Clown / Ripped Face SFX Makeup

It's been so long since I've done a paint. My biggest excuse was that my paints are old, limited, and practically dried out. I've been meaning to purchase new ones, and more SFX supplies, but so much has been going on lately! Not to mention I've been a little short on cash over the past couple of months.

I just recently finished moving into my friend Rabekka's house, and as a gift to myself for finally unpacking everything, I decided to paint my face today with the little paints/equipment that I have. So, lo and behold, the creation! I got the idea from my makeup artist when I worked at Halloween Haunt last year, she had a clown girl right before me, and she made it look like half of her face was torn off. I also used Instagram user Mykie's clown look as an inspiration for the eye makeup. (She's AMAZINGLY talented, go check her out!)

Forgive me, as I am REALLY terrible at painting teeth, I can just never get them right! I'm sort of proud of myself for this look though :)

          

Sugar Skull Makeup Tutorial

Hello all! This is my first tutorial, so it's not exactly up to par with the usual youtube/blog tutorials I've seen. For example, I'm using my trusty old Iphone for these photos, in my room, with terrible lighting, ha! Anyway, the point is that I'm going to show you how to do this rad sugar skull zombie-esque makeup tutorial. All you need is:

• Black, white, and yellow face paint (I use Mehron)
• Purple (or any theme color you'd like to use) eyeshadow, preferably different shades of one color. 
• Makeup AND paint brushes, along with a painting sponge.
• Liquid eyeliner (it's not mandatory, but it makes things easier!)
• Makeup setting spray, if you need this look to last for awhile!
• Black (or dark purple) lipstick

Okay, now that you have all of your supplies, lets get started!

Step one: First, you're going to need to cover your entire face in white face paint. White is the color I hate the most when covering my whole face, because with a brush it leaves streak marks, and it can also easily become blotchy if you use a sponge that's too wet. So to do this, wet your painting sponge a teeny tiny bit (like literally if you licked your sponge, that's how damp you want it to be!), dip it in your paint, and lightly pat it all over your face. You don't want to brush it, because that leaves streaks, or could wipe the paint off entirely. Be patient, this process could take awhile, especially using white. Don't forget your eyelids! After that's all finished, use a black matte eyeshadow and an angled eyebrow brush to create a cheek shadow. Make a fish face to find the hollow of your cheeks, and just follow your natural shape. Make sure to make the edges sharp, you want the 'shadow' to look creepy! Then blend with your regular eyeshadow brush. If you want, you can add some dark purple in there too; you can't tell in the photo but I added purple to some of the shading!

Step two: Take a very light purple eyeshadow, or whatever color you've decided to incorporate into your sugar skull, and fill in your eyelids, underneath your eyes, above your eyebrows, and almost reaching your temple/hairline. You want big ovals for the eyes, and make sure they're even! Otherwise it looks funky once you start adding the details. Don't add any more eyeshadow other than this light purple until you've outlined the eyes in black, this makes it easier to stay in the lines! You can also use paint, if you'd prefer not to use eyeshadow, but this will make it look a bit flat, and it's a lot harder to get that ombre look!

Step three: Carefully outline the 'eyes' with black paint. It's easier for me to do it in one sweeping motion, instead of little by little. You can go back and fix the uneven parts quicker that way, in my opinion. If you accidentally have some purple leftover outside the black outline, you can use white eyeshadow or white paint and just your fingers to blot it out. Unless you're covering your eyebrows and making them 'invisible', you want to make sure the black outline goes above and beyond them, so you can fill them in with black paint. I don't think you want sugar skull eyes AND eyebrows! (Well, maybe you do. In that case, go for it!) I decided to choose the quicker route to do this, but if you do want a more professional look, you may want to consider concealing your brows!

Step four: Use black paint to make a thick rim around the eyes, then use a medium shade of purple, starting from the rims and blending toward your eye in a complete circle. Leave your eyelid the light purple that you used in step two. After you've successfully blended the medium purple, grab your darkest purple and again, starting at the rim, blend so it fades into your medium purple. After that, use black eyeshadow to blend the black paint in with the dark purple, you don't want a harsh line separating the two colors! Just a heads up, this look requires LOTS of blending to get the ombre eyes! You may have to go back and use the different shades of each color again; and blend, blend, blend away.

Step five: Use a rounded makeup or paint brush to create tiny circles/ridges around the eyes. This step is sort of difficult using yellow and black together, you can use whatever other color you'd like, I just like how those two colors looked next to each other! Again, make sure the brush is really rounded. It makes it super easy to create those little ridges!

Step six: Okay, this part is kind of tough. I totally ran out of liquid eyeliner, so I had no choice but to use a black pencil liner, that's why mine looks kind of sloppy and smudged. Be careful when you're doing this, because if you mess up, its really hard to wipe off with yellow and white face paint underneath it. Don't worry though, mine obviously isn't perfect, I messed up a few times myself! Hopefully you can find some liquid liner or a detail brush laying around, and yours ends up looking better than mine! :P I also added some teeny dots in between the ridges, because I like little details. You can do whatever you want, though!

As for the rest of the look, I leave that to you! Sugar skulls are a great way to show off your creativity, whether you're drawing, painting, or doing one as a makeup. I made mine dark and creepy by adding crosses, spiderwebs, and black lips. I did all of this using black lipstick, black paint and a detail brush, but you can also use liquid liner. The only advice I have to give is have fun with it! Do whatever you think would look cool or edgy. Most Sugar skulls have the traditional spiderweb forehead and sewn lips, but I dare you to try whatever you please!

I actually based this look off of a drawing I did almost a year ago. I drew it originally to do a makeup of it, but I never got around to it until now. I also did a bright, flowery sugar skull that I'll do a tutorial for sooner or later! You can definitely use this look for Halloween or for a party; and you can add little details like black/purple feathers, a tuxedo, etc. I'd love to see what you guys can do with this! Everyone's sugar skull is a little different, and it's one of my favorite things to paint because there are no boundaries!

Here's mine, finished:

Bruising; an introduction to SFX makeup

As an aspiring makeup artist, I surprisingly haven't been able to practice as much as I'd like too. Mostly because special effects products can be pretty expensive, and as of right now I'm trying to get myself through school, paying rent, and eating cup o' noodles for dinner every night. Though I'm not complaining, I know it'll all pay off in the end.

From bruise wheels, to fake blood, to latex, to prosthetics... you usually need a vast majority, and a large amount, of these products just to make one look. I've got a Ben Nye starter kit, and I'm slowly adding to my collection; but as of right now I can only do a few things. For any makeup artist just starting in the special effects field, I'd recommend starting off small with some bruising. It's a basic necessity and skill for almost any wounded look, and there are various ways to make a bruise depending on how old, or fresh, it is. 

When a bruise is brand new, it will appear reddish due to the the blood that has leaked from the capillaries under the skin, it wouldn't hurt to add a few miniscule broken blood vessels to this bruise.

Photo Credit: Freakmo-SFX on Deviantart (Makeup)

At one or two days old, the bruise will be bluish or purple in color. The swelling at the site of the bruise will cut off the oxygen, and the hemoglobin will turn blue.

At five to six days old, a bruise will turn a greenish, yellow color as the area begins to heal itself.

At eight to nine days old, a bruise will then turn mostly yellow, or brown. This is the final stage of the bruise.

Photo Credit: How to Fake Bruising with Makeup video by GoldieStarling

It is important to know of the changes of color in bruising over time. If you aren't aware of these stages of bruising, it could make your character look unrealistic or inaccurate. For example, you don't want to put a green/yellow bruise on a character who had been in a fight earlier in the day, or even the day before. You also don't want to put a fresh red/purple/blue bruise on a character who had been in a car accident a week or two before.

The Walking Dead // Fight Club

Bruising is definitely an important part of special effects makeup, and like I said above, its the perfect place to begin practicing! Here are some examples of bruising I've done on my own with a Ben Nye Master Bruise Wheel, a nylon stipple sponge, a simple synthetic sponge, thick (fake) blood, and some q-tips!

Some Tips: Use a patting or stippling motion to give a blotchy or uneven look, try to make it look irregular and inflamed. You don't want to only use red while trying to recreate a bruise; this can create a rashy or burned look. You can avoid this by adding purple, blue, yellow, or green, depending on the stage of the bruise. Raised or swollen areas of the bruise should be high lighted in yellow, in most cases. For example, the cheek usually appears swollen at the high point of the cheek bone, as shown above. Use the nylon sponge and a reddish color to create the illusion of broken blood vessels. You can also use the nylon sponge to add blood to a scrape or cut near or on the bruise.

And that, my friends, is an intro to SFX bruising! If you have any questions, comments, concerns, advice; or you'd even like to share your own bruise creations, I'd love to see them! Please feel free to comment below!