Plastic Skin

After looking at distressed skin from surgery, I wondered if I could come up with something incorporating an actual 'plastic' element to create this look. Inspired by my cling film creations, I started wrapping parts of the body in clingfilm. It wasn't really sticking as much as I'd hoped though and required layer after layer of messy clingfilm to stay put. This really wasn't the kind of look I was after especially for use on the face, but thankfully had a bit of a eureka moment on discovering an old bottle of PVA in my room. 

Here you can see my friend Tyler, being painted with PVA. I layered it quite thickly, so some areas took a lot longer to dry than the others. I started to play around with the looks whilst I waited!

On the right is a close up of my second model. This photo shows much clearer the final outcome. I have allowed the PVA to dry completely which has pulled the skin nice and taught in some areas and wrinkling it in others. I picked at some areas with a pin to make it come loose from the skin and where I have done this I have also a pink blush pigment to make the skin appear sore. I added this where I saw fit, but this was really only a basic experiment. The PVA creates really nice texture and this could be worked into a lot more with a whole range of colours.

Here is the final look on the whole. As you can see I carried the blush colour up around the temples and added a little eye makeup just to bring it together a bit. I like the effect of PVA on this skin however I am not sure if it is really the kind of outcome I had wanted for my final look, as it seems to drift slightly from the brief. I want my model to look a little more bruised, not covered in rash!