[ZombiesAteMy]

We are currently designing the look of our zombie. Honest feedback would really help us at this point. There is always room for improvement.

 

[matrixmom]

the clothes need to be dirtied and tattered so he looks scarier.

 

[ZombiesAteMy]

the clothes need to be dirtied and tattered so he looks scarier.

Got it. I just picked up a bunch of clothes from Goodwill. I will start tearing them up. I'll also make sure that we have enough fresh mud for the official shoot. Thank you for watching and providing feedback, Matrixmom. It really does mean a lot to me. Much love.

 

[ElaineBee]

He looks scarier!

 

[DogRedScottie]

Your zombie lacks a point of focus. That is something that looks like more than dirty cloths and some blood.

Maybe some "billy bob teeth" or a prosthetic ear half torn off....... something SHOCKING!

 

[CemeteryGirl]

saw this cause i came looking for a zombie makeup suggestion of my own, i've been doing research...XD foremost a couple pictures would have been nicer than a video...but from what i could see here's my critique

too much green in the makeup. a touch of green does push the dead aspect, but too much and it looks like you're trying too hard and it really doesn't look very good or realistic. a bit of subtly will go a looong way. a light grey/clayish color would make a better dead skin tone with a few touches of green around the wounds would probably work better. don't forget the purples and blacks for depth and shadowing!

and seconding matrixmom. those clothes are far too clean and maintained to belong to a zombie! you need to tear and rip it a bit( think zombies grabbing at it when they caught him, and him catching his clothes on stuff as he shambles looking for fresh meat). add some layering of blood...darker blood, like red mixed with some brown and black, for older blood from older kills, brighter red for fresher blood. it'll help add dimension and realism to your zombie.

example, my Bubble Head Nurse costume doctorted by yours truly.

in addition, try hitting it with some good dark brown eyeshadow powder to create a nice dirty effect without actual dirt on skin and clothes! or coffee and tea makes a wonderful staining agent for aging clothing.

you also might want to avoid wounds on the forehead...considering if you damage the brain, you've got a dead zombie. instead focus wounds on cheek, neck, and arms. a few bite marks on the arm and face would be quite nice i think! please don't actually bite your zombie....

 

[tomanderson]

I come from a movie/TV background, where often schedules and budgets are very small. I've found a lot can be done with paint--ESPECIALLY when it comes to zombies. A few dark and light colors are all you need for the basic look. You can even get by with some "Clown White" and some "Black", by just mixing some darker and lighter grays you can create all kinds of impressions of depth and shapes. You can bring the "shape" of a skull out by highlighting (the parts that stand out) and shadowing (the deep parts). Once the overall "big" forms are suggested, you can, if you like, sketch in finer details with smaller brushes, like wrinkles, folds, things like that. Then you can take a powder puff and some powder, and "set" the grease makeup (remove much of the oil, to make the color less prone to smearing). Excess powder can be removed gently with a clean powder puff, and the whole effect can be brightened by washing off some remnants of powder with a small white rubber sponge dipped in water.

Before I start on the real person, I will sometimes take a photo of the person (or someone similar) and sketch test versions of the idea over that person's photo. This can be done either physically with a pen and pencil, or using computer (virtual) tools, or mixing both techniques (as I have done above). I try to do this sort of sketch very quickly, as you see above, just to get the idea on paper and look at it, and I might do two or three versions and compare them and pick something that I like the most, and then try that out on the real person, using a printout of that image as a guide. You could call this a sort of "pre-visualizing" approach. It can often save time (and makeup materials) and help you develop a suitable look very efficiently.

A really, really good book that shows how to create stunning illusions with paint is Richard Corson's "STAGE MAKEUP". There are many editions of this book going back decades. Interestingly, many of the older editions focus more on older, more basic techniques like highlight and shadow. You can find this book in many libraries all over the place. When I was in school and learning the art of makeup (and learning never stops!), I would sometimes spend my lunch hour in the library reading this book. If you shop on Amazon, a used copy can often be found very inexpensively there, too.

 

[Robert Ana C]

I agree with others on here. Like dogred said having something different helps you stand out. Here is a zombie my wife did to me yesterday. We used prosthetic mouth this time. Also Halloween contacts always help.

The clothes comments make a lot of sense also. Either you want very ripped up/bloody clothes. Maybe bloody hole in hat like your head blown open. Or you want an eerie looking solid costume. We did red monks in our case.

Nun, bishop, doctor, nurse works well also usually. Here we did zombie dr and escaped zombie mental patient.