Create realistic movie flesh wounds for under 100 bucks!

Required:

1 x bottle or tub of Liquid Latex

1 x vial of blood as per this tutorial

4 x blocks of toilet paper

A standard makeup kit

A few grains of coffee

Some cotton wool or tissue paper

Hair Dryer (optional)

A little practice

A LOT of patience

First, dab your finger in the latex and create a base for your wound. This base will come in handy when applying makeup and also when removing the wound.

Allow the base to dry before moving on to step 2. You can use a hair dryer to speed up the process. This thin layer of latex should turn completely invisible by the time it’s completely dry.

Next, take the block of toilet paper and roll it into a cigarette-like shape. Coat it in latex using two fingers to smear it gently over the paper and then place it in a crescent shape on the spot you would like to apply the wound to.

Use more latex to secure the toilet paper to the arm and gently blow dry to firm the latex and keep the tissue in place.

Use the second block of toilet paper and also roll that into a cigarette shape like above. Close the wound from the other side to create a small dam-like shape. This will be used to pool the blood.

Now add more latex and toilet paper as you see fit to create a more gentle taper towards the outer rim of the wound.

After the latex has dried completely (can take quite some time, so be patient), apply base makeup and whatever else you need to make the latex blend in with the skin. Use a base colour that best matches your skintone.

Use dark makeup to colour the inside of the wound. Mix a dark red with a light purple or experiment with whatever colours work best for you.

Remember the realistic blood that we created in the previous tutorial? Well, this is where you get to use it!

Fill the inside of the wound with the blood. The “walls” of the wound should keep the blood neatly pooled inside.

Now take a sponge and dip it in the blood. Now gently dab areas around the wound and the wall with the blood. Spread it as thick and far as your particular wound requires.

TIP: Sometimes less is more. Rather apply too little and then carefully spread as you see fit than to apply too much and mess up all the hard work up to that point.

Tear off small pieces of cotton wool or tissue paper and place it inside the wound. Add more blood over it and it will become darker than other parts of the wound. This will add more ‘texture’ to the wound than just plain blood.

TIP: Take a few grains of coffee and mix it into the blood to add darker spots which will give the wound a more gritty look. Don’t use too much, or your blood will change from red to brown.

Finally, add your prop knife if required and voila! You’ve just created a gruesome flesh wound that would disturb even the most die-hard movie fans.

The trick is to play with the latex to test various types of wounds and how they react with the blood.

An alternative type of wound is to add four to seven layers of latex on top of each other and then to tear it from the inside and peel it outward like a banana peel.

The main idea is to experiment and have fun