Sitting at the train tracks last night waiting for the long very slow moving train to move by and took my photo of the day. The lights and rain, happened to make a great combination at the moment.

Our printer at work got us DQ gift cards, so went out and got a sundae. Yum.

First off we need our shopping list. For this we are going to need:

• Latex prosthetic. I’m going to be using Metal Attack from Woochie. (I have the Glass Attach pictured)
• Blood Gel (Also can use Stage Blood. I only suggest the cheep Halloween stuff if there is no other option)
• Spirit Gum
• Make up Sponge
• Stipple Sponge
• Q-Tips
• Bruise Wheel (or Stack)

First off figure out where on your body you want to put this. Most images will put these on the face. Mainly because it’s a great place to put things for an example, but you can an easily put them mostly anywhere on your body that isn’t a moving joint. Alot of people will come in and ask to have stuff put on their neck. This rarely works out. Your neck moves around alot and there is nothing stable there to glue to. Most anything will fall of by the end of the night. There some newer items that have velcro that goes around the neck to hold stuff on that work well.

First off for attaching our item here is to apply Spirit Gum Adhesive to the back of it. Bottles tend to have a little brush on the inside.

You can apply the skin instead if you choose. If it’s going to be a looong night you can apply spirit gum to both skin and the prosthetic. If you like you can get Spirit Gum Remover. It is great for cleaning up with. You do not need it though. your natural oils and sweat will break down the adhesive as the night goes on making it relatively easy to take off at the end of the night.

Now there is a step when using spirit gum that isn’t communicated very well. You need to work air into the adhesive to make it sticky. You can do this my simply tapping it with your finger. You will see little stands start to come off it and it becomes very tacky when it is ready to be used.

Many people will simply brush it on and push the prosthetic on to the skin. It will often fall off quickly with out working air into it.

Now we will apply it to the skin. Once the Spirit Gum is in place you can just press it on where you need to be and make sure you get all the edges down.

Sometimes you will get some issues with edges not staying down. You can lift it up and reapply the Spirit gum as needed following the steps above. and press the trouble some edges down till they cooperate.

Next we are going to start blending it in with some make up. When people are on a budget this is the step that gets cut the most. You can blend it in with only blood, but I think it looks better with a little make up. Using a Bruise Wheel, or Bruise Stack mentioned in the How to Make A Bruise you can make some irritation around the wound. I like to use the reddish colors since it is pretty fresh.

Be careful as you are apply make up on the prosthetic. The make up will appear differently on the prosthetic as it does on your skin, so it is best to go light with it.Also be sure to paint the skin around the prosthetic as well. It’s best to pretend there is no edge and apply accordingly.

Next is the blood. You can go as crazy or as light as you like. I tend to go a bit lighter on the blood because I want people to be able to see the rest of the work. Otherwise everything gets lost in a sea of blood. Since this is a puncture wound I am going to use a stipple sponge. It is very textured and will leave a splatter look to the blood. Then with a Q-Tip I put blood around the metal it self in larger globs so it will drip down and the night goes on.

Also note how the blood completely hides that curved edge around the metal that was visible in the previous steps. Another cool thing about Blood Gel is that it is a bit heat sensitive. It will dry, but as you body temperature goes up, it will start to run which makes things look really cool over the course of a night.

Here is our completed model also the sporting the Bruise from before.

Did my photo today before play practice of one of the stage lights. Looks nifty, even when it isn’t on.

Had a shoot tonight. Now this wasn’t the best or most interesting shot. But I felt it was a nice simple image that isn’t something flashy enough for me to normally show off. I can be reserved. Sometimes.

Today we are going to learn how to make a bruise.
A quick note: the joke of, “I can make a real bruise really easy for you.” gets old fast.

The items required is very easy for this. We simply need a Bruise Wheel (pictured) from Ben Nye, or a Bruise Stack from Cinema Secrets and a make up sponge.

Odds are the crappy halloween stores that crop up around the holiday will have the Bruise Stack. It’s a bit different colors, but the theory on how to use it still applies. Most year round stores should hopefully carry one or the other. As for the sponge, it’s not really needed, but tends to be better then sticking your finger in someone’s eyes in an attempt to give them a black eye. You can find one at pretty much any make up section at a drug store or grocery store.

So lets start off with our subject. Today we are going to give her a black eye.

What we want to do to begin is take a bruise wheel and start with the darkest color which is that deep purple. On the Bruise Stack there is a black. I would advise to skip that and move to their dark purple. this will be the base of our bruise or black eye. This will most likely be where the person was hit, or most blood vessels were broken. You can begin by being fairly sloppy and applying it to the face where you want your bruise.

You don’t want to go too big with this color because the other colors are going to go on top of this and will have a larger footprint.

Now, some people might look at that and feel that is the type bruise they are looking for, it looks bad, fresh, it looks like that time I get hit with that baseball. The good part to this is that it is all subjective. I’m going to give a lot of steps here. If you are making your bruise and you like what you are seeing and want to stop, then stop and call it finished right there.

Our next step here is going to be adding the next color, which on both the wheel and the stack will be the next darkest color. With the bruise you want to be fairly messy and apply this over previous color spreading things out wider then before.

And from there you want to continue around the wheel to the next darkest color, and apply it in the same manor. If your next color is a green or a yellow then stop. I believe the wheel has one more red/purple color then the stack does.

I went a bit crazy on that color. You don’t have to go that big. You want to make what looks right for the character or effect you are making. But I am going a bit more extreme for demo purposes.

Next we have the green-ish color. This is more of a heeling color. If you are making a fresh bruise, you want to skip this step. If you want an older looking bruise you most likely want to use this, but sparingly. You’ll want to apply this in areas that might not be as dark, as those would heal first. I personally find that people are kinda grossed out by the green, so it’s fun to add.

And now our bruise is complete.

A few things about preserving the make up. Most times if you using creme make up and want to head out you want to powder the make up to protect it. With the bruise I like to avoid that. I feel the powder dulls it out too much. Also as the night goes on it will fade and the more it fades the cooler it is going to look.

BONUS: Sometimes I like to add a little bit of blood to a black eye. More of a rough fight, almost breaking the skin kind of look. With a stipple sponge and blood gel, I’ll lightly go over the cheek bone for the look, like below.

I tend to go with Cinema Secrets Blood Gel over anything else you might find at the halloween store because in this case since we went light it will dry and look a bit like scabs.

I’m not a big fan of shooting clouds, but I do like seeing those streams of light poking through, so I slipped in this one shot.