The Makeup Artist Handbook

by Gretchen Davis

How to Choose

  You will need to know the answers to a few questions before making choices on what products to use and how the blood should look. Start with how the script reads. The scene description will get you started with a description of what the action is: car accident, fight, murder, crime scene, gunshot, bloody nose, illness or death, and cause of death.

  • Is there a written description of what it looks like?

  • Where is the blood coming from, and why?

  • What is the medical implication?

  • What does the trauma look like in real life?

  • What happens to the texture of the skin?

  After reading the script, research and think about how to achieve wounds to match the action. This is one example of using your knowledge of the body and medical resource books. If the wounds are extensive, consult with a medical doctor. An emergency-room doctor is always very helpful in researching wounds and trauma to the body. Be organized in your questions when consulting with a doctor. Their time is limited, but they are normally happy to help. Most of the time, you will have to schedule an appointment, either over the phone or at the office. If you need medical slides, you will have to go to the office.

  Medical slides and photos are protected for privacy reasons; therefore, you will need to obtain special permission to access them, as well as a designated area within the doctor's office where you can view them in privacy. Not only are doctors great resources for wounds, but also for all illnesses, diseases, and death, including how long it takes to die from certain diseases or wounds.

  If you can answer these questions before meeting with the director, you will be able to bring ideas to the discussion of how to achieve the desired effect. After reading the script and doing preliminary research, meet with the director to discuss what he or she wants. Your director will have a visual idea of what the scene or action should look like. The director might also want you to show research on the type of wounds that are required to match the action. In most cases, the producers will want to be involved in discussions. Producers will also have a say in how much blood is used. This is for reasons related to film and television rating issues, as well as creative choice. There will be jobs where you will have a meeting with the director before reading the script. This could be during the job interview. They will be looking for how you would achieve certain effects. Ask questions about the action and story line, and what they want—or do not want—it to look like. In some cases, the director will not know what he or she wants, but they will know exactly what they do not want.

  Medical Descriptions

  Busted Eye: Bruising, swelling, an open cut often are seen if the person has been in a fight. A freshly bruised eye has just happened and is black and blue in color. A days-old eye injury will be green and yellow in color. This wound effect could be used for many different situations.

  Abrasion Wound: Abrasions are surface skin lesions, such as scratches or small cuts, where the skin has been scraped. There is usually no need for stitches to close the wound.

  Animal Bites: Animal or people bites are laceration wounds where the skin is torn.

  Stab Wounds: Stab wounds or penetrating stab wounds are deep, and often fatal because of the harm done to vital organs.

  Broken or Fractured Nose: When the nose has been broken, there will be swelling and bruising. There is also a good chance of the nose becoming deformed. Eye hemorrhaging and bruising around both eyes, as well as nosebleeds, are also common.

  Broken Jaw: This is a serious wound for several reasons. The swelling of the tongue can affect breathing. With facial swelling and bruising, there is a strong possibility of lacerations in the mouth. Blood from these lacerations can cause life-threatening choking.

  Compound Fractures: There is a big concern with compound fractures that a blood or nerve vessel could be injured. Fractures of this nature leave the bone exposed due to skin lacerations.

  Hemorrhaging in the Eye: Same as the bruise, but located in the eye. Blood vessels that have broken in the eye area become trapped under the corona and give the eye a bright red stain effect. As the bruise starts to heal, the area will develop a yellow greenish tone.

  Burns:

  First Degree: Burns that affect the outer layer of the skin. First-degree burns are red with swelling and pain.

  Second Degree: Burns that affect both the outer and under layer of skin. These burns cause pain, redness, and blistering.

  Third Degree: Burns that affect deeper tissues, resulting in white, blackened, or charred skin that causes numbness.

  Airway Burns: These burns can occur when inhaling smoke, steam, or toxic fumes. Symptoms to watch out for are burned lips, burns on head, face, or neck. Eyebrows and hair can be singed. Dark mucus can occur.

  Thermal Burns: These burns can occur when scalding liquids, radiation, flames, or hot media come into contact with skin. Symptoms are blisters, peeling skin, red skin, shock, swelling, and white or charred skin.

  Gunshot Wounds: Your wound size will depend on the caliber of the gun and shooting distance. The entrance wound is cleaner than the exit wound. The entrance wound is smaller in diameter, with burned edges of skin at the bullet entrance. The exit wound is larger and messier, with the greatest amount of blood and body matter dispersed outward.

  What to Use

  By Ken Diaz

  [Ken Diaz knows the importance of realistic blood. Finding nothing on the market that worked under the many different shooting conditions, he created his own.]

  There are always several factors to take into consideration when creating a makeup. First, you need to determine what type of wound you are creating. Does the wound have arterial or vascular bleeding? With arterial bleeding, the blood is oxygen enriched and bright in color. With vascular bleeding, the blood is oxygen depleted and dark in color. How old is the wound? Is the blood dry or starting to dry? Many times you will have a combination of all three types of blood in one makeup. For example, the center of the wound may have bright, oxygen-enriched blood. As you move away from the center of the wound, the blood would become oxygen depleted and darker. As you move to the outside edges or on smudges, the blood would be dry or starting to dry. Weather elements and on-set conditions can also affect the wound. Is the actor sweating? Is it so cold that the blood is freezing? Is it raining so the blood could wash away? To get really good at dressing blood to wounds, you need to start thinking organically. Do your research and study medical books. Watch and record real-life medical-emergency shows, boxing, and full-contact matches. Take photos of real-life injuries.

  The following are blood conditions and what to use.

  Lighting Conditions

  When filming in low light, dark-colored bloods will not show up. You need to use a brighter-colored blood for it to be visible. Also use bright-colored blood when applying the blood to any dark surface. The opposite is true when working with light-colored surfaces. Dark-colored blood looks much more realistic on white porcelain than does bright-colored blood.

  Blood Viscosity

  There are now many blood products available that come in a variety of viscosities or thicknesses.

  Heavy: A very heavy or paste consistency blood (such as K.D. 151 Blood Jam) is used when a nonflowing blood is needed. This type of blood can be applied with a dental spatula, and works very well when used at the base of cuts. You can create very realistic scratches with this type of paste-consistency blood when applied with a coarse stipple sponge.

  Less Heavy: A slightly lighter-viscosity blood (such as K.D. 151 Blood Jelly) should be used when a slow-moving blood is desired to help maintain the continuity of a bleeding wound from take to take.

  Medium: Medium-viscosity bloods are the consistency of syrup. These are probably the most commonly used type of blood. Some of these bloods have been formulated for specific uses.

  Light: Light-viscosity bloods (such as K.D. 151 Pumping Blood) can be used when matching the viscosity of real blood. Also are good to use when pumping blood thr
ough small-diameter tubing.

  To create a thinner, realistic dry or drying blood, you need to use a medium-viscosity drying blood (such as K.D. 151 Drying Blood Syrup). When a thick, realistically dry or drying blood is required, you need to use a heavy-viscosity drying blood (such as K.D. 151 Drying Blood Jelly).

  When applying blood over prosthetic appliances, you will need a blood that contains a wetting agent (such as K.D. 151 Flowing Blood). Blood that contains a wetting agent will help keep the blood from beading up over slick surfaces.

  Working outside with conditions that could be hot, cold, or windy, theatrical bloods tend to have an unrealistic skin that forms on the surface. Applying a little bit of glycerin over the top of the blood keeps it looking fresh and wet. To help avoid this problem, you can use a blood that already contains a glycerin base (such as K.D. 151 Stay Wet Blood).

  Mouth Blood

  Blood that runs into the mouth should be specially formulated (such as K.D. 151 Mouth Blood).

  Pro Tip

  Always keep a small can of shaving cream in your kit on-set. Shaving cream removes stains on the skin ranging from blood to permanent markers. It is fast and easy.

  There are products now available that make all the difference in continuity and how a blood effect can be used, without the mess involved with cleanup. Skin Illustrator, developed by award-winning Makeup Artist Kenny Myers, is a water- and abrasion-resistant, alcohol-activated makeup that is available in palettes and liquids. Makeup products such as Skin Illustrator are a must-have in your makeup kit. Throughout the book, we mention various Skin Illustrator palettes, and for now, we'll talk about the Skin Illustrator FX Palette and a few ways it is used in blood effects (Figure 11.121).

  Figure 11.121 Skin Illustrator FX Palette

  The FX Palette was designed for just about any injury or illness imaginable. The Skin Illustrator FX Palette can simulate first-, second-, and third-degree burns; cuts; scrapes; scabs; and bruises. The FX Palette seamlessly integrates with the flesh-tone palette to create varying degrees of injuries and illnesses (Figure 11.122).

  Figure 11.122 Complexions

  Blood Tone is a realistic natural blood color that can be easily altered to a deeper, more theatrical color blood with the addition of ultra blue.

  Skin Illustrators are made to mix. If you mix yellow and blue, you will produce a different green than what is already in the palette. Remember color mixing? Refer to the color wheel if you need to refresh your memory. Use the burnt orange to provide a rust tone. The aged blood is a mid-ground aged blood that is not too blue or purple. By taking the aged blood and adding it to any of the other colors in the palette, you will get a whole new range of color.

  For Continuity: If you have an actor with dripping blood, and you'll need to do the shot over and over again, you'll want to keep track of exactly where you applied the blood the first time or at the beginning of the take. Between each shot, there will be a few moments to clean up the actor so you can start fresh again.

  Pro Tip

  Know what part of the scene each take starts from in order to match the blood, and any changes of the blood, during filming. Sometimes there is a progression to the blood. You will need to take a continuity photo at the beginning of the take and at the end of the take.

  If you have laid down blood with Skin Illustrator FX color before the wet blood, you have safeguarded exactly where the wet blood needs to go. If, during shooting, the blood lifts, Skin Illustrator colors will keep the wound looking bloody, even without the wet blood or little of it. Skin Illustrator is also a good way to paint blood on a wound when you don't want to get blood on the wardrobe. For example: A female stunt driver had to match the principal actress. The stuntwoman's arm would be in the shot for a long stretch of time. The principal actress did have wet blood applied to the wound, and the costume designer did cut the wardrobe to expose the wound. Shooting the stuntwoman to match became an issue when wet blood was to be applied. The costume designer did not like the idea of the mess that wet blood would make, and the amount of wardrobe that would be used. The solution was to use blood trails made of Skin Illustrator colors, which, on camera, looked just like real blood. Add a little shine on top of the Illustrator color with KY Jelly. This is a product that will maintain its shine without lifting.

  Everyone was happy with the results of not having to use wet blood on the stunt driver. This saves you from having to run in over and over again to clean and reapply blood. With this in mind, you can see why distance shots, working in the rain or elements outside, painting your wound for a more three-dimensional look, and keeping continuity are all good reasons to use Skin Illustrator FX Palettes in your work.

  Pro Tip

  Other products that you can use to get the same effect as FX Skin Illustrator are Stacolor and Reel Color.

  Temporary Tattoos

  By Christien Tinsley, Creator of Tinsley Transfers, Inc.

  When approaching a tattoo job, research is always important. You have to consider the character and the character history and time line to where and when they got the tattoo.

  Also, with so many themes and mixture of themes, having a good direction or vision from the director can be helpful in scaling down the possibilities. Let's not forget that tattoos are symbols and representations, sometimes of more than just expressive art. Sometimes there are meanings with deep ties to them, and the last thing you want to do is have your actor with something that is offensive or says something about himself that isn't in the character's description. Tattoo books, magazines, tattoo parlors, photography books, and the Internet are all good sources to find thousands of ideas.

  Today in feature films and TV, the techniques of HD, bluescreen, and greenscreen are being more commonly used. The trick to a good makeup, tattoo, or prosthetic is to make it look real. If you can fool the eye standing two feet away, you will most likely fool the camera. Don't rely on video monitors—they can be misleading and not a true image for corrections.

  Make sure that you have a good relationship with the director of photography (DP). In HD cases, there are digital DPs (not video assistants) monitoring the recording. Go to dailies. Ask to see them even if they give you a DVD copy. Know what you are looking at. Find out from the director or DP how they are processing the film in post, so you can be aware if you need to punch up certain colors. There are no disclaimers in film and television for a Makeup Artist.

  Prepping the Skin

  Depending on what approach you will take for tattoo applications, you will commonly prep the skin by making sure it is free of hair, oils, and dirt. Hair can be tricky if applying a tattoo decal because the hair won't allow full contact of the image to the skin. If you are drawing the tattoo on, hair can just be in the way. Try to remove hair if at all possible. After hair is no longer an issue, prep the skin by cleaning it with an astringent of your choice. This removes dirt and oil, and slightly dries the skin for better adhesion of paint or adhesive. Sometimes a layer of adhesive can be applied to the skin before the tattoo, helping the adhesion of any image or ink being applied.

  Applying the Tattoo

  1. Lay the tattoo decal on the skin and apply water (Figure 11.123).

  Figure 11.123 Apply water

  2. Slowly remove the paper (Figure 11.124).

  Figure 11.124 Slowly removing the paper

  3. Let dry (Figure 11.125).

  Figure 11.125 Let dry

  4. Powder (Figure 11.126).

  Figure 11.126 Powder

  5. Seal the finished piece (Figure 11.127).

  Figure 11.127 Sealing finished piece

  If you are applying tattoo decals, then you first want to cut close to your tattoo image, and then remove the protective plastic coating. This coating protects the adhesive that has been preapplied to the tattoo images. Next, place the tattoo facedown onto the skin and press firmly over the entire surface. Apply water to the back of the decal, and soak the paper. Allow this to sit for 30 seconds or so, and slowly remove the paper.
After the paper is removed, wet your fingers or a sponge, and gently—without stroking the surface—press over the entire image. Make sure the water is completely dried, and then powder generously.

  I always let the powder stay until last looks. After you are finished with the makeup, you can be sitting for hours before your first shot, and I prefer to let the powder protect the image. What I have found is that after a while, the powder falls away and absorbs with natural oils in the skin. You may find, by the time you get to shooting, that you require very little sealer. Never put oils such as glycerin on top of a wet or sweaty look. Always use a silicone- or water-based product.

  Applying Sealer

  When applying sealer, spray into a sponge and first wipe against your own hand. Then take the dampened sponge and lightly rub over the surface of the tattoo until all the powder is removed. You should in most cases not require anti-shine. If your image is too shiny, then a little anti-shine rubbed over the surface can help. Try to avoid powders.