With a few exceptions, cranial muscles comprise two groups: One is located inside the head; the other connects the head to the torso. Extrinsic muscles origi­nate at different points of the axial skeleton—at the shoulders, neck, and chest. Intrinsic muscles—the ones inside the head itself—originate and insert into the head.[8] These are the muscles that […]

There are three types of muscle tissue: striated, smooth, and cardiac. Of the three, striated is the one that will be influential in our makeup design. Viewed under a microscope, striated muscle appears to be striped. Striated muscle is also called voluntary muscle since it is under our conscious control. Over 640 volun­tary muscles make […]

Our bones hold our body in its shape and are the anchor points for most of our muscles. It is the way these bones are put together as our skeleton that gives us the framework around which all other tissue forms and characterizes our spe­cies: erect posture and bipedal locomotion. Our skeleton is divided into […]

There are 11 systems that combine to make up the human body: skeletal (bone, cartilage, and ligaments); skeleto-muscular (muscles and tendons of the skele­ton); integumentary, or the external covering of the body (skin, hair, nails, sweat glands, mammary glands, and their products); nervous (brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves); endocrine (glands and hormones); cardiovascular (arteries, […]

Creating an effective, memorable character makeup is dependent on several things. What is the medium in which the character will be viewed? Is this a character makeup for the stage or screen? Since essentially everything in a stage production will be viewed by the audience in a "wide shot," the makeup must reflect the reality […]

Today the tools we have at our disposal to aid us in designing characters have vastly improved over the years. But human anat­omy is still human anatomy. Whether you draw every aspect of a design by hand, go straight to clay and sculpt what is in your head, or enlist the aid of 2D and […]

Using the computer Elements of the design The human body Surface anatomy Symmetry and proportion Distinctions of gender, age, and ancestry INTRODUCTION After the script, perhaps the next most important task is designing and creating the story’s physical characters. Of course, this will only apply to a story that needs physical alteration of the actors […]

Chapter 1 shared a brief makeup effects history and introduced you to makeup effects artists Neill Gorton, Jamie Salmon, and Matthew Mungle. You also should now be aware of differences and similarities between makeup effects for the stage and those for the screen. We discussed how advances in medicine and medical prosthetics have aided the […]

There’s an adage that goes something like this: "It’s not the tools that are used but the artist who uses them." Legendary photographer Ansel Adams said something similar: "The single most important component of a camera is the 12 inches behind it."4 The materials in your makeup kit will not make you a better artist; […]