District 9 "Prawn" Alien Special Effects Makeup Video

District 9 "Prawn" Alien ... the application

In this blog am going to focus on the application process of my District 9 character that was created for a live demonstrate at +Blackburn College  's live open day event. Check out the previous blog for how I create the pieces!

I'll admit there was a little issues at the time of applying this character mainly due to the fact at the same time I was filming the application... bring on forgetting to press record as well as filming unnecessary parts of our break time! But it was done, we managed it!! On my team for this event was the fabulous Elly Booth modelling as well as Liv Makinson, Ben Slack and Chelsea Fox assisting with a little bit of Mel Nelson helping out.

Ok so here's what I had in front of me... transforming this beauty into this Alien!

 
Using these prosthetics and pieces....see the previous blog for more about how I made all of this...

 

So here are my crazy team of assistant makeup artist, Mel Nelson, Liv Makinson and Ben Slack. First step in this transformation was the application of the bald cap. Now my favourite cap to use is +Kryolan Professional Make-up  's vinyl cap...easy to blend the edges, easy to work with.

 

For this application the aim was to achieve the look of Elly in mid-transformation which meant that the head needed to look Alien but still have bits of hair poking through.

 

We coloured the cap using Mel Products USA , as you all know by now its my favourite way of colouring any prosthetics as it covers the piece 100% with excellent blending abilities. A must for any SFX artist.

 

 

The next stage is to apply the silicone prosthetic pieces, I used ProsAide to apply them but am looking at acquiring some Telesis 7 +United Makeup Artist Expo  which am going to this April as it is one of the best adhesives on market (or so I  have been told) But I'll use what I have for now which is my good old trusty ProsAide. 

 

 
The silicone pieces had to be patch worked together to give that impression that the skin was tearing apart and the alien skin pushing through...sounds disguising but that was my vision as it fitted with the +Weta Workshop 's aliens from the District 9 movie.
 

 

I'll admit I was so happy with how this turned out as this was the first time I have ever made a silicone piece this big! (Again check out previous blog for information on the products used to create this.)

Above is the final arm pieces all together with the hand piece attached...kinda looks like pounded meat...niiiice!

 

 

Next step is painting...

I did it all by hand with my assistants being wicked as always, I could of applied this via the airbrush but I had a mixture of level 2 and 3 media makeup students assisting me and the level 2 haven't covered airbrushing application yet so to make it fair, I kept it all manual.

 

 

Using Skin Illustrate from +PPI Premiere Products  , FX palette. This palette is the best SFX palette ever! I love it for creating gory, injuries because its so realistic!

 

 

Once the base colour is covered its starting to all come together!

 

 

Next coat, again using Skin Illustrator to add further depth, always remember that like a painting, SFX makeup takes several steps in building depth and colour for the effect to look realistic.

 

 

Tools used to paint the piece were from +Bdellium Tools  's SFX range; design by the amazingly talented SFX artist Thomas Surprenant. As stated in previous blogs this is must for any SFX artist out there, they really managed to create a brush for all jobs!

 

 

Add the blood; for this piece I used +bloodymarvellous scab blood as well as their thick dark blood which really pulled the gory together. If anybody is looking for a good blood check out this brand, they have a vast array of realistic blood, pus and blister products!

 

One of the lessons I always like to teach my students when doing gory injuries or wounds is don't go crazy on the blood application. If you splatter blood all over the shop, it will look like your hiding something. Its always better to 'position' the blood realistically to enhance the effect.

 

 

The join on the bald cap to the face prosthetic piece was achieved using silicone gel, moulded around the edges to give the illusion of the skin splitting. This design chose was specifically made to pay a little homage to the film "The Fly" which is one of those ultimate monster movies, as a SFX artist I love!!

 

So the finally...the finished character...

 

I would have to say that the final look is pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Obviously there are areas that I would do differently if I redid the look but am happy! 

 

Am loving how the arm turned out, I think it probably would of turned outa little better if I wrapped the bandages around the hand further up as well as round the arm but live and learn!

 

 

The head turned out better then I thought it would, the join worked out ok but am sure I would be able to figure out an even better way of blending. Its times like these that I wish I was able to use foam latex....still saving up....

 

 

The arm pieces came out wicked though, so happy with how my skills have improved in this area.

 

 

And here is a crazy picture of me and my team...trust me, thanks to Ben there was a million photo's taken that day...many many baaaaad photo's of dodgy angles buuuut check out more via my facebook page @ Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA

 

You can also check out the application video on my YouTube channel @Ruth E Moulden MUA

(http://goo.gl/xTVLHq)

 

That's all for now, don't forget that +United Makeup Artist Expo is happening very soon...April 11-12th to be exact! ... Can't wait!! My next blog will probably be covering that event...so stay tuned people!

 

xRx

 

Halloween Nightmares at Blackburn Youth Zone...SFX, gore and monsters oh my!

Hello all,

Its been another busy week of prosthetics and SFX gore gore fun! Which I will be creating posts for very very soon. This week has literally been a router of teaching, reading, practicing, creating...which is my sort of work week! As a makeup artist it can be hard balancing all the work that needs to be completed as well as all the practising/trial runs but if the passion for the artistry is there then it makes it all worth while.

Last blog I talked about the casting and creating of the creeps, monsters and zombies used in the big Halloween project at Blackburn Youth Zone's live haunted house/ scare run event; now am going to share the application as well as the end result. I loved doing this project and hope to do many many more in future; seeing my designs come to life and run around scaring the crap out everyone...including me!...was amazing.
For the event I brought backup in the form of my fabulous media makeup students from Blackburn College (VRQ Media Makeup) This event was a chance for the students to experience working in the industry, my aim was to treat them as assisting makeup artists rather then as my students. All of them rose to the challenge, threw themselves into it and come out with big smiles on their faces from seeing what they helped achieve.

The first characters that we began applying makeup to were those playing the Scientists. The whole idea with the Haunted House/Scare Run turned into a storyline about Mad Scientists creating monsters and zombies so the "Grave Digger" characters turned into the Scientists.

The fabulous Katie and Lydia completed this makeup on one of the scientist characters, the design brief was to create a crazy mad person whose been up for days working on experiments.

 

I think you would agree the brief was met!

We created this look by using cream based foundations to create the illusion of ageing around the mouth, forehead, brows as well as contour her face shape to look a little more gaunt. Around the eyes we wanted to over exaggerate the redness and veins as these characters were performing under bright flashing lights as well as coloured spots. The eyes were the focus so they needed to be brought out.

Products used for this was Ben Nye's Master Bruise wheel and Master Death Wheel.

 

One of my favourite and biggest prosthetics of the night was the full face zombie. This prosthetics took ages to create and I had a specific look in mind for it. I wanted the character to look like he had torn his face off and all that was left was rotting muscle, bones and tissue.

Here Kate is working on apply the blood around the sides of the piece and applying around the eyes after it had been blended out using the silicone based product, Sculpt Gel.

 

Another one of my favourite prosthetics, well two, the torn mouth piece and the zombie brow. This did have to be tailored in a little as our model had a much smaller face in comparison to the original model. But that's the life of a SFX artist, working on the fly and get it done!

Here myself and Rhianna are working on blending those edges out and lining up the features so its a smooth seamless transition between the models skin and both prosthetics.

 

 

 Kate and myself found the jaw prosthetics a little trickier to attach in comparison to the other prosthetics, this was mainly because of the weight. It weighed a little more then is should of so, any, a little cutting was required to remove some of the bulk from inside the prosthetic. The adhesive that I used to attach all the pieces was MouldLife's Aqua Fix. I have used this for almost all my prosthetic creations as I find its the best, it also doesn't irritate the skin as others in the past have. Other bonus is that its a cheaper adhesive but still works well!

 

Selfies...a must for any Zombie creation!

Myself with my fabulous assistants Shannon and Rhianna with the most happiest and cheerful zombie I ever did meet.

 

 

So here are my two zombie characters all done up, they wore boiler suits which we covered in blood! Have to admit two of my favourite SFX Zombie characters, completely inspired by the Walking Dead!

So happy that my view came to life!

I think if I did it again, I would definitely change the positioning of the teeth on the girl Zombie, they totally look out of line and goofy!

 

 But you live you learn and that's how you grow!

 

 These two scared me!

They were the Chaser characters, and they ran after the people walking around the place. So its kind of fitting that they were utterly terrifying. One of the reasons behind this was that they chased after you with chainsaws, and these were real chainsaws with the chains removed so the noise that they made was UNREAL!

There were a few issues with one of the pieces not sticking to the actor, which resulted in use applying and reapply frequently.

 

Loved how they turned out.

My students haven't even completed there Media Makeup SFX unit yet and I think they did a super job at helping me bring my designs to life.

 

 Broken Jaw Zombie came out pretty damn well in the end, it was tricky due to the weight of the prosthetic piece but we sorted it out with a few little alterations. I think I want to play around with the attachment of this prosthetic further in the future. I want to redesign this one, so watch out for Broken Jaw Zombie 2.

 

This was one of the Crazy Crrrrrraaaazzzzy Scientists, the sharp teeth prosthetics piece worked really well even if it was originally meant to be one of the Minion characters.The mouth needs a dark black to disguise those lips but it came out pretty well!

 

All characters were done using Bdellium tools brushes, SFX range created by Thomas Surprenant who is an amazing effects artist, I had the pleasure to watch him create some fantastic characters at IMATS last year.

 

Like always we managed to get our self in the newspaper with the characters. This is the photo that they used which also included the "Exorcist" character in the middle, she was a blasted to know.

 

All in all I think it was a pretty successful night for both me, my students and Blackburn Youth Zone. The event brought a lot of people in and raised a lot of money for the Youth Zone, which I was glad to be apart of.

 

If you want to see more images from the night check out my facebook page @Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA and don't forget to like and follow me.

 

Also check out my Instagram @ruthemouldenmua

 

I'll be attending Manchester Vintage fair tomorrow with my popup salon, often some fabulous pampering treatments including manicure, gel nail polish as well as makeovers and hairstyling. Check out my Facebook page for more details on the event!