Fake Intestine Tutorial

[Gorey Corey]

ok, so this tutorial was sent to me by a friend of mine and he gave me permission to post it on here for you guys. i did a couple things differently then him and i'll note those changes as i post this. but here's his email he sent to me:

So in order to get the desired effect will take maybe a total of 1 hour to do. Here is what I did to make them, and I was supprised how well they turned out, they look great in the final cut of the movie they were in. But anyhow, here's the run down.

- I used basic slip latex (i used latex that i picked up from Dick Blick)
- 1 to 2 rolls of plain paper towels, with no designs on them.
- A large clean sheet of thick durable plastic, the one I used was about 5 feet long by 3 feet wide, and just about 1/4 inch thick. (what i used was a large piece of plexiglass about 2-3 foot square)
- Hair dryer
- 1 or 2 inch chip brush.

lay the plastic down on a level surface. Use your chip brush to brush strips of latex about 4 inches wide the entire length of the plastic. The layer of latex should not be too thick, use your hair dryer to set the latex quicker or you'll be doing this all day. Add 3 to 4 more layers of latex, the layers do not have to be even, having some texture in them adds to the effect and adds a feeling of depth. Make sure the edges are thinner than the rest, this is important in the final process.
After the layers are dry and you are pleased with how they look you'll take the paper towels and roll them up to about the thickness of your thumb, the paper towels should be distorted and "lumpy" in parts. Now the tricky part you might need some one to help, place the paper towels on one edge of the latex strip and start to roll the whole thing up like a burrito, dried latex will stick to itself. Leave the ends open and some paper out the ends. When you're done rolling it up squeeze the whole thing in spots so it looks like intestines. I spun them around like a moron and that seemed to help alot.

Now the messy part. I had a 5 gallon bucket that was about half full of water and I used high concentrat food coloring that comes in powder form, I mixed red and some blue together to make it darker red. Take your guts and put them in the bucket and try to get the blood water soaked in through the open ends with the paper towels still sticking out. try to get all the paper towels inside soaked and colored. When you're done tear off the ends of the paper. That's that. End

Ok i did his process myself and the only part of it that gave me any trouble was the end. i didn't seal my latex with anything, so when i stuck them in the blood colored water the latex became all gooey and slimy i then had to hang them up in the shower for about a day or more until they dried completely. afterward, when the latex was dry, the intestine had a nice yellowish tint (cause of the latex). but for me that wasn't enough, i wanted the intestines to look bloody, despite the fact that that wouldn't be how they'd appear in real life. so what i did next was i layed the now dry intestine on the plexiglass and started to paint on fake blood. when you're doing this use the blow dryer cause it'll dry the blood fast and give the intestine a nice blood stained effect. after that i would recommend you go out and buy a can of spray polyurethane.

***BEFORE you use the polyurethane, make sure you're somewhere well ventilated and that there's NO OPEN FLAMES NEAR BY!!!*** i'm going to use my garage for this part... so you should too.

what i'm going to do next after the intestine has been painted with the fake blood (cause mine aren't even finished yet) is hang them on a fishing string and drape newspaper beneath for any dripping from the polyurethane. then spray the intestine. what you'll be doing is applying a clear coat to the intestine so the fake blood won't rub off or crack. plus, this will give your intestine a glossy look so that they'll always look like they just came fresh out of someone or something. just let em dry and then they should be good to go afterwards. here are just a couple of pics of mine now without the polyurethane.





here's the intestines my friend made first before sending me the tutorial



ps. when i brushed the latex onto the plexiglass i had to brush them in 3, 4inch wide strips (because the plexiglass was only about 2ft long). so, once everything was done and dry i super glued the ends together so that they made an overall length of about 6ft. you may want to super glue the ends shut too before applying the polyurethane. hope this helps. and i'll try to answer as many questions as i can. also, if you have any suggestions to better improve on this or maybe a better idea for sealing the latex with the blood on it... please don't hesitate to post it. thanks

Gorey Corey

[smokeythebear]

very good tutorial, I wish their were more photos of the process, but stil great.I am working on a movie and will definelty use this.

[Gorey Corey]

yeah, i knew when i started the intestine myself that i wanted to take pics of the entire process, just for refference. then shear laziness kicked in and i decided not to. but i'm not yet finished making them as long as i want, so maybe i'll take pics of the next batch i make.

[smokeythebear]

thanks!

[OpenWoundFX]

I did some intestines a very similar way but painted the latex on which didn't work out as well as your technique did. I need to make some new ones anyway (since I am afraid to open the 6 month old bucket of guts and rotting cornsyrup blood)

thanks for posting this

[GeorgeTroesterFX]

for universal's halloween horror nights last year we painted huge sections of the concrete floor with a couple layers of latex and then rolled it up. it worked well and cleaned the floor nicely too.

it's a big time saver if you tint your latex before hand. i use that tip for almost everything. it is especially nice for big construction makeups. if you've got your base color laid down as soon as the latex and cotton are built up, it saves you a bunch of time basing everything out.

[Cat]

Precolor with acrylics??
_________________
And when i get that feeling, i want, special effectual healing ♥

[Gratuitous Gore Effects]

Actually when I am in a time crunch, I take lik 1/4-1/2 rope and dunk it in molten pretinted gelatin, hang it to dry, and then dunk once more, and hang to dry, then I paint with Skin Illustrator and use lots of non beading blood.