Self-taught make-up artist makes people scream when she goes to supermarket

A self-taught special effects make-up artist who paints her face and body to bring famous or gruesome characters to life has coaxed screams from the public by going to the shops still made up – cycling around Walmart on a tricycle disguised as “Bob Ross Deadpool”.

Monster enthusiast Kim Witte, 28, worked at a haunted house before starting her own special effects make-up company, Witte Artistry, teaching people how to use make-up and body paints to look like their favourite fictional characters through YouTube.

The young entrepreneur from Rockton, Illinois, who taught herself while she was still at school after watching a TV show about make-up artists, now forges a full-time career recreating famous comic book characters like Marvel’s Groot and the Joker from the DC universe and creating striking new characters of her own.