Lost Loves - Forgotten or Abandoned?

My friend Alex Foster is probably gonna end up as the next big shot producer in Hollywood, but once upon a time I made him a piece of artwork for his apartment when he was stuck with me on the East Coast.

I had found a walnut dresser door from a dumpster diving trip in Soho that was in perfect condition since it was being disassembled for the garbage trucks making their rounds. I snatched it up, brushed it off, and got plenty of odd looks on the subway carrying it home.

I wanted to draw some inspiration from my surroundings. Another friend had given me an old James Bond poster so I decided to play with that. I was also handed a flyer on the way home regarding the persecution of Falun Gong, which it didn't know much about, but the flyer included some striking imagery of human suffering that was too much to ignore.

I used a combination of acrylic paint, decoupage, and Sharpie marker. I decided to utilize the classic look of James Bond, which is almost an icon onto itself. I really enjoyed reading Ian Flemming's pulp fiction as a child and the books always resonated with me; political intrigue, foreign locales, bloody violence, beautiful women, and danger the world over. It's only now that I realize the true politics behind certain events and how they affect its citizens.

I really decided to rethink my understanding of James Bond as a character and what he reflects as a society. These elements of espionage and intrigue, but you never truly see the human suffering of the politics behind the curtain. Not much for movie entertainment, but it’s the basis of understanding the reasons and actions that would place a person in such a situation.

For the flesh tone of the tortured souls, it’s just the wood left exposed. I used a stencil for the star to help separate the piece into three distinct pieces as the eye follows downward. The text I wanted to play with and invoke the feel of a movie poster. The bottom half is a reflection of how all of this is treated like a game, where the players don’t even realize they’re the ones being played. The women at the bottom are actually one bondage image I found & printed from the computer of a cartoon fetish model in stockings and a gas mask. Here I meant to address the misogyny of suffering and the stories reported, whether through Hollywood or CNN, particularly in regards to gender.

 

It’s a strong, striking piece which is quite odd to take in and process. Sadly, Alex decided to get rid of the piece when he was moving because the paint started peeling off of the piece which he thought was a defect. It was meant to do this, to fade away and fall apart, adding another element to the painting. I meant to toy with the notion of how we can let suffering fade away as well as forget about the classics of Hollywood. This was definitely a piece of purging things from my brain, even if I didn’t completely understand it myself.

Here's another little side project I ended up giving to giving to a friend. I started this roughly 5 inch sculpture out of scrap copper wiring. The trick was sculpting it so that I would be able to fit it into its base container, but more of that later.

I molded into a rough shape of the figure and just used scrap pieces of plaster of Paris to make this little figure. After it was dry, I began blending out a flesh tone for the creature with acrylic paint. I wanted it to look somewhat humanoid yet alien.

After the acrylic was dry I coated the figure in about 3 coats of epoxy to give it a solid seal. After the seal was dry I placed the figure in a repurposed olive jar (just peeled the label & cleaned off the glue). I made a label for the figure using Microsoft word, printing it out and using spray adhesive on the backing. The project number refers to my birthday, the project name refers to ZERO which used to be my tag name. And if you can’t figure out Area 51, well that’s what Google is for folks.

I added the statue and added water to fill the jar. I knew that the weight of the piece would keep it from floating. I took one drop of white oil paint and added it to the water, giving it an odd swirl effect. After a little bit of time, some of the acrylic began to strip away and hang off like skin and would lightly sway if moved. Unfortunately I don’t know what happened to it in the end as I gave it to a friend who moved away and disappeared.

I definitely would like to try this project again, especially with materials such as latex, metal, and possibly on a much larger scale. But in the end I was quite pleased with it; not bad for something so creepy that still fits on the shelf of your refrigerator.


 I definitely would like to try this project again, especially with materials such as latex, metal, and possibly on a much larger scale. But in the end I was quite pleased with it; not bad for something so creepy that still fits on the shelf of your refrigerator.

By "George" - It's Zombies, but not Zombies

My most recent film experience took me to the zombie short film "George", directed by Gabriel Rosenstein for The Spitting Image. He had a very specific idea in mind for his zombie story. His tale was one of a man's survival in the midst of the ruins of society. Gabe wanted zombies, but not zombies; to impart the feel and atmosphere of a world over run with despair, but without tipping the hat to the walking dead we've all come to instantly recognize. Gabe didn't want any facial appliances, or any effects that would detract from the humanistic look of his actors. He was insistent on the visual interpretation that any one other than his title character could or could not be a zombie. This would prove to be quite a challenge. What was asked was to not go overboard with gore either, that the story was to drive the visuals and I could certain respect that. I knew that this would be an out-of-kit build for effects and one of open interpretation. I regarded it as "paint me a picture, but only use these colors" kind of project, which I could definitely dig, especially in only 2 days of shooting. A couple of things to factor in were a bite mark on the main character's leg as well as a bullet hole in another's head. I was definitely up for the challenge.

Upon arriving to our holding, I met Mary Czech who would be doing hair and make-up as well. She's a very funny woman, and a lot of fun to work with as we shared similar tastes in films, comic books, and make up style. This is more important than you can imagine when working with someone in such an enclosed space for hours on end. Mary is quite the professional and a treat to work with, especially when referencing Midnight Movies. You can check her out on Twitter @ rockindaspandex and see her talent at Glam Dammit.

In preparation for the bite mark I took some oil based clay and bit into it, making an impression of my top teeth and my bottom teeth. I then mixed up some Ultracal to pour into these small molds to pull out my solid positive. Once I had those two pieces I gave it a couple coats of liquid latex and had my very own custom appliances for the zombie bite. I even made an extra set of bite marks just in case. I was a Boy Scout once upon a time, and their motto is one of the best in terms of zombies; Be Prepared.

DAY ONE: Here's one of the pseudo-zombies. My idea was to make him dirty looking, with brown and darker cream colors. I imagined that these characters would be left to the natural elements, baking in the sun, and left to rot. A key element to remember is that in terms of the script it was meant to remain unclear how our zombies came to be the way they were; from radiation, a virus, space aliens, whatever. Any effects would have to be perceived as either being from their existence AND from their condition.

I thought a two tone color would visually suggest that there was something initially "off" about this individual, and yet they still look feasibly normal. I like to think that something is wrong on the inside first, before it appears on the outside. This idea was accomplished by usually augmenting one feature of each actor we would encounter.

Mary took on this actress utilizing "Scarlett Red" for the eyes and blending out the skin to a deathly pale. It helped that the actress had been locked away for most of the Winter and hadn't seen any sun. I used a blue eyeliner to pull out some of her veins in her arms as we applied white cream to take the color down (though it's probably too faint to see in this photograph alone). The idea that I enjoyed was that whatever had created these zombies, that they might have a different affecting look between the sexes.

A closer look shows how the make up extends even to her chest, drawing the eyes into the arms and continuing the illusion.

Mary worked on the make-up of one of George's encounters, another human trying to survive as well.

His look is straight forward and gritty; meant to be as natural as his environment. Notice the similar make-up application between his face and his hands.

Our friend has an encounter that ends poorly, with him gun shot to the head. In approaching this my idea was that all of the trauma should be on one side of the face so that when the actor looks from left to right (or vice versa) that it would be a reveal of his injury encompassed in the look giving much more options in terms of camera angles. The bullet wound is sculpted from scar wax and coated in liquid latex. Once that was dry it was layered with some color, a dab of bloody scab and some blood though not too much. The other abrasions are meant to look like scrapes from his fall. It's a combination of liquid latex, some color, and bloody scab.

Here's a closer look. He's slightly dirtier, which was something that we played with in terms of colors to invoke a visual understanding of death in the film.

DAY TWO: For an insert shot, Gabriel wanted a set of zombie hands to reach in front of camera. He said he just needed one so Mary and I each took a hand of an actor and decided to do two versions to give the director a choice. An effective make-up artist gives the director as many options as they can deliver within time and budget, something we had limited amounts of with this. The one thing that we had to consider between each of our artistry was to have a somewhat similar look between both hands in case Gabe wanted to use both in the scene. You don't want one person with two radically different hands and kill the flow on set by sending the actor back to fix a mistake.

Here's my version of the hand. This actor had some crazy veins in his hands so I decided to play with those by incorporating them into the paint up. I used some liquid latex, and cream paint and some bloody scab. I think it looks disturbing without being too out and out gross; a nice happy medium.

Mary did a great job with her hand adding a bit more color and giving a real sense of shadow.

So my actor from the previous day returned and I had to match his make-up from before. Gabriel said that the actors for the day would be for his "zombie horde", though they would be seen largely from a distance. To compensate for distance I amped up the browns and creams in his make-up to deliver a look I wish would have pushed forward earlier. It's a bit more powerful and distinctive without being too radical from what had already been captured on camera if any matching were to be done in post-production.

This look I needed to do super quick and dirty. I gave my actor the Freddy Krueger treatment in some picked over liquid latex skin abrasions on the cheeks and forehead. I went with a more purple-ish/brown hue that I also used to accent his eyes rather than blood and other reds.

Since he was so fair skinned I extended some of the brown to his jaw and neck to connect the dirty sunburn kinda look we were working with. The purple-ish hue would also compliment the colors used with our female zombies.

Here's his complete look DONE in under 10 minutes. He still looks kinda normal, but there's something certainly off going on here.

We had another actress for our second day and I wanted Mary to recreate the Scarlet Red eyes of our female zombie the day before. Again Mary worked on the skin tone as I added a latex abrasion/giant popped blister to our actress's cheek. She had crazy long cheeks that really made this effect stand out. The goal was to not make anything too involved or particularly recognizable, but definitely distinct.

Mary did a great job shadowing along the clavicles giving a nice sunken look with the same skin tone as our other actress. This was important in creating a continuous color palette throughout. I particularly enjoy the runny mascara as well to balance the abrasion on the other side of her face.

Some of the other actors arrived all at once and a bit later than expected. We dug in and pushed through. Here's Mary's take on of the zombies. Bruised and discolored, he looks to be a zombie, but also just to have had one bad night out.

Here's another actor I took on giving him the same treatment as my first actor to match. I kinda like the dirty Jersey Shore look he's got going on, but you have to admit; while you might not imagine zombie right away, you're definitely creeped out.

 Here's the bite mark applied and colored. Gabriel wanted it kind of green, but still somewhat bloody. This was the latex piece I made, some cream and some bloody scab. The secret is all in knowing how to blend, but still make it stand out. His specifics were that he wanted it to look as if it could have occurred that day or 2 weeks ago. This was the two separate pieces applied with Pros Aide. I wanted to make sure that it would stick in place and not shift or fall off as it rubbed against the actor's pants, ESPECIALLY since he would be falling and crawling around leading up to the scene that reveals this wound.

I was really really happy with the placement of this piece. It was like a perfectly positioned tattoo. It bent with the curvature of his body and was easily seen if he was sitting feet up or when he slouches into a butterflied position. I also like the slightly upward turned angle that makes one envision that some may have grabbed his leg from the ground and bitten out a chunk. When they were ready to begin filming I added a small bit of liquid blood to the center of the wound, which was just enough to accentuate the effect as it dripped out from a seated position. Also on set I was asked to place 4 bright green dots surrounding the wound so that in post-production they could digitally alter the effect as well.

Here's my spin on Mary's make-up of the lead character, George. She had made his hair greasy and given him a splashing of blood with dried really, really nicely. For my part I went in and gave him a bit of the darker brown and cremes around the edges as well as a subtle blend of purples around the eyes. Basically I wanted to combine the two looks of the male and female zombies we had done earlier into one cohesive look. The challenge was to not overpower Mary's previous work, especially by not upsetting the blood work. It's subtle, but you can see that something is definitely amiss.

All in all the actors all sat like champs and the collected group of filmmakers were really fun to work with and very professional. They stayed on time and definitely rolled with the punches of a tightly scheduled production. I think the looks are dynamic without being overpowering, giving a colorful look that's unique and distinctive. I really liked how the gore wasn't overboard, but more reserved for the more dramatic moments of the story. I hope for my next round of zombies I can deliver something a bit more visceral in terms of gore and carnage, but it was really nice to realize that sometimes it's not how fast or hard you swing your sword, but rather just how you swing it. It was a very enjoyable exercise in restraint and I feel I was able to help deliver the look Gabriel had in his mind to film.

I'll be sure to share more details of "George" as it comes out of edit and available to the world.

We know what to do with them parts - Bringing Leatherface to life

The illustrious Wes Allen, the bearded front man of The High Gears and the perverted mind behind The Blood Sprayer, commissioned me a while back about fabricating a sculpture for him of his Horror movie hero Leatherface. He left the specifics of the design to my discretion and I eagerly accepted the challenge. Honestly I love this entire film franchise, even the remakes. It's one of my all time favorite slasher films, and presents such an iconic depiction of American horror and the nuclear family. I wanted to include a bit of all of the films within this piece, which was quite the challenge. It was also a fabulous excuse to rewatch the entire series as research. Here's some of what came out of the project.

 I started off with oven-bake modeling clay, which is easy to work with as long as you keep it moist. The clay bakes up in the oven and turns into a terra cotta solidity like a flower pot. I crafted a head shape from left over wire mesh and stuffed with paper towels.

 Here's what I would build the head shape around. I didn't want the piece to be so heavy as a solid piece, but I needed to keep a solid form with its structure. Otherwise it would take far too long to bake and I would risk residual cracks if not careful.

 I started with a basic shape to the head, sculpting the head, nose, eye sockets and the beginnings of the mouth.

I sculpted two sets of ears - one set for the head itself, and one for the design of the mask, which I'll discuss later.

I began working in the eyes and a bit more to the mouth, adding teeth and a gum line. It's important to have a bowl of water nearby for smoothing out creases and fingerprints as you go along.

 As I became more comfortable with the shape of the head I decided to focus on the support structure for the piece.

 I built up a neck and added a slight cock to the neck, which adds a bit of personality to the stillness of it all.

 Angular and distorted, the piece was starting to come to life.

  At different angles you can see the shape of the piece.

Here's everything just ready to bake!

Letting the piece dry for a couple days, I finally baked it. After pulling it, there were some residual cracks, but I knew that the wire mesh I had sculpted around would hold the piece intact. But I had a plan in place to fix this. I also pulled out the paper towels within from beforehand.

 I went over the cracks with epoxy from Home Depot. It was a two part mix and stunk something fierce (probably because of how flammable it was), but that's half the fun of playing with art. Always work in well ventilated areas, kids.

 I dusted the piece in baby powder because of the tackiness from the epoxy. This was an important precaution for the next step.

 I began to coat the piece in 12-14 coats of liquid latex, dabbing each layer on, waiting to dry, and then applying again. It was a process, but well worth it.

 I gently peeled the latex back, dusting with baby powder so as not to tear it. This is the pull of it, the underside.

 Flipping it inside out, here's what I was chasing after.

 I took a pair of cuticle scissors and snipped away the excess to create the representation I was looking for.

 I only wanted one set of ears, the closest pair to the nose, so I trimmed those away and trimmed along the neck and chin line. I began painting this mask in a blend of acrylic paints. I was going for an aged leather look, just like dead skin left to dry.

 It was tricky to blend the right degree of shadow and skin tone on something that was so curved. But I like where it was going.

Here's a front view.

I wanted to represent the side of Leatherface you don't often see, the cross-dressing aspect of the franchise that larger gets glazed over, but solely utilized for its creepiness. I added smeared blue paint for eye shadow, rosy pink paint for blush and a blood red jagged lining of paint for lipstick.

 I went along the brow line with black thread and stitched into the mask. This was a bit of a challenge, especially with the rubber giving way and pulling. I didn't want to put too many holes in this or tear it. I had to do this after painting because there's no way I could paint around the thread. It was a challenge but it really adds to the look of the mask.

This stitching goes from the hairline down along the front side of the ears. I wanted a jagged, hand done touch to it all.

 Now for the Pièce de résistance - I stole the hair from my girlfriend's brush. I picked it out over the course of a few weeks and amassed enough to cover the head. I adhered it to the mask using liquid latex.

Here's a side view where you can see more of the hair and the side stitching. The hair had to be layered and let me tell you what a pain in the ass it is to work with glue and hair. But I really think that it adds a super eerie factor to the piece and reflects the subject matter properly.

 For the sculpt I chipped off the nose and the additional set of ears towards the back of the head. I then painted it up in a more rosy flesh like appearance with appropriate shading.

This look would be a base coat that I would then coat in Shellac.

With this coating of Shellac it gave the piece a urine hued coloring. The stink was another fun element to contend with, but this protective coating would ensure that the color wouldn't smudge with handling the piece. It gave it a bit of shine that I'm sure will dull with age while tuning down the painted flesh tones.

 Here's the piece before the Shellac coating.

Here it is after.

The idea is that this mask would be a perfect fit over the sculpture itself. Now let's flash forward a little bit.

 I found a small boy's Oxford button up shirt at K-Mart and cut off the collar. I stained the ring around the neck with coffee. His next tie I made by sewing together scraps from the shirt itself. I used painter's tape to piece out a design for the tie and spray painted it on. Tying the tie to the neck of this piece was another challenge since it was so small.

 Here you can see where I chipped away the nose.

 I used a yellow rubber kitchen glove from the Dollar Store to create Leatherface's apron. I used the left one, which has a nice little "L" on it if you look close enough.

 I speckeled everything with red acrylic paint for a blood effect using a toothbrush.

 Here's a look at the tie and apron. It only extends about 4 inches from the sculpt. The only real draw back is that I hot glued the shirt in place around the base which made it a little wobbly.

 Here's the mask on the sculpt all done up. Notice the two sets of ears from before where now only one remains on the sculpture.

Here he is in all his glory - LEATHERFACE!!

Here's a peek a how the sculpture was made to be interactive with the mask being pulled on & off. This is before the additions of the hair, shirt, etc. This was quite a challenge and I'm very excited for Wes to have this in his new home. There's some things I would change in regards to fabrication, but all in all, I think the steps I took in the pre-production of this piece helped craft a very strong sculpture. I still have a long way to go in terms of achieving a realistic figure sculpt, but I think it's not too bad for someone that's only taught themselves. It's totally a unique one of a kind piece, done all without a mold. Every project is a stepping stone to the next one. Maybe your commission will be my next piece?

I'll let this gem play me out...