New York – Friday, February 7, 2014

The Walking Dead is my favorite drama on basic cable, and in honor of it’s return this Sunday night I asked special effects makeup artist  Stella Barber to break down the steps involved in transforming a perfectly good human, into a perfectly rotted ambulatory corpse (with a hunger for human flesh). You know, a  Zom … a Walker.

Britany Nola, Norman Reedus, and SFX Makeup artist Stella Barber.

Last October Stella posted a few pictures online of herself, a walker and AMC’s The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. After meeting Norman at Helena Christensen’s photo opening last week (pictures) I remembered these photos and got in touch with Stella to ask her about it.

The “Walker” makeup was for a cover article for Geek Magazine.  Stella was hired to transform model / singer Britany Nola into a walker to interact with Reedus.

Behind The Scenes Photos Courtesy of Stella Barber.
Stella does all kinds of monster makeup for the movies.  As you can see, the zombie makeup game is hot right now.

Especially because of the recent zombie craze, and the large amount of zombies usually needed in one shot, there is a lot of demand for makeup artists who can pull off the dead look. As in this scene depicting a “Walker horde” from The Walking Dead.  Many of the background mass are CG, but the principal walkers are hand painted.

Making a good dead-face-ripped-tissue-gore-covered walker should be part of any special effects makeup artists’ repertoire.

I’ll let Stella explain the techniques she used on two different models, and how you can apply these techniques to yourself or your friends.

As the Walker for the Geek Magazine photoshoot had to still look “somewhat” attractive, Stella will show how to go a step further with her makeup on singer Christina Rubino.  Here is how you can Dead Yourself in real life.

“Depending on how detailed you want to make a zombie, really depends on skill set and how creative you want to get. It is easy to just throw some fake blood on you, but if you want the real effect of scaring people, these simple steps will help you scare even the family dog.” – Stella Barber

Supplies:

• Coffee grounds (preferably ones slightly cooked)
• Spirit gum
• Liquid latex
• Tissue paper
• Ben nye monster color wheel (these can be found at any Halloween shop or cosmetic shop)
• Set of acrylic paint brushes
• Makeup latex wedges (non latex ones will be harder for the liquid latex to stick to the skin)
• Tweezers
• Eye Trauma Contact Lenses (Advanced Optional)
• Air Brush – Temptu Frost Colored Palettes (Advanced Optional)
• Alcohol based palettes (Advanced Optional)

Step 1:

Start with a fresh face, do not use any moisturizer as the ingredients will not stick to your face

Step 2:

Apply the liquid latex to your face in the areas you want to create a torn skin look, add about 4  layers in each of those areas. Once dried, either use a pair of tweezers or dried fingers and start pulling at the latex and that will create a tear.

Step 3:

Add tissue paper, anywhere you want to create decaying fake skin, use the spirit gum to attach the tissue paper. Once dried, add a layer or liquid latex over it to secure it. (Another, alternative is gelatin, which can be found in any supermarket, that can also be used to make decayed skin…).  Add coffee grounds in before switching over to final makeup touches. The grounds are an added effect for texture. Makes the skin look more eroded

Step 4:

Makeup: most people add white to their face, but that is really not what decaying skin looks like, add hues, of yellow, green, and for more of a bruising purple and blue, for under eyes, use a purplish tone mixed with some dark brown, over the torn skin add some yellow and green. Use dark red and purple for the fake blood effect, all these colors will be on the color wheel.

Step 5:

Add some fake blood around the mouth and torn skin areas and you are done!

Finished Walker including advanced airbrush and alcohol based palettes for details as well as Cataract contacts.

Advanced:

Alcohol Based Paint:

When using 99% alcohol they activate to create details.  These can only be found in professional stores! I order them online as I get a discount or get them from temptu also but I use this palette. These can be expensive for a non artist about $75 a palette but they last you forever.
But this will not come off only using alcohol to remove it.  99% alcohol you can find at makeup shops like alcone.

Mini sizes are available at a discounted price.

Eye Trauma Contact Lenses:

For added effect you can put on in theatrical eye trauma contact lenses before you add the under eye makeup. Most people don’t need contacts, but for that extra level of professionalism they are available online in all different styles. With contacts it’s really safer to have your own custom made but they can be very expensive for a pair.

Makeup Airbrush Systems:

Getting an airbrush system can be expensive and not recommended unless you are planning a career change.  I used temptu pro with frost palettes for this makeup.

The finished cover.

Stella Barber spent many years working behind the scenes in different facets of the entertainment industry.  A few years back she was asked to work on a music video as a stylist, from there she began her new career path, freelancing on photoshoots, music videos, indie films, etc.  Eventually, Stella decided to branch out on her own and make her passion of makeup + special effects into a reality.  View her work or contact her via her website: www.StellaBMakeup.com

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut & Stella Barber

[Photos via Stella Barber, Geek Magazine, Christina Rubino, Britney Nola & The Walking Dead]

The post Making a Walking Dead Style Walker: Lessons From a SFX Makeup Artist appeared first on Artiholics.

I don’t know if this is just a New York phenomenon or if it’s nation wide but AMC, not wanting loose all of their Walking Dead Audience to GAME OF THRONES pumped a ton of money into one image.  An illustration of Don Draper done in 1960s advertising marker, paint, pencil, and gouache mock-up (the way ads were laid out before Photoshop).

When I saw this ad my first reaction was HELL YES!  Traditional illustration for a poster for a modern TV show or Movie is unheard of these days.  Other than the Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones type franchises which are now just continuing the tradition because their earlier films posters were done this way and it would be an insult to the brand to do it otherwise, and maybe the odd independent film here and there, but this is mainstream.

I have seen them all over the subways and on buses and maybe like me you were curious as to who drew it.  Basically you would be looking at an older illustrator who can still work in a style that for any other product would be dated to that time period, and unmarketable .

It is signed by the artist, a 75-Year-Old British illustrator named Brian Sanders.  In a New York Times article about the creation of the piece they actually show Brian at his drawing table adding some finishing touches (most likely the piece was already finished, and he was just pretending, you know posing for the camera).

The interesting thing is that if you also look at his drawing table (and they don’t mention this in the article in the Times), above the painting are a bunch of printed out comps of the piece ALREADY MOCKED-UP IN PHOTOSHOP.  Either the art department at AMC laid out the composition ahead of time and emailed it to him, or they emailed him photos of Don Draper, as well as 1960s era street scene references.

I used to do a lot of illustrations for the British Edition of Maxim Magazine, and I remember that it was always a challenge to draw anything that took place outside.   I would have to research online how these things looked in England.  From street signs, to fire hydrants, to gutters, to manhole covers.  The cops and firefighters all dress differently there, and have different vehicles, fashion, everything is different.  I don’t know if they put all of that on a 75-year-old proper British illustrator to google image search and have him send them comps, or if they just handed him the .jpg and said MAKE THIS INTO A 60s style illustration.

Most likely the latter.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Mad Men’s Ad Men & The Real McCoy appeared first on Artiholics.

HBO has a stick up their ass in the shape of a dragon, and they really want you to know about it.  If you’ve seen The History Channel’s Vikings, and thought to yourself “This feels like Game of Thrones, but without magic or dragons”, or if you’ve seen The Hobbit, and thought to yourself “Hey, this was a small book, I should be seeing some dragons by now!”  But the only dragon you’ve seen thus far is Peter Jackson draggin’ his ass to get Smaug some screen time.  Your wait is over, HBO assures you, this season on Game of Thrones they are going to deliver you what you have been missing, some muthafuckin’ dragons.

The first Adverts I saw for the new season of Game of Thrones popped up in the subway stations a month ago.  They reminded me of something I saw in a previous HBO ad buy, maybe for The Sopranos, or one of the other big properties of yesteryear, so I didn’t really give it a second look.  The posters looked like this- and they bought out ENTIRE subway stops of wall space with just these posters.

It wasn’t until I happened to walk past this giant billboard by NYC’s Port Authority that I had to stop in my tracks.

It was at night and I figured that they must have brilliantly rigged a bat-signal style shield over the spotlight to create the shadow of a dragon which I assumed would only be visible at night.  But this might not even be the case, because the dragon shadows were starting to pop-up in daylight hours.

On the side of the HBO building in California.

Across two pages of the New York Times.

It wasn’t until my friends on facebook started posting pictures of themselves sitting in the Throne itself that I truly understood how much HBO was pushing all in.  It seems HBO and Time Warner Cable has a free traveling Game of Thrones Exhibition, which launched last Wednesday with appearances by Jon Snow, Sansa and Arya Stark.  It is currently still in NYC until April 3 (Today!).  It is free and open to the public, if you don’t mind a 3+ hour line.

My friend and fellow artist Antoinette Johnson (who you see in the photo at the top of this article) attended the Exhibit on Easter Sunday, the day of the season premier, and took a bunch of photos.  I caught up with her last night online to get the scoop.  The rest of the photos were taken by Antoinette Johnson.

“We were in line for about 3 hours, but the people in line were really cool.”

“Blackwater experience was like a updated yet medieval version of Duck Hunt…..and I’m a big fan of Duck Hunt :)”

“Dragon eggs!! Happy Easter!”

“#gameofthrones #costumes #jonsnow #thebastard #cloak”

“The costumes with the dragon were worn by the Daenerys Targaryen character.”

“There were a lot of props. It was a bit small but still and awesome show, it was well worth the wait.”

“It might have been the real thing, but I think it was a replica.”

Thanks Antoinette.  HBO seems intent on on stealing away that AMC’s Walking Dead, 9pm Sunday night audience.  The last season of G.O.T. ended with a zombie army, and started with a zombie battle, it’s a no brainer- oh, and did I mention they also have dragons.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

Special thanks to Antoinette Johnson.  You can view her work at Antoinette Johnson, and you can read past articles about her on ArtSucks.com by visiting her page on ArtistinRepose.com

The post HBO Brings The Fire With The New Game Of Thrones Ads + Exhibit appeared first on Artiholics.

Artist, Comic book legend, and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane started his own toy company several years ago, and ever since has been one of the top of the toy game, creating amazingly lifelike sculpts of comic book characters, athletes, movie villains & heroes, as well as characters from your favorite cult films and TV series’.

Luckily for us, McFarlane got the lock on AMC’s The Walking Dead.  Creating various characters from the series, such as the badass sculpt of  Michonne (seen above), Michonne’s Zombie Pets 1 and 2 (as seen above – sold separately or in a 3-pack) as well as Merle Dixon, and Autopsy Zombie.

It is only time before we get the Little Ass Kicker toy.

Curious about these toys, or McFarlane’s career?  He will be appearing live on The Walking Dead’s post show wrap-up show Talking Dead this week, and if you want to ask him any questions you can either call in when the show airs live on Sunday at 10pm EST, or you can post questions now on The Walking Dead’s Facebook Page, for a chance at host Chris Hardwick reading them to Todd live on the show on Sunday.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Walking Dead Toys – Give The Gift Of Nightmares To Your Children appeared first on Artiholics.

The newest episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead titled “Clear”  is now being heralded as possibly the second best episode next to the series pilot, and I can agree, it was amazing.  Not only for the full circle storyline of Rick and Carl visiting their home town and running into Morgan, the man who initially saved Rick and gave him the will to go on living, but finding Morgan living in a beautiful world of Art.

Is and has Morgan been a secret artist all along, or has the isolated world he’s been thrown into unlocked his true love of art, and his inner artistic potential?  The minute Rick, Michonne, and Carl step out of the car the screen begins to fill with a giant sculptural installation piece spanning a full town block.  From this point on in the episode there is rarely a shot that doesn’t have art somewhere on the screen.

Were you to find these sculptures installed in a Chelsea Gallery, they would fit right in without controversy.

The writing directly onto abandoned cars is classic Duchamp esque Dada.

The great use of type on the intersection broken up by the white lines, the three rows of abandoned cars, multi-colored arrows painted directly on the street leading in different directions, the various writings on tarps.  Ladders leading to strange windows color coded to match the arrows on the road.  An oddly placed blue door standing upright in the road leading to nowhere, this is brilliant.

Look at the detail of these punji stick sculptures.  Reminds me of Toothpick Explosion

Cages combined with bamboo with little living rats and birds in the core.  These sculptures have a living element, to compliment their killing element.

This looks like an umbrella stand of death.

The tower with various ropes and pulleys  in the middle of the parking lot created to be able to traverse the road from above without being bitten, is not only functional but beautiful.  Morgan truly has a gift.

Sometimes art can appear a bit dangerous.

Honing his craft Morgan has opted to let a little of the Walker clothing and sinew remain on this one, it adds a tactility to it that it otherwise wouldn’t possess.  Stunning!

The Artist In Repose

“Let me give you a tour of my studio, actually, I will talk to you more about my work when I regain consciousness.”  The interior of the building is art on a whole other level.

Aside from all the great words of varying sizes and colors, erased, written over, crossed out etc, there is on one wall with an amazing birds eye line art drawing of map of the town, and the areas of the town that have been cleared, and the areas that are burnt out.  This map reminded me of a Loren Munk Painting.

Rick is in awe of the amazing written text.  It far surpasses graffiti, in that it’s methodical to the point of excess.

Being trapped in a prison so long, Carl thought he might never see the color blue next to orange in such a beautiful way.  The R being reversed adds to the illusion of the artistic fall from sanity.  The artist has obviously thrown his full self into his artwork.

Michonne, surrounded by art for the first time in years is reminded of her love of sculpture.

Her favorite work is of course Venus de milo.  I only assume this of course, because she is somewhat of a sculptor herself.  She sculpted two of her own out of zombies earlier in the series.

The artist and her work “Venus de zombros.”

Here Rick is thinking:  “His overlaying of words, his color choices.  It’s not what he wrote, but what he wrote over, or crossed out that really gives it power and meaning.”

As the artist wakes up Rick fervently asks him how much he would have to have for this work.  “I know removing a wall will be difficult, but you must understand, money is no object.”  Rick forgets that money actually is “no object” in a post zombie apocalypse, but for the past few episodes he has been following ghosts around, so you look past this.  The walls of the prison are too drab, and this is just the right thing that would bring some life back into the old place.   Rick tries to commission a drawing installation for just one cell block, but Morgan puts his foot down.

“Listen, I don’t work on commission mother f**ker.  I make this art for me.  I pour my soul into these words, don’t you GET THAT?!”

Rick decides the least he can do is interview the artist.  He asks him a series of questions that end up putting Morgan in an awkward situation.

It reminded me a lot of this scene from the movie Basquiat.

So the question you have to ask yourself is, is Morgan going crazy, or is he just ahead of his time?

Art by Jean Michel Basquiat

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Secret Artist: Morgan Jones – From AMC’s The Walking Dead appeared first on Artiholics.