First, let's talk about the Pax Paint Itself.
Pax Paint is 50/50 Mix of Pro-adhesive or
Pros-aide and standard Acrylic paint found at
most art stores. You can make it yourself or
purchase it premade. We'll be using our own
line of Pax for this demo.

The great thing about Pax paint is that it
binds onto the surface of Foam latex making it
a permanent part of the prosthetic. Theres no
need to touch up your paint job from smearing,
etc. It is also flexible so it stretches with
the foam.

 

So here we have our raw foam latex appliances.
For this demo, we're using the Rip Off Zombie.
The rip off concept is perfect for Pax use due
to the constant abrasion from peeling off the
outer layer.

 

 

Keep in mind that when pax dries, it's
sticky to the touch. Be careful not to get
your fingers or anything else stuck to the
surface. Keep the appliance on the Vacuform
face while painting with pax.

It's now time to add shading to bring
definition to the muscles . We're using a
black pax thinned down with water to make
a wash. We used a medium size brush to
blend the pax wash around all the muscle
groups of the face, as well as around the
border of the muscles.

Although hard to see, we painted the teeth
with an off white pax. We mixed a tiny amount
of yellow pax into white pax. We applied it
with a small brush.

 

We're now going to accent and define the
teeth. We're using a brown pax for this.

Pax can be thinned with water. Keep a clean
cup of water close by for this step. Using a
very small art brush, put a small amount of
brown pax at the base of the teeth. Before
the pax dries, wash out the excess paint
from your brush and redip it into clean water.
Using the wet brush, blend the pax paint out
onto the surface of the teeth. You don't
want harsh dark brown paint, but a light wash
of the color instead. If you have too much
paint, a moist, clean paper towel can be used
to blot off the excess.

Once all the pax has dried, we're ready to
seal the paint. We wanted a wet look for
the muscle layer so we chose Gloss Medium.
We use a large flat brush to apply one
even layer over all pax painted areas.
Allow to dry completely.

The last area of this appliance is the
outer rim. This needs to match the color
of the outer prosthetic for a better blend.
We're using a Dead flesh pax paint. This
can be made by mixing Blue, White and
Fleshtone pax colors. We apply one
light layer to the outer rim of skin with
a medium flat brush. Once it dries
completely, we apply one coat of Matte
medium to seal it in.

 

We're now ready for the Zombie Prosthetic.

We're using a medium-dark Grey Pax paint
for the first color. This is our shading tone.

We apply one even layer over the entire
surface of the face using a medium flat
brush, making sure to get down into all
the lines and wrinkles. Allow to dry.

 

 

We're now ready for our base color. This
is the Dead flesh we discussed before.

To apply this color, we're using the flat
side of a white makeup sponge. Lightly dip
the flat side of the sponge into the pax
paint. Dab out excess on a clean paper
towel. You want a very light even coat in
the sponge.

Very lightly dab the flat side of the sponge
on the surface of the foam, only hitting the
high spots of the face. You don't want to
press too hard and fill in the lines and
details. Go slowy. You can always add more,
but taking it off is not so easy.

Since the lower muscle layer has red around
the eyes, we wanted to bring a little of
that color into the outer layer for a better
transition. We took the deep red pax from
the muscle layer and thinned a small amount
of it out with water. We really wanted a
thin wash so we added approx. 75% water to
the pax. We used a wet medium brush to apply
this wash around the eyesockets and lips.
Although this color is subtle, we feel it
helps with the overall look.

We wanted to add a subtle highlight to the
look, so we mixed up a Mustard yellow Pax
by adding a tiny amount of Blue pax to
Yellow pax. We applied this using the same
technique as the base color. Use the flat
side of a makeup sponge to apply this
color. Make sure you have very little
paint on the sponge. Very lightly hit the high
points in the makeup such as the cheekbones,
forehead, nose, jaw, etc. Be careful here.
Don't overdo it. You don't want to change
the color, but add little random patches of
color.

Once all the pax is dry, It's time to seal
it. Use a large flat brush or makeup sponge
to apply one even coat of Matte Medium over
the entire pax painted area. Allow to dry
completely.

We flipped the Zombie face over and put it
into the back of the vacuform face. We put
one even coat of Deep Red pax over the back
of the zombie face. Once it had dried, we
applied one even layer of Gloss Medium over
the entire back side with a large flat
brush.

Once all the paints and sealers were
completely dry, you ready to use your
Fx Faces Rip Off Zombie!