Practice Final Piece

From the A1 sheet of experiments, I cut out the most successful skin replicas and stuck them in the middle of an A3 sheet. I covered the rest of the paper with masking tape to replicate bandages. I then covered with a plastic sheet and fastened it down at the corners with a glue gun.

Posted via Blogaway

Cutting up the A1 sheet of experiments

After creating the experiments, I decided to cut them up and glue them into my sketchbook to add to my previous experiments. I believe I will use the most successful experiment to influence my final piece (pva glue dried).

Posted via Blogaway

Experimenting on A1 scale

During the process of discovering the correct material/media for the realistic texture of skin, I decided to create an A1 piece and include lots of experiments. I tried drying skin coloured acrylic on a plastic sheet, applying heat so it crumpled and sticking it down. On another part I applied strokes of white emulsion, applied cotton wool, and removed it so some stayed on. this could have been a nice symbol for hair. In the bottom left corner, I dried pva glue on my palms, peeled off and left to try on the paper. After I applied light strokes of emulsion which ended up being the most successful way to colour my patches.

Posted via Blogaway

Personal Connection To My Final Piece

My final piece is extremely personal to me as the patched up skin represents how once something is torn, it can be put back together, but will never return to the same previous condition. In my case this symbolises my family as I am currently in foster care for personal reasons. I haven't coped well from being torn from my family and I have tried to show that even if it was to be brought together again, it could never truly be the same due to traumatic events in our lives. I haven't included any symbols of blood in my piece as I do not believe it should be there. This is so because my family always told me that "blood means something" and "blood is thicker than water" when it has always been my family who have hurt me, so these statements do not apply to my life therefore should not apply to my final piece. The stitches binding the pieces of "skin" together represent child services. I also chosen to mount my piece on glass so it is easily seen through, to represent all the people looking in on my families life (councillors, police etc.). It clearly shows that my life is transparent, every professional body is always trying to look in, to find more reasons why and to constantly look for who's to blame.

Final Piece Idea

With some of the experiments I made, I decided to bind them together to create a larger area to work with, using decided to sew them using white thread to create stitches that could be related to injury as skin is stitched together when wounded. I sewed four pieces together and bond them to a square frame made from masking tape. When I have completed my coloured experiments, I shall add a couple to the "window" of skin to create a larger piece and see them together. I was considering mounting them in glass or plastic so you are still able to see through them because of the translucency.

Posted via Blogaway

An Issue With Applying Colour

I have come across an issue with applying colour to the skin substitutes. To add a skin tone, I mixed acrylic paint to make several shades of skin tones, I then mixed this with the ova glue to apply to my palms. When I attempted to peel this off, the paint had weakened the strength of the glue causing it to rip when I tried to peel it off. To overcome this, I shall attempt to add colour after they have been peeled off. To keep the translucent effect and to prevent a block colour, I will apply acrylic paint as a wash directly onto the sample.

Posted via Blogaway

Final Piece Experiments

As I would like to create a final piece relating to the unique textures of skin, I decided to create a realistic substitute. I tried different techniques such as using a plastic wallet to trap skin coloured acrylic paint inside and drying with a heat gun to apply texture as the plastic wrinkles when under high temperatures. After realising that it was not successful as it didn't look realistic, I decided to apply pva glue to my palms to create a direct imprint of real skin. When it dried, I realised that this technique was successful as it looked like real skin. I also noticed that the substitutes were translucent, which gave me some ideas for mounting it like a window as my final piece.

Posted via Blogaway