SFX Makeup Course
Warning: realistic gore
Theatre Craft
Theatre Craft holds online and in-person courses for all aspects of technical theatre. This year I was lucky enough to attend a hour long workshop in creating costume gore!
The Project
I was at a Theatre craft convention and took a short workshop in SFX makeup. We were taught a bit about how the makeup is done and what is used, and then given a precut, uncolored “wound” on the model, made of SFX wax, and tasked with coming up with a look for it and painting it and adding “blood”.
My Approach
I decided to go with a slightly older wound and looked up images of healing bruises and cuts to find inspiration. The instructor also showed us one he had done while demonstrating techniques, as pictured below.
Bumps in the road
We were working with an oil based makeup, which can easily be overused as it is incredibly pigmented and spreads easily. Despite being warned of this it was incredibly easy to accidentally add too much of a pigment you didn't want, and then have to go back and modify parts to ensure the final product was what was desired.
Final Product
In the end I ended up with a slightly realistic looking wound, with greenish/yellowing bruises surrounding the cut and scabbing blood.
Lessons Learned/Things to do Differently
I learned quite a bit about the process of doing the makeup and the difficulty in keeping it neat. If I could do something differently I would have tried to lessen the pigment of the darker colors.
I also learned I want to do a lot more at Theatre Craft - it was a terrific day!