Max and Courtney Make Monsters

Sunday, October 29, 2006

PROJECT TEN: Split Face

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: