Creating A Second Degree Burn: The Process Of Using The Clay

In this week's practical lesson we were beginning to create our prosthetic wounds out of clay. I had previously practised with the clay so was more comfortable than I would have been in creating a piece from it. I initially struggled with the size of my prosthetic and how much clay to use. I decided not to work from the original image that I chose as there was some question over whether the wound was actually a third degree burn. I therefore chose an image which clearly showed the remnants and burst blister obtained from a second degree burn. I started off by creating indents into the clay to look as though skin was burst open and hanging off. I tried to push some of the clay tools up and under to make it look even more realistic which I did in a ring formation around a central point in the skin. I however kept some of the edges more flat to make it look more realistic. From the image I was working on, the centre of the burn was smooth and had little texture, it also looked quite shiny, and I will try to achieve this through the make up application. I wanted my burn to be placed on the lower forearm so tried to match up the area outside the burn with the texture of it. I did this by creating small lines in criss cross patterns to look like very tiny wrinkles on the skin. I was quite pleased with the final outcome of my design, I think that it did end up looking quite realistic, I am however worried that it might be too small on the skin and will not end up looking noticeable enough.