Thanks man! Yeah, I can give a breakdown for sure... The important thing to remember though is this is my process for zombies, which you can get away with using a lot more mediums...If you flub something, hey it's a zombie, cover it in blood! Seriously though:
1. I prime the heads with matte white Krylon fusion. I like to use white because you can then build up the tonal variances much more easily.
2. I then lay down a base layer of some sort of yellowish, brownish colored acrylics.
3. At this point a then give a watered down layer of brown acrylics to fill in the gaps and bring out the details.
4. At this point I uses pastels ground down and applied with a brush to start building tones... Purple for recessed areas, pinkish red for damaged areas, brown for bruising, and a greenish, yellow for the edges of any raised areas (cheeks, around the forehead, etc) The pastels I use are the cheap chalk kind you can find anywhere.
5. Now I'll give the head a shot of matte finish spray from Testors or an equivalent. After it dries I give the head a coat of pledge floor finish. Just a light layer for extra sealing power and also because as more layers are added, the floor wax will start to give the zombie a slightly moist, leathery look.
6. Using a fine tip marker (usually Prismacolor dark grey of some sort), I'll go over the flesh areas of the head with many little vein clusters.
7. Add another layer of pastels (i usually end up doing several layers of pastels because the floor finish will blend in the pastels with the paint, so build up the colors with each new layer you add)
8. I then use cheap watercolors I found at Walmart that dry with a sheen to them. This I use for blood, gums, inner eyelids, and damaged areas. THis is where preference comes in... The less you use, the more dried the blood appears.. The more you use, the wetter...
9. Another shot of spray finish, another layer of pastels and then another layer of floor finish.
10. I use Prismacolor pencils to work on the eyes and also to add strands of hair or any whiskers the head may need. The sharper you get your pencils the finer the detail!
11. The rest is generally just more paint, pastel, draw, seal, seal, seal. Again, a lot of it is preference... I have done a LOT of zombies so at this point I have my system of how I like to have them look down. Zombies are GREAT for experimenting with new techniques!
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