[Guy Louis-XVI]

[biography]  

Born in 1954, Guy grew-up in the small town of Rockland, Ontario Canada. He discovered his talent early in life and started a career in sign writing at the age of 13.

 Throughout his career, he learned different skills such as welding, fiberglass lamination, mold making and casting techniques. The latter gave him the opportunity to become a Special Effects make-up artist, making facial and body castings for foam latex, silicone and gelatin prosthetic, not to mention various stage, and film props. Self taught in this field, Guy went on to train in beauty make-up artistry in 1993.

 After years of working in the film industry and numerous feature films and stage productions, he used his skills and began to create a unique line of Hi-Realism mannequins. "Working as a special fx make-up artist, you have to know what realism is, you study the human face and body in a totally different way than a sculptor would", and he goes on to say, " Realism is very complex, and yet, very subtle. You have to duplicate what mother nature intends to do, without it looking artificial..."

  In 1998, Guy embarked in a difficult challenge to create realistic silicone sculptures and two years later, he succeeded with "James", "Curiosus" and "Stephanie at 15" "Iíve always been fascinated with the human skin and all its complexity to duplicate the subtle translucency, the depth of the colors, the pores it's a fascinating organ."

[Image Gallery]

[What the artist has to say]

The process:

Starting with a pigmented translucent silicone form pulled from a lifecast mold, I apply washes of color and slowly build up the colors to what we call "skin tone". Since nothing sticks to silicone except silicone, I literally make my own silicone paints.
Next, I create the eyes which I color match to the model. The eyes is a 2 part process: the lens and the sclera. The lens is a clear polyurethane plastic which I do a reverse painting of the pupil and iris. The sclera, the white of the eye, is an acrylic plastic which the lens is bonded to, then "veined" and polished. After the eye is inserted into the sculpture, the lashes and eyebrows are then created.
Creating lashes and eyebrows involves hand-punching a combination of human and synthetic hair one a at time into the silicone skin exactly to the hair growth of the models own features.

The pieces:

"Curiosus", curious, fascinated, intrigued with the world around meÖ finding myself looking out from my little world onto yours.
People are afraid to look, to gaze, to absorb what they are seeingÖ they sometimes wish they could stare at other peopleís face to study what nature has graced them with. It could be that smile, those eyes, that nose every part that makes us human, right down to those weathered marks time has given us.
We want to look, we want to say "may I?, may I gaze onto your appearance that makes you what you are?, may I see what God has graciously bestowed upon you to see what the ravages of time has eroded unto your face. Call them wrinkles, call them laugh lines, they may not even be there, for time has just begun for you" The beauty that all faces holds is a treasure that must be seen and cherished.
These so called wrinkles that we dread, must be looked at in awe, to wonder how and why they get there. Those beautiful eyes of yours, why are they that color and may I have themÖ and that skin, such an amazing color and texture.
This piece gives you a chance to look at me, the same way I may look at you

Creating "James"
"James" is a life cast of James Nolan, a dear friend of mine. He was cast using Pink House Ply-o-life silicone casting material in order to capture every detail possible.
From this, I made a plaster positive and finalize the minor corrections, then, I created a plaster negative. I then built my surface from the
inside using intrinsic coloring (coloring the silicone from the outside
in) with Platinum silicone, tan, flesh, veins, blush...
This technique, though very difficult, is best to reproduces the look of
real skin. The color of "skin" comes from under the skin, blood, fatty
tissue, muscles, veins, freckles etc.
After pulling the cured rubber piece from the mold, I continue to add a
few washes of color to the outside of the skin, more blush, tan... The next step is to add hair. Starting with the eyebrows, every hair follicle (human) is hand "punched" one hair at a time. It takes approximately an hour to create a brow, then it is set and trimmed. Same with the hair, hairline and eyelashes. The eyes are then inserted and aligned.
The head, in this case, is then attached to my FPM (Fully Posable Mannequin) Body, the resin hands are attached to the body which is then dressed and posed, this finally completes my mannequin... and why the name "James"?... simple, all my mannequins retain the first name of my models. Since the person's spirit was alive at the moment his or her likeness was captured, it's important to me to retain the respect and the name of the person I have recreated, being either lifecast or sculpted.

[Contacting the artist]

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