Zombies and Hammers

After this post, it's official; one last class on the horizon. I'm still prepping my facial appliance for our final design, but for this last class we focused on the techniques that we learned throughout the weeks. We had an open forum of questions about methods and materials and the best way to tackle certain effects. This included trouble shooting monster suits like Swamp Thing, underwater effects like Fulci's ZOMBIE, and the all kinds of hell Lon Chaney Jr. would put himself through for his craft. This all revolved my favorite piece of mythology; ZOMBIES!

Jacqueline showed me an awesome tip to create veins. Simply take a blue eyeliner and freehand. PRESTO! So easy and quick, don't know why I didn't think of that. Add a dash of powder to bring down the hue and instant veins that any junkie would crave.

Jacqueline also has a new video up on YouTube and if you aren't subscribing to her channel yet, you should.

Kevin was nominated to be our guinea pig. Carl discussed and reviewed several techniques we learned to create an out of kit zombie.

Kevin's face become a quick mish-mash of half done effects to create the walking dead. A quick gelatin mold was cast to make a bulging brain. A balloon and pump can be laid underneath to allow for a pulsating wound. A gelatin worm was glued to his cheek and added a dimension of movement to the effect. Toilet paper and corn flakes applied with liquid latex and painted up is one of the cheapest effects I can attest to as being the most realistic, especially in regards to time. A couple lines on the lip with red and black give a split lip. A blending of black around the eyes deepens the sockets and adds a hollowed look. Adding black eye liner under AND above the lashes will take away any redness that remains.

Here's my sculpted piece with walls built up out of clay. This took about a pound of clay for the sculpt and the walls, but it can all be reused when pulled away. I mixed up about a half pound of Ultracal 30 and poured til all of my sculpt was covered. Due to the cold weather I allowed for two days to fully cure to get out all of the moisture.

You'll notice that I built an almost bowl shape, which worked against me. Take note and safe yourself some elbow grease and heart ache. I should've built up more of a rectangle like box with my walls to allow for easier separation. When I peeled back my clay, I saw that my sculpt and my mold had vacuumed sealed together. I attempted to chisel it out, but in the end it came down to brute force and sacrifice. I took a hammer and as gently as I could, smashed through the bottom base my zombie sculpt. I knew my impression of the zombie piece was completely cured, but I needed that piece more than my original sculpt. I still have the silicone mold of Eva's face if I need to pour another, an option I wouldn't have if I would've taken her impression with Algaenate. Always think of contingencies.

After pulling out the broken pieces of my girlfriend's face, I took up my loop tool and scraped away all the residual clay that was hiding in the nooks and crannies of my zombie sculpt.

Here's a side view to showcase some of the detail of my zombie. I currently have a second coat of liquid latex currently curing on the mold I pulled from this positive. I'll update again with pics of the final effect.