Build Plans: How to make someone look beat-up

POSTED BY , 30 July 2007

Black eye and bruise make-up tips

by Erik Beck

Hey everyone and welcome to the technical blog for Episode#12 (Beat-up). This is a pretty easy build compared to the Samurai Armor from last week. You can mix and match these techniques to create the "punching bag face" effect of your dreams. Keep all the cool project ideas coming. You can submit them here!

Shopping List

1. Soft Nose Putty.
   (You could use the regular stuff it will just be a pain.)
   
   
2. Make-up Kit.
   (Get a decent 5 color kit. Flesh tones and reds and yellows.)
   
   
3. Spirit Gum.
   (For sticking stuff together.)
   
   
4. Tooth Blackout.
   (There is a wax based kind and a paint on kind. Both work fine.)
   
   
5. Some Fake Blood.
   (I always have some corn syrup, red food coloring and chocolate syrup on hand!)
   
   

The big swollen eye.

I think I went too far with my fake swollen eye, but it gives you a clear idea of what your going for. Take a wad of your soft nose putty and form the basic shape an eye swollen shut.

Now carefully spread out the edges, and with some help of spirit gum, stick it to your subjects face.

The thinner you can get the edges the better it will blend with your subjects real skin.

The bruises.

Making fake bruises with make-up is pretty easy. Bruise change color and shape depending on the person and how ago they recieved the beating. Therefore you have a lot of leeway in created a "realistic" bruise. What I do is start with a wide yellow base, then add dark purple to the center of the bruise. Then taking a reddish flesh tone or a lighter purple I blend the dark purple to the edge of the yellow until it looks right. Another thing to keep in mind is that blood pools more in certain places. Like under the eyes. That is where you want to add that purple.

The missing teeth.

This really doesn't require that much explanation. It is the same method that they have been using to "black out" teeth for years. I used the wax black out instead of the liquid paint on kind. I'm sure they both work fine, but instinct said go with the wax kind. Less mess and you don't have for it to dry.

Conclusion.

It's good to have the basics of fake injuries down before going into a shoot. You can create so many interesting ailments with just some nose putty, spirit gum and a make-up kit. Another thing which makes any injury (or dinner party) better is some fake blood. I had my subject put some in his mouth and spit it out so that it looked like his mouth was bleeding.

Check out this build in action, from Episode 12 of Backyard FX