#2 Practice of Cut

After practicing my cut for the first time the other day, I felt like I wanted to have another practice so I felt really confident before my assessment. I specifically worked on the areas that I was not completely happy with last time. Overall, I was really happy with how everything went and I am feeling confident for my assessment.

I practiced the cut on the forehead so I could work out the size of the cut itself and where it would be positioned on the face. I want it to be on the side of the head above the eyebrow and coming slightly down the side of the face. I applied the wax to the head and ensured that I applied it in small amounts and blended it out. I did not want it to appear lumpy on the skin. I then created the cut and added the latex. I found that after I placed the latex over the top the cut became smaller, therefore when in my assessment I will make the cut larger in size and possibly add more wax to the skin. I applied acetone to the edges of the cut, however I found that this made the latex peel and and come away from the skin. I will potentially look at not using this and just making sure that I spread the wax out onto the skin evenly. When I applied the white base over the pre-made cut, it became bumpy and dry looking on the skin. It was therefore visible that there was something there. During the assessment I will apply the latex over the wax and further onto the skin. I will also powder over the latex first and then apply the white base. I then added the range of colours to the cut to make it look realistic. I found building up the colours was the best method of making it look as realistic as possible. Due to the cut becoming smaller in size throughout the process, it was harder to place the blood into the cut, however because I had used wax on the skin I could place the blood in and build up the blood. I added more blood this time around the cut and not just inside. I felt like it needed to be darker, therefore I added a mixture of black and red on top and blended this out. 

Overall, I was really happy with the final outcome of the cut. I felt it looked realistic and the changes and improvements worked better in this practice. I will ensure that I darken the cut before applying the blood because I feel this makes it look even better. Placing blood around the cut and not just inside it worked really well and looked even more 'gorey'. In my assessment, I will ensure that I powder the latex first before applying the white base. I will also apply more latex to the skin so that it does not only just cover the wax but the skin as well. I am excited to see the final outcome of my character profile and to see it in photographs. Practicing my design has helped me in improving my confidence that I can complete a realistic looking cut. I am confident that I can complete it in the time we are given to a standard that I am happy with.