Sculpting My Wound

These are photos of my wound before it is made into a mould. I would have benefitted from taking photos of what I had created in the lesson, because during then I was given advice by Sue to raise the wound, and by Kat to make it less neat, and so if I had before and after photos it would have shown the progress better. So I know now that it is important to take progress photos in order to see the improvements you have made, which I will do when creating prosthetics now. 

From my previous posts, I gathered information about what the wound would look like and I deciphered how I wanted it to look. From my research, I discovered that the skin in the wound would be ragged and ruined, and so I attempted to create this effect with a sharp, pointed end of one of my wooden tools. This was effective in creating precise, detailed effects on the wound such as this. I also used this tool to create the tears on the edges of the wound which give the effect that the skin has torn during the sudden trauma; something that I was inspired to do from my research. When it comes to the raised effect of my wound, I attempted to add more clay to the edges of the scratches, however it didn't become as raised as I would like. In my 'Wound Type: Fork' blog post, I mentioned how I wanted to recreate the raised effect around the wound like one of the photos that I included as I believed that this was realistic, and it was something that Sue had suggested to me in class too. I am disappointed that it did not turn out like that as this does not lend to the fresh effect of the wound, and I believe that if I had started the wound again I would have had a better chance of recreating this effect. That experience has taught me not to be complacent with the first wound that I create, but trying again may give me a better outcome.

When it comes to texture, I added small bumps to the skin to replicate spots or moles; I can choose which I want when painting the wound on the face. I am pleased with how these turned out, however I would have liked to add more skin texture such as lines, and used different tools that I didn't get in my kit such as a toothbrush to create pores. Despite this, my partner Amelia has very good skin and is young, and so there won't be as much texture on it compared to if I were creating a mould for someone with really aged skin, someone with acne or someone with scars or large moles, therefore I did not feel the need to add a lot of marks to the wound as it would not have looked realistic on Amelia's face. In addition to this, the wound will be fresh and so there will be blood surrounding it; not allowing much of the skin underneath to be seen anyway. 

I feel as if I began to understand the clay tools the more I used them, and found the ones that scrape away the clay particularly helpful as it gives a clean, even surface, and they allow the edges to be very smooth and blend into the surface of the plastic. Next time I create a prosthetic with clay I feel as if the experience I have gained with the tools will enable me to create more realistic prosthetics, which will benefit me when creating my human hybrid.