Merely a flesh wound

This was our first foray into creating a wound out of latex. We obtained some instructions via the Instructables website and ordered some products required - liquid latex, setting powder, bruise colour wheel & fake blood and then we were ready to go.

Firstly Ed shaved the inside of his arm as latex has a tendency to stick to any hair and makes removal of the prosthetic difficult and painful. Wash and dry the area to be covered carefully then apply a thin layer of liquid latex over a slightly larger area than the wound is going to be. Wait for latex to dry or speed up the process using the cold setting on a hair dryer. You will know when the latex is dry as it will go from being opaque to clear (around 15 - 20 minutes).




Roll up some 1 ply toilet paper (preferably without colour or print on it) to shape the outsides of the wound. Apply a small amount of latex to adhere the toilet paper to the latex already on the arm then coat all of the toilet paper with a thin layer of latex blending the outside edges into the arm but keeping the inside edge of the wound blunt. Wait for latex to dry. Apply some setting powder to the wound to provide a barrier between the latex and make up to come. Mineral make up will react with the latex and spoil your wound effect. Apply some foundation make up to blend the latex in with the skin around it.



Next apply some reddish colour from the bruise colour wheel to the inside of the wound to give the appearance of an open wound. I used a lighter red colour all over then used a darker burgandy colour around the edges to give the appearance of depth to the wound. Once you are happy with the colour apply more setting powder to set the colour. The powder will soften the colours used but you can remove excess powder with a damp sponge which will bring some of the colour back again. You may like to add some more colour to increase the intensity if you like.



Then it was time for some blood. The blood we had was fake coagulated blood so it was a bit thick for this wound. We diluted it with some water before application. It's a bit tricky to know how much blood to put on and where to put it. I'm not very happy with my first attempt. Ed added some more which you can see in the final photo which I think works better. When using fake blood I think it's important to consider how it would naturally flow from a wound considering the movement of the arm and the force of gravity upon it.



Here's Ed contemplating the final result. He appears to be thinking 'Oh dear, I appear to have cut myself'. You can tell when the wound starts looking real when you start to feel squimish looking at it, usually this occurs when the blood is added.




When you are finished with the wound you can keep it for another occasion. Wash off the excess blood and blot dry with some paper towel. Carefully pull the latex off the skin being careful not to tear it (or rip out too many hairs!). Make sure the prosthetic is completely dry before storing in a snap lock bag.

All in all not a bad first experiment into latex wound making.