Main image: Makeup by Neill Gorton, actor/model Kurt Carley, photography by Todd Debreceni.
Top row from left: Makeup by David Elsey, actor Peter Feeney / Age sculpt of actor Brian Landis Folkins by Todd Debreceni, photography by Todd Debreceni.
Middle row: Makeup by Todd Debreceni and Alison Chilen, actor Chris Kelly, photography by Todd Debreceni / Makeup by Julia DeShong and Todd Debreceni, actress Daniella Teul, photography by Todd Debreceni.
Bottom row: Makeup by Neill Gorton, model Karen Spencer, photography by Todd Debreceni / Makeup and photography by Todd Debreceni, actor Nick Sugar.
I’ve been fascinated by the trappings of the entertainment industry since I was a child. Ask my parents. I think they’re still wondering when I’m going to grow up and get a real job. The sets, wardrobe, props, miniatures, makeup, acting. . . Movie Magic. Watching Ghoulardi and Shock Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, as a kid was almost a ritual. I remember watching, mesmerized, as Lon Chaney, Jr., changed from Larry Talbot into The Wolf Man right before my eyes. How’d they do that?! And Claude Raines as The Invisible Man was. . . invisible! I watched footprints appear in the snow and no one was making them. I had to learn how to do that! Playing make believe, and getting paid for it. How cool would that be?!
Of course, many years later, after countless issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland, Fangoria, and now Cinefex and Makeup Artist Magazine, everybody knows how they do it. But it doesn’t matter! It’s still way cool and a heck of a lot more fun way to make a living than working 9 to 5 in the corporate world. Anyway, for me it is. It’s the doing that floats my boat.
Was this always my chosen path? No, there was another one, quite different. So how did I come to get into this field of employment? Life is full of surprises, and who knows what the future holds in store? A lot of water has flowed under the bridge between the days of watching Ghoulardi and the writing of this book, but the defining moment for me came in 2002. I had begun teaching animation and visual effects part time at an art school in Denver just a few years earlier and our department director asked me if I’d like to teach a new "special topics" class; it could be just about anything as long as it was industry related. My reply was, "I’d like to do a class on prosthetic makeup."
Coincidentally, I had just begun to teach myself this craft using a few books I’d found: one by Lee Baygan, a couple by Tom Savini, and Vincent Kehoe’s Special Makeup Effects. I was also doing some research online and was devouring behind-the-scenes footage on DVD releases such as Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes, which was good but didn’t really provide anything terribly enlightening in the way of techniques I could use. I still had rather limited hands-on experience. Well, somebody once told me that the best way to learn how to do something is to teach it to somebody else. So I did. And I found that adage is true.
The books offered pretty good step-by-step training: Baygan’s Techniques of Three-Dimensional Makeup and Tom Savini’s Grand Illusions and Grand Illusions II, for example; great stuff, but nothing had been written less than 10 or 15 years earlier than this book, and no book was only about creating prosthetic makeup (although Paul Thompson wrote a very good makeup textbook, Character Make-up, that was published in 2005 by Makeup Designory).
As I started exploring, I found great retrospectives of various artists’ work. I found some outstanding "how-to" DVDs, videos, and myriad online tutorials. In fact, many of the artists whose work has inspired me and from whom I have learned contributed a great deal to this textbook. I learned a lot of valuable, helpful, and insightful stuff, most of it really good, but it still wasn’t enough for me. To me, some of it felt incomplete, merely an appetizer.
There were steps missing (I felt) from some process descriptions, or the "how" was presented clearly but not the "why." I’d see somebody do something that looked like it was important, but there’d be no explanation of what it was I had just seen. The "why" is as important as the "how." Teaching the special topics class was an incredible learning experience for me and for my students, and my techniques and skill evolved with each subsequent class. I experimented. I tested. I got better. I discovered Makeup Artist Magazine and the International Makeup Artist Trade Show (IMATS). Then I met Dave Parvin. And I met Neill Gorton. And Matthew Mungle and Mark Alfrey. And a host of others. My chops improved dramatically.
There is encyclopedic information available out there in hardback, on the Internet, and elsewhere if you know where to look, what to look for, and are willing to pay for (some of) it. But there is no real textbook for creating special makeup effects. Well, there are textbooks, but not like this one. But make no mistake: This is not a traditional stage makeup book. You will not learn how to apply highlight and shadow to create the illusion of age in two-dimensional makeup. There are plenty of terrific books on the market already that can show you how to do that. This book will (I hope) teach you how to design and create three-dimensional prosthetic makeup, and only that.
I started thinking about this book in 2002 when I couldn’t find the answers to my many questions. The thing is, the more I learn, the more questions I have, and I think that’s good. I believe that no matter how good you get at doing something, there will always be someone who can teach you something new. I also believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and I hope this book will continue to evolve as the craft, and my knowledge, evolves. Of all the crafts in the entertainment industry, I have never met a group of professionals who are more open and sharing than the artists who work in special makeup effects.
For the most part, makeup for film, television, and theater can be separated into three categories: straight, or basic, makeup, which is designed to alleviate discernable visual changes in appearance that can occur as a result of the film, television, or theater process; corrective makeup, akin to beauty makeup, which is designed to enhance an actor’s positive features and downplay or disguise others; and character makeup, or transformational makeup, which includes not only ethnic and age makeup but fantasy/whimsical, science fiction, and monster/ horror makeup. This book concentrates primarily on the transformational aspects of prosthetic makeup appliances. Though monster, zombie, and horror/ gore makeup is undeniably fun, the main focus of this book will be elsewhere and will do no more than glimpse those aspects of makeup effects; however, the information contained here most definitely applies to creating monster, zombie, and horror/gore-related makeups as well.
The emphasis of this book is on getting from Point A ("before") to Point B ("after") and the myriad routes one can take to get there; from concept to "Action!" The subject of special makeup effects is vast and complex, as those of you who’ve been immersed in it for some time know, but those of you who are not yet seasoned veterans needn’t be discouraged by the range of information about to be opened up before you. There are many hats worn by the creative professionals working in the field of special makeup effects, and not all of them are worn on the same head. Not a lot, anyway, and perhaps you’ll soon to begin to understand why.
It’s difficult to tell someone how to sculpt a face for a character makeup or how to sculpt anything, for that matter. That is, someone can tell you; someone can show you pictures in a step-by-step manner, just like the ones presented in this book, but you still have to do it yourself. The very nature of everything you do as a makeup effects artist is physical. You can read every article, book, or description ever written about a particular technique, or watch every videotape, DVD, or streaming tutorial ever produced, but it will never take the place of actually doing it.
My intention is that you will read this book and look at the images to gain an understanding of the concepts and steps to achieve the intended results, then go back to read it again while actually doing the work yourself. This book is for your instruction but also for your reference. It is to be used in its entirety or for only those sections that are less familiar and unclear to you. This book will never replace face-to-face training with someone who can provide immediate feedback on the physical work you are creating. This book will be best utilized in conjunction with that face-to-face interaction with a makeup effects expert.
In many ways, this is a cookbook. Inside are "recipes" you can follow (or modify and adapt to suit your own tastes) to whip up a creative makeup effects masterpiece of your own. There are plenty of accompanying images to offer inspiration. Something that you might want to consider is taking this book to your local FedEx/Kinko’s and have them cut off the binding and coil-bind it so you can lay it flat and it won’t flip shut. That way you can refer to it continually as you work and follow along with many of the procedures presented in these pages.
The field of special makeup effects has evolved well beyond the application of straight makeup and into a realm bounded by gray areas of industry specialization. Let’s say, for instance, that you have a script that calls for a newborn infant. Does the need for this newborn infant—a preemie in a neo-natal incubator— fall to the props folks, or is it a makeup effect? Hmm. . . good question. Certainly prop fabricators have the skill and technology to mold and cast such objects when the need for them arises, but how do you get to the mold-making stage in the first place? Can a full-body lifecast of a newborn be made? Not likely. Don’t even try! You probably won’t get to use a real newborn for the shot, either; what responsible parent or guardian would even let you? It’s a bit too risky for most people. So, how do you get from script to screen with your preemie? Sculpt it? Absolutely.
Enter today’s makeup effects artist. The prop guys can sculpt, but traditionally, prop sculpture needs have leaned more in the direction of industrial design—futuristic/ fantasy weapons and the like—than in the human or animal anatomy direction. "But, Todd," you might be saying to yourself, "aren’t you talking about special effects, then, and not special makeup effects?" I did say that there are gray areas of industry specialization. You say "tomato," I say "tomato." But I digress. . .
Many of the advances in materials used in makeup effects have their origins in the field of medicine, and you almost need to be a chemist to understand the inherent properties and uses of materials such as foam latex, platinum silicone, tin silicone, urethane rubber, polymers, resins, and gelatin. In his excellent book, Special Makeup Effects (Focal Press, 1991), celebrated makeup artist Vincent Kehoe noted that special makeup effects can be as rudimentary as cuts, bruises, scars, burns, and tattoos. Every makeup artist needs to know how to create these, but today’s demands on a well-versed makeup artist—a makeup effects artist—are often to create much, much more. This book addresses that "much, much more" in a way that I hope will be beneficial to aspiring makeup effects artists as well as to makeup artists who already have some experience with the effects side of the business but want to learn even more.
With tips, tricks, and techniques from a number of our industry’s most gifted artists—including Neill Gorton, Christopher Tucker, Dave Elsey, Matthew Mungle, Christien Tinsley, Vittorio Sodano, Jordu Schell, Miles Teves, Mark Alfrey, Mark Garbarino, and others—many color photos, and an accompanying "how-to" DVD, may this cookbook of special makeup effects become dog-eared from use and its pages lovingly stained by the fruits of your labor. I hope this book does for others what the astonishing artists who have contributed to this book have done for me. I hope this book will feel complete (but with room for improvement in a subsequent edition). Now clear off some workspace and get cookin’!
—Todd Debreceni
Note: The information and techniques described in this text are presented in good faith; no warranty is expressed or implied, and the author, Back Porch F/X, and Focal Press assume no liability for the use of the information or techniques. Use the techniques and materials presented in this text at your own risk.
Differences between working on stage and in front of a camera
Contributions from the field of medicine
Workspace necessities
Workplace safety
Professionalism
What should be in your portfolio What should be in your makeup kit