Makeup School: Day 37 - Bruising

Bruising is about the easiest thing ever! The only trick is to make it look realistic. To do that, the best way is to model a bruise after real injuries.

Why not reference pictures of other fake bruises? Because like photocopies of a photocopy, details and realism are lost with every duplication.

Bruises change colour as they age. Fresh bruises are usually bright red from broken capillaries, then as the blood coagulates after a day or two, they turn blue and purple. As bruises heal, they will fade colour to brown, green and yellow.

In order to create my bruise on Mel, I used multiple colours of greasepaint, including dark red, purple, blue and yellow (around edges). It's also best to sponge on the colours and stipple in some broken capillaries.

As a general rule, makeup bruises should generally not have straight edges. But as long as the bruise matches the story of how the injury was obtained (seatbelt bruise from car accident, stick bruise from domestic abuse), straight edges can be acceptable.

xxEva