Sculpt Gel

I had been wanting to use this stuff for a while now. Sculpt Gel from Mouldlife, is similar to Third Degree and the other silicone modelling compounds, its versatile and relatively easy to use. So this being my first time using it, I thought I would start with something simple. I opted for a small laceration on the inside of my arm, because its the easiest place to work on myself and photograph. As with everything I have tried, the first time there have been mistakes made and lessons learnt.

• I mixed up too much, the mantra "a little goes a long way" seems to be the case with Sculpt Gel, you can always add more. 
• The work time is recommended to be between 5-10 minutes, its worth just keeping an eye out on your time, I worked a bit too fast because I was worried about the silicone curing while I was working with it, and as a result the wound could have been built up better; and maybe blended a bit better also. Its worth noting that the cure time can be reduced by applying gentle heat with a hair dryer.
• I didn't put enough washing up liquid before applying the blood. As great a material as silicone can be, it is waterproof and because of this the blood can bead up a bit; a little bit of washing up liquid can prevent this. 

 

Here is an image of the cured Sculpt Gel coloured with the Skin Illustrator Fleshtone and FX palette. You can see at the bottom where It hasn't been blended into the skin as good as it could have been. The veins of the arm have also been extended at the bottom using the FX palette. 

The wound finished off with some Mouldlife Kensington Gore blood in aged. It beaded up slightly because there wasn't enough washing up liquid.

I was really happy with my first time using this product. Its quite forgiving; making it perfect for the novice and pro alike. Its worth mentioning that its important not to let parts A and B mix in their containers, because you will ruin the gel! It is a bit more expensive than wax, but it is just a much more superior product.

Phil

Homemade sculpting tools

I had actually posted this picture on my Instagram a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to leave posting about them on here until I had used them a couple of times. After running out of my monthly hobby budget, I realised that I hadn't bought any sculpting tools. So I remember reading an awesome tutorial on Stuart Bray's site (click here for link) on making your own. Now Stuart uses some brass tubing and epoxy putty to make his, I didn't have any of those, but instead of following his tutorial, I used it as inspiration to create some very primitive and budget sculpting tools with what I had sitting around.

The items I used to create mine were -

• Pens - ink tubes removed and the ends sawed with a hacksaw.
• Hot clue - to glue the tips in instead of the epoxy putty.
• Both high and low E strings from an acoustic guitar.
• Bobby pins.
• Paper clips.
• Clipped leads from a few resistors.
• Panel pins.
• Screw eye from a picture hanging kit.

Using all of these I made 4 double ended sculpting tools that work really well. I am particularly happy with the guitar strings and bobby pins, they are extremely effective. I will of course buy some proper tool sets in the near future, but these will definitely do the job until then and even remain in my kit afterwords. The really cool thing is, most things have to potential to be used or made into a sculpting tool. You are only limited by your own imagination!

Phil

When life gives you lemons........ Make infected boils!

After another trip to Titanic FX to pick up some Chavant Le Beau Toche and Crystacal R, I was desperate to redeem myself in the art of flat moulds. So I set about trying to sculpt a very basic entry wound, thinking that would be easy enough. I sculpted it and was happy enough, so I set about moulding in Crystacal. Right off the bat I found it to be a better plaster than plaster of Paris to use for flat moulding. I also built the walls around it much smaller and made a much more economical mould. And I also sprayed it with a coat of clear acrylic, (finding Krylon crystal clear in my area was impossible; so I opted for some cheap ass spray from Halfords, our local car supply place, it seemed to do the job however, I have no other spray to compare it too). The clear acrylic made it a dream to de-mould and the clay just popped out with a minimal amount left in the mould.

After de-moulding and cleaning it up, I noticed just how hard the Crystacal is, and alternatively, just how soft plaster of Paris is, in comparison; its more like chalk! I left it overnight to help dry it out a little and cast some gelatine in it. As soon as I got the prosthetic out of the mould, I noticed my usual sculpting problem of sculpting too shallow was evident! My heart sank a little, I thought “oh crap, not another balls up”. After cursing my sculpting skills, or lack thereof and placing the prosthetic on my arm to check it out, I noticed that instead of an entry wound; it looked more like a popped blister or infected pimple or something like that. So, I thought “what the hell, lets apply it quickly and see what it looks like”, and to my surprise after a little yellow, green and a little blood tone from the FX palette I thought it looked pretty good.

And so instead of just tossing the mould in the bin and wallowing in the failure of yet another flat mould, I re-purposed the mould for a different look that turned out surprising simple and effective. Happy days!!!

 

Phil

My first gelatine prosthetic application

So with my first mould being a bit of a let down, I decided to buy some pre-made gelatine prosthetics from Titanic FX store. And I'm glad I did, they are excellent wee prosthetics at great value.

So I pre-painted most of the inside of the exit wound with a Skin Illustrator FX palette. This was my first time really using Skin Illustrator palettes, and I was really happy with the results. I found they take a wee while to get used, but once you do its completely worth it. I then applied the pros-aide to both my skin and the back of the piece. I think I would use a bit more pros-aide next time, just to secure it a bit more. I didn't get the best edges in a couple of places, but that was down more to my inexperience, the good edges I did get blended out beautifully with some witch hazel.

Once that was applied, I began to try to colour match the piece to my skin using the Skin Illustrator light flesh tones palette. This, is something I'm going to have to practice. It took me a while to get a rough match to my skin. First I used a little of the rose adjuster on a small fan brush, then a little of the rice paper and natural one. I am covered in freckles and found it difficult to add a natural looking freckle. I tried the spatter technique and using a stipple sponge and a regular ripped up make up sponge, I found the spatter technique to be the best.

Once I had the the flesh tone matched, I spattered a bit of the blood tone from the FX palette to try and create a blood splatter effect, since it is an exit wound I imagined there would be a bit of blood splatter. After that I added some fake blood. Its not the greatest blood in the world, just some cheap Halloween blood I got last year, but for the price its pretty good. Decent blood is the next thing on my list, I have my eye on some mouldlife aged, but for the moment this and the Vaseline dead blood I made will do the job.

All in all I was very happy with my first application, it's far from perfect, but I learned so much and I feel in my next application I will know what to watch out for and what to try and avoid.

 

 

Before I end this, I would like to give another mention to Titanic CreativeManagement. I'm not affiliated with them, just a very happy customer, If you are from UK or Ireland, you should definitely give them a look. They also offer up a load of different classes and products.

Phil

My First flat mold

So this was something I have been wanting to try for a while, and it did not go as perfectly as I would have liked. But what is it they say failure is just success training, you learn so much more through mistakes than if it was to go perfect. So i'll do a little step by step run down of the process.

So step one was the sculpt. I had no oil based clay and had no access to it so I ended up using some cheap air drying stuff from my local art supply place. This was my first mistake. While that stuff is soft and easy to sculpt with, the main problem is the fact that it is air drying, the edges would dry out and so I kept applying more and more vaseline. Second problem I had is something I'm still struggling with in my newer sculpts and that is, I sculpted the wound too shallow. So it ends up looking more like a cat scratch than a meaty laceration. And thirdly, I left way too much space between the sculpt and the overflow and the overflow and the walls. This led to a mold that was far too big for all the size of the appliance.

 

The second step was to add the plaster. Here is where the problems continued. I used plaster of paris, which was the only plaster I could get my hands on at the time. I should have just waited and got some Crystacal R and made the mould with it, because the plaster of paris is just too soft for this purpose, for reasons you will see later. On top of that I didn't use any clear acrylic lacquer. Usually you would spray a couple of coats of crystal clear over the sculpt prior to adding your plaster. This helps to de-mold the mold from the sculpt without too much clay remaining in the mold.

 

The next step is to de-mold the mold from the sculpt. This is where I found the plaster of paris to be lacking. Without applying much pressure, I chipped a piece of the middle of the mold off where it was still attached to the clay. 

 

So finally you clean up the mold and try it out. I had done a cast in gelatine (not the greatest homemade gelatine as I don't have sorbitol) and it turned out better than I expected but it was still far from what I wanted. The small chip really annoyed me, but when I apply it I might put sutures on it so they will cover the chip anyway. Thats IF I use it, I'll probably just sculpt and mold a new one.

 

And that's it, a cacophony of mistakes that I ended up learning from. I have made a couple more molds since this and Crystacal R is unbelievably better for making molds from. I've heard Herculite 2 is also excellent but the Crystacal R is easier for me to get. Also spraying the sculpt with an acrylic spray makes it a hell of lot easier to de-mold.

Phil

 

 

Introduction

Hey! I'm Phil, and welcome to my new blog, Arkham FX. Since October of 2015 I have been trying to teach myself special effects make up. So the purpose of this blog is to document my journey. While posting pictures on Instagram and facebook is ok, I really want somewhere I can post not only pictures of what I have done, but also to blog about certain experiences or lessons learned and stuff that interests me on the subject. And if anybody else happens to stumble across it and find it interesting even better!

Below is a little collage of the first few looks I tried, using cotton and latex build ups and scar wax. The usual beginner type materials to use.

Left - The obligatory zip face, it can be a very easy and effective look to start out with, all be it done to death by many standards. I still feel it has its place, in that you get a really effective look with minimal materials and skill, making it an excellent look to start with.

Center- A scar wax razor cut wound. Scar wax is essentially, wax mixed with petroleum jelly. You can mould and shape it into a wound or bullet hole and then paint and add blood. Its a good material for playing about with, but its fragile and not suitable for long time use. Personally its not my favourite thing to work with but you can create some awesome stuff with it. Just check out Powdah's Youtube channel, Mark is a wizard with the stuff.

Right - Can in the face. Another look that has been done to death, but, there is a good reason why. Like the zip face, it's effective and cheap to create making it a great place to start. This was a small layer of cotton and latex, then place the can on the latex (DON'T PLACE A CUT CAN DIRECTLY ON THE SKIN). And then build up the outside of the can with cotton and latex and paint. Simple!

Looking back at some of these images even though its only been six months since I started, I can see so many things that I would have done differently. But hey, everybody starts somewhere. I might try and recreate some of these at some point as a comparison. So ending this I would like to acknowledge some of the Youtube channels that have been invaluable to me.

• Freakmo
• Stuart Bray
• Powdah
• Tested (while not strictly makeup some videos are, and those videos by Frank Ippolito were instrumental in me getting into this stuff)

I hope you enjoy this new blog and please don't forget to follow me on Instagram - philnicholl13

Phil