rosemary's pixie
All posts tagged Medusa
Face Off Season 10 Episode 10: Cyclops!
Published March 18, 2016 by vfdpixie
This week, the remaining 5 artists headed back to the lab to find McKenzie with a selection of gruesome, otherworldly eyeballs in apothecary jars. They had to create their own Cyclops character in the tradition of other Greek mythological creatures like the Kraken and Medusa. They were all really excited for this Focus Challenge, and would be working with models 6'4 to 7 feet tall for that extra special cyclopean terror. Their guest judge on the reveal stage would be Douglas Smith who played Tyson the Cyclops in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
Mel got a more human-looking eyeball and decided to create a human/husky hybrid crossbred for the military. She had trouble with the eye placement and tried to make it look natural. Mr. Westmore suggested she veer away from the dog idea, since it could look silly. He told her to work on the jowls more, and she came up with a more alien look. She also attempted to create a Mohawk with a bald cap ala Dick Smith and Taxi Driver. It didn't quite work, and the eye looked googly. She tried putting a gloss on the paint job for more dimension, but in her words, it was a "disaster". The judges laughed when they saw the character, but it wasn't supposed to be funny. There were too many strange shapes for them, and they didn't like the jowls. Glenn thought there were too many ideas going on, Neville thought it was silly, but Douglas thought it was an interesting idea. She was in bottom looks.
Rob picked a brilliant blue eye with a pupil that made him think of an aquatic creature. He created a cyclops that forged Poseidon's trident. Rob used an eye form and screws to create a permanent socket for the eye in the mold. All the artists used this technique for their creations. He decided to move the eye to the mouth area, but realized that it didn't work. He had to start over 3 hours into the challenge, and was panicked. Mr. Westmore suggested he make the mouth bigger and widen the eye. There was also trouble with Rob seeing the symmetry in the makeup, so Yvonne helped him. He felt pressured because he's been in top looks so often he had to maintain his standing. He was the last to go into the mold room, and Melissa was good enough to help him get the clay out of his mold. His paint job involved a bright yellow and blue, which he liked, in fact, it was his favourite paint job so far. He added quills that struggled to stay put, but the final makeup was really great. Douglas thought the character looked regal and scary at the same time, and the judges loved the colour combo. Neville thought there was a strong silhouette, form and graphics in the makeup, and this put Rob in top looks.
Walter picked a pink and purple eye. His son of Hades would be a demigod. He created wrinkles around the eye so the model could see, but that would come back to haunt him later. Mr. Westmore suggested a lavender skin tone, and Walter added quills as well to his makeup. He was first in the mold room, and practiced his painting techniques to get ahead of the game, but the bald cap wouldn't stay down. He also had an issue matching the body paint with the face, and took a risk because this was a Focus Challenge for the face, so he wasted time with the body painting. The judges thought the wrinkles didn't make sense, and they saw the lifting bald cap. They thought it was a good attempt, but some anatomical issues made the eye look wrong. He would be in bottom looks.
Melissa picked a reptilian eye. She went with a reptilian monster warrior, using the eyelash viper as a reference. She had always wanted to do a cyclops and a reptile makeup, so she naturally combined the two. Mr. Westmore told her to keep the base coat of her paint job lighter so you could see all the detail of her sculpting. She used yellows and greens to lighten up the paint, and also pulled from the reticulated python for a pattern. She did an incredible job! The judges were wowed by all the work she did in such little time. Doug loved the hole detailing on the sides of the character's face, and Glenn thought the melding of birds and reptile for the challenge was brilliant. Ve thought it was beyond complex, and with these rave reviews, Melissa was in top looks.
Yvonne's eye was purple, white and red, so she decided to go a more traditional route for her cyclops. He was Satan's blacksmith, and he would have classic devil horns. Rob had to help her out with the design of the browbone. She wasn't pleased with the sculpt but had to move on to sculpting because she was running out of time. She used classic Devil red and black for her paint job. The eyelid drooped too much, but she had zero time to address it. On the reveal stage, the judges thought the colours were monotone, and the horns contrived. Douglas like that the makeup had full mobility of the mouth as an actor, and Ve thought it was a clean makeup with nice edges. She was safe.
The winner this week was Melissa for her incredibly detailed, set-ready work. The person going home was Mel. Her makeup didn't come together BUT the judges decided to use the one-time immunity on her!! She was super grateful, and was warned to make it count. She could now join the ranks of the other stressed-out artists as they make their way to the finale.
Posted in: Face Off, T.V a.k.a My Stories
Tagged: apothecary, cyclops, Douglas Smith, eyeballs, Face Off, Face Off Season 10, Focus Challenge, Greek mythology, Kraken, Medusa, monsters, Mr. Westmore, Percy Jackson
Face Off Season 7 Episode 11: Greek Gods
Published October 9, 2014 by vfdpixie
The artists went to the lab this week as usual, but this time it looked like a coliseum. For the Foundation Challenge, they had to create one of Medusa's victims. Their guest judge was Michele Burke, who has worked on The Cell, is a 6 time Oscar nominated makeup artist, and 2 time winner for Dracula and Quest For Fire. She wanted them to pay attention to the way they duplicated textures of stone and the expression of fear on the victim's face. The prize was a Paasche spray booth worth $2000. The winner was Stella who came up with a creature that wanted to kill Medusa. Michele thought it was creative and she liked the use of prosthetics, the fierce expression and her paint job. Since they had created victims of a Greek mythological beast, the Spotlight Challenge would have them reimagine a Greek god and use that god's individual powers to create a supernatural fantasy character. They also had to create a severed head of a mythological monster that the god had conquered. The guest judge was none other than Scott Wilson, or Herschel from The Walking Dead! He would know first hand what a severed head should look like, since his character bid farewell to his noggin on the show.
Drew picked Hades, god of the underworld. He went for a desiccated corpse-like makeup with the severed head of an imp. He made a nasty neck stump for his imp head which he was happy with, and his Hades was sufficiently gruesome, with a terrible pallor to his skin. The judges liked the ragged 3 spired crown and this makeup kept Drew safe.
George got Zeus, god of the sky. He wanted a Renaissance oil painting look, and designed an attractive mediterranean god with the severed head of a titan. He made some armour by heating L200, shaping it and laying a shiny epoxy over it. He was at first happy with his face sculpt, but ran out of time and had to scramble to paint the body armour so that it looked like the sky. The end result was kind of "meh!". The judges liked the look of the face but the costume made the character "look like a crossdresser". They would have liked him to have used the model's body instead of covering it up, they felt the facial hair didn't match, and the armour looked like "man boobs". In the end, judges thought the character didn't match the god's powers so this look put him in the bottom.
Stella took on Poseidon who carried a sea creature's head. She aimed for a seahorse look, and Mr. Westmore told her to overemphasize the gills on the face and mouth of her design. Her major issue this time was opening her mold. She didn't put in pry points which makes opening the casting easier, so with a slow and steady hand, she chipped away until it finally gave. On application day, she had to cut her face piece so that it fit the cowl and didn't cover the ears of her character. I really liked the sculpt of this makeup and the judges like the sea greens and blues she used. Although the severed head looked like a "Fraggle Rock fish" to Glenn and a potato to Lois, Stella was safe.
Dina got Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. She was going to use the sea element as well and her severed head would be a giant Angler fish. Mr. Westmore advised her to sculpt larger eyelids to do a good beauty makeup. Dina really took her time perfecting her cowl and created a truly beautiful character. The judges loved the detail and symmetry, and they also thought her use of the model's features was triumphant. Scott thought that all the details flowed, and along with the great creature head overall good use of colour and shell forms, Dina was in the top looks.
Sasha chose Athena, the goddess of war. Once again she was stumped. She thought of using an owl which is associated with Athena, but she had already done that this season. She finally came up with Athena being turned to stone and controlled by Medusa's head. Um, yeah, sure. Sasha hated the idea, but went with it anyway. Mr. Westmore told her that she had to make Medusa's head look alive and not like a Halloween prop since she was basically going against what the challenge called for. Sasha sculpted snakes for the head, and a helmet out of L200 for her goddess. Medusa's head was not looking good at all, and during last looks, she had to scrap the helmet because it didn't fit over the facial prosthetics. Her character was not good. The Medusa head looked like a doll, or as Neville called it "an anime sex doll head", and Scott thought the stone effect looked like dried clay. It was unacceptable to them, and didn't satisfy the challenge because the god being affected by the creature didn't make sense. She was in the bottom looks as a result.
Cig worked on Apollo, god of plague, carrying the boiled covered head of pestilence. He wanted him to be aflame since he rode a chariot of fire. His flame sculpt started to look like his alien from a past challenge, so he had to tweak it. He did an interesting paint job, starting with black followed by gold; layering paint to get a great highlight effect. It looked really regal with the flames. Neville thought it was a cornucopia of forms which was a good thing, and they all thought it was successful and captured the glorious nature of a god. The only thing that Lois noticed was the flames on the shoulders which looked like a lady's puff sleeve to her. She felt the shoulders should have been broader. He was safe this week.
Scott Wilson loved all the makeups and took his hat, er head off to all their hard work. There was only one top look and that was Dina! She was "head and shoulders" above the others and the judges loved her sculpting, paint job and severed head.
The bottom looks belonged to Sasha and George. Because of her flawed concept, Sasha went home this week. The judges thought she was really talented, and she was grateful for the experience and was determined to work on her confidence. It's coming down to the final artists. At this point, anyone could make it to the finale, but I'd like to see Dina, Stella and Cig make it to the end. We shall see in the coming weeks!
Tagged: Face Off, Face Off Season 7, Greek gods, Medusa, severed heads
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