Max and Courtney Make Monsters

PROJECT TEN: Split Face

2006-10-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

Split Face is the third project in Dick Smith's book, and, like all of his first projects, in meant to be simple. In this instance, all that is required is some greasepaint, white talc, and black and green eyebrow pencils. We've added one additional step and two additional ingredients, cotton and greasepaint, but these are optional. The resulting creature is meant to look as though half its face were peeled off, thusly:

STEP ONE: Apply cotton
This our first step; if you like, skip it and go to step two, but we've found the cotton makes it seem as though there were a clear separation between the two halves of the face. All you need to do is take a cotton ball, pull it apart, make it into long, worm-like strands, and affix these to the face with spirit gum, making a neat line.

STEP TWO: Color half the face white
This is done with white greasepaint. Afterward, use talc to set the greasepaint. Just put a little on a brush and brush it onto the makeup -- it will keep it from smearing or otherwise fading.

STEP THREE: Add skull-like details
If you chose not to use the cotton, this is where you will paint a dividing line between the two halves of your face, using red greasepaint. Add a blue line on on side of the red to emphasize it, and, if you like, color the skin side somewhat green, to make it look as though the surviving skin was festering.

Now use black greasepaint to shadow the eyes and paint a skeletal mouth. If you like, add some red eyeliner around the eyes, but be careful, as red can irritate the eyes very badly.

STEP FOUR: Add final details
Cave in the nose with black greasepaint and, if you used the cotton, color it with red greasepaint or fake blood.

Dick Smith recommends that you make the right side of your face skull-like, as, for some reason, this strikes the eye as especially horrifying -- perhaps because we scan a face from left to right. Now you have a completed Half Face, which should look something like this:

WATCH THE SPLIT FACE IN ACTION:

technorati tags: monster, horror, halloween, makeup, splitface, skull, movie, youtube

PROJECT NINE: Vampire

2006-07-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

The vampire is actually the first project in Dick Smith's book, and we recommend starting with it and working through the book, project by project. Even though Smith was writing for children, and his book was being published in magazine form, he clearly gave careful thought to how he organized his makeup projects. Which each project, you learn a new skill that adds onto a skill learned with the previous project. Smith began his book with the vampire because it is made almost entirely with two colors of greasepaint, and is a relatively simple project. Here's what his vampire looks like:

Yep, that's a vampire all right. Smith's makeup is a variation of the makeup Jack Pierce did for Bela Lugosi in the original film version of Dracula, which, in turn, was a variation of the makeup that Lugosi had designed for himself for the Broadway version of Dracula. So this is really your classic movie vampire, and it's easy to do, so let's get started.

STEP ONE: Apply greasepaint.
You'll need three colors of greasepaint for this. White (or skin colored), black, and a creepy color, say, grey or green. We went with grey, because we've done quite a few projects with green. Jack Pierce made Bela Lugosi green, but the decision was mostly made based on the fact that the greasepaint would look otherworldly in black and white film. We do not need to imagine that vampires must be green as a result.

Start by dabbing the white or skin colored greasepaint all over your face. Then dab the green pr grey greasepaint all over. Blend it well, all the way up to your hairline and over your mouth.

STEP TWO: Add shadows
You'll be using your green or grey makeup here to add hollow cheekbones and temples to add a suitably cadaverous look to your vampire. If you like, darken under the chin as well -- the greasepaint tends to make the whole face look undifferentiated, so you're going to have to add shadows back in where they would usually be.

Max must not yet be a vampire, as he can still see his reflection in the mirror. Let's move on, shall we?

STEP THREE: Shade eyes and add finishing touches
Here's where you use the black greasepaint. Shade the eyelids right up to the eyelashes and back to the hollow of the eyes.

For final touches, shadow the nostrils to make them look larger and draw a narrow line along the mouth in black to make it look like a pinched, narrow maw.

Dick Smith suggests wetting and combing your hair into a widow's peak. Max doesn't have enough hair for this, so we topped the costume off with a vinyl novelty wig and store-bought vampire teeth, and, voila, the completed vampire:

WATCH THE VAMPIRE IN ACTION:

technorati tags: monster, discksmith, vampire, makeup, horror, specialeffects, sfx, youtube, luchador

PROJECT EIGHT: Ghoul #2

2006-06-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Dick Smith's Ghoul #2 is slightly more elaborate that his Ghoul #1. The former was designed to be made entirely with greasepaint, while this ghoul requires building the features out with cotton. Cotton might seem like an unusual ingredient, but master horror makeup artist Jack Pierce used it extensively. Building up the features of his actors with cotton and Collodion, he was able to create such classic designs as Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf Man.

Dick Smith does basically the same thing, except, instead of gluing the cotton to the face with Collodion, he uses one of the makeup artists' other best friends: Karo Syrup. He covers the cotton with liquid makeup, and the results are quite startling:

Creepy! Let's get started!

STEP ONE: Apply the cotton balls
Tug on the cotton balls until they're no longer balls-shaped, and then affix them to your future ghoul's face. Dick Smith recommends using Karo Syrup, we used Spirit Gum, you can also use surgical adhesive, which has become quite popular among makeup artists, and was another of Dick Smith's innovations.

The thicker the cotton balls, the thicker the resulting face will be. Courtney decided to make the cotton on Max's face thicker than in Dick Smith's example, especially around the nose, which, as you will see, gave the resulting ghoul a bloated, almost melting quality.

Be very careful in gluing cotton balls over hair. Max got some on her hairline, and it was somewhat painful to remove. Nail polish remover or baby oil will help, but it's a little like getting gum out of hair.

STEP TWO: Add makeup over cotton
Dick Smith suggests using sallow purple liquid makeup, to which he recommends adding some school glue to make it harden thicker (by this we presume he meant Elmer's glue). We happened to have liquid latex on hand, so we used that in the same way. Courtney colored the latex a horrid purple grey and then simply painted it over the cotton.

STEP THREE: Let the makeup dry
Especially if you are using liquid latex, it's going to take a few minutes to dry. Sit back and read a magazine.

STEP FOUR: Add details with makeup
Courtney first went in and used black greasepaint to accentuate the makeup's natural shadows, particularly around the eyes and under the chin.

You don't want your makeup to all be one color -- in Max's case, it made him look a little like a melted candle. So Courtney used a stipple sponge to add some ghoulish colors -- greens and yellows in particular. We experimented with making the mouth a ghastly yellow.

And here's the completed Ghoul #2!

SEE GHOUL #2 IN ACTION DANCING THE NEWEST TEEN DANCE CRAZE, THE BIRD FLU!

technorati tags: makeup, monster, horror, dicksmith, ghoul, youtube, terror, fear, birdflu

PROJECT SEVEN: Ghoul #1

2006-06-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

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:

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 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 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 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 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 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.

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:

Now see Ghoul #1 in action!

technorati tags: ghoul, dicksmith, monster, makeup, horror, movie, youtube

PROJECT SIX: Werewolf #1

2006-05-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

This is one of the first projects in Dick Smith's book, and is a notably simple one. All it requires is brown and black makeup, storebought novelty teeth, crepe hair, and spirit gum. Voila, you have a very traditional looking movie werewolf, albeit an old-fangled one, from back in the day when monsters were created mostly through gresepaint and not through latex attachments. It looks quite good, though:

Firsyly, let's talk about crepe hair. It's an essential of makeup design, and is available from any reputably costume shop, and can also be easily ordered over the internet. It's a woolen fiber woven into neat little braids, and it quite inexpensive. You're not going to be able to do this one without the crepe hair, so run out and get some.

Got it? Well, let's get started.

STEP ONE: Apply brown greasepaint

Simply smudge it around the side of your face with your thumb or finger so that it looks like tiger stripes, or, perhaps, whispy werewolf hair. Once you have done this to the entire perimeter of your face, use the brown greasepaint to darken the area around your eyes and to darken the tip of your nose.

STEP TWO: Make a scary face and then fill in the wrinkles

Just make a face like you are very angry, then use the brown greasepaint and a brush to paint all those little lines.

STEP THREE: Add detail using black makeup

Use either black greasepaint or a black eyeliner. Darken and extend the eyebrows into a scruffy, devilish arch, and color a black triangle under the chin.

STEP FOUR: Add the crepe hair

Just take some of it off the braid, fluff it out, and use spirit gum to glue it to the sides of the face as though they were oversized, shaggy porkchop sideburns. Also, add a triangle of spirit gum to the forehead extending from the hairline (or, in Max's case, the wig line) down to the tip of the nose like some huge widow's peak. Add some novelty teeth (max's were held in place with gum, and were made of sugar!) and you've got a werewolf!

Here's what the completed Werewolf #1 looks like!

See werewolf #1 in action!

technorati tags: werewolf, woldman, lycanthropy, monster, makeup, dicksmith, horror, movie, youtube

PROJECT FIVE: Martian #1

2006-05-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

Dick smith's Martian make-up has a lot of little steps to it, but it's a pleasantly simple bit of makeup design, consisting of just three elements: A small rubber or ping pong ball for the eyes, a large rubber ball for the head, and some makeup for the face. But with these simple elements, Smith has designed a rather classic-looking space alien:

Let's start out by making the eyes, which are made in exactly the way the eyes were made for The Weird-Oh:

STEP ONE: Cut a rubber ball or ping pong ball in half

Dicks Smith actually suggests using plasic egg trays, like the sort you would take on a camping trip, but the one's Max and Courtney have found have not been suitable, so they have instead used a white rubber ball from a surplus store. Simply cut it in half.

STEP TWO: Shape the bisected ball

As it is, the ball halves won't fit your face very well. You will need to cut the sides off somewhat to fit the shape of your face. Trim the sides a little, then put them against your face, and then trim them some more until they are a good fit.

STEP THREE: Cut a small eye hole

Just use an Exacto Blade to cut a small hole in the center of each rubber ball half. Place them over your face to make sure that you are able to see through them. Be warned, thoug: Your vision will be severely constrained wearing these.

STEP FOUR: Paint the eyes

Max used ordinary tempra poster paints bought for a few dollars. Paint the whole thing white, and then use black to paint the pupils and the lightining bolt-shapes running along the sides of the eyes, while using red to paint the sunburst pattern around the pupil and the lines around the perimeter of the false eye. Spray with spray sealant or simply cover with Mod Podge to make sure the paints stay fast.

Now that we have made the eyes, let's let them dry while we create the giant martian head. This is an even simple process.

STEP FIVE: Cut a slit in a rubber ball

The ball should be a little larger than your head. Cut a slit large enough to stick your head into the ball.

STEP SIX: Trim the ball to fit your head

Just place the thing on your head and trim it down until you like it's size and shape. Make sure you cut out little slots for your ears!

STEP SEVEN: Apply makeup

Max and Courtney pretty much went with Dick Smith's original design, starting with a base coat of green greasepaint and then adding white greasepaint highlights. Use powder to set.

Finally, we used some black greasepaint for some of the details.

STEP EIGHT: Affix the eyes

You just glue them into place using spirit gum or liquid latex, then use your black greasepaint to paint circles around the eyes and arched eyebrows.

Now, with the alien head placed over Max's, and with the addition of a pink, Op art-patterned Nehru jacket, here is our completed Martian #1:

See the Martian in action!

technorati tags: martial, alien, spaceman, costume, makeup, dicksmith, horror, monster

PROJECT FOUR: Weird Skin Texture

2006-05-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

It's always fun to see what Dick Smith chooses for ingredients for his make-up in Dick Smith's Do-It-Yourself Make-Up. For example, in a chapter titled "Weird Skin Textures," he suggests combining liquid latex, which is the sort of thing that would mostly interest make-up artists, with bread crumbs, which is the sort of thing that would mostly interest pigeons malingering in a public park. But with these two items Dick smith comes up with this:

So he must be on to something.

The process for making this is surprisingly simple. Basically, most of the work is done in two steps, as follows:

STEP ONE: Paint liquid latex on your face and stick bread crumbs to it

It's a good idea to have a plate or a pie tin below you to catch spare crumbs that will fall off your face.

STEP TWO: Add more latex and breadcrumbs

At this point, you can really build up the facial features with the latex and bread crumbs. Be careful around the eyebrows and hairline, as liquid latex can tug quite a bit when it comes off. Let each layer dry before you add a new one. If you don't want a texture that is quite so thick, Dick Smith suggests using cracker meal.

Liquid latex tends to dry pretty clear, which, combined with the bread crumbs, can produce a notably disgusting color. An alternative is to color the liquid latex with acrylic paint. Max and Courtney decided to color their latex grey, which made the resulting weird skin texture a somewhat uniform, and dark, color.

STEP THREE: Apply makeup to the face

Courtney and Max followed Dick Smith's advice and gave the face a brown base with yellow highlight. They also rimmed Max's eyes in red to give them a sickly, infected quality.

The best part of creating this weird skin texture out of liquid latex is that the entire thing can be removed and reused as a mask!

Add a wig and a turtleneck and here's what the completed weird skin texture looks like:

See the weird skin texture in action!

technorati tags: weird, skin, monster, horror, makeup, dicksmith, movie

PROJECT THREE: The Mummy

2006-05-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

Dick Smith offers a very simple method for creating a mummy like the one Boris Karloff played in 1932. The best thing is Smith's list of supplies, which, with the exception of brown greasepaint, reads like a shopping list. Here's what he suggests: Karo syruo, flour, cracker meal, instant coffee, and a roll of "good quality, plain, white paper towels." Sounds like the fixings for making a pie crust, but instead, Dick Smith makes this:

STEP ONE: Prepare the paper towels

Just boil some water, add the instant coffee, let it cool, and then dip the paper towels into the brown liquid that results. Dip each piece of paper towel about three times -- you want to give it a nice light brown color. Don't worry about the paper towels getting wrinkled -- you want them wrinkled. Smith also suggests using a thin paper that is used for covering model airplanes , which apparently will make finer wrinkles. Now either just let the paper towels dry or blow dry them. Since paper towels are now designed to be super absorbant, we decided to blow dry them, which took about ten minutes per towels. Four towels proves to be enough to cover Max's entire face and neck.

STEP TWO: Eye makeyp

Use the brown greasepaint to color the eyelids and the area around the eyes a dark brown. Be careful not to get any greasepain in your eyes, as it stings!

STEP THREE: Apply the paper towel in segments

The key here it to tear the towl to fit various area of your face. Two segments, for example, should cover the area just below the eye and the cheek. Two segments should cover the eyebrows. A long strip of paper towel should cover the forehead, and another long strip will go across beneath the nose like a mummy mustache. A square segment of paper towel will cover the chin, a triangle shaped segment will cover the nose, etc.

The point of making these strips is to allow some natural motion on the face. Cover the entire face.

There are several ways to glue the paper towels to the face. Dick Smith's method is to mix Karo syrup with flour -- one tablespoon of flor, one teaspoon of Karo. You can also add brown greasepaint to this mixture togive it some color. This will act as a simple makeshift glue, and is very inexpensive. But despite the fact that Karo Syrup is incredibly popular among special effects makeup artists (often used for blood), it is very sticky and never really seems to dry, so Max and Courtney attached their paper towels with spirit gum, which Smith suggest as an alternative. As you glue the towerls to the face, let it get really wrinkly!

STEP FOUR: Dye the mouth and tongue blueish black

Smith recommends using food coloring. Mix green, blue, and red together to make a blackish color, and then apply to your tongue and lips. It will stain them a blue black color for a while.

STEP FIVE: Color the wrinkles

Do this using brown greasepaint. Color under the wrinkles to make them seem more recessed. If you have time, you can also use yellow gresepaint to color the tops of the wrinkles to highlight them.

STEP SIX: Finishing touches

Now you can add some finishing touches. Any exposed skin should be painted brown. If your ears stick out, you can glue them back using some surgical adhesive or a dash of liquid latex. Soap your hair back, if you have any. Now Smith suggests creating a granular paste with a tablespoon of cracker meal, a dash of instant coffee, a tablespoon of Karo syrup and a tablespoon of flour. Now use this paste to mat your hair back. You might also use a bald cap and wrap it in paper towels. We decided to be very simply and just put a fez on the top of Max's head.

Mummy's are dusty, so Smith suggests getting some powdered clay (we bought brown grout). If you want to makeup to stay, spray it with some sealent (avalable at any makeup store) and then toss some of the powdered clay or grout onto the mummy; it will look like speckles of dirt.

Here is the completed mummy:

See the mummy in action!

technorati tags: monster, horror, mummy, makeup, dicksmith, movie

PROJECT TWO: Collodion Scars

2006-05-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

One of Dick Smith's suggested make-up purchases is something called "rigid" or "non-flexible" Collodion, which he demonstrates to great effect in his book. Here is Dick Smith's sample of Collodion scarring:

Gross! How could we resist?

STEP ONE: Buy some Collodion

Make sure it says "rigid" or "non-flexible," though, or it won't work. Many theatrical make-up and costume stores carry version specifically meant to be used for this purpose, such as the mehron brand that we bought at out favorite local make-up store, Twin Cities Magic and Costume in St. Paul.

STEP TWO: Apply the Collodion

If the Collodion comes with a brush, use that, but a makeup brush, paint brush, or even a cotton ball will do the trick. Put it on in a jagged line, and make sure not to get any in your eyes -- the stuff is very irritating. As it dries, you will feel it tugging on your skin very slightly. Sometimes it helps to add an additional coat. Don't put any on your eyelashes or other facial hair, as it can hurt coming off. Additionally, while some books suggest pinching the skin together over the Collodion and letting them stick in a little pinched line, Dick Smith advises against this.

STEP TWO: Add some makeup

Dabbing a little pink makeup on top will make the scar look more realistic. If you have an even better collection of wound makeup, such as the Ben Nye trauma simulation wheel, you can make the scar even more vivid and realistic through careful shadowing and highlighting. Consult Dick Smith's books for tips.

And that's it! You now have ghastly scars, and, if you apply over an even larger region of your face or body, what looks to be grotesque burn scars. The best part is making up stories about where the scars came from.

Here is Max's story about his scars!

technorati tags: monster, horror, makeup, scars, movie, collodion

PROJECT ONE: The Weird-Oh

2006-05-11T13:13:00.001-07:00

The Weird-Oh is pretty far into Smith's book, but we decded we would start with it, as we like it. Smith based the design on a series of plastic models inspired by the cartoons of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, who was famous for illustrations of oversized, bug eyed monsters riding souped up hot rods.

Here's what Dick Smith's Weird-Oh looks like:

STEP ONE: Paint the face

We started out with Courtney painting Max's face green, but for his mouth, which she painted a large black smile onto:

STEP 2: Apply the mouth

The mouth was simply cut out of paper and glued to a smile-shaped cut-out of white netting, which was then colored black (in retrospect, we probably should have used some black nylon). It was then glued to Max's mouth with spirit gum.

STEP THREE: Add the eyeballs

The eyeballs are made from a large white rubber ball that we cut in half and drew on with magic market, cutting small holes in the front so that Max could (sort-of) see through them. They were heavy, so we glued them over the eyes with liquid latex, which worked quite well. Courtney then painted around the eyes with black makeup, and also added eyesbrows and smile lines.

STEP FOUR: Add the nose

The nose was carved out of a tube of foam and glued on with spirit gum. It was also painted green. The costume was a helmet and a jump-suit, all bought for under $30 at an odds and ends store. And there you have it: The completed Weird-Oh.

Now watch the Weird-Oh in action!

technorati tags: monster, horror, makeup, scars, movie, collodion

INTRODUCTION

2006-05-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

In 1965, under the Famous Monsters of Filmland imprimatur, movie make-up guy Dick Smith published a little booklet called Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up, which he later republublished, in book form. In it, he explained, step-by-step, how to create movie monsters and special effects of increasing sophistication, but all geared toward the crafty young boy or girl who might later go on to make Super-8 movies staring these homemake monsters.

It is our plan to go through this book and create every single monster and make-up effect that Smith describes, although perhaps not in the order he indicates. We shall document this, and then we shall make our own little movies. We are Max Sparber, a playwright, arts critic, and sometimes actor, and Courtney Mault, an aspiring horror makeup artists with at least one film credit -- the independently shot Risen, in which Max appeared as a chinless zombie.

Note: We encourage you to buy Dick Smith's book if you plan to attempt these experiments yourself. We will only be describing how we do it in themost general of terms -- for the more complex details of applying makeup, Smith's book is chock-full of excellent advice.

technorati tags: horror, monster, makeup, dicksmith, famousmonsters