Alissa's thoughts & pictures

Jane Austen Zombie Apocalypse Makeup Practice

I’m doing the makeup design for an original play called Jane Austen Zombie Apocalypse so I needed to get some practice in so I could teach the cast how to do it themselves.  I love makeup & especially special fx character makeup.  For this practice I just did it on myself. I could take my time & do it right so that hopefully next time it’ll go faster.

I’m using Ben Nye makeup products for this.  

For the forehead I used the nose & putty was.  I learned quickly that I should have some baby powder handy while working with the wax because as I molded it, it kept sticking to my fingers.  The baby powder helped with that.  I put a little spirit gum on my forehead. Then a little bit of cotton from a q-tip, then I stuck the wax right on top.  I then used a toothpick to create the slash through the wax & to help smooth the edges onto the skin.  After I got the shape I wanted I brushed some of Ben Nye’s setting powder & sprayed it with the final seal.

For the chin & mouth area I used liquid latex (LL) & tissue paper.  I love the fact that the ben nye liquid latex (at least the 2oz size) has a brush on the lid.  That way I don’t have to ruin one of mine!  Anyways, first I pre-tore some facial tissue into sizes & shapes I wanted. Then I just brushed a layer of LL around my mouth & chin area, and pressed 1 layer of tissue into it.  I then brushed another layer of LL on top & added another layer of tissue & topped with one more layer of LL.  I let it set a few seconds, but before it was completely dry I took a tooth pick to make that slash from the normal opening of my lips back towards the jaw line.  I then pulled at the pieces of tissue to separate them more & make it look like torn skin.  Then I used a blow dryer to help finish the drying process.  After it was dry I again dusted it with setting powder & sprayed with final seal.

Now for the coloring.  For a base foundation I used the Ben Nye cake makeup (water activated) in white.  I used a basic makeup sponge for most of the application.  Over the wax I patted the color on with the sponge.  I did the same for most of the liquid latex, but because of the texture of it, there were some areas where I had to use a wet brush dipped in the cake foundation to cover some of the flesh tone of the LL.  After I got the coverage I wanted I again sprayed with final seal.

For the wounds I used Ben Nye cream colors.- the stack with fire red, blood red, black, white, & grey as well as the Master bruise wheel. I often start with the brightest red in the most open part of the wound first, fill that in. Then I gradually get darker till around the edges where the LL is peeling away from the skin to look like the skin is tearing off.  Under those pieces I use black to give it a deep shadow.  I also used black to accentuate the deep tear from lips to jaw line.  As for the top of the wound, the shredded skin and what not, you mostly just add colors till they look good to you.  I like to add a little yellow & purple around the edges to give it a bruised look.  At the back corner of my jaw I made it look kind of bruised & bloody the used the stipple sponge dipped in black & streaked it towards the back of my face to make it looked scraped up & kind of dirty.  I also like to smudge the darker reds around the wounds to make it look like the blood was smudged & what not.  Zombies aren’t neat after all.  After I was happy with the way it looked I of course used more setting powder. 

I shaded the hollows of my cheeks, around my eyes (in my eye sockets), & temple area with purple & grey eye shadow.  I also added a bit more white on the cheek bone & brow bone as a high light so that everything else looked more sunken in. As a final touch make sure to add red eyeliner (well red lip liner) under the eyes, but as close to the eyes as you can get for a blood shot effect. If you want you can smudge it a little with a q-tip. After this step I sprayed the whole face with final seal. 

As a final touch I added some of Ben Nye’s stage blood to the wound on my forehead and around the mouth.  Be careful with this though because it doesn’t ever truly set.  It will kind of dry to a sticky state if you don’t use a lot, but there is still the chance it a can get on costumes.  If you don’t mind that then go for it because it looks great.  Otherwise I think the cream colors look just about as real without the mess.  The combination of the setting powder & final seal get the colors to stay on your face & not on the clothes. 

I know this is long, but I really wanted to record how I did this since I’ll be teaching the cast of Jane Austen Zombie Apocalypse how to do this soon.  If you’re in the Honolulu area come see the show June 22-July1st 2012.  Check out www.otsimprov.com for details on the show.