Douglas Quaid: The same as you; to remember.
Kuato: But why?
Douglas Quaid: To be myself again.
Kuato: You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory...
Kuato (dying): Quaid...Quaid.. start the reactor. Free Mars..
For his Halloween costume, Jack chose to be the psychic prophet, Kuato, (because there is no better way to host a Total Recall themed party than to dress up as the leader of the mutant rebellion). Our party was less than a month away and there wasn't much time to do an elaborate makeup, but because Kuato's features are rather basic the sculpture process didn't take very long. His head was sculpted out of Amaco Permoplast oil based clay.
Once I was relatively satisfied with the sculpture, I made a clay wall around the piece and poured an Ultracal 30 gypsum cement mixture to make the mold. To properly mix Ultracal 30, first you pour the desired amount of water into a mixing bowl or container you wish to use. Then slowly sift the cement into the water and do so until the surface of the mixture begins to crackle. This means you have a proper water to Ultracal ratio and its ready to be mixed. Ultracal 30 is recommended where extreme accuracy is required as it has the lowest expansion of any rapid-setting gypsum cement available. I chose this particular molding method because I knew beforehand the piece would be cast out of latex. Liquid latex naturally dries through contact with air, and since gypsum cement helps absorb some of the moisture in the latex, it speeds up the drying time. After several coats, I pulled the positive out of the mold.
If I remember correctly, I believe the hair came from a stuffed animal I found at the thrift store. It was adhered to the latex head using 100% silicone caulk. I painted the latex head using a skin tone I had previously matched to Jack's skin using Liquitex acrylic paints. Kuato's palette for his skin has a wider variety of color then that of his brother's, consisting of deeper reds, purples and blues. I tried to capture that in the application process. Finally I applied some two-part epoxy to several parts of his face including his eyes, nose and mouth. This was to give him a slimier, more grotesque appearance.
About two hours before the party, it was time to turn Jack's stomach into a freakish, mutated man baby. The application process was rather simple. Because I hadn't sculpted a body to go with the head, my plan was to just fabricate him out layers of cotton, acrylic paint and latex. I stippled liquid latex on the lower, left half of Jack's chest and abdomen and adhered Kuato's head to it. I then used Karo syrup to glue clumps of cotton to Jack's abdomen, and then painted them with watered down flesh tone acrylic paint. Since I didn't have time to sculpt or fabricate arms, I cut a pair from a stuffed animal I found a the thrift store. They were later painted and adhered with several coats of latex.
This was a fun project and it didn't really require a lot of time or effort. Though it wasn't the most sophisticated of makeup jobs, it got the point across on a time crunch and was a huge hit at the party.
No comments:
Post a Comment