Scar practice

After finally fixing my scar design and having it the right way around:) I did a practice shoot on one of my friends as I wanted to feel more prepared and comfortable this time. Because when we were doing our actual first application(we  have to use the images from that for our final submission) I feel very unprepared and didn't really know what to do. Because I don't want that to happen again I decided it would be good to practice. Also for this scar mould I slightly( but only slightly ^^) messed up the colouring and it was too yellow. So it was perfect for practice.

Before you start make sure your workplace is set up and you have all the products you need. Also have your cape or black towel ready as your are working with glue, alcohol and other coulours and you don't want to ruin your models clothes. Also have your research images and face chart for the character Makeup look with you(if needed-> depends on the character you designed). But the research images are the really important images as you need them to get your placing and colouring right.
Let's start.
First off, I cut a bit of the blending layer( Baldiez layer) away as I didn't need all of it and applied the Pros Aid glue. I left it on my workplace surface to dry and started doing the face Makeup on my model. I think it's a good way of doing it as the Pros Aid takes some time to dry and before you waste any time by just sitting around and wait for the glue to dry you just get on with the makeup.
For the Makeup I wanted to use more autumny colours and do a simple winged eyeliner line.

Products:

• pros aid
• alcohol
• baby buds
• cotton pads
• Holika Holika Jewel-light Peach Eye Maker
• mascara
• black eyeliner
• brush kit
• BhCosmetics lip palette
• Illamasqua translucent powder
• Illamasqua sculpting duo
• Foundation (Kryolan/ Catrice)
• eyebrow gel
• eyebrow kit
• hair band
• paddle brush
• comb
• supercolor palette
• alcohol based flesh colour palette
• bigger wooden brushes
• baby powder
• Pros aid remover 
• bowls for alcohol and pros aid

The Face Chart:

Makeup Step by Step:

• first make sure face is clean ( not a tiny bit of old Makeup left) and that you prepare the skin(cleanse, tone and moisturize where needed->dry areas )
• add primer
• apply the foundation and buff in/blend in well-> we want nice looking skin
• apply translucent powder and make sure to cover especially the eye area as we don't want any foundation in the eye creases as well as in the fine lines under the eyes
• do light contouring on face-> make sure it's not overly dramatic as we want the skin to look natural
• fill in eyebrows with a tone that matches your model and apply some eyebrow gel to fix the eyebrows
• eyes: apply the Holika Holika Jewel-light Peach Eye Maker in the outer corners of the eyes and blend them inwards-> but only until you reach about the middle of your eye; make sure both sides are the same and balanced; then with the same colour go to the outer corners underneath the eye and to a fine line until you reach the middle of the eye-> using your ring finger blend out the line so it is not looking so harsh anymore-> now use the other side of the Holika Holika pencil (which is a pale peachy glitter) and apply in in the inner corners-> using your ring finger again blend out the glitter towards the outer corners so they will have a slight shimmery finish; next you do the eyeliner, use a nice deep black and do a nice winged eyeliner-> depending on eye form you maybe have to adjust the wings-> as my model was Asian the eyeliner turned not out the way I waned it to be so I had to keep adjusting it. You really have to pay attention when doing eyeliner on mono lids as they sometimes tend to disappear as soon as the eyes open.
• now curl eyelashes and apply mascara
• apply only a tiny bit of blush onto the cheeks, I used a peachy colour which would go with the eyes-> but make sure you barely see the blusher
• lips: for the lips I used a berry colour from my BhCosmetics lip palette

The Hair:

• for the hair I decided to just do a messy bun

-> side note: while you are doing the Makeup keep checking how the Pros Aid on your scar is drying? If it is nearly dry apply some Pros Aid onto the skin where you want to apply the scar. I noticed that the glue is drying on skin way faster then on the mould so I do it just before the glue on the scar is dry. Also check that the ends don't curl up after you applied the glue on the scar. Also you apply the glue on the flat side but I think that is kind of obvious.

Applying the scar:

• after the glue went clear and is tacky ,carefully apply it onto the skin
• before you properly apply it make sure the placing is absolutely right
• place it on skin and press it gently down
• pour some alcohol in a bowl and get baby buds
• start blending away the Baldiez layer
• keep blending away until you can't see anymore-> remember that it has to look real and you don't want to see any edges
• when you are done blending take some pictures to see how it looks on the camera-> sometimes you see things on the camera you didn't notice before
• after I have done the application I apply a tiny bit of baby powder onto it as it makes it less sticky
• start colouring
• first use the alcohol based flesh colours and match the overall skin tone of the knee
• after matching the basic skin tones go into more detail->get help from your reference images
• because I want the main scar to be lighter than the actual skin tone I added some 'Alabastar' from the Kryolan foundation and white supercolor onto it; go over with the lightest colour of the flesh color palette-> just to make sure it is still matching even though you make it lighter
• around the scar you can also add some yellow; darker flesh tones and red tones but make sure they are subtle and that you blend them very well
• on the research images of my sisters scar you can see that the two little scars from the tube are still slightly red so I added some different red tones from the supercolor palette -> if it is too pigmented just add a bit of flesh colour over it again
• keep doing this until you are satisfied with your scar and the colour tones
• now take some pictures with camera again so you see how the colours look on camera
• if everything is fine , take more close up's, different angles and mid-length shots
• if not correct the colours first and then check it on camera again

I took this picture from just the application with my phone and it seems like the edges are very well blended. It is still a bit shimmery but you can tone that down by brushing baby powder over it

 The following images now were taken with a Canon camera and proper lighting.

As I said with my phone camera it looked like the edges were completely blended but here you can still see some on the right side and at the bottom. But I noticed it always depends in which angle you shoot because sometimes the edges didn't show up when I changed the angle.

In the image below you can see that on the right side of the main scar the silicone edges are not so nice. So when doing the mould for the actual scar shooting I have to pay more attention to it

Some images from the side

Coloured Scar

Tried a different angle to see if you maybe won't see the edges on right side too much,but you can still see them

Side view

Full body image

Makeup and Hair

(the camera setting was good for the scar but it washed out her face colour so much, but you can still see the Makeup so it's fine^^)

Thoughts on the practice shoot:

I thought at the beginning that the blending went really well but as you can see , there were still some edges on the right side and bottom which only showed up later when I used a different camera and lighting. That means I will need to pay attention to the blending for the actual shoot. But otherwise I was quite satisfied with the application. When applying the colour I also first thought I matched it quite well but then again in the studio the colours looked a bit different on camera. There were some spots where the skin tone is too dark. When matching the skin tone at the beginning  I started off with the lightest tone and mixed in some darker ones as your skin hasn't got only one tone but I think I should have either blended them in more or I should have gone over it with the lighter colour again to tone it down-> I actually tried it after taking the first images and I noticed that the skin is partly too dark but hmm somehow it didn't change much. Another thing is that somehow the scar looks quite big on her. There are two options. Either the scar is actually too big or it's just that her knee is smaller than I imagined .So I may try the scar on someone else to see how it looks on them. But after finishing the sculpture and doing the mould I compared it to my sisters scar and I thought the sizing is quite alright. The only thing I don't like about the scar mould is that the top stands out a bit too much. I should have probably made it more flatter. As for the Makeup I think I just have to take in consideration what kind of eyes the model has when doing the winged eyeliner

Bald Cap Application

Materials needed:

• bald cap
• water spray
• hair gel
• spirit gum
• spirit gum remover
• alcohol
• super Baldiez
• pin  tail comb
• hair gribs
• supercolor
• foundation
• towel or cape to cover your model
• stipple sponge
• wet wipes
• coach roll
• baby buds
• aquacolor
• fullers earth
• colored spray for body and hair

source

Pre-Impression Bald cap

source

Latex Bald cap

Both can be found at Kryolan

some general notes:

• using super baldiez thin down with alcohol
• baldiez ->use acetone
• rubber bald caps- you can smooth out edges with latex
• watermelon bald caps-> use super baldiez and blend with alcohol
• you can wear wigs over bald caps-> for example of you do thinning hair
• buy some cheap bald caps for practice
• make sure to have spare ones when using it for assessment (or somewhere else) just in case something goes wrong

Application- Steps:

• make sure you set up your work space
• cover model with towels
• clean models face 
• don't apply moisturizer on areas where you will stick the bald cap on, only use toner there
• wet hair down a bit and brush through
• use strong hair gel or water spray to flat down the hair -> it is very important that the hair is flat otherwise the head will look bumpy later
• get hair as near to being head shaped as possible->should look natural later
• when you try to flatten long hair(everything longer than shoulder length), apply the gel(a lot of it) first and comb through-> divide hair in the middle and wrap it around head but make sure it is flat so it isn't noticeable through the bald cap
• for shorter hair gel it all to one side
• get all the hair off the face
• have always tissues or wet wipes by your side so your can wipe and clean your hands
• can't use any pins or gribs
•  use soap or wax for baby hair
• put the bald cap over the top of the head-> ask model to help and hold the hair down while you pull the cap over
• the long side of bald cap goes in the back
• don't cut anything off until you have positioned the bald cap accurately and are happy with how it looks
• when cutting around face, place your fingers between skin and scissors to make sure you are not harming them
• carefully use pin tail comb to put any hair back that come off-> don't damage the bald cap! be careful!
• then pull cap down the neck
• cut off any excess until your are under ear height->cut around the ear but not in a round shape

cut it out like this

• ask model to stretch their neck/head forwards and cut the bit at the neck off
• don't stretch it don't too much when you cut otherwise it can happen that the cap will be too short afterwards
• peel back front of bald cap
• when applying the glue tell model to tilt the head back slightly and she should have her eyes closed at all times when applying glue and later when blending with acetone( or alcohol)´
• apply the spirit gum and wait until it is tacky
• apply also spirit gum on skin where the cap will be
• pull the front bit back over and press it down with a damp piece of coach roll ( can also use an old powder puff or damp towel to press it down
• make sure to get rid off any air bubbles
• glued on parts become see-through-> edges start to disappear 
• finish glueing on the rest of the bald cap
• blend pre-impression bald caps with acetone and baby buds-> models eyes must be closed
• any bagging around neck area is normal if the bald cap isn't custom made for the model

Colouring- Steps:

• get your supercolor palette and a sponge
• use a mixture of red and pink to cancel out the dark tones of the hair
• now go over with foundation ( or other colours depending on what your are doing)
• match skin tone to foundation and stipple over the rosy covered head
• powder
• could also use fullers earth depending on your design-> when using it:it gives a dry cakey look or like mud, mix fullers earth powder with water in a bowl and apply it straight onto the head, skin(wherever you need it)->don't put fullers earth into the sink/drain->it can block it, 
• you could use fullers earth as face mask as it is like the clay mask you can get in any drugstore
• use a hair dryer to get it to dry more quickly
• create textures using an Afro comb(just an example)
• you can add aquacolor over it or even spray colored spray onto it( for example make it golden) 

I really would have liked to practice with  the bald cap as well but unfortunately I am a bit short off money at the moment. But I will get one just before I go home over Christmas and practice on my sister. This lesson was very interesting and it was amazing to see the others working with bald caps and see the transformation of their models.

Second try, and another failure

After the mystery was lifted as to why my scar was looking wrong I did a completely new sculpture and this time the right way around :) I learned from it:):)

When doing the new sculpture I also paid attention to it not to make it too big. So I don't have to make any changes later, which would just waste time and products.

That's my new sculpture and I am quite happy with it.

So earlier I went into Uni to do the negative mould and the final  scar piece (it is my day off so I would had enough time to do it).

So I don't know what went wrong but somehow the negative didn't want to dry on the inside(the part I need). When I removed the negative the silicone was still liquid but only on the inside. the top bit was alright. So I cleaned the sculpture with alcohol applied the fixing spray and petrolease again and glued the cup around it and made another SA and SB mixture. I waited at least an hour and the top bit was hard (again) but when I took it out it was even worse this time on the inside. So I went to the teacher because I was pretty clueless about what to do. Well there are a few things that could have happened. It could be that the amount of silicone wasn't even but I am pretty sure it was because I always pay attention to it. Then it could be that one of the Silicone containers got contaminated, which would be a disaster!! Or maybe something was on the sculpture? Who knows. So then we cleaned the sculpture thoroughly with alcohol but then I thought if there is really something on the clay it would be best to redo the sculpture again. I don't really mind redoing it( you become much quicker in sculpting the more often you do it^^ and I did this sculpture so many times(kind of^^) but the thing that really annoys me is that I wasted so much silicone for the two silicone negatives for nothing.

So I am doing the sculpture again and will do the negative again and hopefully it will turn out alright because it would be such a waste if the silicone containers would be contaminated and I am really worried about that. Also I really want to finish this scar shoot soon because I just have so much other stuff to do . 

A day later.... ^^

I successfully redid my sculpture and it looks like the one from above so I didn't take a new picture.

Also this time I really cleaned the sculpture with alcohol before I sprayed the fixing spray and petrolease just to make sure there is nothing on that could contaminate the clay. Then I did the silicone negative and made sure I really have the same amount of SA and SB and I prayed a lot during the one hour wait and it turned out just fine. I was sooo relieved! Also that means that the silicone containers weren't contaminated and I don't have to throw them away! Yayy!! Which means that there was probably something on the clay. I was actually thinking about it and remembered that the clay had a somewhat oily finish on it after I sprayed the petrolease on the other sculpture so maybe that was the reason? But then I don't know why it had that weird finish as I have my sculptures in a sandwich box to keep them save  and they were clean. I tried to google it and find out what may have been the reason but google wasn't really helpful this time. Anyway after successfully making the negative I did the scar silicone piece and it worked as well and now I can finally do y practice. Also I had some pipettes at home and I thought they would be quite useful to fill the silicone/deadener/pigment ix into the two small tube scars. Those pipettes are now officially part of my special effects kit :)

Add image of scar mould!!

What went wrong?!

Soooo... I changed the sculpture and made the scar much smaller. Unfortunately I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of the new sculpture. Anyway I did the new sculpture, made the negative and the scar piece and was first quite happy because I thought 'Oh yeah the size should be good now and everything will be just fine.' . NO^^ I kept looking at the scar and thought hmm something is still not right. And then it finally hit me!!Better late than never:D The thing that was off about my scar is that the scar is supposed to go outwards but mine went inwards. I remember that I was  confused when we just started sculpting because I didn't if I have to make it (in the sculpture) go inwards or outwards for the scar to be later outwards coming. And I did ask the teachers if it was alright like that and they said yes but maybe they didn't know that the scar was supposed to come outwards.Maybe I just forgot that even though the negative was like I wanted the scar to be , it will still be reversed later when applying the silicone and deadener mix to make the final scar piece. Well never mind I am just happy that I finally found out what was wrong but also feel a bit stupid for not noticing it earlier. 

So now I will have to make a completely new sculpture and just start all over again. But that's okay. It is a learning process and I learned that you do the sculpture how you want your actual piece to look like in the end.

Application Scar+ Turnout

In today's lesson we had to apply our scars and shoot our overall character as well as take close up's from just the application and when we finished painting them. And let me say that was a disaster!!

First off all a bit of critique on how the lessons are planned. I am really sorry but I don't think it is acceptable to do the "assessment" in the same lesson as the 'I show you how do apply and blend your moulds' lesson as this gives us no chance to practice our actual scar. Applying the scar is not really difficult but blending takes a lot of time and I think it would have been better to get to practice it first. So you can also see what you need to improve for your final scar. Also because it was our first time we all took a lot longer than the teacher probably expected us to do it. So most of the students were not able to swap with the partners and do their design. Everyone was a bit stressed out and we had to find another time to do it which is also annoying. Anyway I applied my scar and did the blending which took quite long but was otherwise unspectacular. Another thing was that I was worried that my partner would get uncomfortable because she had to sit in a certain position so I could work well on her knee. After apply the scar and blending in I thought hmm the scar looks somewhat weird and is way too big. But I started painting it anyway. But that's where I completely struggled. I was , somehow, not able to match the skin tones at all even though she has very pale skin and you would think it is very easy to match that tone. But no, absolutely no. It was also the very first time I used the flesh colour palette and I don't know somehow I don't like them. I feel like I can't get them to look right. Well at that point I was really annoyed and just stopped and decided to do it on another day. But it wasn't just because of the painting. Actually as soon as I realized that the size is not right I wanted to stop. Because I want to do a realistic scar and having the wrong sizing does not make it realistic. But I thought well let's try anyway. 

Even though today was a mess I still learned a lot from it. First of all I have to change the sculpture and make my scar smaller. I am still not good with dimensions and sizing when sculpting but at least I was able to see how it looks on the knee and know what I need to change. Also, I seriously have to sit down and start using the flesh colour palette and practice with it so that I will know which colours I have to use and which tools work best for it( sponge?, brushes?->which brush? fingers?).

I think I only took one picture of the application and didn't take any when I applied colour because it just looked horrible but now I wish I actually did because then I could use it and compare when doing more practice tests and I could compare it to my final shoot(the re-done one) to see how much I have improved.

So the one on the left side was the scar before application and left is after application. And you can definitely see that the scar is way too big. It's probably almost as long as the actual knee cap. Also I don't know the scar just looks not right to me. Something is off. And the two tube scars are too big as well.

So I will re-sculpt later and do an update about that .

Sculpture and mould making for my scar

             

Product List:

• Clay

• Tools for sculpting

• Cling film

• Scale

• Silicone A and B

• Deadener

• Naphtha

• Cotton buds

• Wet wipes

• Cups

• Silicone pigments

• Wooden sticks

• Wooden brushes

• Hair dryer

• Mask

• Gloves

• Petrolease

• Fixier spray

• Alcohol

• Baby powder

Step by Step:

• Have you done proper research? What kind of scar are you doing? How did it happen? When did         it happen? What is the background story?->make sure you can answer all of these question                 before you start sculpting ( background story and research can be find in a separate post)

• Make sure to do the sculpture as realistic as possible

• Set up your workplace

• Get a plastic (non porous) base/tray and make sure it’s clean

• Get your clay and tools and start sculpting

• Also get a hairdryer if you want to soften up/warm up the clay->it is easier to work with(at least         for me)

• Make sure you blend out all the edges otherwise they will show up later

• When you are happy with your design spray it with fixier spray

• Make sure before you do that you open the windows and wear a mask, keep a distance of 20cm           while spraying

• Let it dry

• Then spray the petrolease, do the same as with the fixier spray

• Let it dry as well

• Then cut up a cup( our cup fit perfectly with the plastic trays we are using) and glue it on with a         glue gun

• Make sure it is sealed properly otherwise the silicone will leak through

• Let it cool down

• While it is cooling you can start doing the negative for the mould

• Lay out cling film all over your workplace as well as over the scale

• Get 2 pairs of gloves ready as you have to change them when working with different silicone

• Have your marked sticks ready

• Put cup onto the scale and set it to 0

• Now get your stick A and pour 35g of SA into the cup

• Be careful when measuring  as it has to be accurate

• When done get some baby wipes and clean the SA container and close it, wipe again

• Change your gloves and get SB and stick B

• Reset the scale to 0 again

• Pour in 35g of SB

• Clean up SB container and close it, wipe again and take off your gloves

• Stir the mixture and make sure that you don’t have too many air bubbles

• Then pour it onto the sculpture and make sure it is evenly spread

• Let it set for about an hour

• After an hour->get the negative out of the plastic and clean it with alcohol->make sure there are          no clay bits left inside the mould

• After cleaning it with alcohol spray it with petrolease again->wear mask again and do it in front         of an open window

• Set up your workplace and get everything out you need

• make the 1:2 Baldiez and Alcohol mix -> I applied 2 layers of it but later when I wanted to                 remove the scar the Baldiez layer ripped so I would advise to do at least 3 nice layers

• Get 3 sticks ready marked with A,B and C , get also 3 pairs of gloves

• Put a cup on the scale and make sure it’s on 0

• Put on gloves, get stick A and pour in SA-> for my first mould I used 10g for SA and 

• Close SA container and wipe them clean->take off gloves

• Change into new gloves and get stick B and pour in 10g of SB

• Clean SB container and change into new gloves again

• Then add 60-70% of Deadener to the SA and SB mix

• So add around 12g of Deadener

• Close container and wipe it clean

• Then quickly add the silicone pigment but make sure you tested the pigments before you add               them, so they will match the skin

• When working with silicone you always have to work very fast as it starts setting as soon as SA         and SB get in contact

• When you are happy with the colour pour the mix into the mould

• Even it out using your metal tool

Finished sculpture of the knee surgery scar

As a reference I used the picture of my sisters knee surgery scar

Glued on the cut off of the cup which works as a wall for the silicone

Filled in the SA and SB mixture to make the negative

After I did the actual mould for the scar that's the end result.
I was worried at the beginning because I had holes in the blending layer but I have been told that that's okay so I guess it's fine.

It was very fun and relaxing to do the sculpting. It's something I could do for hours:) But I also paid attention to the details of the scar and tried to do it as realistic as possible. For example those lines you can see on the scar. That part of skin changed it's texture and you have to pay attention to it. Also you have to think about the distance between the scar and the two little scars from the tube. As it was my first sculpture I had some troubles with the sizing at the beginning because I wasn't sure if it was big enough or if it was standing out too much. But it looked quite big at the beginning so I kept making it smaller and flatter until it looked alright to me. But I think as you keep on doing more and more sculptures you will develop the right feeling about the sizing . It is just a matter of practice. After you have done the negative and prepare to do the actual mould it is really important to test the silicone pigments to see if the colours you are choosing are matching. In this case it has to match skin colour. But as I wanted the scar to be slightly lighter than the actual skin tone I decided to add a light flesh tone colour and white and a tiny ,tiny bit of yellow. But you have to be really careful with the pigments as they are very pigmented. Another thing is that when you want to remove your scar from the mould do it slowly and make sure to use enough baby powder as it will help to separate it. When you rush it the risk if ripping is higher. All in all it was very interesting and fun doing a sculpture and the moulds and just to create your own scar. And because I enjoyed it quite a lot ,I think I will keep being interested in special effects and hopefully learn even more which would help me to maybe go the special effects path. 

Scar Research

For my scar I choose to do one after an ACL surgery. As told in the background story my character suffered from a torn cruciate ligament and meniscus. As the anterior cruciate ligament was torn it needed surgery. So of course I will look into the surgery procedures deeply to understand what is actually happening even though I kind of know as I waited for my sister when she had her surgeries. But because this blog is not in German it was even more important to do proper research on it so I can explain in properly. But it is not only important to know what happens during the surgery you also need to know the anatomy of the knee as the scar needs to be placed right at the end. Also knowing the anatomy it will also helps understand what parts will move later which is important should the scar be for something other than doing a photoshoot where the model sits still. You need to know how movement will affect your application.

Anatomy of the knee

I found some good images which portray the knees anatomy quite well.

(source)

(source)

I will also take these images with me when doing the assessment as it is good for referencing.

On this website you can play around and see the different layers from 360°. It is very interesting as you normally can't see it. Also it shows all the different layers. Just bones, the connective tissues, deep muscles, muscles and at last with skin over it.

(source)

The knee joint consists of Femur(thigh bone), patella, Tibia(shin bone) and fibula. The lateral and medial collateral ligaments connect the femur with the fibula and tibia. On the tibia you can find the lateral and medial meniscus. Inside of the joint are the anterior and posterior cruciate ligament which keeps the joints in place and prevents overbending or overtwisting. But in some extreme cases( sports, motorbike accidents,etc) those ligaments can tear apart. In comparison with tendons the cruciate ligaments are not able to regenerate themselves and that's why surgery is necessary.

I found some good videos which explain the procedure but I will also explain it myself. On of the videos is a live surgery video so please be warned. Just in case you are not comfortable with those kind of things. I found kind of cool^^

source

source

source

After the injury happened you will have a very swollen knee it it could also happen that there is a concentration of blood inside. Which will have to be absorbed right away. You will also notice a decrease on motion and will definitely be in a lot of pain. Before surgery can be done the doctors have to wait for the swelling to go down. I also read that you should do physiotherapy until you have your surgery but when I think about how much my sister was in pain and couldn't properly walk I doubt that it is possible or comfortable for the patient. When it is finally the day of surgery the surgeon will first do a arthroscopy to see what exactly is damaged, how severe the damage is and to inspect the rest of the joint as well. At this point it will also be decided from where the new tissue will be taken. There are different types ans also the tissue can come from your own body ,which is the called autograft or you can get some from a donor ,which is called allograft. There is also synthetic graft. This is mostly use for mass ligament replacements or if you don't have access to an allograft or autograft. Commonly the tissue that is taken is a strip of your patellar tendon, part of hamstring tendons or part of quadriceps tendon.

Patellar tendon: part which is running from the bottom of your patella to the top of the tibia

Hamstring tendons:run from back of the knee on the inner side all the way up to your thigh

Quadriceps tendon: attaches patella to quadriceps muscle-> this is the large muscle on the front of the thigh.

After the surgeon know what the situation is you will be prepared for the surgery or more commonly now is that they do right after the arthroscopy as you are under anesthetics already anyway and it saves you from having multiple surgeries. 

What is an arthroscopy?

It is a keyhole surgery. The arthroscope is a flexible tube that acts as camera and light source. The image from inside will then be shown on a monitor so the surgeon can see everything clearly. There will be some other some cuts on the sides of the knee as well for other medical instruments and a tube which will absorb blood and wound fluids. When staying longer in the hospital after a surgery on knee or leg you will have the tube for blood and wound fluids inside you for a a day or two and will be then be pulled out which can be painful and the skin around already started healing. But it is important that no fluids(blood,wound fluids) are just freely being inside you .But as those kind of surgeries are now also done in outpatient departments where the patient can leave around an hour after surgery you don't have this tube in you for days anymore.First the torn fibers of the anterior cruciate ligament are being removed and the new tissue which is most commonly taken from the hamstring tendons will be prepared. The new tissue is then fixed to some string and some kind of anchor which will secure it into the femur. There will also be a screw for fixating the other and in the tibia bone. Now the surgeon will drill a hole into the femur right through the tibia so the new tissue can be placed where the original cruicate ligament would have been.

I have made some screenshots of one of the videos for better understanding.

Here you see that above the knee joint the arthroscope is being inserted and two more cuts are being made for other medical instruments and the tube for absorbing wound fluids and blood

The next two show how the drill is making a tunnel through the femur and tibia for inserting the new tissue.

New tissue either from hamstring tendons or patellar tendon is being attached to a flexible string.

Tissue is being pulled through tunnel between the joints where the original cruciate ligaments would be.

Anchor that secures it in the femur.

And a screw for securing in the tibia. The bone will heal around it and accepts it as its own part.

After some time new cruciate ligaments will grow around the new tissue forming a new anterior cruciate  ligament.

Also when taking new tissue from the hamstring tendons the surgeons tend to take more as needed to make sure they have enough but also as the hamstring tendon is able to reproduce new tissue from time to time.

After the surgery you will be walking in crutches for at least 3 weeks. Many also become a knee cast to keep your knee stable . I know my sister even had a wheelchair for the first days as she was in a lot of pain. Just a few days after surgery you will immediately start with physiotherapy to help your muscles build up again so your muscles can secure your knee joint and keep the ligaments stable.

I think the time of recovery is different for each individual as everyone has a different healing ability.

In my sisters case it took month until she felt secure enough to walk without the cast and one time her ligaments teared apart while having physiotherapy so you should be careful and how should I say it listen to your body. Of course a physiotherapist knows what he is doing, or at least should, but you know your body best and if you feel uncomfortable or think it is too much pressure on the knee you should stop.

Some other very common knee injuries are:

Fractures

Dislocation (hmm, tell me about it-.-')

Posterior cruciate ligament injuries

Collateral ligament injuries

Torn meniscus 

Torn tendons

Character Background story

As my characters inspiration I am using my sister. She had a torn meniscus and cruciate ligament because of her ex boyfriend. The story is quite funny apart from the fact that she was in a lot of pain and had since then several surgeries because her meniscus keeps tearing apart and she had problems with the healing. 

But I will only use the background story for how and what happened and will give my character a better ending^^ I don't want my character to have several surgeries as well. That would be too mean:)

Just a year ago Kiera(my character, 19 years old ) and her boyfriend Mason ( 22 years old) were playing football together with some friends. Well you should know that Mason is a giant who also enjoys playing Rugby and has a lot of strength. Anyway as they were all playing together Mason got very excited and tackled over Kiera to get the ball. Now you may think how can he just tackle his girlfriend but that wouldn't be anything new for those two. They are both very rough with each other when it comes to playing around. Unfortunately Mason smashed his knee into Kieras when he tackled her and injured her knee. She was in a lot of pain and could barely walk. So they went to the A&E and it turned out that the cruciate ligament and her meniscus were torn and that she needs surgery. After having the surgery she started rehabilitation and had weekly physiotherapy. Even though the beginning was hard and painful- the first week she had to use a wheelchair as walking was too hard and painful and then she had to walk for weeks with crutches and the physiotherapy wasn't that easy in the beginning as well especially if you are scared to damage your knee again- a year has passed now and things are definitely better. Even though Kiera has to be careful with her knee from now on. Also the scar is not as pinky reddish as it was in the beginning and is much more lighter. But depending on the temperature it sometimes still turns a bit pinkish-for instance when having a hot bath otherwise the colour of the scar is lighter than her actual skin colour. Also the two small scars on each side next to the main scar from the surgery were from where the tube( from where the blood flows out) and the microscope went in. Those look still pinkish. As the surgery was a year ago it is most unlikely that the scar(the main one) will change much more. It is already very light. The small ones could get a bit lighter with a bit more time.

Here are some images of my sisters knee a year after her last surgery, which I used to do my sculpture.

Materials essential for sculpting and making moulds and where to get them from

Most of the materials you will need you can get from Neill's Materials. As for the fixing spray you can order it from Kryolan. If you need a glue gun but you don't have one at home I would suggest to go to a crafts shop or order it from Amazon or Ebay. That's what I did. Same applies for the scale. I just bought a cheap one from Ebay. 

You will need:

Fixing spray

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There are also smaller bottles, but it really depends on what you are doing but for the beginning I think one of the smaller ones is sufficient as well

Silicone (Platsil Gel 25- Silicone A and B)

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Mixing Cups

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Wooden Mixing Sticks

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Petrolease

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Gloves

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When working with Silicone make sure that you get the right gloves. Cheap ones may not work well together with the Silicone

Clay

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Super Baldiez

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Silicone Pigments

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Deadener

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Pros- Aide

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Pros- Aide Remover- Pro-Clean

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I don't know if I can say this here^^(well it's my blog after all :D) but normal cleansing oil from a drugstore does the same thing as the Pro-clean and is way cheaper!

Naphtha

Flesh Palette ( alcohol based colours)

I couldn't find the one we had in our kit but they still have similar ones on their website

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Wooden Brushes

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they are currently not on the website as well

Sculpting Tools

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currently not available on website

Mask to cover your mouth when using Fixing spray and Petrolease

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You can get them probably online but you can also go to your local chemist/pharmacy and buy them there

Plastic Tray

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I got this big plastic tray for 1£ from Ikea and it is really good for sculpting for my final hybrid design as the sculptures are a bit bigger

Scale 

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Glue Gun

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Cling Film

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Alcohol

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Cotton Buds

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Baby Powder

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Cotton Pads

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Baby Wipes

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In addition you can get /use

Puss

Blood

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Super Color

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Aqua Color

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