Undead halfmask bust finished- "Oxidated Marrekk"
Kai Rottmann
✭✭✭✭
Hello dear artists,
after a long time of ignoring the "all- over- the- world- zombie- hype" , a friend of mine asked me to do a zombie for her dad as a christmas present.
"Sure my dear" i said and started sculpting a zombieface on my ultracal facecast without looking for reference because: "it cant be sooo hard to do a great zombie"- my demolished brain thougt-
I did an ultracal Mold and "latexted" and "foamed" the zombieface out of it.
I also tried out the painting with prosaide + acrylics (instead of my prefered silicone+oilpaints mixture) aaaaaaand voila: I kicked the hole thing into the garbage can.... and the second one, too. And the third is still waiting "latexed" in the mold for 4 weeks now....
That was a humbling experience

Back to the roots- i searched in the www. for zombies shamefaced and while doing that, my passion for zombies was woken up.
I started a new sculpture and this time with a lot of energy and passion, quite different to the first attempt.
Searched in the web for injuries, walking dead zombs, anatomically things and of course for skin texture and sculpting lessons (sure here at the great SWSCA xD) like a maniac. Spend almost 500$ in ordering smooth on platinum silicone and paints, Monster Makers- FX teeth- kit and so on and so on for the second attempt- nearly hyperrealistic
Here is, what i have so far and i would wish you to comment with constructive criticism:




I know, that there is a lot to do of refining and correcting some spots in the skin texture. Maybe someone could help me to find those spots and having ideas for techniques, tools or something like that.
Especially the folds on the left cheekbone seem to be to regular... something is wrong there xD
I would love to get feedback.
Yours sincerely
Kai
after a long time of ignoring the "all- over- the- world- zombie- hype" , a friend of mine asked me to do a zombie for her dad as a christmas present.
"Sure my dear" i said and started sculpting a zombieface on my ultracal facecast without looking for reference because: "it cant be sooo hard to do a great zombie"- my demolished brain thougt-
I did an ultracal Mold and "latexted" and "foamed" the zombieface out of it.
I also tried out the painting with prosaide + acrylics (instead of my prefered silicone+oilpaints mixture) aaaaaaand voila: I kicked the hole thing into the garbage can.... and the second one, too. And the third is still waiting "latexed" in the mold for 4 weeks now....
That was a humbling experience
Back to the roots- i searched in the www. for zombies shamefaced and while doing that, my passion for zombies was woken up.
I started a new sculpture and this time with a lot of energy and passion, quite different to the first attempt.
Searched in the web for injuries, walking dead zombs, anatomically things and of course for skin texture and sculpting lessons (sure here at the great SWSCA xD) like a maniac. Spend almost 500$ in ordering smooth on platinum silicone and paints, Monster Makers- FX teeth- kit and so on and so on for the second attempt- nearly hyperrealistic
Here is, what i have so far and i would wish you to comment with constructive criticism:




I know, that there is a lot to do of refining and correcting some spots in the skin texture. Maybe someone could help me to find those spots and having ideas for techniques, tools or something like that.
Especially the folds on the left cheekbone seem to be to regular... something is wrong there xD
I would love to get feedback.
Yours sincerely
Kai
3
Comments
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Update [=
I decided to bring the sculpture to the end.
I changed some wrinkles, the lids and the nose and also installed self done teeth out of dental- resin.
And after doing some measurements, i decided to sculp some ears on. To hold the proportions, i had to let them go into the board- thats really okay i think.
That gives a bit more of the: "it comes out of the wall"- effect
Here is the finished sculpture:


I did an one part epoxy-gelcoat+ fiberglas mold:

10 minutes- 50 degrees and the sculpture fell out of the mold. Only the cleanout was veeery veeeeery hardscrabble xD (4 hours)
Once the mold was cleaned, i brushed in 270ml Smooth ON Dragon skin silicone. After the detail layer was cured, i mixed up another 270 ml batch with thickener and brushed that in, too. I also worked in some cotton in the surface, to get a bond between the silicone and polyfoam.
And here is what i have- filled with polyfoam. I am very happy with that.
Next step is to paint with Smooth On´s psycho paint and Fuse Fx and create some realistic dental- resin eyes^^
Of course hairpunching comes at the end. (cant wait to watch the Hairpunching- lesson again, hihi)
I am very proud and i could jump for joy when i am thinking about the next steps :-)
Greets
Kai
By the way: The Fuse Fx silicone paints are awesome. Just added a few reds- stunning lifelike translucent rich color:

2 -
looks amazing kai. such good lip structure. what clay did you originally sculpt it in.1
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Thank you Sebastian :-)
The clays were Chavant NSP soft (the beige one) and medium (the green one).
I tried out both the first time in such dimensions just to look what works. I think its better for me to work with the harder clays for example the Chavant NSP hard.
The NSP soft doesnt forgive any little touch... creating the eyelids was horrible xD
Greets0 -
Nice work!
/Chris1 -
Here is the finished halfmask on a wooden board.
I call him oxidated Marrekk :-)




That project has made a lot of fun,.. and i am very happy to be able to watch the SWSCA courses which teach me a lot- how to punch hair, too (=
Greets3 -
Love that paint job!
/Chris1 -
Thank you Chris [=0
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Hi Kai, I know I'm a bit late commenting on this post, just wanted to say I really enjoyed hearing about the process you went through, and the final piece is really impressive. I hope your going to enter the monster making contest!
1 -
Thank you very much for your kind words, Chris :-)
I like to share my processes in hope, that anyone could took some experiences for his own work =]
Oh i would love to enter the monster making contest, but i haven´t any real monster done yet :-(
I have not enough time to realize my projects, which are floating around in my head, because iam working up to 12 hours/ day in my regular job :-(
But maybe i will enter to the next contest :-)
Greets0 -
@Kai Rottmann
you could enter this guy, or the mask you made for violent starr? I'm pretty sure a zombie is a monster? it dosent need to be created for the contest, unless i have misunderstood everything haha.
but I completely understand what you describe about the full time job.
I just think you have some serious talent ever since i saw your stuff on instagram (I'm the dark bunny in case you wondered how I know so much about you haha)0 -
Thanks again Chris [=
Ahhh,..that dark bunny, cool, i didnt know that, hihi. Happy to see you here, too xD
I saw your cyborg- space knight suit live on set in hamburg. That was amazing. There were shot a couple very cool scenes with that suit. You will be amazed ;-)
Um, i dont know xD I thought Marrekk would go into a zombie making contest and my Dav ughk for an alien making contest, haha.
I prefer to do new original stuff for each contest,.. but as i see,.. i have not enough time xD
0 -
Good to see you here too mate

Ooh I'm so excited to see that movie, I had a great time making that costume. Wish I could have been there on set. So many practical effects from what I've seen so far.
I will look forward to seeing your next creations in the future!
0
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