ADVICE FROM NEILL GORTON

The best way to start learning prosthetics and makeup FX will depend on whether you want to learn as the first step towards a career, or for fun. This matters because how you approach your learning is different depending on which path you go down. As a hobbyist, you will probably use your skills to create costumes and effects for cosplay, Halloween, events and parties for example. This is all for pleasure and you can create the things you want to in the way they want to create them. This tends to involve more visually impactful creations such as blood and gore FX or re-creations of famous characters. There’s a lot more out-of-the-kit type makeup involved, and most people will work off their kitchen table using easily available materials.

The key difference between this and pursuing the craft as a career is that as a professional, you work to someone else’s brief and to meet the needs of your employer or client. Rarely will you be required to reproduce an already famous character, and blood and gore FX comprise only a very small portion of the work you would be expected to do. It tends to involve far less time applying makeup and far more time in workshops making moulds and executing processes that are more akin to fine art practice.

So how does this affect you when you’re starting out and seeking ways to learn? The most obvious first steps are to learn from free online resources such as YouTube. Some tutorials are very good, and some are very, very bad. It can still be a great way to start however, with some guidance on how to differentiate as outlined in the next point.

Here are some examples of the many helpful books from which you can learn about the industry and the technicalities of the craft:

No Strings Attached – The Inside Story of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
Matt Bacon, published by Virgin 1997

Making a Monster – The Creation of Screen Characters
Al Taylor and Sue Roy, published by Crown 1980

Making Faces Playing God – Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup
Thomas Morawetz, published by the University of Texas Press 2001

Special Effects – An Oral History
Pascal Pinteau, published by Abrams 2003

Sculpting a Galaxy – Inside the Star Wars Model Shop
Lorne Peterson, published by Insight Editions 2006

Special Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen: Making and Applying Prosthetics
Todd Debreceni, published by Focal Press, 3rd edition 2018

The Monstrous Make-up Manual
Mike Spatolla, 2 books available 2019

If you need expert help with your work, the Facebook group Neill Gorton’s Makeup FX 911 is a go-to resource used by thousands of prosthetics and makeup FX practitioners. This is an invaluable place to ask for technical advice with many professional prosthetics artists on hand who willingly share their knowledge and offer tips. Asking for guidance here promotes the sharing of knowledge for everyone on the community, which in turn helps to advance the craft. Please note, this group is specifically for technical queries only, so please stick to this rule.

If you’re looking for feedback about your work, a great place to get this is the Facebook group Makeup-FX Forum. This works on the same basis as 911, in that there are many professional artists who give their time and share their experience in this group, and there are also a lot of useful files and reference materials available there too.

In addition to our online course Materials and Equipment Knowledge, Neill’s Materials’ ‘how to’ videos provide great demonstrations of how to use both common and more specialist products.

Much design and pre-visualisation work is now done on computers. Examples are software such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP and Pro Create which allow the digital manipulation of photographs as well as the creation of artwork from the ‘ground up’, and 3D software like Z-Brush, Blender, and Nomad, in which you can design and build 3D sculptures in the computer. 3D scanning and printing are also now widely used.

To begin learning digital skills with some straightforward software, try 3D modelling in Z-Brush Mini or Blender on a computer, both of which are free, and Nomad on an iPad at a cost of around £20.

Understanding anatomy is hugely important. Prosthetics designers creating even the most fantastical beings – of human or animal origin – need to draw inspiration from real anatomy to produce convincing creatures. You’ll find inexpensive anatomy books for artists in almost any bookshop or look for a local life study class to join.

Lots of people come into the industry later in life and often bring other valuable skills with them from their former careers, so with talent, training and commitment, a change of direction into prosthetics is possible.

I’m often asked whether it’s possible to have a career working solely as a prosthetic application artist on set. Whilst this is a possibility, it’s good to be aware of its limitations as a career choice. The design and manufacture of prosthetics is the most time-heavy part of the process, so if you don’t have the workshop skills to be part of that, you’re limiting your employability; you’re more likely to be hired if you can do both aspects of the job.

If your ambition is to make prosthetic application a career, however, adding straight makeup and hair to your skill set will increase the time you’re able to spend employed on jobs.

The film industry functions in a unique way and is essentially a freelance world. Employed positions in prosthetics are rare, so understanding what it means to be a freelance artist, with the insecurity that can bring, will help you decide whether the lifestyle is for you.

The one piece of essential advice I give everyone starting out about how to get hired is that employers hire talent and skills. That’s it. There are no caveats to this, there’s no ‘it’s not what you know it’s who you know’, and I certainly don’t employ people because of the number of likes or reposts they get, or because they have lots of followers on TikTok. I also don’t hire based on certificates or qualifications. I hire talent and skills.

Employers need many different skills to execute jobs. Prosthetics is a multi-disciplinary craft in which all skills have a role to play, and many specific skills are used in different areas. This means having advanced skilled in one area is more appealing to employers than minimal or even moderate skills across many areas. Every department needs specialists, so if you have an interest in a particular subject, focus on that as much as possible and develop those skills as a priority. For example, highly skilled mould makers and sculptors are always in demand in FX workshops.

How do you show you have talent and skills that are valuable to employers? With a portfolio; with good quality pictures of your work.

Populate your portfolio with detailed, clear photos of your work. Not just finished pieces, but pictures of the process – designs, sculptures, and moulds – presented cleanly in a way potential employers can see and evaluate.

It’s fine to show collaborative work in your portfolio but be transparent about what you contributed to the project; giving the impression work is yours when it isn’t is unethical and could trip you up later by setting expectations that your skills don’t meet.

Avoid showing too much blood and gore. Whilst this might look dramatic, it is easier work to execute and therefore doesn’t show the solid technical and artistic skills employers need. Blood also obscures the look of prosthetics, so it can be hard to assess someone’s ability from this kind of work.

Finally, learn some basic photography skills and buy a decent point and shoot camera with a good lens. Photographs taken on a phone tend to be poor quality and get compressed in weird ways, which makes them hard to produce as good quality prints to go in a portfolio. There’s no point putting lots of time, effort and money into creating a great portfolio piece only to take a bad photograph of it!

Currently digital skills are not essential, but the increasing crossover between digital and traditional techniques means having skills in both mediums makes you a more versatile technician. Digital skills are valuable to employers, and there are already more opportunities for artists who have them.

The fundamentals of animatronics are engineering skills and mechanical knowhow: levers, gears, pulleys, etc. These basic engineering principles are the same wherever they’re applied and are the foundations on which animatronics skills are built. Learning animatronics isn’t straightforward, however.

There are no higher education courses focussed squarely on animatronics, so finding the most helpful education path into it is tricky. Although engineering is at the core of the subject, possibly the most efficient way into it is by studying either robotics or mechatronics, rather than engineering. Robotics is software-led, but mechatronics bridges the gap between the engineering side (mechanics) and robotics, covering how to build mechanical things and control them electronically. So, all three subjects – engineering, robotics and mechatronics – are applicable to animatronics in different ways, and you would need to look closely at which specific curriculum (each institution’s course will be slightly different) is most appropriate, with the most relevant content.

There are now many places to study prosthetics, either as an individual subject or part of a broader course. Choosing what kind of course is right for you will depend on your career objectives, but here are some basic pointers that could help you find the right place to study:

Subject range: make sure this is relevant to the job you’re aiming to do; if you want to be a straight makeup artist, you’ll probably only need a basic knowledge of prosthetics, and this may be taught in one short module. If you want to be a prosthetics technician however, you’ll need a course that focuses on that rather than diluting it with a lot of other subjects you don’t really need. If you’re unsure, consider a general course in media makeup which will introduce you to all the disciplines involved before you choose what to specialise in.

Environment: it’s important you feel comfortable at the study venue, especially if your course involves being away from home. Go and visit it beforehand to make sure it’s the right kind of environment for you.

Industry links: the film industry changes quickly, and you need to know the most up-to-date techniques and materials to stand the best chance of getting work. It also behaves differently to other industries, so you need to learn how it functions. The most effective way to learn these essentials is at a school that has direct contact with the industry, so you can learn them first-hand. This can be through tutors who also work professionally themselves, or through access to a professional working environment.

Tutors: you need to be sure your money is being spent on tutors who really know their subject; are you confident the school, college or university has staff with the correct, up-to-date skills? Check for information about them on the institution’s website and see if they have professional credits on the industry’s online database IMDB.

Promises of work: be wary of courses that say you’re guaranteed work at the end of them; they are likely to be deceiving you. Courses can teach you the skills that equip you for work, however getting that work will be down to your talent, dedication and determination alone.

Alumni achievements: how well have past students from the course done professionally? Is there evidence of them being successful after they graduated?

Qualifications: the most valuable thing you leave a course with, in terms of starting a career in screen prosthetics is a portfolio of your work. Certificates and letters after your name have their place, however it’s the visual examples of your skills that will really mean something to prospective employers, so choose a course on the merit of its practical content and quality of teaching first and foremost.

You can learn many skills by being involved in amateur dramatics groups. Makeup is the obvious one, but there’s mask making, costume making, set construction, painting and prop making. There’s a ‘muck in and have a go’ attitude in these groups that’s also valuable in the world of prosthetics and special makeup effects; we’re often called upon to do things we’ve never tried before, and we respond by problem solving using our imagination and creativity. Careful consideration for budget and time constraints is key in professional jobs, and the amateur theatre groups are a great place to start working with these factors too, plus these productions tend to be fun to be part of!

Knowing the basics about makeup techniques – and character makeup in particular – can be very useful if your ambitions lie in makeup FX. It’s possible to gain direct experience and learn a great deal about these through doing face painting for children’s parties for example. You will learn the principles of how colour, highlight, and shadow can be used to create form and character, and this is a great foundation for character makeup and prosthetic design.

Helping on student or amateur films is another avenue to pursue for experience. Try contacting colleges and universities with film and media courses and find local filmmaking groups for opportunities. Another route is finding out if there are any the scare attractions near you that need help with basic makeup during the Halloween season. There may not be much money in it, but you’ll be working to a brief and a deadline and you’ll also be applying makeup to people other than yourself, which is very valuable to practise.

In a similar vein, a part time job in a hairdressing salon is a good place to develop some fundamental skills. Prosthetic makeup artists need to know how to work with people, make them feel comfortable and confident. Washing the hair of someone you’ve only just met has a lot of parallels to the way a prosthetic makeup artist might deal with an actor who is being life cast or is having prosthetics applied.

Prosthetic makeup is about learning to change the face in 3D but start by understanding how the face can be shaped in 2D, with theatrical highlighting and shadowing techniques. This will provide you with a very solid foundation on which to build and requires nothing more complicated than a couple of art brushes and some black and white face paint to achieve. You can experiment on yourself in the mirror, or on willing friends and relatives!

A core prosthetics skill that’s easy to work on independently is sculpture. Sculpture skills are used in everything from facial appliances to creatures and will always be in demand in professional FX workshops, so learning and practicing sculpture techniques at home is a valuable use of your time.

Keep your work small so you can work well in your space. This can mean sculpting small flat-mould appliances in plastiline, such as wounds or small creatures and characters. Small figurative sculpture suits polymer clays like Super Sculpey, Cosclay and Fimo. These are ideal for home use as they can be baked in a home oven* whereas the soft clays typically used for larger sculptures require moulding and then casting in a hard material to create the same kind of permanent piece.

Home is also a great place to start learning digital sculpture (also known as 3D modelling), which is now widely used in the prosthetics workflow. Start on an iPad using software such as Nomad Sculpt.

*Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

There is no standard answer for this, but prosthetics artists need practical skills and the best way to develop these is by taking practical subjects. These could be subjects that include the following, all of which are relevant skills to special effects:

Art and design: drawing, painting, sculpture, life study, pottery, fine art, craft, metalwork and engineering, woodwork, needlework and costuming, model making, design technology.

Digital skills: the industry is using an increasing number of digital processes and software in its everyday workflow, so subjects like IT and computer technology will be beneficial.

Science: if you’re interested in science then chemistry is always useful as it will help you understand how the materials used in prosthetic manufacture work. This can be learnt at a later stage, but a head start is never a bad thing.

YouTube can be a great place to begin learning, but navigating the tutorials is difficult; there is a vast amount of content, but no quality monitoring or guidance as to whether the information presented is reliable. The standard is hugely variable: some of the content is good and contains handy advice, but some is simply incorrect, and you should always refer to the manufacturers’ guidelines when using the materials they show.

Keep in mind that these ‘free’ tutorials do come with a price. Those YouTubers earn money by having you click on their links, so rather than focus on core skills that are useful to a professional, they’re instead going to focus on eye-catching and simple tutorials that mostly involve creating gore FX using out-of-the-kit makeup. While the results are fun and serve the purpose of being noticeable for online tutorials, the results are not film quality, and the techniques are far too basic and fragile to be used for a professional film shoot. The reality is that professional prosthetics and makeup FX tend to take a lot more time to create than could ever be crammed into a 30-minute online tutorial. In fact, a professional prosthetic will usually take a number of weeks to prepare and involve a lot of technical processes that will make for far less exciting viewing on YouTube.

The way these tutorials usually show someone applying makeup to themselves is the way you’re most likely to start learning. I know my first makeups were done on myself while looking in a mirror, which is an obvious and fine way to start.

So, if what you see on YouTube is the fun stuff you want to do as a hobby then certainly use that as your mode of learning. Should you wish to advance your hobby further or want to pursue this as a career, however, then you’ll want to take a step up.

The Prosthetics Event is an annual educational event in the UK, usually held in the Midlands or London. It’s staged every November and features back-to-back classes on two stages, demonstrations, specialist retailers, portfolio advice, creature exhibits, and competitions. As well as being a great place to learn, this is also a prime networking opportunity with many professionals, students, tutors and enthusiasts in attendance and ready to chat!

EffectUs is another prosthetics gathering and art expo held in Rome, Italy every September, with a busy programme of demos, masterclasses and competitions, as well as retailers and networking opportunities on offer.

The USA has huge events and multi-genre conventions that feature or include prosthetics and makeup effects. These offer endless opportunities to meet fans and professionals of film, horror, scare attractions, masks, makeup, special effects, collectibles, monsters, and fantasy art. The biggest of these events are Monsterpalooza (Los Angeles, California every spring), Son of Monsterpalooza (Burbank, California every October), and Maskfest (Sharonville, Ohio every September).