Chaos, Time, Skill, and Order

My sister-in-law came over today so that I could turn her into a zombie. This didn't involved potions or magic, just makeup, which, honestly, is about the same thing really. At least, that's how it felt to me. She was doing a zombie run . . . one of those things where half the people dress like zombies and the other half just dress like themselves. The zombies chase the normal people and try to get tags from them. Personally, I love this concept.

Anyway, my SIL in a runner and decided she wanted to be a zombie. She asked me to do her makeup and, of course, I got terribly excited about this. I love doing makeup. More over, I love the transformation process. That part, truly, is like magic.

Zombie have rotting flesh and open wounds, which can be accomplished via latex. If you have enough time, you can do this by building layers of latex, enough to give the illusion of skin. We didn't quite have that much time, so instead I used toilet paper. The process is really simple. Take your square of toilet paper and rip off all the straight edges. Then apply the paper to the face, using your latex. Using a sponge, pad more latex over the paper until it's completely covered.

At this point, it's going to look like a white caked up mess, but that's okay. It's also the point where I begin to get excited about the process. This, in terms of makeup, is the point of chaos. Everything looks nasty and horrible, like it will never work into something glorious. It will though. It just takes time.

Waiting for the latex to dry is the hardest part because in almost every situation where you're doing this kind of thing, you have  a deadline. "The party starts at six." "My run is at seven." "The neighbor gets home at four and I need to scare him then." This is why it's important to allow yourself enough time to let the latex and stuff dry. I sped things up by making my SIL hold a fan to her face. You can also do this with a hairdryer.

Once the latex dries, this is where skill comes into play. And this IS a skill. It's something anyone can learn if they just take the time to work with the products and study wounds and scabs. I plotted out how to make her wounds look by studying some healing cuts I have on my body right now. I have cats, therefore, I always have cuts somewhere.

I pulled the latex away from her skin in small places, big enough to look like wounds and separated skin. Then I painted in darkness underneath to convey the rot, then dark, icky blood trains seeping out from the wounds. I stippled over the latex with some color, usually purples or yellows, but only lightly. Skin is clear, after all.

There is this certain point, this wonderful, beautiful, magical point when all of this goes from looking like nothing to looking like actual flesh wounds. Every time I have ever seen this transformation happen, I have been filled with so much happiness. It's this moment when the illusion CLICKS. Ahh. Love it.

In the end, my SIL seemed really happy with my work. I'm glad about that. I'm also glad I was able to do it. It was a nice bonding experience for us and a wonderful time for me because I love doing this stuff so much. So was today a good day? Hell yeah! It was a day of chaos, timing, skill, and order. Those are always good days.