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I use a number of different shades to paint my skin tones. I usually start with reds and work myself towards blues and shadows. I have no rule book so I just go with my gut feeling.
 
I tend to end up ending with some more reds.
I don't know why..

The blood is also silicone mixed with grease paint.

Starting too look real right??

One of the more annoying things about making a fake head is that when people look at it they will always point to the painted veins and ask:
 "How did you do those???".

Why do they do that??
It took me about 15 secs to paint them on. The rest took days. Please admire that work instead.......
But they won't. People love veins.

Lets get some hair on him.
As you see on the computer screen behind the head I have a close up of his eyebrows there.
So now I am using skin illustrator to draw an outline of them on the head.

I make sure I find the correct directions and width.

For the eyebrows I used a traditional punch needle made from a sewing needle.

Don't cut them until you are completely finished.

Comb the hairs and check so everything looks good.

Here I am using a hot curling iron to press the hairs into shape before I start cutting them.

Scary, scary. This cut can't be undone.

Eyebrows, done!

Another angle of it.

Punching eyelashes needs a lot of curling irons to look good.

Me and Fredrik are having some cosy time before the final wig is going on.

This is the wig that Fredrik will be wearing on stage and I am using a eyebrow pencil to mark his real hairline on the dummy head.

Now I have put the dummy wig on and I am cutting the front lace off to prepare it for the hair punching.

Fold it back and sponge on some silicone mixture under the lace.

Pin it down into the silicone with needles.

Let it dry for a while. Have a beer and watch some  makeup videos on YouTube. It is most likely late a night now and you will need some relax time.

Late nights will not stop us!
As I remember it this hairline was started around 10 pm.

For beards and hairlines I am using my own punch needles that you can buy in my shop.
You can hold the hair straight out and just punch away.
We did this hairline in less than an hour.

The head, eyebrows, eyelashes and head hair is all done.
Here I am testing if it will be ok to hold it in it's hair and it works great.

I decided that we didn't need teeth in this head as they would not show.
But I wanted some life in the mouth so I cast my own tongue for it. It was horrible. I almost puked twice.

But I made a copy of it in dental acrylic and put some steel wire in it sticking out at the back which I could stick into the hard foam.
It worked like a charm.

John the Baptist was obviously a very hairy guy. I guess it's in the Bible somewhere. So he needed to have a long beard too. Actually it could be mentioned in the Quran too as he is a prophet in there too.

We were on a very short deadline to make this head (it was all made in four days) so I didn't have time to punch the whole beard.
So this is an old lace beard I have trimmed down and glued on with silicone.

Here I am again using my punch needles to fill up the beard line.

Now a bunch of pictures of the finished head.

Oh my Lord. What am I doing??
Well the neck needed to look bloody so I covered him up with plastic and mixed up more silicone to make the cut gory.

I know.... don't tell me.
There would not be any veins sticking out of a decapitated head but they wanted it so what can I do??

A hairdryer is a great tool when working with silicone. A drying time of 25 minutes may be decreased to 5 with some added heat.

More finished heads.
And Yes, my neighbours came walking by wondering what the hell was going on.

Poor Fredrik.
 
When I delivered the head the head designer of the play asked me to move the lower lip in a bit.
Scared as hell I took out my scalpel and cut it off.
Luckily I managed to get it glued back nicely.

I personally liked the original lip better since that had more a dead look to it.
But it wasn't my call!

My little son, Jack is so used to all of these strange things already and doesn't care at all.
Hope he will be alright...............

Some press photos from the performance.
Here is Fredrik before he dies.
Foto Malin Arnesson

And then after he dies.
Foto Malin Arnesson

And then this woman comes and cuddles and dances with him. Too weird for me!
Foto Malin Arnesson
I hope you have enjoyed my step by step on making fake heads.
If you have please send me a picture of your own work and share your experiences with me!

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