Tuesday, June 13, 2006

PROJECT SEVEN: Ghoul #1

Ghoul #1

Ghoul #1 is the second project in Dick Smith's book, and he designed it to be done entirely with greasepaint -- the ghoul face is supposed to be just painted on. We modified it a little, as we already had experience with Collodion and we happened to have some stage blood on hand, but we really didn't need to. Even just using greasepaint, Smith's first ghoul is a pretty ghastly apparition:

The Original Makeup

STEP ONE: Collodion scarring
The actual requirements in Dick Smith's book are yellow, black, green and red greasepaint. As the creature will have a ghastly scar running down the side of the face, we decided to begin with Collodion, although the scar could just as easily be made using the red greasepaint, as Smith does in his book. As we described earlier, rigid Collodion is easy to use. You just paint it on the skin and it will take on the appearance of a scar. You can add more Collodion if you want to make the scar appear deeper.

Step One: Collodion Scarring Jagged scar

STEP TWO: Color the face yellow
We next make the ghoul unworldly colored, giving the face a good solid coating of yellow greasepaint and powdering every so often. Courtney left the area around the eyes mostly free of makeup, as they will be surrounded by black ovals later in the process.

Step Two: Pain the Face Yellow

STEP THREE: Add deep circles around the eyes
This you do with the black greasepaint, but don't go right up to the eyes. Instead, color around the eyes with red greasepaint, which will give them a sickly color. Be careful not to get red greasepaint in the eyes, as it can cause infection. Additionally, use the black greasepaint to make the eyebrows look shaggier than they really are.

Step Three: Blacken the Eyes Blackening the Eyes

STEP FOUR: Blacken the nostrils
This will make the ghoul truly cadaverous. Just use black greasepaint to darker the area around the nostrils, so they look wider and larger than they really are.

Step Four: Blacken the Nostrils

STEP FIVE: Created horrid wrinkles
Use the black makeup to make deep, gouged laugh lines. The black paint should also be used like lipstick, but make the lips thinner than they are. Now add radiating lines around the mouth, which will give it an ancient, puckered look. Once you've done this, use the black greasepaint to hollow out the cheeks. If you want to make the ghoul extra corpse-like, go over the black shadows on the face with a little bit of green greasepaint.

Step Five: Create Gruesome Wrinkles

STEP SIX: Outline the scar in white
The effect is stagey but nonetheless makes the scar quite vivid. If you are not using Collodion, simply draw the scar on in red greasepaint. If, like us, you happen to have some stage blood on hand, you can add blood to the scar for an extra-horrid effect.

Step Six: Line the Scar in White Step Seven: Color in the Scar

Now you're done! Throw on some old clothes and a battered hat to complete the effect, or just mess your hair up. A ghoul is, after all, a graveyard spirit, and sometimes is thought to eat human flesh, so feel free to look appropriately scruffy. Or, if the mood strikes you, dress up like you're going to a funeral.

Here's what the completed Ghoul #1 looks like:

Completed Ghoul #1

Now see Ghoul #1 in action!



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1 Comments:

At 5:31 PM, Blogger Gabriel said...

Wow, the scar looks really spiffy!

 

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