DIY Blood Effects: A How-To
Blood is the horror genre’s vital fluid. What would a vampire movie be without it? A zombie attack without open wounds? A slasher bloodbath without er, spewing blood? A Halloween party without blood-smeared faces? A professional-quality blood effect is always a good idea for a simple, last-minute Halloween costume. Here in our DIY blood effects we show you various ways to get the blood flowing!
Contents
1. Fake Blood
2. Blood Spray
3. Bloody Scab
1. Fake Blood
A Tube of Fake Blood is a mighty convenient way to create a heavily bleeding injury. One part of the body that always makes onlookers squeamish is the ear.
Open the tube and put the highly viscous blood on a cotton swab.
The blood flows quickly out of the tube, so we recommend using a cotton swab to place the first drops on your ear where you want the blood flow to originate.
Of course, if you’re more experienced you can hold the tube right to your ear.
Following this, put the tube on the already bloodied area and squeeze the tube gently until blood starts to flow. The „victim’s“ head should be slightly tilted. This makes it easier to apply the blood.
As soon as the blood trickles downward, the head should return to an upright position to ensure that the blood runs down the face naturally. Do this only if the injury is supposed to have occurred in an upright position.
Another very painful place is the hairline.
Hold the tube where you want the injury, and squeeze as long as it takes for enough blood to run down.
Voila! You’re bloodied!
2. Blood Spray
Need a bit more gore? More blood? More spatters? Then our Blood Spray is your blood of choice!
Blood Spray is a terrific fake blood product. You can use it to create fine bloodydetails, to mimic heavy blood spatters and spray yourself or anything around you that needs a good bloodying!
For single blood drops, press the nozzle slowly and repeatedly at a distance of approx. 10 – 15 cm from the „victim“ until the fake blood begins to drip. Here it is important to let gravity do the work for you, so make sure your victim is holding his head straight.
Spray your victim repeatedly if you want to have several blood drops staggered next to one another.
If you would rather have a spattered effect, press the nozzle quickly and continuously at a distance of 30 cm from the victim. This creates several small blood spatters and is lots of fun!
Spraying horizontally and vertically creates an especially dramatic effect.
If you’re going for a more zombified style, our Zombie Blood Spray is tops!
A bit different in color, darker, more rotting and overall more zombie-like, it works just like the Blood Spray.
If you spray yourself with both you’ll look like you fought in the zombie apocalypse and did NOT emerge unscathed.
3. Bloody Scab
A highly versatile fake blood product is Bloody Scab. Jelly-like in substance, it darkens in color like real blood as it dries.
Take out some Bloody Scab with a modeling spatula. This is an especially good tool for creating scratches. If you don’t have one, your local art supply store will carry them. Or you can use the dull edge of a thin knife or a fine brush.
Take the spatula and apply the Bloody Scab onto your skin. You can repeat this step as you wish until your skin has a few nice scratches.
All set!
If you want to create scrapes use the included stipple sponge to apply the Bloody Scab.
For scrapes on your face, choose the places where you can best feel your bones, such as your chin, cheekbones or eyebrows. These are the places most susceptible to being wounded.
Move the stipple sponge diagonally along the bone. Repeat, making parallel strokes. Voila. All scraped up in no time!
Blood effects for everyone!
