How-To

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Congratulations on choosing to be a zombie! Now we need to make you look the part. Hopefully, these pages will help point you in the right direction for creating the look you want.

Remember that you can be any kind of zombie you want and your costume and makeup can be as simple or as elaborate as you feel like dealing with.

As long as you look like some kind of corpse, IT'S ALL GOOD!

How-To: Costumes

Zombie costumes can be as simple or elaborate as you like. The one rule to follow is ONLY wear something that you intend to completely destroy.

Dig out some old clothes you don't like or hit thrift stores for something cheap.

Now for the fun. No respectable zombie is going to have perfectly washed and pressed clothes. You need to do something to make them look worn, torn, dirty, and blood-stained. The main thing is to use your imagination.

Rips & Tears: You're a zombie; you stumble into, through, and over things. At some point, you probably fought for your life before you were violently relieved of it. You need to figure out what damage your clothes have taken. Maybe sleeves or pockets were ripped loose by your attackers. Maybe you've gotten snagged on fences or bushes while stumbling around.

Try to actually rip the fabric. It'll have a much more natural look than if you cut it. If necessary, use scissors to start a small cut and rip the rest of the tear that you want.

Dirt & Filth: You can paint your clothes with mucky looking colors or preferably you can actually get them dirty. Go roll around in the grass and dirt. Clover patches are good for a nice grass stain. Try spraying a little water on your clothes first so the dirt will stick better.

Blood: This one's completely dependent on your personal taste. A lot or a little. Paint it on ahead of time or dribble some on as a final touch once you're suited up and in makeup. It's up to you.

How-To: Skin Effects

Zombie skin effects is a broad subject ranging from simple liquid latex effects to fancy prosthetic pieces. This page will mostly deal with homemade effects and is intended to pass along tips and techniques that have been found to work well. Feel free to use your imagination and ingenuity to expand on this information.

If you come up with something new that works well, please share with us!

TOPICS ON THIS PAGE:

Useful Materials:

Liquid Latex Tips & Warnings

Blistered & Peeling Skin

  1. Apply liquid latex to the desired area
  2. Optional: Add a layer of tissue paper and more latex for a more exaggerated effect
  3. When it's all dry, pick at it and rip small holes
  4. Optional: Use spirit gum around the edges to prevent the latex from peeling off as easily
  5. Powder the latex and brush off all extra powder
  6. Optional: Sealer / Castor Oil (see Liquid Latex Tips)
  7. Makeup

Rough, Lumpy, and Scaley Textured Skin

  1. Apply Spirit Gum to the desired area
  2. Apply your desired texture material
    • Cotton: Lumpy and Uneven
    • Oats, Corn Flakes, Etc: Scaley
    • Grits, Corn Meal, Etc: Rough
    • Tissue Paper: Rough, Uneven, and Wrinkly
  3. Apply Liquid Latex
  4. Optional: After the Latex is dry, apply spirit gum around the edges
  5. When all the latex (and spirit gum) is dry, powder the area and brush off extra powder
  6. Optional: Sealer / Castor Oil (see Liquid Latex Tips)
  7. Makeup

 

Gashes & Wounds

This could be just about anything from a a cut on the hand to a bullet hole in the forehead. You're really only limited by your imagination and what materials you can get your hands on.

Generic Steps:

  1. Build up the inside of the wound
    Cotton, modeling putty/wax of some kind, tissue paper, whatever will add the depth and shape you want
  2. Blend down to the area around the wound
  3. Finish the wound with the appropriate treatment for the materials used
  4. Makeup

Balloons As Skin:
I've been getting really good deep gashes by building up the wound area with strips of twisted cotton on either side of the gash and then using spirit gum to stick down pieces of balloon as skin around the wound and over the cotton. Then I use liquid latex to blend the edges of the balloon chunks down to my skin. The balloon material flexes as you move and can look a little better than similar effects done with tissue paper.

How-To: Makeup

General Tips:

Makeups

[ ToDo: Add comparison of various makeups ]

Tools

[ ToDo: Add general info about useful tools ]

Cheap Zombies in Bulk

Usually, we recommend that everyone do their own makeup before showing up, but if you plan to have a bunch of the living show up expecting to be zombified, here are a few tips.

A little dark red/brown/grey smeared under the eyes, a few messy bruises, and some blood and you have a two minute zombie!

How-To: Blood

Blood and gore are what makes a zombie. Until there's at least a little blood, you're just dressed funny. Below, we'll discuss both commercially available fake bloods and recipes to make your own, but first here are some things to keep in mind.

WARNINGS / TIPS:

Now on to the fun stuff!

Commercial Blood Products

There are several kinds of commercially available bloods. Pick what will work best for your application.

Corn Syrup Based

Non-Corn Syrup / Squirt Bloods

Gels & Scab Blood

Novelties

Homemade Blood

Starch Blood - A Zombie Walk OKC original

Mix the starch with some red coloring and add some green or blue to darken it.

It takes a while to dry, but it leaves a nasty, stiff, non-sticky bloody mess on clothing that looks really great. For a less stiff finish, dilute the starch with a little water.

Starch Blood Revisited

Substituting cheap store bought Pint O' Blood style blood for the red food dye gets a better color while still getting the nice stiff crustyness of the starch after it dries. If you let it sit out and evaporate a little you get a thicker blood that's easier to deal with.

Try using this darkened blood along with some smears of unmodified stage blood. The two shade effect is better than either blood by itself!

Syrup Recipe #1

The cocoa powder is supposed to cause this one to cake and leave convincing stains as it dries

Syrup Recipe #2

Syrup Recipe #3 - Bulk Blood

How-To: Walking

Some pointers for walking like a zombie:

  1. Don't follow zombie walking instructions. It's better if everyone's walk is different.
  2. Make slow, stiff movements.
  3. Determine what injuries you have and how they would affect your movement. Do you have a leg injury that makes you limp or drag a leg? Great! Maybe your neck is broken and your head sort of flops around. Just use your imagination and think about it logically.
  4. Try looking like you're costantly close to falling over.
  5. Stare off into the distance.
  6. Stumble into things...Always remember that you're a very very very dumb creature with nothing on your mind besides devouring the flesh of the living; you're not going to notice that sign post.
  7. Keep your arms limp unless reaching for prey.

How-To: Videos

Here are some videos we've found around the web. If any of them have died or you find some good new ones, hit the contact page to let us know.

How-To: Links

Here a few links to makeup resources around the web. If you know of more, please send them in.