half.

4.       Make sure to shake the mixing spray well, then spray the sculpture at a window for about 2 seconds, just to give it a light covering.

5.       Then once that is dry spray with Petrolease, make sure you are wearing a mask to protect yourself from the fumes and are doing this at a window or outside.

6.       Using a glue gun, place the top half of the plastic cup over the plastic try with your mould on and seal into place using a glue gun. Make sure there is no holes for liquid to escape.

7.       When measuring your silicone you need to make sure you have the exact amount in both.

8.       Then depending on how much you are going to use, I measured 50g of platsil gel A and 50g platsil gel B with a total of 100g

9.       Make sure that whenever you are measuring the gel’s you change your gloves for each, to ensure there is no contamination

10.   Use scales to measure the gel’s, and carefully measure then, using stick A for gel A and carefully measure out 50g. Then put the lid back on and clean up and change gloves.

11.   Then use stick B for gel B and measure out 50g, you can measure it in the same cup as they are going to be mixed together anyway so it doesn’t matter about contamination at this part. Wipe clean both gel pots with baby wipes and put away.

12.   For the next part it doesn’t matter what stick you use, but mix gel A and B together, making sure there is no air bubbles.

13.   Pour the gel into the mould, making sure it covers the sculpture and wait for it to try, this should take up to an hour.

Process of making my hybrid mould- stage 1

It took quite a long time to think about the best way I was going to make my clay mould and get the right texture I wanted. For the top 2 pieces I individually made each of the scales and then moulded them onto a flat piece.

• Firstly cut off a small amount of modelling clay, you may think you’ll need a lot but you only need a small amount. You can do this using any of the tools but preferably one with a sharp edge.  
• Get the right amount of clay that you need and place it on a flat surface, preferably something like a tray so you have enough room for when you place the cup over it to make the silicone
• Using a hair dryer on the cool setting gradually blend the clay into the tray making sure the edges are seamless
• When you have to correct shape you want your clay to be you can start adding to the design
• For this part I hand made each of the scales and then blended them onto the flat piece.
• place all the scales as close as possible to get a scaley effect, making sure that it is as smooth as possible and that there is no parts of the scales sticking out that the silicone could get stuck to
• For the second part do the same again and cut off a small amount of clay and blend into the tray
• Then using a tool with a round edge imprint into the clay to get a scaley effect
• When you are happy with your mould make sure that you keep it in a safe place if you aren’t going to create the wound straight away, preferably in a plastic container.

Inspiration images for my hybrid design

Research on lizards

I also looked at different types of lizards for inspiration for my design, in particular I found flap necked chameleon and knight anole lizards really interesting. I wanted to go for a green look and both these lizards have bright green scales just like I would like my design to have. The Flap Necked Chameleon is native to Sub-Saharan regions south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. They are normally yellow or green. An interesting fact I found about Chameleons while doing some research is that Chameleons’ pointed eyes have fused eyelids, leaving just a pinhole to see. When first thinking about my design I thought I was going to get some contact lenses to add to the affect but after looking at and researching chameleons I felt that they had quite human like eyes as they were round so decided to not use the contacts.

http://www.lizardtypes.com/flap-necked-chameleon/#ZBlCMx2LSYpwguVL.99

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flap+necked+chameleon&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjN_5XXw6fJAhVCvhQKHZ0ICPMQ_AUIBygB&biw=1517&bih=692&dpr=0.9#imgrc=_ 

The knight anole lizard is native to Cuba but are now also found in southern Florida. Anolis equestris is a lizard (reptile) member of the Polychrotidae family. They're also known as Cuban Knight Anoles. The body is covered with small granular scales with a yellow or white stripe under the eye and over the shoulder. They are bright green in color, which can change to a dull grayish-brown.

http://www.lizardtypes.com/knight-anole/#Vh2YOPjIClHFBGsW.99

                                                                 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=knight+anole+lizard&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGgI3cxafJAhUDvBoKHZT2BD8Q_AUIBygB&biw=1517&bih=692&dpr=0.9#imgrc=cPZa6CTDGisV9M%3A

Reptilian Theory

Reptilians are claimed reptilian humans that play a big role in fantasy, science fiction, ufology, and conspiracy theories. The idea of reptilians on Earth was made up by David Icke, a conspiracy theorist who claims shape-shifting reptilian aliens control Earth by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies. He has claimed on multiple occasions that many of the world leaders are, or are possessed by, reptilians. For my assessment I am going to try and create a reptilian, it will still have most human features but will show also different lizard like characteristics. 

Practice Designs

Before deciding on my final design for my hybrid I practised a few designs and played around to see what I wanted to achieve. Below are the my practise design for my Lizard Hybrid. I chose not to use the first design because I felt that it would be too difficult to do a piece over the eye, I wanted it to look as realistic as possible and felt that this design wasn't what I wanted. For the second design I used quite a lot of aspects of it into my final design, I liked the way the scales gradually blended into the hair and the green and yellow tones.

What is a Hybrid?

The term hybrid comes from Latin hybrida, meaning the "offspring of a tame sow and a wild boar", "child of a freeman and slave".

Anthropogenic hybridisation is changes to the environment caused by humans, such as fragmentation and introduced species, are becoming more widespread. This increases the challenges in managing certain populations that are experiencing introgression, and is a focus of conservation genetics. Humans have introduced species worldwide to environments for a long time, both intentionally such as creating a population to be used as a biological control, and unintentionally as accidental escapes of individuals out of agriculture. This causes drastic global effects on various populations, including through hybridisation.

Another type of hybrid comes from Ancient folktales that often contain mythological creatures, sometimes these are described as hybrids (e.g., hippogriff as the offspring of a griffin and a horse, and the Minotaur which is the offspring of Pasiphaë and a white bull). More often they are kind of fantasy, i.e., a composite of the physical attributes of two or more kinds of animals, mythical beasts, and often humans, with no suggestion that they are the result of interbreeding, e.g., harpies, mermaids, and centaurs.

Hybrids between different subspecies within a species (like the Bengal tiger and Siberian tiger) are known as intra-specific hybrids. Hybrids between different species within the same category (lions and tigers) are sometimes known as interspecific hybrids or crosses. Hybrids between different animals (like sheep and goats) are known as intergeneric hybrids.

The third type of hybrid involves the crosses between populations, breeds or cultivars within a single species. This meaning is often used in plant and animal breeding, where hybrids are usually produced and selected, because they have desirable characteristics not found or inconsistently present in the parent individuals or populations.

Examples of some Hybrids include:

·         Mule, a cross of female horse and a male donkey.

·         Zeedonk or Zonkey, a zebra/donkey cross.

·         Zorse, a zebra/horse cross

·         Sheep-goat hybrid is the cross between a sheep and a goat,

·          A hybrid between a Bengal tiger and a Siberian tiger is an example of an intra-specific hybrid. It also includes the Indochinese tiger, Sumatran tiger too.

·         Pumapards, crosses between a puma and a leopard.

·         Ligers and tigons, crosses between a lion and a tiger - the difference in name due to what species the mother and father were - ligers have a lion father and a tiger mother. Other wild cat crosses are known involving the lynx, bobcat and leopard.

·         Wholphin, a fertile but very rare cross between a false killer whale and a bottlenose dolphin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+is+a+hybrid&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih5O3H0rbJAhXG0xoKHbVvBRsQ_AUIBygB&biw=1517&bih=692&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=real+hybrid+animals+liger&imgrc=L305gi9_2vrieM%3A

Hybrids in Film

Human hybrids have been portrayed in a lot of films and have also appeared on some TV shows. Most Hybrids in films are a result of a genetic experiment, like in Splice a 2009 Canadian-French science fiction horror film in which shows experiments in genetic engineering being done by a young scientific couple, who attempt to introduce human DNA into their work of splicing animal genes. In the beginning of the film the early stages of Dren is created digitally but she is also seen as a child and an adult. To create most of the features they digitally enhanced them but for the child version they used a bald cap. They are used a lot in film to create different characters as they can change the way a person looks so rapidly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BkKijD3Wfw

http://www.movieinsider.com/photos/19465/ 

Another film in which hybrids appear is Pirates of the Caribbean, dead man’s chest. It shows Davy Jones, the captain of the ship and a human/ octopus type creature. Has features like human eyes and from what we can see the body shape of a human but in an octopus type form; with tentacles coming out of his face.  All of the characters that appear on the Flying Dutchman (the ship) are hybrids from the sea, as often hybrids are ‘freaks’ of nature. In the story, his original purpose was to carry souls of those who died at sea from this world to the next on his vessel. He was charged with this noble and just duty by his one true love, the sea goddess Calypso. For every ten years at sea he could spend one day on land to be with her. Ten years after first being charged with the duty, Jones prepared to be reunited with his true love, but was heartbroken when she didn’t show. Unable to deal with the sadness of Calypso's betrayal, Jones, through some unknown supernatural means, ripped out his heart and locked it in a chest, burying it on the plague island Isla Cruces. This chest became known as the "Dead Man's Chest", the primary object being sought after in the second film. Jones then abandoned his past duties, and instead returned to rule the seas as a tyrant with a damned crew bound by oath to serve aboard the Dutchman for one hundred years each. Because Jones and his crew broke their oath on the Dutchman to ferry lost souls, a curse slowly transformed them into sea monsters as their physical appearances matched the darkness inside of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Jones_(Pirates_of_the_Caribbean)

Another hybrid character in film is Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. Sci-fi/fantasy is packed with hybrids and half-breeds in Harry Potter, some of the strongest wizards are half-bloods, including Harry, Voldemort, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Tonks, Minerva McGonagall, and Albus Dumbledore. Often Super Hybrids are used to show that prejudice against hybrids or concerns about blood purity are unfounded. Voldemort is an exercise in irony, ranting and raving about the inferiority of Muggle blood and the danger of miscegenation while being the most powerful wizard ever and a half-blood. Voldemort subconsciously recognizes the capability of half-bloods in his fictional universe by claiming the half-blood Harry Potter as his equal. Voldemort’s appearance in the book is "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils" This resemblance to a snake is where the hybrid comes in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort 

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-09-11/who-said-it-lord-voldemort-or-the-master

History of prosthetic Makeup

Before the 1930’s Makeup artists weren’t very widely recognised. The actors/ actresses in film were expected to do their own makeup because there was no one else to do it. Products they might of used were basic in comparison to today’s silicones and included spirit gum, fish skin, cotton, gelatine, greasepaints, Collodion, cheesecloth, clay, Fullers Earth, various putties, pastes and wax’, Gutta Percha, crepe hair and latex.

The first film to use foam prosthetic appliances was the wizard of OZ and before that it they used cotton, wax and latex. Prosthetic makeup really became revolutionised when films started to before more interesting. As the film ideas were being made it encouraged artists to try out different ways of making humans into a character using different materials.

Prosthetic makeup was mainly revolutionised by John Chambers, he was an American make-up artist and veteran prosthetic makeup expert in both television and film. Some of his notable work includes him creating the pointy ears of the character Spock on the television series Star Trek (1966), and for his make-up work on the Planet of the Apes film franchise. He was a medical technician during World War II, and this is where he found employment repairing faces and making prosthetic limbs for wounded veterans. He also trained under Ben Nye, then head of make-up at 20th-century Fox. In 1953, he joined the NBC television network as a make-up artist for live shows. After working on his first film, Around the World in Eighty Days in 1956, he then joined Universal Pictures.

He became known worldwide for his work on the Planet of the Apes films, during its production, he held training sessions at the film studios to tutor the other 78 artists working on the film. He won an honorary Oscar at the 41st Academy Awards for his work on film, long before the Academy Award for Best Makeup was established in 1981. 

http://www.sianjeffriesjones.com/2012/08/29/a-little-prosthetic-history-part-1/

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chambers_(make-up_artist)