Skin
Posted by Agnes Iley , Monday, July 23, 2012 8:23 AM
The next decision I had to make was skin colour. The skin consists of 2 or 3 layers of pantyhose. Usually I use the various colours of the layers to try and create a realistic skin tone. But here I had to take a different approach. Did I want the skin to morph with the tree as well? Or did I want the skin to stand out and concentrate the morphing on the shape? I decided to do a few samples.
I didn’t want the human form to disappear completely into the tree. But I didn’t want to lively a skin tone either, I thought that would stick out too much and detract from the morphed figure I wanted to create. So after my first samples, I went back to the drawing board and tried to match a more “still” colour, something resembling bleached out bark, almost like driftwood.
So for my next samples I started with a base layer of lilac. The thicker pantyhose I use for a base layer only comes in white, but luckily it dyes very easily. The lilac made sure that any radiance I usually try to achieve was dulled down, over this came a layer of thinner pantyhose one in a light flesh tone, the other in an almost putty-like colour. I decided on the last sample for my Willow.
The skin gets sown on by hand. I use invisible thread and tiny quilting needles. Each layer gets sewn separately. In between the layers I enhance the features with needle sculpting. With needle and thread I go over the figure and pick out the parts that need to stand out a little more, for example the knees, buttocks, stomach, breasts and collarbone. After the skin layers are sewn and sculpted the basic figure is done.
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