Reptilian Make-Up Tutorial

It has been FOREVER since I posted here - o.O - and this entry will be a bit different from the things that I have posted before.  This Halloween weekend, I went out dressed up as a half-human, half-reptile, and it was AWESOME!  I had a blast.  A ton of people asked me about who did my face, and, in hopes of being helpful, I'm putting up a tutorial on how I did it. :D

You will need:
Sharpie Markers - Light Green, Dark Green, Teal/Aqua, and Black
Eyeliner Pencils (NOT liquid) - White and Black (and possibly a sharpener, if you're like me and bought the cheap pencils that aren't fancy and automatic)
About an hour and a half - possibly more, depending on the amount of coverage you're doing
A good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at yourself

Notes before you begin:
This tutorial is designed for people with fair skin – I’ve only done it on myself, so I really don’t know how it would work on anything darker than my pasty whiteness. ;)
This is done almost entirely with permanent markers – I don’t honestly know how safe this is, I use them because I’m allergic to everything under the sun, and these don’t cause me to break out.
Do not wash your face first – the natural oils of your skin will help to protect it from the markers, and assist with blending as you progress.
The colors of Sharpie and Bic brand permanent markers come off pretty easily with dish soap.  I have had different results using different colors, brands, and areas of the body.
I put in contacts first – there’s no way I would have gotten them in afterward without smearing everything all over.
Once everything is washed off, you'll look like you have blackheads because the ink seeps into your pores while you're wearing it.  Give it a few hours and wash your face again - you'll be good to go.

Step One:
You’ll have to excuse me, I forgot to take a photograph of just the dark green outlines.  Do them! Using your dark green marker, place your ovals and half ovals where you are going to want your scales.  Take a look at a couple different types of lizard, and use those as a basic reference.  The lines don’t have to be sharp or clean, and throughout the entire process remember that we are not drawing scales – we are drawing the /appearance/ of scales.  Important distinction. ;)
You can see here that I’ve started to lightly block out some shapes on my ear, and that my dark green lines basically stop at the edge of my hair line.  This will change later, but right now, it’s not important, we’re just laying the foundation for later.
Using my lightest green, I then went over all of the scaled area and filled it in, continuing in some places past the scales – this is going to be the groundwork for later.  I varied the intensity of the light green in some areas, keeping in mind the areas that I’d like to be a little bit lighter at the end.  Nothing needs to be clean or defined at this point, just have a good time getting used to scribbling on yourself and noticing the way the marker is working on your skin.

Step Two:

Pull out that teal color, and go outline all those dark green circles.  Remember to make a couple slashy lines along your cheek- that’s where your ‘teeth’ will be.  Thick lines will be fine – we’re starting to create some depth here.  This is usually about the time where I start to go, “Ahhhh!!! I’m messing it up!!! This looks TERRIBLE!”  Don’t worry! Everything will be okay!  I also start to make some diagonal lines out from some of the joining areas of the scales into the rest of the skin, and going over any areas that I feel like I missed with that light green marker – it just looks better to me.  This is all up to you and your tastes, and the effects that you want to create with it.  I also start to block a little further into the ear, but not much – don’t worry about the way that area looks at all.  You’re mostly going to just color it over anyway.

Step Three:

Whip out that black marker! Are you tired of drawing circles yet?  You’ll love with this part then! Go ahead and outline all those ovals again.  Isn’t this fun?! I’ve also begun to really darken up those areas between the scales – all those little places where I’m noticing the skin tone to be glaringly obvious – this is where I take care of that.   I also make sure to accent those teal slashy lines – not directly over them, but to the side of them, overlapping.  Feeling better now?  You’ll start to look a bit more reptilian at this point, take a few deep breaths – you’re doing awesome!
You can see that I’ve also decided I want to go a little further back on my neck – I lay down some black lines where I think I want to put those scales, and since they’re going to be less prominent anyway, I can just color them over and then shade with turquoise and dark green.

Step Four:

I pull out that teal marker again, and add some darker areas where I feel like the lines are too sharp – this is really easy, just trace inside the black.  Gives it a little depth, and softens it up a little bit.  If I see too much natural skin color, no problem, touch it up with my super light green.  I’ve also started to color my ear.  Scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble, yeah!

Step Five:

I use my teal and dark green to really fill in the color back into my hair line, as well as finishing up the base coat on my ear.  I touch up the sides of my neck, skipping the black where I want it to start to blend (remember those little diagonal lines out from the joining areas of the ovals!), and basically make sure my colors are in where I want them.

Step Six:

This is where we separate the lizards from the loozards (Get it? Loozard? Like ‘loser’? It’s okay, you can groan.)  Take that black eyeliner pencil, and fill in the area around your eye.  Get as close as you can to the edge of your eyelid – remember, reptile eyes  are a little more dramatic around the edges than mammals, so you’re going to get it as crisp as you can.  You’re also going to want to blacken the area around the undersides of your nostrils, otherwise the fleshy color is going to throw off the rest of the look.  Use your white eyeliner to make your ‘toothy’ slash lines.

Step Seven:

Highlighting.  If you’re anything like me, at this point you’re sweaty and your eyeliner pencils have broken a million times and that stupid sharpener is useless and you’re irritated at drawing these stupid ovals and- and- and- and- HANG IN THERE!!! YOU’RE ALMOST DONE!!!  Pick the direction that you want the lighting to come from (aka, pick which side of the ovals you want the white lines to be on).  This can vary a little bit, but should stay in roughly the same area for each oval.  Around the inner edges of the ovals, take that white eyeliner pencil and draw some semblance of half circles.
Toss a couple white lines on that ear for good measure – you are so pro.

BOOM!

Get some decent lighting, and check out how amazing you look!  Ta-da!!! You did it! :D

Blanks in, spots out!

Oh Dalmation spots... How you do require patience...

If you all recall the post "I Get Lizards In The Mail", you then met Finch (aka Vanity), out of Crown Jewel Reptiles that I purchased for my boy Norbert (you can see him here: Norbert!).  The two of them were placed together this season, to see what sort of babies they'd produce, and - lo and behold - we hatched out Rapscallion:

And Rascal:

But... But... But... Where's the SPOTS?!

They're developing, slowly.

...SoooOOOoooOOOoooo slowly.

But they ARE appearing!  Hooray! :D

You Might Be A Reptile Person If...

Since I do so love Jeff Foxworthy, and his "You might be a redneck if..." commentary, I decided to start a list of my own.  Without further ado, "You might be a reptile person if..."

...You go digging through the recyclables to save plastic water bottle lids, toilet paper tubes, and egg crates.

...You go to bed sweating because it's become more efficient to heat the entire house than individual tanks.

...To you, Tupperware means 'sauna', not 'leftovers'.

...You wonder why anyone would buy the glass starter tanks, because clearly they aren't stack-able.

...You get irritated at a ten minute drive to the grocery store for food, but a four hour trip to the next expo seems perfectly reasonable.

...You can understand why someone would breed roaches.

...You've ever had to move the rats to get to your ice cream.

...When someone says, "Nice rack!", you look for a caging system.

...Similarly, "That guy has awesome balls," does not sound like an obscene reference to you.

...When the news reports a python on the loose, anything under 8' makes you shrug dismissively.

...You know why people hate shipping from California.

...You've ever looked at your collection and thought, "Hm, guess I'm not moving to Hawaii."

...The animals in your home have three different categories: Pets, Breeders, and Feeders.

...You actually have a species wishlist.

...You know the difference between UVA and UVB, and what the purpose of vitamin D3 is.

...And you actually care.

...The term, "Sperm Retention" means something to you.

...You see your friends will all of their cute, cuddly, furry, affectionate animals and don't really see the attraction.

...You catch yourself correcting people on the difference between a turtle and a tortoise.

...You've ever rolled your eyes about amphibians being lumped into the same category as tortoises, snakes, and lizards.

....You can explain to the person sitting next to you why they wouldn't be.

...You know that male snakes don't have a penis.

...You thought to yourself after that last one, "Great, now we're going to have yet another thing to clear up with all of the non-reptile people...."

Snake Pee and Smelling Salts

This journal entry was originally written on July 29th of 2010, while my reptiles and I were still residing in a single bedroom of my parents home. While the count of the animals fluctuates, and I now keep them outside of my bedroom, the sentiment remains the same. Enjoy!

--

Living in close quarters with animals will teach you nothing if not patience. As it currently stands (after a few unexpected losses, and downsizing for the move), I share my bedroom with three Ball Pythons, sixteen Crested Geckos, and one Leopard Gecko. One can only imagine what the room has looked like over the past sixteen years, constantly transforming to accommodate yet another tank when, just after adding the last one, I swore to myself that there was 'absolutely, positively, no more room.'
A light sleeper in general, I have (over time) become much more adept at continuing to snooze straight through the various bumps, thumps, rustles, clicks, chirps, thunks, and other assorted noises in the night. The one thing I have not adjusted to is... snake pee. (Henceforth referred to by its scientific name, 'urates'.)
Currently, my bed is lofted six feet into the air to allow myself some actual living storage space; all said and done, I use the area under my bed for supplies and clothing, and sleep roughly 18" from the ceiling. Sleeping quarters are cramped, with poor air circulation and heat issues - or, as I call it, "cozy".
It is not quite so 'cozy' at two o'clock in the morning, when I have suddenly come from REM sleep to full consciousness at lightning speed, only to discover that my sinuses and lungs are ON FIRE and I can barely breathe.
Between the nocturnal nature of the animals I keep, the natural out-gassing of waste products, and the very poor circulation of air around my head at night, I regularly find myself waking up in just such a manner. There's no polite way to say it - urates STINKS. It is, basically, a waste form of ammonia; ammonia, as you may or may not know, is the main ingredient in smelling salts. It has become no real surprise to the rest of my family to discover me up and scrubbing tanks in my boxer shorts at three a.m., or crashed on the futon in the living room for the night with my bedroom window open until the area becomes 'livable' again. (It also helps explain why all of the animals are in my room - it's tough to make an argument for having any part of the rest of the house smell like that. Maybe we could keep them in the bathroom?)
It also makes it obvious that the only people who keep animals like that are people that love them.
I have heard many people exclaim, "Oh, isn't it darling!" about a newborn baby - and maybe, to some, it is; wrinkly, purple, crying and screaming and smelling of sour-milk-y vomit... Adorable. For the most part, though, I think there's something about that statement that rings most true for the mother and father; the ones that have been up all night feeding it, changing its diapers, burping it, and singing it back to sleep as best as they can - the ones that changed their lives to have it in their homes.
That's how it is for me with my reptiles; where many people look at them and see a scaly representation of evil itself (which is sometimes how I view newborns, so I'll call it an even trade), I see my own version of a kid - the thing I've worked my life around to keep.

I sometimes indulge in shameless self promotion.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - the reptile industry isn't the one to get into if you're in it for the cash and prizes.

That said, it's a frickin' awesome hobby, especially during Spring!

If you don't know about my webpage yet, go ahead and check it out:

www.partygecko.com

You can also follow us on Facebook by going here:

http://www.facebook.com/partygecko#!/

Some of the babies...

DIY - Isolation/Hydration Station

Every once in a while, you're going to need to separate one of your animals from the others - whether it's a new arrival, an illness, an injury, aggression, etc. This can be done quickly and easily, for far less than the cost of setting up an entirely new tank. The DIY I'm showing here is designed for temporary use (generally for injury or hydration), since it's such a basic set-up, but it can be easily modified to suit your needs.

In this case, I'm showing you how to make a 'hydration station' for a Crested Gecko.

Since I'm working with smaller animals, I'm using a plastic shoe box that was given to me by a friend of mine - I've also used plastic tubs designed for storage, which can be used to accommodate larger animals.

As substrate, I've laid down a couple paper towels. Paper towels are an excellent substrate for hydration, as they hold quite a bit of moisture - they are also a great choice for juveniles of many species, as well as injured animals due to their cleanliness, ease of changing, and color (white, simple backgrounds are far easier to spot waste and other important to see items on).

I've misted heavily, and placed a food dish into the shoebox.



Using a paring knife, I poked several holes in the lid.
(Apologies for the angle, but it does show some of the holes better than a straight on view.)



Annnnnd... that's it.

Easy, huh? :)

Now, for a recovering animal, this is a pretty solid set up (add a water dish if they're going to be in there for more than a few hours, even with a heavy mist) - for an animal that just needs to be separated and is going to be in there for a prolonged period of time, use a larger space and add more decorations (paper towel and toilet paper tubes work well for a variety of species). Done and done. Quick, easy, and inexpensive.