I found some better photos of our li'l undead friend. 

Here's a better look at the head wound. I really want to know this zombie's back story. 
He is in civilian clothes. He was probably indoors, as he is only wearing a t-shirt and thin hoodie. It's winter he would need more that. Although there is no sign of a forced entry, or an attack, so the danger could have been indoors-- upstairs. He attacked someone, as zombies do not carry around knives with them. Perhaps he was mugged, killed, then reanimated on the streets!

I would like to stress that those are prop teeth!

 

Monster Mash

Last night, I went to my uncle's Fancy Dress 50th Birthday Party. The theme: Anything, which sounds easy, but it was quite hard for some guests to think of something, evident from there lack of costume. They looked like fools!

Unlike us, of course. I knew pretty early on, I wanted to go as the Karloff Frankenstein monster, the make-up was created by Jack Pierce. After a successful test, (which led to the denizens of Rye chasing me down with torchhes and pitchforks) some friends asked me if I could help them with their make-up

...AND HERE THEY ARE: 

 Mine was just a simple face paint and Black hair dye. I had someone trim my hair at the top, to make my forehead look larger. I am pleased with it. I wanted to look as though I had stepped out of a black and white film.

Here we used a latex prosthetic, that covered his eyes. This was perhaps harder, as you had to blend the prosthetic in with the skin.You have to paint over the prosthetic, and outline the wrinkles.  The demonstration video produced a very Miami Beach Vampire, which of course the worst place for a vampire to be. I always prefer a paler vampire, so I gave it a touch of both. You have to make the dead tired,. hence the black round the eyes.

Now for the pièce de résistance. This Happy Chappy had a few prosthetic scars and a knife, all glued down with spirit gum (don't worry, he shaved before!) 

The large head wound was produced by gluing tissue paper down in a ring. 

• When dry, use a palette, or butter knife, to lift the inside ring up. 
• Paint the inside red
• Paint the outside to match your face
• Then just work on the inside to make it more realistic. Real blood is not like Kensington Gore, it has a touch of blue and if you like yellow. Perhaps a touch of green, to make it infected. Then apply some cake blood.
• When you are happy with the colour, comes the fun part!
• Grab yourself some Gel Blood. This is, as the name suggests, very gooey, ergo very fun. Just squeeze it all over the wound. You want it thick and seeping out of the end. 
• I would suggest that you dab the inside with a natural sponge, so that spts of the orignial head comes through. This will give the effect of the skull peering through.

And there you have it. I would like to experiment more with this. I thought it would cool to get some wires inside the wound, like a cyborg costume.

I'll try and get an image of that headwound, but for now use your imagination, for what you don't see is more frightening.

MIDNIGHT IN METROPOLIS

Yesterday I finally finished my animation for the course. It was a paper cut-out animation, in the style of Lotte Reiniger. I produced one last year similar, and now I remember why I vowed not to do another. It takes ages and it is fiddly. Unfortunately I could not get tiny animation pins (I borrowed some for the robot, which looks suitable, as it reminds me of bolts). I tried pins on the girl, but she was too small and the pins would rip right through her (something I would feel very guilty about.)


You will notice that Metropolis (1927) was another influence on the style, mostly in the architecture. I love the design in Metropolis. The tall buildings looming over the action. It just looks marvellous. It also influenced other touches like the little planes flying above.


I wish that I had made the streets busier, to really give that city feel, but apart from that, I am really happy with it. 


In a future post I'll upload my old animation, but until then you can watch it here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEGKi8SJaSw