Dirt and Dirty Teeth

In our next special effects lesson with Sue we looked at creating dirty teeth and a dirty face or hand. She spoke to us about all the products and the health and safety rules we should follow as we would be placing some products in the mouth. Sue then demonstrated to us how to create each of these looks.

Dirty Teeth
Health and safety
- When applying the surgical spirit to the tooth to remove the product, ensure that you do not apply too much. This is not damaging but if it gets into your clients mouth it is entirely nice for them.
Products -  Cotton bud, kryolan tooth enamel (yellow and black), surgical spirit

- Ask client to lift up their top lip and make sure they do not place it back down over tooth. You can use your finger to make sure it does not touch
- Using the cotton bud wipe away any moisture on the teeth where you will be applying the product and make sure they are as dry as possible
- Dip the cotton bud in the product and place on the teeth that you want to cover
- You can black out the teeth or apply a mixture of colours. A yellow colour can give the effect of nicotine stained teeth
- To remove the product apply surgical spirit onto the tooth with a cotton bud and wipe away until all the product is removed. This will not harm your client but make sure you do not place a lot on the tooth

Dirty Hand
Products -  Fullers Earth, water, coloured sprays (kryolan), hair dryer, supra colour palette, range of brushes
- Take Fullers Earth and mix with water to create more of a paste and then apply to area of the body that you want to cover
- Dry using a hair dryer until it appears paler in colour
- Using a range of coloured sprays add them over the top to add texture and tone
- When applying colour over the fingers always bend them to make sure product goes into the cracks
- To add even more colour add colours from the kryolan supra colour palette over the top making sure to blend it in
- You can crack the product and layer over the top to give the affect of scaly skin
- Make sure to add some product on the nails and underneath so that it seems as realistic as possible

Reflection

I found the dirty teeth quite simple to do as you only had to apply product in small areas. I found out that you have to make sure the tooth is completely dry otherwise the product will not apply to the tooth as well. The black tooth worked really well and did give the illusion of a missing tooth. I found mixing the black and yellow together gave a really good effect and would look good on more than one tooth. If I were to do this again, I would apply the product on more teeth to see the full effect. I also feel that using a smaller brush would be useful as you are applying product onto a small area. 

I really enjoyed creating the dirty hand. The products we used were really effective and worked well together. I found rubbing the product and cracking it to work really well as well. Layering up the products allowed me to create texture and adding darker colours in some areas added to the realism of it. The only thing that I would struggle with if I were to incorporate this into my design would be the continuity of it. The spray was very unreliable and often came out very quickly and in varying amounts. To make sure it was the same this week I think you would have to take a range of photographs and try to get it as similar as possible. Overall, I found these products to be really effective together. I will not be using these techniques however in my final design as they do not relate to my character. I have really enjoyed learning how to complete this though as I think it is always important to learn a range of new skills.