Special Effects - Bald Caps

In special effects class we moved on to making bald caps. These aren't assessed the same way as our injuries for example, we're creating them just now to be assessed when they're applied to a look - such as our ageing or sci-fi characters. We have to make 3 overall, and so far I've made 2.

Bald caps are used in film and tv all the time - they are relatively simple to make (although a bit tedious, and very messy!) and can be used in conjuction with makeup and prosthetics to create all kinds of weird and wonderful characters: 

To make a bald cap, you will need the following:

- A plastic head mould

- Vaseline

- Liquid latex

- Talcum powder

- A large, soft brush

- A couple of soft sponges

- A hairdryer

 

Make sure you're wearing old clothes and protective wear such as a polythene apron, as this really is a messy process from start to finish!

 

1.) First, take a small amount of Vaseline and cover the entire head in it (just use your hands).

2.) Using the sponge, apply the latex to the head in strips, starting from the hairline and working all the way down to the nape of the neck.

3.) Dry with a hairdryer (cool setting)

4.) Powder the latex areas well, using the brush.

5.) Repeat the process 4 or 5 times, gradually building the layers up.

6.) Peel the bald cap from the head slowly and carefully, powdering the inside as you go.

 

The previous steps are put very simply, but the entire process takes about 90 mins. The latex strips that are applied need to be the same consistency per layer and you have to be careful not to overlap the strips. Also, you need to be very careful when holding the head - my hand slipped and I bashed mine off the table, which caused the latex to tear.

The Vaseline application is one of the most important steps - if too much is applied, the latex will start to separate and the cap will either be very fragile or will break when it is being fitted. This step is so important, you could end up wasting nearly 2 hours making a cap that cannot be used!

 

When I made my first bald cap, I made the ultimate mistake - I was too eager to take it off the head, and didn't powder the inside enough. The inside is very sticky, and the cap rolled in on itself and warped out of shape. It will still go in my folder as I definitely learned from this mistake, but it can't be used for a look! The powdering at the end is actually really fun, because you get to use as much as you want and make a real mess, so I advise against using it sparingly :)

 

Here is my finished bald cap:

I enjoyed the process - at first it seems very daunting, especially as it's quite repetitive, but it can be therapeutic. You end up losing yourself in it and forgetting how many layers you've done!

 

I'm looking forward to using my bald caps in my makeup looks, so watch out for that!

 

Gill :) x

Special Effects - Cuts & Bruises 2

This week in Special Effects class was our last practice before next week's assessment. The assessment is a car accident scenario, so Mo was encouraging us to visualise the injuries we were creating in a realistic mindset - in other words, the injuries have to connect and work together. It wouldn't be realistic to have random injuries dotted over the body, because in a car accident there would be a specific point of impact on a certain side of the body, and is this which we have to try and create. Last week, for example, Mo praised Debbie and myself for creating injuries that had a story behind them and worked together.

I decided this week to create the illusion of a broken bone, because I feel I'm quite confident creating cuts and bruises. I haven't decided what kind of injuries I'll be doing for my assessment yet - more research is required! - but I felt I had to practice something different to give me more options. So I created a broken wrist on my glamorous model, Euan. Here it is, with and without flash:

I wanted to make it look really swollen, so I created the broken part with dermawax, and blended a flesh coloured tone over the top, and a dab of white right in the middle to give the illusion that the bone is pressing against the skin. I added mostly red, purple,blue and green greasepaints around the swelling to make it look really sore and bruised! It was difficult to blend around the wax without accidentally moving it or smearing bits, but I found that it was easier to mix the colours using a brush and sponge rather than my fingers.

I was happy with the outcome and Mo said it looked very realistic, so I feel it was a success!

Next week we'll be down in the car park with Police tape and a bucketload of fake blood to create our accident scenario...Stay tuned for the pictures!

Gill :) x

Special Effects - Cuts & Bruises 1

Now we've all done our burns assessments, it's time to move on to Cuts and Bruises in special effects class, although this week I just practised bruises. This is a really interesting topic, because bruises in particular come in all shapes, sizes and colours, so it's fun to lose yourself in it and see what can be created! It's also good to practice on different parts of the body, and I decided to try doing a 'black eye'. This can be paired with cuts around the nose and lots of fake blood to create a very realistic broken nose, but due to time constraints I just did the eye. But before I post my work, I'll talk a bit about bruises and how they can be created with makeup.

Bruises are minor tissue damage under the skin, caused by blunt trauma. The discolouration of the skin is evidence of broken capillaries, damaged veins and internal bleeding in the surrounding tissue. A lot of the time, bruises aren't particularly life-threatening - although they can be very painful - but they can vary in severity in terms of tissue damage.
Creating bruises with makeup is realtively simple - all you need is a soft sponge, a stipple sponge, a bruise wheel and your fingers and it turns out really effective! As you can see from the pictures, many colours are used and different levels of severity can be created.

Last week the lecturers were going to a meeting so we didn't have very long to practise, but I managed to do a bruised eye on Debbie, which Mo said was really good. I'm really happy with it!

I used a mixture of purple, red, brown, black, navy and green to get the overall look - I blended it in mostly using my fingers, but I also used brushes and a sponge. I was trying to make it look really fresh and sore, and I think I managed to capture that! I also used white under her eye to highlight, and make it look really swollen - a technique I learned in Character class!

For our cuts and bruises assessment, we have to recreate an accident scenario, so I've had that in mind while practising. We have to do both a face and body contusion, so this week I tried to incorporate the two. I worked with Debbie again and we came up with a scenario of our own - we were in the car and she crashed because she was dancing at the wheel, and we both got pretty bruised and battered! Debbie gave me a bruised eye, cut nose and a big graze on my forehead which had glass in it. She also did a huge graze on my arm to make it look like I had injured it shielding myself from the crash. Pretty creative!

Here's my work on Debbie, with and without flash:

I wanted to make Debbie look like she had a broken nose, so I bruised both of her eyes and added some pro blood coming out of her nose. I made the bruise darker right in at the corners of her eyes and down the nose to give it a really swollen effect. I figured she'd hit her head on the dashboard, so I added a large, deep cut on her eyebrow bone and made it look really sore by mostly using reds in that area. I added plenty of wound filler and fake blood to add to the realism.
I also decided to give her bruised/grazed knuckles to make it seem like she'd scraped them on some glass in the car crash. I'm really happy with how it turned out, particularly because I don't feel very confident with the dermawax yet.

I find the cuts and bruises to be a bit more difficult than the burns because they are more technical - colour and placement are really important, and the cuts and bruises have to work together to make it look realistic. I felt like this was my best cuts and bruises practise so far, and Mo gave me good feedback on my competent use of colour and overall realism. She even used mine and Debbie's work as an example of what everyone should be doing - she wants us to stop playing it safe by doing small cuts and bruises, and instead get into the accident mindset. Her advice was to think big and to combine the facial and body injuries, to apply to an accident scenario. I couldn't be happier with how it all went!

Gill :) x

Special Effects - Burns Assessment!

This week I did my assessment, and again did a hand burn, but on the opposite side because I felt that the oils in the palm of the hand (that I did on Debbie - see previous post!) made it difficult to blend the colours. My scenario for this was a bit more simple - Holly's house was on fire and she got burned while trying to escape. I wanted it to look really charred and burned, and Mo said the end result was very realistic! Take a look:

This was, by far, my favourite burn - I'm glad my assessment went so well! I have another picture where I wrapped a bandage around her hand but the one above is better quality. As before, it is a mixture of greasepaints, latex, collodium and gelatin. I felt like I really got the hang of tearing and peeling the latex - it turned out exactly the way I wanted, and I really loved using black greasepaint on the peeled areas to make it look really gory. Although at one point, I almost cut Holly's real skin with the scissors - that latex sure is realistic!

I'm really pleased about passing my burns assessment. Next we're moving on to cuts and bruises, so look out for that!

Gill :)

Special Effects - Burns 3

Yesterday I did my burns pre-assessment, and - good news! - Mo told me I'm ready to be assessed :) She was judging us on our product knowledge, time management, understanding of colour and overall result, so I'm really happy that she said I'm doing well on all those things. The scenario for our assessments is a house fire, so again I decided to do a fire burn. It went really well, I even managed to finish before the allocated time was up!

Mo recommended we have a back story to our burns so we can fully understand the kind of effect we want to end up with. So, I decided that Debbie was straightening her hair and dropped the straighteners - but instead of letting them fall she caught them by the blades and one of them burned her hand.

Take a look!

In my camera's light it looks quite brown, but I really layered on the black to emphasise how badly burned the skin is. I used a mixture of greasepaints, latex, tuplast, collodium and vaseline to create the overall look.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out, especially the way the skin is peeling around the wound! Can't wait to do my assessment now, I'm feeling quite confident about it :)

Hope you like it!

Gill :)

Special Effects - Burns 2

Last Wednesday I did my second attempt at a skin burn. It turned out really good in the end, but getting there was difficult as I had a bit of a Gelatin disaster halfway through! I was trying to create burnt scabs but they stuck out too much so they looked really fake. I managed to remove them and redo the area but I was worried because it took more time than would be allocated for assessments. Here's the picture and I'll explain the effect I was going for!

So this was another fire burn, and this time I wanted the first few layers of skin to look like they had peeled back to reveal the flesh underneath. I used plenty of latex and folded it back, then sealed it with collodium - this also made the skin around the wound look crinkly, and some parts even started hanging off and flaking which added to the effect! I applied plenty of black colour on the skin to make it look really charred and dead.

For the wound inside, I was trying to create scabbing but it didn't work - when I took the Gelatin off I redid the area with bright reds and applied a layer of vaseline to make it look shiny and sore, and again applied some collodium which was painted black to add more texture.

Hope you like!

Gill :)

Special Effects - Burns 1

Special Effects is a great class to be involved in - I love getting as messy as possible and being left to work on really creative projects, so it's definitely my favourite class so far!
For the past few weeks we've been practising skin burns, to a variety of degrees. Our research had to involve burns of different types, such as chemical, thermal, fire, radiation and electric, and we had to make ourselves aware of how the skin is affected by these.

The following is my research, these are all either 2nd or 3rd degree burns, and range from moderate sunburns to serious radiation and fire burns which could potentially disfigure the victim:

Researching burns is sometimes distressing, especially when the burns are particularly severe, but I have a pretty strong stomach and I find it interesting to look at how the skin is affected by different types of burns. Also, I'm looking at them through the eyes of a makeup artist, so I like to observe the different colours and textures.

I decided to try a fire burn on Stephanie's wrist, as I like the way fire affects the skin - in many cases the skin is left hanging off and the different epidermal layers are visible. Also, the skin is usually very charred and vivid colours are revealed.
I used greasepaints, latex and collodion to achieve the effect - take a look at the picture and I'll explain how I did it!

First, using my hand as a palette, I mixed the right base colour. I wanted it to look as fresh and sore as possible so I used a lot of reds, pinks and a little brown. I applied with a sponge and blended on the outside to create a soft edge, therefore making it look more real. Sometimes with burns it's ok to be a bit sloppy or clumsy because a very even shape or pattern could make it look fake - realism is key!

I then applied a couple of layers of latex and let it dry, then added collodion on top. The latex provides an invisible 'skin' which can be peeled, cut, cracked or rolled back to make it look like the person's skin is hanging off, or it can be piled on top of itself to create a thicker layer which can then be manipulated as needed.

The collodion is probably my favourite product to use in Special Effects - it is applied wet, and as it dries it wrinkles and tightens the skin. It can then be manipulated like latex, however it is thinner and not as flexible. I let the collodion get to the tacky stage, then used cotton buds to 'rip' the layers I had added - these then became the charred, wrinkled bits of skin that you can see in the picture.

To finish the look, I added more colour using cotton buds, a soft sponge and a stipple sponge (a textured sponge that applies colour less uniformly), using black to bring out the burnt skin, red to make it look fresh and painful where the skin has peeled back, and a mixture of reds and browns in between to add depth and texture. Finally, to add to the freshness, I layered Vaseline around the fresh-looking areas. I felt this really brought an extra dimension to the burn! 

(excuse the not-great quality of this picture - Santa is bringing me a new camera!)

I was delighted with the final result! I managed to create the effect very quickly - I managed to get my base colour and latex/collodion application correct first time, and it applied the way I wanted, so I feel like this gave me confidence and focus to get the look I wanted.

Keep checking my blog for more fun with gore :)

Gill