Recipe 24 : Old Age Designing
- Koji Ohmura
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
In Hollywood history, there is a very popular makeup: old age makeup. Back to the Future, The Butler, Bad Grandpa, The Godfather, Coming to America... There are many of them. It can be done in many ways: stretch and stipple, silicone, latex, gelatin, Pros-Aide transfer, and foam latex. This article explains how to design and sculpt the mold for age makeup.
This is a step-by-step guide on how to create old age sculpture on a face mold and transfer into a flat board. If you need to learn how to make a face mold instead of the flat mold, please click this button.
Materials you need...
Paint from Home Depot (BEHR Flat Matt) Please take NSB Clay and ask for a color match.
Al-Cote (Wonder Foil Separator)
Chavant NSP Medium (Brown)
Rotating Turn Table
Sculpting Tools
Crystal Clear
3M Drywall Sanding Screen
Chip Brush
99% Alcohol
Baby Powder
Water
Big Bucket
Project Board
Pencil
Torch
Plastic Wrap
Material links are here.
Lesson Video
Preparing Mold
Hydrocal Mold - First, you will need a Hydrocal face mold. It is in Recipe 23.
Take your NSP Clay to the Home Depot Paint Department and ask for a color match. Then, get a sample of the color. It should be a Matte Flat base. No latex paint. Silicone mold does not cure if it is latex paint.
NSP Color Paint - Then, paint this on the face mold. Please keep it a thin layer so all the skin texture stays the same.
NSP Brown Color After it dries, use a sculpting tool to make a hairline mark. Just follow the registration mark you created before.
Hairline Al-Cote - You will need a dental supply called Al-Cote. In the United States, it is hard to get these days. You can try using Wonder Foil Separator instead.
2 layers of Al-Cote
Preparing Clay
Chavant NSP Clay - For prosthetic sculpting, you will need a sulfur-free oil clay. My favorite clay is Chavant NSP Medium Brown. It also comes in different softness levels and colors. You can try others and choose your favorite one.
This is optional; however, I recommend having an oven for softening clay. Place foil on a rack, and put small slices of Chavant clay on it. Set the oven to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also use a spotlight on a foil-covered cup instead. Make sure not to burn the clay.
Place foil to protect the oven.
Sculpting - Blocking
When I sculpt old age, I normally check their facial movements first. Since wrinkles occur because of facial expressions over the years, following the hints of wrinkles is the key. I am sculpting on my face for this one, so I am looking at my face as I sculpt.
I draw lines where wrinkles go and where the sculpture stops.
Draw outlines with a pencil. On the Al-Cote layer, the clay does not stick to the mold well. I spray Crystal Clear lightly on the mold before placing the clay balls. It will make it stickier.
Crystal Clear makes the mold shiny and sticky. I press down a small amount of clay on the mold. I sometimes use a snake shape of clay to create a basic shape of wrinkles. Try creating a brief shape. Also, check that the clay sculpture is symmetrical.
Adding clay. Once you feel a good amount of clay is on, start using sculpting tools to refine the shape.
Blending & Detailing
Once you get a rough shape of clay, smooth it with a finger or wooden sculpting tools.
Try blending clay snakes and filling gaps. Also, blend the edges of the clay to the face mold.
Blending with a wooden tool. When you blend the clay, the motion of the sculpting tool is better to be moon-shaped (crescent). Since this is an organic shape, straight lines should be avoided. Especially around wrinkles, avoid straight lines. Wrinkles are not straight. Wrinkle lines are the result of the shadows created by meat sitting on top of wrinkles with gravity. See the diagram below.
When the light hits from top, shadow appears on the winkles. Use metal rake tools and smooth it out. (It does not get smooth like paper. It will still have rake tool scratching lines. Think of removing uneven bumps.)
Rake Tool Cut a chip brush at an angle. Dip it in baby powder and go over the sculpture. This makes the sculpture smoother as it takes off tiny chunks of clay from the surface.
Now, you can take a look at this sculpture from a distance. If you like the shape, let's start detailing. If not, tweak it a little bit. You can add or take off some of the clay from the sculpture. In the blocking stage, we focused on symmetry. This time, you can try some asymmetry. Make it more organic.
Then, use 99% alcohol and a chip brush to smooth it out more.
Refining the shape. (Optional) You might have noticed this. I kept some areas with no clay. I will use a traditional stretch and stipple technique for this area. Some artists prefer covering the entire face with prosthetics. However, I like to keep the face skinnier. As people get old, the skin tends to lose the meat. That means skinnier in some areas.
Transferring Sculptures
We now have a sculpture of a brief shape of old age makeup. We need to transfer this to a flat board in order to mold it.
First, you will need a big bucket with water. Make sure that the face mold will sit in it without hitting the sculpture.
Then, with a sculpting tool, make separation lines between facial parts where you want to apply separately. In this sculpture, I separated it into 6 pieces: forehead, nose bridge, 2 eye bags, and 2 nasolabial folds.
Separation lines Submerge the mold in water. You will see bubbles coming up from the mold. These will push the Al-Cote layer and sculpture. Let it sit in water overnight.
Leave it in water overnight. On the next day, lift up the mold from the water. You will see the clay coming up from the mold surface. I used a dental tool to pull up the parts and gently put them on a flat board.
Sculptures are very fragile. Gently handle them. (Optional) You can transfer them to partial face molds instead of a flat board if you like. I demonstrated the mold making in this article before.
5. Glue Sculptures
Now we have partial sculptures on a board. With a pencil, make outlines around the sculptures. Then, take these sculptures out from the board.
These outlines will be the prosthetic edges. Take a small amount of new NSP clay and smudge it into the inside of the outlines. Keep this layer thin. You can use a rake tool to help achieve even thickness.
Keep it thin and even. Use a torch and heat it up. Since NSP clay will melt with heat, this will be the glue for the old age sculptures to stick on a board.
This will make the original sculpture bonding to the board. Place the sculptures gently. The glue clay is hot, so do not let the heat melt the original sculpture. Gently press them down. Then, hold a duster spray upside down and spray cold air. This will secure the bonding.
Gently apply the original sculpture.
Texturing
During the transferring, you might loose some shapes. You can refine it before texturing.
I use 3M Drywall Sand Paper to make edges smooth and blend onto the board. 99% Alcohol also helps.
3M Drywall Sanding Paper Take a chip brush and cut it in angle. Dip it in 99% Alcohol and gently brush the sculptures. I use this technique on winkles and eyebags.
Smoothing the winkles. For fine winkle likes, I use a plastic wrap and a dull pencil. Place a wrap on the sculpture and make wavy crisscross lines. You can use sculpting tools if you like. I like a pencil for this since I can change the sharpness by a pencil sharpener.
Buff it with baby powder and chip brush.
Pencil over plastic wrap
Finished Sculptures 
Detailed Look
That's it! The next recipe will explain how to mold this. Here are some examples of separate facial molds. If you like this way, you can also try it. It is more 3D-shaped prosthetics than these flat mold styles.
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