CHAPTER 10
Stippling
Stippling—a method of applying makeup by pressing the color onto the skin rather than stroking it on—is used for giving the effect of skin texture with paint, for toning down shadows or highlights that are too strong, for adding color to or changing the basic color of a makeup, for giving the effect of such skin blemishes as freckles and brown spots, and for helping to conceal the edges of three-dimensional additions to the face. It is usually done with a sponge, occasionally with a brush.
Stippling with Sponges
Black plastic stipple sponges (FIGURE 10-1), red-rubber sponges (FIGURE 10-2), natural sponges (FIGURE 8-1), some household sponges, and pieces of polyurethane foam can be used for stippling. (See Sponges in Appendix A.) Red-rubber sponges are used primarily with rubber-mask grease and edge-cover adhesives, though they can also be used with creme makeup. Natural sponges are most always used with cake makeup. All sponges, including black stipple sponges can be used with creme makeup, greasepaint, cake makeup, or soft makeup in a tube.
The first step in stippling with a sponge is, of course, to apply the stipple color to the sponge. (To avoid creating hard edges or inadvertently transferring the shape of the square end of the black stipple sponge onto a face, sculpt it with scissors into an egg-shape. The rounded surface will assist you in reaching the many facial contours.) That can be done in four ways:
1. If you are stippling with regular creme, with creme contour or accent color, or with rubber-mask grease, press a flat surface of the sponge into the paint with just enough pressure to transfer paint to the surface of the sponge without clogging the holes. The sponge is then ready to use. In using creme sticks, you may prefer to stroke the stick across the surface of the sponge, especially if you are using a fairly large sponge.
2. If you are using creme-makeup crayons or creme stick makeup, stroke the crayon or the stick across a flat surface of the sponge. If you are using a small stipple sponge, you can simply press it into the top of the stick.
3. With makeup in a tube or heavily pigmented creme formulas such as concealers, tattoo covers, and clown foundations, apply some paint to the back of the hand, smooth it out, then press the sponge onto the paint on the hand. Or you can, if you prefer, spread the paint onto any convenient flat surface, such as a piece of glass or tile, the top of a container of cake makeup, or the cover of your palette box if you happen to be using one.
FIGURE 10-2 Stipple sponges. (left to right) Triangular foam sponge, black stipple sponge (square and egg shaped), red-rubber sponge with small piece torn off for stippling.
4. In using cake makeup (moist or dry type), stroke the dampened (but not wet) sponge across the cake.
When the surface of the sponge is covered with paint, press the sponge gently onto the skin. If the stipple is too faint, keep pressing more firmly until you get the effect you want. Always experiment first on your hand or on your arm before applying the stipple over makeup on the face.
It is usually best to powder the makeup before stippling over it and also to powder over the stipple. If you are stippling with more than one color, powder after each color. When stippling with cake or other water-soluble makeup, it is, of course, not necessary to powder the stipple.
Stippling with Brushes
For stippling with brushes, small round sables, including eyeliner brushes, can be used. For freckles (FIGURE 10-3) or other spots of brownish pigmentation in the skin or for spots used for texture (see close-up of Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain makeup in FIGURE 10-4), narrow, flat brushes are preferable.
In stippling with brushes, the stipple paint is mixed on the back of the hand, in the cover of a makeup palette box, or on any appropriate flat surface, then taken from there with the brush and applied over the makeup. If you are using more than one color of stipple, it is not necessary to powder after applying each color, but only when all of the stippling has been completed.
Stippling for Texture
In stippling primarily for texture, one or more colors of stipple may be applied over the makeup, using grease paint, rubber-mask grease, creme makeup, or moist cake makeup such as Kryolan’s Aquacolor. Dry cake makeup is somewhat less effective for stippling but can be used.
FIGURE 10-4 Stippling with a brush. Detail from Hal Holbrook’s makeup for Mark Twain. Three colors were used for the stippling and were applied with a small, flat brush. (For additional illustrations of Mr. Holbrook’s makeup, see Chapter 16.)
FIGURE 10-5 Stippling for texture. (Actor Graham Beckel.) A. Without makeup. B. Sallow foundation with ivory highlights and rose shadows. Dry rouge (Bob Kelly Bronze) brushed on after powdering. C. Light stipple added for texture, then powdered. Hair combed back and slightly grayed.
If only one color of stipple is used, as in FIGURE 10-5C, choose a shade between the highlight and the shadow but not, of course, the same as the foundation color—either a bit lighter or darker, a bit higher or lower in intensity, or of a different hue.
If you are not satisfied with the results from using just the one color of stipple, you can add additional colors. Three colors are usually more effective than one. Which ones you choose will depend on the effect you want—such as healthy, sickly, tanned, sunburned, or sallow. Keep in mind that colors used for men are usually darker than those used for women. And, of course, dark-skinned actors will require darker stipple colors than those with lighter complexions. The same holds true for light-skinned actors playing dark-complexioned characters.
The first stipple might be about four shades darker than the base. For characters who would normally have red or pink in the complexion, the second might be a shade of red-rose or coral, perhaps, or a bronze rouge. For characters without red tones in the complexion, the second stipple might be used to make adjustments in the color. If the color needs no adjusting, you can simply proceed to the third stipple, which should be lighter than the base but not so light as the highlight. If, after the stippling, the color of the makeup appears to need adjusting—more red, for example, or more pink or more yellow—stipple of the appropriate color can be added.
When you have chosen your stipple colors, apply the first one over the powdered makeup, being careful not to use too much. Avoid smearing the stipple or leaving dark blotches of paint. You should set this first stipple by patting translucent powder over it very carefully so as not to smear it. Slight smears can be retouched by stippling with a small brush.
Follow the same procedure with your second stipple color. If this is a red stipple, you can make it heavier on areas that you wish to appear more red in the final makeup. Powder again.
Then apply your third stipple. Its lightness or darkness will control to some extent the overall lightness or darkness of the final effect. Set this stipple with translucent powder.
Now stipple on the rouge. Even if you included it in the original makeup, you will probably need to add more. Then powder.
Finally, check the makeup and make any adjustments you wish to by additional stippling with a sponge or a brush.
It is also possible to do practically the entire makeup with stippling, including foundation, highlights, shadows, and rouge. This is one possible procedure:
1. Stipple the foundation directly on the skin, using three colors (or more, if you like) that, when juxtaposed in the stippling, will give you the color you want. This will, of course, be somewhat experimental. However, if the three you have chosen do not give you what you want, it’s very simple to adjust the color by further stippling with whatever color seems needed. Powder after each application of stipple.
2. When the foundation color is satisfactory, carefully stipple on highlights, then shadows. As in working with a brush, always begin at the point of greatest intensity and work away from it towards the edge, stippling more and more lightly to create a soft edge. The density of the stipple can be increased in any particular spot or area by increasing the number of applications of the sponge. This is much safer than increasing pressure on the sponge, which can result in unsightly blotches. In shadowing, it is also possible to stipple the darkest part of the shadow with a deeper color. Hard edges or areas too small to stipple successfully with a sponge can be stippled with an eyeliner brush. Errors in stippling, if they are not too serious, can usually be corrected by stippling over them with the foundation color. Powder after each stippling.
3. Stipple on the rouge wherever you normally would use it for the particular makeup you’re doing—cheeks, nose, jowls, etc. Then powder.
An alternative method—and one which you might prefer for a more subtle effect—is partially to reverse the procedure and stipple on the highlights and the shadows first, making them fairly strong, then stipple on the foundation colors, and, finally, the rouge. Naturally, in stippling with the foundation colors you should proceed cautiously in order not to tone down the highlights and shadows more than you had intended to. However, if you find, when you have finished, that they have been toned down too much, it’s a very simple matter to make corrections by additional stippling with your original highlight and shadow colors.
Stippling to Reduce Contrasts
Stippling can also be used to reduce contrasts in parts of the makeup that are too dark, too light, or too intense in color. Shadows that are too strong can be toned down with a lighter stipple, and highlights that are too strong, with a darker one. If both the shadows and the highlights are too strong, stippling with the base color will tone down both of them and reduce the overall contrast. If more texture is desirable, stipple the shadows with a color lighter than the base, and the highlights with a color darker than the base. For small areas, use small sponges or brushes, and be careful to confine the stippling to the area for which it is intended. If you inadvertently tone down an area too much, it can be corrected by further stippling with the original color.
Highlights and shadows in youthful makeups should not normally be stippled to reduce contrasts since stippling creates an illusion of texture. That, of course, would work against the smoothness of skin appropriate for most youthful makeups.
If the rouge in age makeups is too strong, it can be stippled with the base color to get the right intensity. Rouge in youthful makeups would not normally be stippled.
Stippling to Add Color
If you are not satisfied with the overall color of a makeup (too red, too yellow, etc.), it is possible to modify the color by stippling over the makeup with another color. This, of course, will also add a certain amount of texture. The cell size of your sponge will naturally determine the quality of the texture you are trying to create. Or you can use stippling instead of a foundation color by applying highlights and shadows directly onto the skin, then stippling to add an overall color.
If, when you have finished the stippling, you find that the color is still not quite right, you can add additional colors of stipple to correct it. Remember, however, that the more stipple you put over the makeup, the more you are toning down the highlights and shadows underneath. If you inadvertently tone them down too much, you can, of course, restore them by further stippling with the highlight and shadow colors. You may also want to use stippling for adding red to the cheeks, nose, jowls, and other areas of the face. Be assured that when and if you have exceeded maximum coverage you can simply remove the makeup and continue experimenting until you are satisfied with the results.
Unless you are using dry cake or wet makeup such as Ben Nye’s MagicCake Aqua Paint, you should usually powder the makeup before and after each stipple color is applied.
Natural skin texture and discoloration (blotchiness, age spots, bruises) can be simulated for intimate theater settings, for television, and for film. The accuracy of the application should please the eye. That is, it should, in close proximity, look “real” to you. Techniques for achieving a natural looking skin should include some modification of the makeup. Products such as castor oil, GP-20, PAX medium, alcohol, and makeup sealers can all be mixed with makeups to create various translucent effects. Some tips for using these products are:
1. Castor oil can be mixed with creme or cake makeup or with Rubber Mask Greasepaint (also called Appliance makeup).
2. GP-20, a base for many commercial liquid makeups, is used to make a variety of products and color more translucent. It can be mixed with dry cake makeups and pigmented powders.
3. PAX Medium made from Pros-Aide, an acrylic matte medium, was developed to be added to PAX paint (see Appendix A and Chapter 13) when coloring foamed latex and other three-dimensional appliances.
4. Makeup sealers, fixatives, and mixing liquids can be added to dry and moist cake and body makeup for sheer, waterproof coverage.
5. Alcohol mixed with any makeup can create sheer washes of color. It is the required solvent for the variety of waterproof temporary tattoo and body art ink pigments manufactured by Reel Creations and Temptu. Using alcohol on the tip of your brush, pick up a small amount of color and apply immediately. Since it will dry very quickly, you will need to work in small areas at a time.
All of these products when mixed with makeup can be applied with any number of commercially manufactured sponges. A custom-made sponge applicator used to effect skin discoloration and age spots can be made in the following way:
Cut a piece of 1-inch polyurethane foam into a 1- × 2-inch rectangle. Choose a firm rather than soft quality foam. On one long side draw several (up to ten) irregular shapes in a variety of sizes. These shapes will simulate age spots or discolorations. Tear or pinch away the negative space leaving the shapes on the surface. This stipple sponge, or more precisely a sponge stamp, will produce larger and more defined shapes than commercial stipple sponges. It can be used for regular makeup applications, replacing standard sponge applicators, but is particularly effective when using translucent formulas or glazes.
Stippling to Conceal Edges
In using latex pieces, eyebrow covers, bald caps, and various constructions with cotton and tissue, there are sometimes visible edges to be concealed. For the stage, film, and television this can be done by first stippling over the edge with appliance adhesive, Duo Surgical Adhesive, or Pros-Aide with a red-rubber sponge. Allow to dry thoroughly and then powder.
The rubber-mask greasepaint or other coloring products (see Chapter 13) are applied with a red-rubber sponge, which is pressed firmly onto the skin repeatedly, resulting in a thicker-than-usual foundation. Powder is then pressed firmly onto the rubber-mask grease, and the excess is dusted off with a powder brush, as usual. (Since the rubber-mask grease is pressed on without being smoothed out afterward, the technique is referred to as “stippling,” even though the skin is completely covered with the paint.) Various colors of stipple can be applied over this with a black stipple sponge (FIGURE 10-1) or with brushes. The purpose in this case is not primarily to give texture to the skin, but rather to use the stippled patterns of light and dark colors to break up the tiny line of shadow (if present) created by the thickness of the edge being concealed.