Technical - Scratches & Wounds

Health & Safety:
Make sure you place an apron round the model to avoid damaging or staining their clothes
Make sure the area where you are going to create the scratches is clean
Ensure you wash your hands thoroughly with soap before touching the clients skin
Remember to carry out a client consultation to establish any allergies and/or contraindications

Products Used:
Supracolour Palette (red, black, purple, yellow, blue)
Foundation Palette
Scar Wax
Wound Filler
Fake Blood
Stipple Sponge
Scar Wax
Spirit Gum
Witch Hazel
Cotton Buds

Step by Step:
Depending on what type of scratch you wish to create, depends on what products and tools you need to create it successfully.

Scratches:
1. To create a simple scratch (I went for the idea of an animals claws scratching the arm) simply take some scar wax and roll it around on the back of your hand to warm it up slightly and make it easier to manipulate on the skin.
2. If you wish to secure the wax to the skin more you can
apply spirit gum to the area, however this is not always necessary.
3. Roll the wax into a sausage shape and place it on the area you
wish to create the scratches.
4. taking a spatula, begin to spread the wax across the skin, stretching it out and flattening into the skin. This takes time and patience so don't rush, and how flat you need the wax
will depend on what type of wound you wish to create. As I was creating some simple scratches I needed the wax pretty flat on the skin.
5. once you are happy with the shape and thickness of the wax, take a spatula and slowly begin slicing lines in the wax (I did 9 slices as I wanted to create 9 scratches).
6. Then, keeping hold of the spatula, push the wax either side of the scratch out slightly in order to make a dent so it looks like the scratch is deeper then the layer of skin.
7.  Using the foundation palette apply a light layer of the foundation to the wax so it matches the skin tone of the model.
8. Then take your supracolours and apply them to the scratches to make them look real (I mixed red and black to make a dark red and applied to the inside of the scratches making them look deeper, then applied red on the edges to make them look bloody).
9.  Lastly I applied a tiny amount of wound filler to some of the scratches to make it look slightly more realistic.

Graze:
1. Make sure the area you wish to create the graze is clean.
2. Take a red supracolour and apply it to a stipple sponge (you could also use fake blood depending on what look you wish to create).
3. Drag the sponge over the area of skin you wish to create the graze.
4. Take a small brush and apply small parts of black supra colour to the graze to make it look like dirt.

Wounds:
One of the easiest ways to create a wound is to use a pre-made prosthetic, commonly made from gelatine or latex using a mould. You can make a mould from plastic or another material but whatever you use must be sprayed with release spray or covered in a layer of vaseline to avoid the gelatine/latex sticking to it when you wish to remove it from the mould.

1. For my prosthetic wound I used gelatine so, once you have a mould ready, heat up the gelatine in a microwave for approx. 10 seconds (however long it takes to melt the gelatine completely but not burn it) and pour it into your mould.
2. Once your prosthetic has set remove it from the mould, to apply the prosthetic to the chosen area of skin you need to stick it with PROS AIDE (this is a contact adhesive therefore you need to paint it on to the bottom of the prosthetic as well as onto the area of skin you wish to place it and wait for it to turn clear).
3. Once the prosthetic is stuck onto the skin firmly you can begin blending the edges into the skin using WITCH HAZEL on cotton buds and slowly rubbing the edges of the gelatine backwards and forwards.
4. Once you are happy with the edges of the prosthetic and you feel they blend in to the skin nicely you can begin colouring the prosthetic using the Supracolour palette.
5. I began by using a sponge and dabbing it over the prosthetic with the red supracolour to make the area look sore.
6. Then I coloured the inside of the womb with red and black supracolour.
7. Finally I used wound filler to fill parts if the inside of the prosthetic, making its appearance more realistic.
8. You can finish by spraying fixing spray over the prosthetic to hold the colours in place, this is especially effective when working outdoors to avoid rain making the colours run.

Evaluation:
I really enjoyed the technical for applying prosthetics. As prosthetics is a huge interest to me and one of the ways I wish to take my makeup career, I was keen to learn more about it. The use of adhesives and how different products work to blend the gelatine in to the skin really interested me.
I found the whole process quite long and complex, remembering which product was for what but once I got into it I enjoyed working the gelatine into the skin and applying the makeup to it to make it look as realistic as possible.
My main struggle was flattening the edges of the gelatine into the skin and from my images you can see that this wasn't entirely successful, however for a first attempt I was quite impressed with my final results. I feel that a bit more practice working with the prosthetics will enable me to create much better results in the future.