How to achieve blood effects that won't stain?

Most fake bloods you're going to find in costume shops and the like is going to stain pretty much everything it touches. There is one that might work that starts as gel...give me a little bit and I'll see if I can find it.

 

http://www.spirithalloween.com/product/blood-gel/

This may work for what you want since it's not "wet" gel and will harden after applied, so it'll be easier to get dripping-down-the-chin effects. Of course you'll definitely want to spot test first. I've used this stuff pretty frequently and haven't had any skin or clothes staining issues with it.

 

I'd suggest maybe creating the blood separately and applying it. Something like that hardening gel or else some paint mixed into a clear-hardening glue would work to pre-make blood drips and trails. Just squirt or paint onto some wax paper and let it set Then I would think you should be able to carefully place the dried results onto your doll for a short time without it staining. I've made hardening decorative blood like that using mod podge several times. (examples: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/308984_881034492924_1768952295_n.jpg and http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6075/6089310805_919e2efab9_o.jpg) The dried product will still be flexible but a little tacky. Of course it won't give you the wet face full of blood look, but could work for accents.

I of course want to state that I have NOT done this on a resin doll, so I don't know for sure if it would work or would or would not stain.

 

Another thing you might experiment with is to check if MSC provides adequate protection. Anyway, you'll probably want to use the blood gel, as it seems the most likely to give you the control you'll want.

Test by spraying some less sensitive part of the doll, such as the inside of the headcap, with MSC. One it's dried, apply the blood gel. After a while (representative of the time it would take you to actually do the shoot) remove it, and see if it has left a stain on the MSC.
If not, you should be fine; if it has, remove the MSC with isopropanol and see if the stain has penetrated through the MSC.
If it hasn't, you're probably fine; if it has, you'll know not to use this compound directly on the doll.

If you intend to apply the blood on an area that is painted (face-up or body blushing) -- especially if your test shows that the blood gel does stain the MSC -- the best strategy is probably to first apply an additional layer or two of MSC over the area in question before the photo shoot. If there is a stain, you can then remove it by ever-so-lightly sanding it away with very fine grain sand paper (1200 grit or finer). The idea is to just remove the topmost layer with the stain, and leave the layers below -- and the paintwork they're protecting -- untouched. After that, you can reapply a layer of MSC.

If you feel inclined to try this out, I would recommend thorough testing first. Oh, and the text above assumes that painted parts of the doll are already sealed with MSC or a compatible product. If not, you'll need to use a product that is compatible with whatever it has been sealed with.

 

i'm not sure if it would stain or not, but if you use puff paint on wax paper to create drips, and let it dry, it would be a cheap alternative to the gel blood. i'm not sure if they sell it in a "true" blood colour, so you might have to do some mixing with red and brown.

 

Late reply, but! I've seen that some people use watercolors for temporary effects like that. Specifically I know somebody used it to look like streaky eyeliner tears, so the watercolor was black and apparently it washed right off afterwards. You may not get it to look as thick or deep red as blood, but you can correct that in Photoshop I suppose. It would certainly look more real than completely Photoshopped-on blood.

In any case, whatever you use, you should remove as soon as you are done taking photos. Red is a color that just loooves to stain stuff, so it's best to take precautions!

 

I would just use photoshop lol I would be too scared to put anything on my dolls that could possibly stain or harm them D:

 

It's a little late, but the various "window-gel" blood splatters they sell for Halloween work well. So does digitally adding blood if you're only going for single pictures. Digital effects take more effort to do manually for numbers of photos, as in a photostory, unless you're really advanced in photo manipulations (which I'm not!)

 

hmm.. if I wanted to do this I'd honestly think spray him with another coat of MSC for good measure, and drip a watered-down watercolor paint, like she said... maybe I'd use a color other than red like light orange and just shop it.

 

I worked at a Halloween store, and despite contrary belief, the fake blood for your face and theatrics DOES NOT stain. However, the fake blood for home decor does. If I were you I'd purchase a small tube of theatrical edible blood or gel edible blood (edible blood is safer and cleans off easier) when taking it off, if scrubbing with soap and water doesn't work, use a Mr. Clean magic eraser.

 

Personally, I prefer to use Photoshop over any real substance. I guess I'm very paranoid about staining because red is one of those colors that loves to linger.

I think if this is going to be a continuous theme in your photos that will wear and tear at the faceup. If it's a one time thing... it may be worth the experimentation.

I have some pics of blood I photoshopped. I'm not saying it's convincingly real by any means...but I think it serves it's purpose and gets the point across. I'd be interested to see how the gel works out though... if it really is safe to use on dolls and MSC it could achieve a really nice effect.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5465/6929495502_e384fe4670_c.jpg

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?285694-Mad-Man-Volks-Eden-Blood-Warning

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?349515-Tea-for-Two-WARNING-GORE-Souldoll-I-so-Luts-Yder&highlight=Souldoll+Yder+gore

 

I'm very curious now. I think those extra feet I got for my doll would be a good test platform for testing various blood type substances. After a nice spraying with MSC of course......Off to the lab Robin!

 

maybe a little of topic, but it is a oppurtunity. when you are editing, it is also possible to ad blood with special photoshop brushes

 

I may be a bit late replying, but I would definitely consider using a glue gun. Sounds odd, but all you need is that and a plastic surface, then perhaps some red watercolor. Practice making a dripping effect with your glue gun on the plastic, until you have the "dribbles" or whatever you desire. Watercolor them red, and then just peel them off the plastic! The pieces stick to your doll without residue or staining. I used the same technique for making tears for my doll, to make her look like she's crying. I don't have a picture right now (heh, sorry!) but I can post one as soon as I can! I hope I wasn't too late to help out. ^.^