Barber

My third participant, Emma, kindly offered to help me practice another look using latex. At first I had plans for her to be Mediterranean-looking strongman, but this turned into an old fashioned barber with the use of a few costume props.  

Emma (woman)

Emma (man)

The latex chin and jaw was made very quickly using cotton wool. I think it would have been better with some putty and a bit of latex on the top to hold it in place. It came out looking pretty crusty - even being able to make it in advance would have been better I think. I would love to work with gelatine prosthetics as they can just melt into the skin and blend in more easily.

I stuck on the moustache and sideburns with spirit gum and used a fairly dark foundation to cover the face and prosthetics. I also thickened the eyebrows a little and gelled her hair down.

Pictures below show a stripped back version with a smaller moustache, then just without the fake jaw.

Thanks again to Emma for her help!

Corpse

The first rehearsal I will be attending for the music video takes place tomorrow. I have been asked to make someone up to look like a corpse. This is part of the story where Queen Victoria is in the throws of passion with a young gentleman, who kicks the bucket during the act (she then goes on to ban the country from having any kind of romantic contact and problems ensue...)

Alive...

...Not so much:

Took me a while to get the balance right, tried the whole 'crossed out eyes' look, but it was too gothy and wasn't as humorous as I thought it would be, only creepy.

Having my the eyes closed makes it more chilling, as it hides the fact that there is actually life in my eyes. Or at least signs of life.

Looking forward to trying this out on someone new, hopefully with some better lighting too!

Deebsella

I think this post generally speaks for itself. After having ideas of crossdressing men and ladies for an up-and-coming music video, I thought I'd try and see how feminine I could make Deebs look, Will just need to try it out the other way round sometime... as in making a lady look masculine.

The look involved a lot of contouring, particularly round the eyes and jawline, and emphasizing the eyes and lips whilst making the nose a bit more "petite".

I had to make him take the makeup off straight away as this one freaked us both out.

Latex vs Glatzan L for making bald caps

Just on the off-chance that anyone wanted to make their own bald cap, or was just curious, here is my comparison of using Latex as opposed to Glatzan L (a specialist product designed for making bald caps).

I will post up pictures of the new latex cap soon.

 Latex:

• A heck of a lot cheaper
• Peels off the head block so much easier.
• It's white when it's still wet as opposed to Glatzan L which is clear, making it easy to see when it's still wet.
• Takes less layers to make a sturdy bald cap (4-6 instead of around 7-8)
• More flexible once off the head block and so is harder to rip.

Glatzan L:

• Because it's more rigid, it doesn't spring back/shrink once taken off the head block.

It remains to be seen how the latex cap looks once applied, so I should maybe reserve complete judgement. Also most of the problems I had with Glatzan L involved the head block I use so that could have been a hindrance to its effectiveness. 

Nevertheless I definitely would recommend latex, especially for someone like me who's trying things out. It really is way cheaper and does a good job.

Ye Olde Saucy Gentleman

Once again Deebs was asked to help me practice the male version of a Victorian look. One idea for the music video I've had since is to have the girls dressed as men with devilish goatees and the men dressed as ladies of the night, as the concept of the song is quite tongue-in-cheek and involves questions of sexuality.

This time I put a the wig on Deebs which I had styled previously out of my cheap "old lady" wig. Then I had a good look at him and got an idea of what I wanted to do, took the wig off to apply the basic prep and base makeup and then put it back on to complete the rest of the look so that it would incorporate the wig.

I have to say this was a fun one to do, and quicker than normal I think because I planned it out and gave it some thought before I slapped on the makeup.

Saucy(ish) Victorian Look

Again, mixing things up since my last post, this idea is pretty much just practice for a music video I will hopefully be doing makeup for. The makeup looks needed have to look Victorian in some way, there is a scene at the end which takes place in a brothel and I thought this was a good place to start! There will also be a scene with a dead person so that might be the next thing I try. The main character is meant to look quite spinster-esque and I already have a couple of ideas for that to try later on...

For now, Victorian sauciness is my attempt.

A couple of pics with and without flash on the camera to try and get the colour across:

I had just bought a lot of new makeup to try out, and I think this shows in how tentative these are. I definitely played it safe with this one and will need to bring it to a new level to really portray a Victorian brothel lady.

Bright lipstick worked well, I previously tried a nude shade but it made me look witchy - not the right tone for me perhaps. I also don't know if this is OTT enough - it's quite subtle and could just be taken as a normal madeup look. Not whoorish enough. 

The dark lipstick is also good. I reckon I could go WAY more dramatic on the eyes, maybe with real big caterpillar eyebrows and colour/glitter around the temples. I'm not sure how to avoid it looking tarty in an up-to-date sense, thinking maybe Lady Marmalade, Moulin Rouge style might be key. Plus wigs and costumes would help a lot I think.

A bit more colour helps make the look appear more tarty. Perhaps the pink flash on the eyes is more raver than victorian prossey. 

I really should come up with a name for my mannequin head, I feel as if we've been through so much...

Moving forward with Victorian notions, I have tried to style the white wig (as seen previously in my "old lady" look) to make it appear along the lines of Scarlet Pimpernel or an old fashioned horseman. 

This will be one for my lovely model, Deebs to try on in the future I think.

Latex Arm Wound (not for fainthearted)

I'd like to repeat that the images below are perhaps not for the faint of heart as they involve creating artificial wounds.


It was surprisingly easy to create something gory looking with the use of liquid latex, toilet paper and a bit of makeup. However, the final result could have been better with some fake blood added, which I may try and learn to make myself in the future.

I first covered my arm in vaseline to help protect the hairs on my skin (I don't know if this actually worked as I managed to wax my arm whilst taking the wound off). Then I added a couple of layers of latex, drying until tacky in between. After that it was a case of building up layers using thin pieces of toilet paper and latex.

The picture above shows what I ended up with before the paint went on. I tried to go for an exposed inner-flesh kind of look, inspired by a tutorial I saw online - will try and find out which website that was.

Apologies again for the bad quality of the photograph, but here is an idea of what happened next. I used a mix of normal foundation and greaepaint for the base colour, then darkened with blue/black around the edges to suggest pooling of blood. I also added a bit of bruising and redness around the wound to make it look even sorer.

A lovely close up - the colour doesn't really show up here, and reveals the fact that I need to apply the latex more smoothly next time. However in this case, the bumps give it a bit of a "boil"-y look to it. I have a feeling next time the process will be more successful and more fun with the help of fake blood but for a first attempt I'm quite happy with the results the liquid latex produced.