Advice on ear prosthetics

sheltatha_lore

Hi guys-

I'm about to take the plunge into prosthetics and make some ears. None of the courses on SWS seem to have any particular focus on ears, and I'm a bit worried about all the complex ear shapes and undercuts.  This ear in particular is probably going to be a fairly fragile sculpt, since it's thin and will project out quite a bit.

Does anyone have advice on:

• Sculpting and handling a fragile prosthetic shape (should I use a very hard clay?)
• Flashing and blending on ears (human ears are such a weird shape... scratch that, all ears are a weird shape)
• Am I likely to have any problems getting it to stay on my own ears, since it's long and sticks out?

Don't ask me how I'm going to dematerialize my earlobes, that's a problem for Future Me...

Devin Mcdonagh

Pretty sure there's a Bruce Fuller witch makeup series on here where he does ears in Flexacryl.  Honestly, if you're trying to cover the ear to that extent, you could just have the sculpture cover the entire ear and glue onto the skin around the base of the ear instead of on the cartilage.   

Darrell Green

Here is the Bruce link but I like the extra questions you posted so maybe we can ask for some trainer input too

https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/casting-character-prosthetics-flexacryl-fingers-silicone-ears

Then follow that with the full Bruce Spalding Witch hag application on Cynthia Garza.

Matt Winston

@sheltatha_lore just adding some additional thoughts to what @Devin Mcdonagh and @Darrell Green already mentioned:

• Q: Sculpting and handling a fragile prosthetic shape (should I use a very hard clay?)
• A: Choosing a clay with medium hardness will be fine at holding its shape throughout the sculpting process and will be easier to work with than a hard clay. Just make sure you have a well-constructed aluminum wire armature to help the ear hold its shape as you work.

• Q: Flashing and blending on ears (human ears are such a weird shape... scratch that, all ears are a weird shape)
• A: Use the same techniques as flashing/blending any other part of the face. Most prosthetic modifications to a human ear focus on altering the appearance of the outer rim (like Spock's ears). If you're completely transforming the shape of the ear, inside and out, it's best to follow Devin's advice and make your ear sculpture cover the entire ear.

• Q: Am I likely to have any problems getting it to stay on my own ears, since it's long and sticks out?
  
• A: Yes, if there's too much weight, your ear will bend and not be able to hold the ear prosthetic. For larger ears glued to the rim of your actor's ears, we suggest going with foam. Even though you won't get the same translucence, it's a much lighter material than silicone. If you are gluing a large foam or silicone ear over the entire ear, then you will have much more of a surface area to bond to which will help hold the additional weight.

sheltatha_lore

Update on this project - I ended up making a shape out of tagboard and covering it with clay, which has worked very well as an "armature". Chavant likes to stick to things, and having the support lets me get it pretty thin, which will hopefully reduce the weight.

Next step is to figure out how to mold this guy! (I've started another discussion for that.)

sheltatha_lore