#95 - The Prosthetics Event 2024 Debrief
Battles With Bits of Rubber
This episode discusses our experience following the Prosthetics Event 2024 in Coventry. We mention our highlights, including networking, speaking to hundreds of people with our presentations, and a series of insightful discussions, which we hope you will find very helpful if you are a rubber monster freak like us. We chatted with , known for his exceptional bald cap techniques. He shared his methods and discussed common challenges in creating realistic bald caps. We also discuss the advances in digital workflows in prosthetics moulding with , who shares his innovative...
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#94 - Practical Pixels & Imprudent Imposters
Battles With Bits of Rubber
This time around we discuss the technical aspects of 3D modelling and printing for practical work, especially in creating detailed prosthetics and animatronic components using software like CAD and ZBrush. We delve into teaching and learning new techniques, particularly the significance of hands-on experience in moulding and sculpting. Then we look at taking on jobs without proper qualifications, highlighting the potential dangers and importance of safety in prosthetic and special effects work. With Sasquatch suits, severed heads and blood gags on stage, come and join...
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#93 - Falmouth Part 2
Battles With Bits of Rubber
In this second and final part of our trip to Falmouth Uni, Neill Gorton joins us as we discuss making mistakes and learning the hard way in the workshop. We also discuss how to approach workshops and folio critiques and why latex and plaster are such great materials when starting and budgets are tight. Latex and plaster are a big theme in this episode. Be sure to check out the blog post with the show notes and the , which is all about making latex pieces and plaster moulds from the UMAE 2024 makeups Stuart recently did. This is a hefty episode, and the workbook is 26 pages...
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#92 - Falmouth Uni Part 1
Battles With Bits of Rubber
Our trip down to Falmouth Uni preceded The Prosthetics Event 2023. It was a great trip, and so nice to see the work being done by students there and talk shop. As always, we have a rough idea about what we want to talk about, but it's always led by the feeling in the room at the time, questions that come up and current events within the group . We spoke for so long in a packed room using a single recorder, so the sound is a little different from our usual close microphone stuff. It went on for nearly three hours, and fell into two distinct sections - the first half we present here. The...
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#91 - Digital Tools In The Workshop
Battles With Bits of Rubber
Makeup artists typically like makeup. It is a tactile medium, and they enjoy products, how they feel and smell and respond to brushes and pressure. Making prosthetics similarly has its tactile qualities, and it is hard to separate these sensations from the very nature of the joy in the work. It is little wonder then that this same group of people may not have developed an extensive love of digital versions of the same work. Doing a digital makeup effect in Photoshop requires the makeup artist's mindset but somehow it is not the same thing, and I think...
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#90 - Joel Harlow
Battles With Bits of Rubber
Joel Harlow is an academy award-winning artist who started out in animation before he moved on to makeup. Gradually building multi-faceted skills, confidence and workloads, he has evolved and expanded into the makeup effects heavyweight we know today with a hefty rollcall of credits. Check out his company, . It is always fascinating to go through the IMDb of an artist and see their credits creeping up the hierarchy over time. Evidence of trust earned as supervisors see a way to pass the responsibility on, and nothing breeds more work than showing up on time and doing more than the client...
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#89 - Maddie Scott-Spencer
Battles With Bits of Rubber
Maddie is a talented concept artist and teacher known mostly for her ZBrush work. Coming from a practical background, her skills come from familiar ground - Fangoria, a love of monsters and sculpting for fun! She has taught classes for Gnomon since 2006 - we recommend the ‘’ video course. Todd and I both cite this as the breakthrough moment for both of us, making what previously had been indecipherable to us accessible and understandable. The way she comes across reminded us of Dick Smith, with a generous nature coupled with a thorough understanding of the subject. Maddie...
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#88 - Adam 'KreatureKid' Dougherty
Battles With Bits of Rubber
Adam Dougherty and his company are based in Colorado. An incredibly talented artist, he is an inspiring soul who makes things happen with determination and persistent hard work. Although he considers himself lazy, his output shows anything but. In particular, his style celebrates the warmth and unique character that Jim Henson created with puppets, and has himself produced some jaw-droppingly effective puppets for various projects such as the upcoming Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, directed by Andrew Bowser. Adam has a flair and a style for big, expressive characters and, as...
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#87 - Frank Ippolito
Battles With Bits of Rubber
Frank Ippolito is something of a practical effects polymath. From starting out with makeup effects and putting in solid work in the lab, he has gradually expanded to running a company and crew with impressive credits and a high standard of work. Checking out , you’ll see a switch around 2016 as he started working on speciality costumes. This is a big overlap in the practical effects industry as creature and ‘hero’ suits become more sophisticated. Frank started as a freelancer doing the thing; now, he runs a shop and has a well-trusted and reliable workforce at his shop, . Because...
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#86 - More Noses, Fewer Horns
Battles With Bits of Rubber
In this episode, we look at a makeup I did nearly 30 years ago at college. Adrian Rigby sent me a remaining original piece from the mould, along with some photos (prints, no less, which I scanned). We talk about remembering what you knew then (the past) and how you thought it should be done. You can also advise your old self on how it could be done better using the knowledge you know now (the present) and things you would attain in the future. By seeing your errors written plain, having an actual artefact from the past, you can connect with both then and now. We also answer a few...
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Daniel was the first professional prosthetic professional to look at my portfolio. That stuff sticks with you.
That was back in 1994, and there was still a lot of Frankenstein stuff kicking about in the workshop from the previous year. I learned a lot being in that workshop, and got to see a makeup test on Ian McKellan for Richard III in my time there.
Daniel has recently been praised for his work as makeup and hair designer on The Queens Gambit (Netflix) and Chernobyl (HBO). He has an extensive range of credits spanning 37 years, including Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker, Band Of Brothers, Frankenstein (Academy Award nominee) Empire Of The Sun, Cloud Atlas, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and Enemy Mine.
In this conversation, we talked about how often simple techniques and good paintwork can do so much and using appliances wisely. It is very easy for an artist to fall in love with the processes and things they have learned, and to decide to inflict themselves as extensively as possible on anything they do. Instead, the aim is to see the full picture and work with the raw material of the performer and make only the correct changes for the character.
Daniel also is a director at his temporary Tattoo company, TattooedNow! which he runs with Serbian artists Igor Strangliczky and Nikola Prijic.
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-Stuart & Todd