Aspiring Latex Artist Needs Direction

by Jordan Sulk
(louisville ky. )

I am a 24 year old horror gore nut - any thing macabre is what I love. I own hundreds of horror movies and also "not so fantastical" creations such as original releases of all the faces of death series.

I long to do latex work and to create gore for productions, haunted settings, anything. I seem to have a problem finding outlet for my art. How would you recommend one go about this? Does anyone have any experience or direction to share?

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Aspiring Latex Artist Needs Direction

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Nov 19, 2011
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Some products to try...
by: Zoe

Hi,

I study that at university in the UK. Its a degree in special effects make up for film and we mostly do gore, casualty make up, wounds etc as well as creature design. I got into it by simply buying a few books, some latex, etc. and having a go at stuff. The best things to use to make gore as well as latex are gelatine (you can easily make it with a mix of gelatine, sorbitol and glycerine). There are recipes online and also silicone (also known as mould wax) is great for making wounds and the best product ever morticians wax called naturo plasto. Most of the gore on movies are made with silicone or gelatine rather than latex so practice with those too.
Just have a go and maybe offer to do some stuff for small university movies to build up your confidence. You never know where it will lead.
Good luck :)

Jan 03, 2010
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Get Fangoria magazine for starters
by: Anonymous

Hi,

There are a couple of things you can do....

First, get Fangoria magazine (Borders Books, or go to www.fangoria.com to see where they're sold; they come out about 1x/mo) and look at their ads. They have an ad for Joe Blasco's makeup shop and Tom Savini's makeup school in Pittsburgh, Pa. That's if you want to go to school for this.

Fangoria used to sell makeup kits (spirit gum, etc.). They prob'ly don't, but if you look online under a variety of things (latex masks, etc.), you might be able to find something.

Find a good book about making these masks...go to Amazon to see what they have, then look on eBay/half.com to see if it's cheaper, or go to the library to see if it's free. Online see if your library has a statewide or county-wide online system that tells you what ea. library in the county/state has. That will make life easier.

For books, I found Tom Savini's 1980-era book "The Art of Illusion" or some such for $10 at a horror convention. He detailed how to make masks that were used in Creepshow and his other movies. I'm a chemist, and it was interesting reading this, b/c he uses reactive silicones that we use, too. From what I read in the bk so far, it sounded like 2 years of chemistry would be helpful (1 year of general, which is easy; 1 full year of organic, which is difficult, but stay w/it and it explains itself...you will need to study organic daily as it's comprehensive).

A company in Easton, Pa., named Smooth-On sells makeup and mask kits. No idea as to price, or who they sell them to or if they'll do it through the mail. They did the Jaws shark, for instance, and do a lot of Hollywood stuff. Who knew? They sell these kits at horror conventions, or at least the Chiller Theater convention 2x a year in NJ (down the st. from me!). If you're persistent, call/email Chiller, get a contact, and try to get one through the mail or call Smooth-On to talk to them personally. It sounds like you're going to have a lot of fun with this! Good luck!

Glenn/apchat

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