Maxfactormama’s Weblog

Sfx class tonight was about cut throats and bullet wounds. Pretty confronting stuff but fascinating all the same for the budding makeup artists in the class. Andy was the model for the instructor so he had to endure having his throat “cut”, which required a lot of patience and sustained neck tension! Using wax for the top section of the wound and a combo of latex and cotton/tissue for the bottom edge, it was a tricky one to get right. As a result of my model being used as the demo for the throat wound, I decided to do my technique for this session as a split forehead – so Andy had a slit throat as well as a head wound and to finish him off I did a bullet entry wound to the temple. Fun night!

Bullet entry wound

Next week being our final week, we have to come up with a scenario to use at least three of the main techniques we have learnt – think I’ll do some research from “All Saints” most traumatic injuries!

Continuing our series of disgusting skin ailments at sfx class last night we did a series of burns using a variety of mediums – using latex and gelatine to create different types of burns from superficial to full thickness.

My willing model was Nicole (from my work) and she patiently endured having the stinky latex applied to her nose and cheeks to recreate serious sunburn and blisters.

Next we mixed up a batch of gelatine to create “gelskin” and applied that to the arm, which had been coloured to create the basic burn. Working with gelskin is messy and a bit tricky but eventually I got the sculpting right and then proceeded to colour and tint the goey mess! Adding a touch of realism, we put in some fake “pus” and wound filler to complete a really disgusting creation.

Being on holidays is great but inevitably there are 101 jobs that need to be done and not enough time to get them all finished! Due to the recent storms we had a large gum tree come down in our front garden – fortunately missing all of our recently planted shrubs and silver birches but creating a bit of a mess all the same. As always, Andy to the rescue with his trusty chainsaw! Looking on the bright side – we have next year’s wood supply provided…..just have to cut it up, split and stack it, clear away the debris etc etc etc……..!

Last night’s sfx class was about cyborg makeup. It was probably the  most work-intensive one so far in the course. Matt very willingly lent me his face to “maul”! I think this will become the new profile pic for his facebook page

This makeup used a lot of products – including dodge wax, latex and blood products so it was costly as well as time-consuming (took approx 1.5 hrs). The techniques involved an application of dodge wax to frame around the area to be “ripped” and also a section with latex and tissue to create a “flap” of torn skin. These pieces were then coloured and tinted to look like damaged skin before blood products were applied. The area inside the wax was coloured to look like metal – using a combination of grey, white and silver supracolour and a small amount of black for the definition details. I’m happy with the overall result, although I think it would have been improved with a red contact lens and Matt wanted his eyelid taped back to give a more “pop-eyed” look! Still we had fun – it did seem a shame to have to remove it after the class.

Last night’s SFX class introduced us to a new use for common household products – using chicken bones and latex we created a disgusting 3rd degree burn with exposed bones (lots of goo and blood action here). Next we did a cold sore starting with a “blister” with Tuplast then using good old Special K crumbs I managed to create a really festy looking cold sore on Andy’s lip! (“give us a kiss luv!”) Who knew breakfast cereal had so many uses? Ewwww!

Next week is the Cyborg makeup – think I’ll enlist the help of my son Matt for this one