metasculptress

Wow, I can't believe I've been away for so long. 😳
It feels strange to be back.
More to follow.
Soon.

I promise! 😌

Wow! So my page views have really jumped up a lot! I'm so happy that people enjoy my work! A bit over a year ago I only had 1,000 page views.  I think things have been moving along ok. Outside of deviantart I'm starting to make my presence known more and I'm starting to network a bit.  Still, things are kind of slow as I have other university obligations. I'm hoping that when I graduate and go to get my Masters, it will allow me more freedom in what exactly I do for art at school.

Now that I'm starting to get more comfortable doing video along with my makeup work I've decided to concentrate on putting out regular Youtube videos. Eventually I would like to join their Partners Program but I need more subscribers.

So, if you'd like to help out, please go to my Youtube page and subscribe!

www.youtube.com/user/acolourfu…

OK, so Halloween ended up being miserable! Copypasta from my tumblr:

1) My car decided to develop some major problems this weekend making it really hard to run necessary errands. Probably looking at several hundred dollars of which I have none and rent is due.

2) My wings for my costume were WAY harder to finish than I thought and I didn't get them done in time.

3) The foam latex I ran to make my beak prosthetic out of gelled instantly for some fucking physics defying reason rendering about $30 of materials down the drain instantly

4) The lifecast of my face got destroyed in the process of making a backup prosthetic, in an attempt to work around the first one not working. So no more custom prosthetics for me until I get another, of course I have no materials left to make another.

4a) The silicone I used in said lifecast was ruined also as a product of the lifecast breaking, don't even know how much that was.

5)I had a test right in the middle of the day which made it hard for me to prep for Halloween and even though it was an open book test, I forgot my book, which was the first time this semester.

6) With no car I have to take the Uni bus but it only leaves every two hours and I missed it, which means I didn't get to go into NYC with my friends tonight.


Well, it's almost been a week now from Halloween and I'm starting to get back into my regular pattern and over that horrible slump of depression from Halloween. I've got a couple of bodypaint and prosthetic projects going on now and I'd really like to try foam latex again.  I'm trying to put together a graduate portfolio and I definintely want some bodypainting in that so hopefully I'll have some pics coming soon.

For now here's a lifecast I did on my friend:


www.youtube.com/watch?v=trTBB5…

Hey everyone!  I'm really pleased with the positive response that the Birthday cat series is receiving! I think it's on its way up to being in the top three of my deviations.  The semester has started again and I'm glad to be back in school.  I'm only taking one art studio class this semester so hopefully that will mean that I'm not overworked artistically because I'd still like to continue bodypainting.

As for an update on starting to work with foam latex I'm pleased to say that I finally got around to getting an oven. Originally I was going to build my own and I even put down some money for materials.  Unfortunately I just couldn't get around to doing it and since I had already spent some money I didn't want to try something different because it felt like a waste of money.  

But, because I really want to start making prosthetics to sell on Etsy, I was really feeling that rush to get something done immediately.  Taking the advice I saw on a thread of the Effects Lab forum, I decided to go out and buy a small vertical smoker from Home Depot.  Normally, they're used to add a smoky flavor to meat, but since they're just metal boxes with doors, grates, and designed to withstand hundreds of degrees of heat they can work as a curing oven for foam latex. Foam latex only really needs a temperature of 200F max, preferably less, so this oven can handle that just fine.

Here's a link to it on Home Depot: www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v…

For a heat source I'm going to use an electric "fifth burner" inside. I'm pretty sure that if I just stuck it in there and whipped up some foam latex I could have something right away but I'm probably going to modify the oven by adding some convection fans and a PID/relay system to turn the burner on and off to maintain temperature.  I'll post more about those specifics soon.

I finally finished putting together everything from my birthday bodypainting session! All in all I'm really happy with it, though there were a few things that I need to work on. i really love improving my abilities and this time was no exception.

As far as pro's go, I had everything prepped and ready to go the day before so all I had to do was leave my apartment and I could start pretty much right away. I tend to be bad with things like that, I either have a brush to clean or my airbrush to prepare and it always cuts into my time. So yay for finally getting organized!  The prosthetic application went really well too. I've had experience with prosthetics but I've hardly ever put them on other people. Which can be hard because you don't have that internal sense of proprioception to aid in the proper placement.  I'm also really happy with the dry-brushed fur effect I got from using a foam brush, it went much better and faster than I thought.

As for con's, I definitely need to prep myself better because it's a pretty intense process to sit and paint for 6 hours straight and then take photo time.  Also, I tend to leave the face for last because I've always felt that it's the most comfortable for the model to start with the body and leave the face clear.  But I always run into the problem of being so tired by the time I get to the face it never turns out how I want. So maybe next time I'll try something different and see how it works.

But still, all in all it was a totally awesome experience.  Now that September is coming up I'm going to start planning for HALLOWEEN!!! YAAAY! I can't want, definitely more stuff to come!

Also, for a behind the scenes video of the shoot check out here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YjpcJ…