(That said, they were right that his paint job was terrible…that frigging pink, man…)
Also, am I the only one who’s bugged by their calling it a Battle Royale when it’s a series of head-to-heads?
Okay, I went back to look at Matt’s chef again, and I have to say it is just a mess of colors. Yes, the pale hits the ghostly nod, but the reds and purples are too much - I agree with Neville on that. I also note a similarity to his dentist with the same theme of random teeth and splotches of color for the idea of whimsy. He seems a one trick pony on that.
vislor, I’m okay with the ladies being on bottom. This show seems to be rated on merits and not drama or on balancing the genders. I do agree that they rated Jordan’s and Matt’s higher than they deserved and made some comments about anatomy that didn’t apply to others, so there was probably justification to have put a guy on bottom, but honestly what digs me is Matt winning. Damien’s was muddy but he had a passable fat guy and the color was intended to read ghost. Whereas Mel’s didn’t read as a ghost at all - too alive. Jordan’s was way too cartoony for me, but it’s hard to be a bottom look and win your division.
This week - Tarot Cards!
McKenzie does another acting bit, though much briefer this time. The challenge: take a tarot reading from an expert and use your three cards to influence your design for a Death Card figure. So everybody is doing Death, but they are supposed to use influences from their three picked cards to give direction to their version. Competitors randomly selected this time.
Walter vs. Jordan: Walter selects the Sun, 9 of Cups, Magician. Jordan picks 10 of Cups, 4 of Cups, and Judgment. Walter gives his character a crown for the material wealth of the Sun, and then a skeletal aspect to be scary, but a soft glowing heart for the love and happiness of the 9 of Cups. Jordan wants a bony demon guy with three eyes to represent past, present, and future. Walter spends a lot of time sculpting shoulder pieces to make the scapulae and clavicles protrude. Then Jordan accidently breaks his mold (oops) and he can’t salvage the pieces, but he does have some other pieces he sculpted for the elbows that he’s able to make work to give the shoulder some points. Salvage from bad luck.
Damien vs. Graham: Damien gets Justice Reversed, 6 of Wands Reversed, and 9 of Swords. Graham gets 9 of Swords, 6 of Wands Reversed, and Judgment. Yep, they pull two of the same cards. Damien’s concept takes the imagery from the cards and he decides on a helmet made of swords that wrap around the head like a crown and partially hide the eyes since Justice is blind. He also wants the mouth melded shut for some reason. He chooses a pink color scheme for some reason. Graham goes more beautiful and artistic. He takes the angel from the Judgment card as his base, and then thinks of a helmet and a sword collar to tie in the other cards. On application day, he has to fabricate the wings, so he has his model help and it takes almost the whole four hours of application time. That leaves last looks to actually apply his makeup. OK. Oh, and the helmet didn’t get finished, so he can’t use it. What did he spend all his sculpt time doing? He has one small face appliance. 
Kevon vs. Derek: Kevon gets the Hierophant, the Tower, and the 4 of Wands Reversed. Derek pulls 4 of Cups Reversed, the 5 of Swords, and the Hierophant Reversed. (Does it bug anyone else how this Tarot reader pronounces “Heriophant”?) Derek takes the crown from the Hierophant and adds the swords by making them the tips of the crown. Kevon takes the 4 of Wands by having 4 spikes on the shoulders, and his character will be bony.
Mel vs. Matt: Mel has 5 of Swords, Queen of Pentacles, and the Moon. Matt gets … “the energy of winning”. They don’t mention the cards, just the bullshit. Okay, it’s the Queen of Cups, Strength, and Queen of Swords. Matt takes that and decides to do a religious play and mirror the Pope’s mitre hat in the cowl, and make her skeletal to add a sinister look. Uh-oh, I see teeth. He also puts a 4-winged angel motif on the cowl. Mel takes the balance of the Moon and the transition of the Death card, so she wants something half demon and half human. Mel’s sculpt looks like a stroke victim, not a demon. Mr. Westmore gives her some practical advice on changing the look to fix it. Then for some reason, she wants the human half to transform into rock shapes - the Moon? Now it doesn’t look human, but two different demons melding together.
You know, I miss when they showed more of the artist’s conceptions using their own art rather than a show artist drawing what they completed. I get that theirs are sometimes more fantastical and the show artist is more concrete, but I want to see their idea, not the realization. That comes later in the reveal.
Judging
Mel vs Matt: Quick look - Matt. Mel has a demon with two different textures on his face, the bony side is not conveying rock or magma like she suggested to Mr. Westmore. I kinda like the other scaly side, but that’s just me. There’s no explanation to what is causing the two sides (transition but from what to what), it just reads like a big lump of confusion. Matt once again has bad teeth on the cheeks. His mitre hat cowl and overall concept and look are good, but he’s gone for a skeletal jaw and cheeks (again) and put in teeth. This time the teeth on the jaw are okay, but he then has teeth angled down from the sides of the nose. WTF? And then there is a separate mouth with lips and all inside that mouth. At least the rest of the paint job is good and he doesn’t have colored splotches on the robe. I am not in love with the torso, though. Looks rough and not anatomical.
The judges don’t see death in Mel’s, it’s blocky and a nebulous texture. They love Matt’s paint choice and the mitre shape and the angel embellishment. Once again, the teeth are ignored. COME ON! SAY SOMETHING! Winner: Matt
Kevon vs Derek: Kevon did a lot of work and it looks good, but I’m not feeling the Tarot influence. Also, I don’t care for the reds and purples on the face. Still, it is scary. And the chest looks great. Derek’s has a decent look. The sculpt is good but the paint job is muddy and the organic crown is a bit passé.
Ve thinks Kevon should have made the head more bulbous to fix the proportions, but I don’t see it. Glen thinks Derek’s paint job is gorgeous, but Ve thinks it is messy. Winner: Derek
Walter vs. Jordan: Walter has a great demony death with an awesome paint job - that has been his strength. I’m not in love with the glowing heart thing, but understand the role it plays. I really wish I could have seen his original shoulder sculpts applied. Jordan did a big bony skull demon. I was all set to praise him for avoiding his cartoonish style, but looking at the paint job and the final result, I see it poking out. Also, the face is a frozen mask instead of integrating to the model’s face. I also think the third eye could have looked more like the other two eyes. I do like the paint job for the top of the head.
Glen says Walter’s color transitions are mind-blowing. Ve loves the crown, with gold tips. Glen says that Jordan has a step in the right direction, but still a bit cartoony. Winner: Walter.
Damien vs. Graham: Quick look, Graham all the way. Walter’s is bubble gum pink. The helmet is hard to read as swords, and the mouth has no justification. It’s a cool effect, but wasted on this character. Meanwhile Graham has pulled off a remarkable if subtle application. The face has beauty yet pulls off the skeletal look as if skin pulled tight over bone structure. The red might be a bit much, but it matches the red of the hood and makes the character unified. The costume also looks more Tarot in style. The wings look great, using feathers. And she does have a sword, so she’s not empty handed. Winner: Graham.
The judges don’t like Damien’s Death, “a German metal festival”. And the pink. For Graham, “it’s super subtle, there’s no texture, and it works.”
Top Looks
Derek - The sculpture is great but the paint washed it out. Still, Glen thinks it did a good job weaving in elements from the other cards. Neville says that up close it becomes more interesting - which means the paint is muddy from afar.
Matt - Ugh. He gets top looks for those teeth. “The vision of this … is so alluring.” The head shape and color palette are what make it successful.
Graham - “I think this amount of restraint is to be praised.” “I love that it’s not a skull. Y’ know what, let’s do an anatomical version of a man without a face. I love that.”
Winner: Matt. UGH! I would have given it to Graham. He did less work, but he did it better. And no bad teeth.
Bottom Looks
Damien - “I find the choice of pink very strange.” “I like the intelligence behind the choice of doing a helmet, but the reveal isn’t particularly good.” Your design sucks. “I did not feel the presence of any of the Tarot or the symbolism, or even the style of art in Damien’s creation.”
Jordan - “This is not as realistic as what we’re looking for.” It feels like a mask. “Up close it is absolutely exquisite.” Use more color. “Think about how much more success he would have had if everything was exactly the same, just blended to the actor’s lips.”
Mel didn’t get mentioned here. Hmmm.
Now for a stats check.
Matt is firmly in the lead with 2 Wins, 2 Tops, 0 Bottoms, and he won 4 of 5 battles.
Next closest is Walter with 1 Win, 0 Tops, 0 Bottoms, and 3 of 5 battles.
Damien 1 Win, 0 Tops, 1 Bottom, and 3 battles.
Derek 0 Wins, 1 Top, 0 Bottoms, and 4 battles.
Jordan 0 Wins, 1 Top, 1 Bottom, and 4 battles.
Graham 0 Wins, 1 Top, 1 bottom and 3 battles.
Kevon 0 Wins, 1 Top, 1 Bottom, and 2 battles.
Mel 0 wins, 0 Tops, 2 Bottoms, and 1 battle.
Mel is definitely the weakest link this season, which is a shame because she did so well her own season. Kevon and Graham also have a lot of work to not be eliminated.
Matt is definitely in the driver’s seat. I almost feel the judges have set their minds on him for some reason.
Also, I came across this from McKenzie:
And a petition to save the show
I didn’t like the Tarot inspirations. I know there are umpteen versions of Tarot so it would have been nice to see the cards they were given.
I do agree that if Jordan had pulled that sculpt back onto the model’s face it would have been much better.
I really think the judges like Derek. I can’t deny his talent but for some reason, I’m annoyed by him. As for his Tarot, to me, it was the same as we have seen lots of times. Done cleanly, yes, but not outstanding.
I do think Matt did well and liked his a lot.
I liked Mel’s ideas but can’t argue it wasn’t clean.
For this week, WTF?
Matt way overextended himself and that was too big of a mold.
Kevon did have a good idea but the rest of it didn’t pull together.
Mel, Jordan, and Graham were the only ones that didn’t cover up their models when it was partly a beauty make up challenge! Graham’s wasn’t good but at least he attempted it. (And we like Megan, Damien’s model, so to cover her up was wrong!)
However, Derek winning??? WTF?? His sculpt may have been pretty but that Dryad was not! Mel or Jordan should have won it for that reason alone.
Ugh.
Finally have time for this.
This week, pick an exotic forest and create the Dryad (forest spirit) that might live in that forest. Dryad’s are fierce guardians, so include armor.
Matt gets help from expert Jordu Schell.
Kevon vs. Jordan, Avenue of the Baobabs: Jordan makes a crown of branches and a chest piece with similar textures. Kevin wants to make two shields of bark to make tree armor that camouflages the Dryad, and then bark underlying that. Concept seems okay. Then he wants a big asymmetrical cowl. He also makes the body with swirly shapes to the bark, but that doesn’t really match what the baobab tree looks like. During application, he kinda has a big brown muddy [del]turd[/del] mess. Then he tries to bring some color into the face.
Walter vs. Graham, Painted Forest: Graham notes the bark peels off, so he wants to create an overmask that can be peeled away to reveal the face. Wait, is that his actual artwork? It doesn’t look like the other drawings. Peelable bark sounds cool if he can do it. Walter also takes inspiration from the peelable bark and the underlying colors, so he wants to do war paint from the colors. That has some sense to it. He also takes the tree form and extends the bones, so he gets a redo on making his protruding shoulders from last week.
Matt vs. Derek, Dragon’s Blood Forest: Matt and Jordu take the profile of the big mushroom-shaped tree to make a big mushroom-shaped cowl, and then give the face a reptilian look. Why? Ok. Matt definitely goes big on his sculpt, but can he pull it off? Derek is lost for a concept. He finally thinks of Spartan type armor but with the tree shapes as décor on the armor. He then sculpts some tree type face.
Mel vs. Damien, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest: Mel wants to play on the beauty and sensuality, which makes sense for a beauty make up challenge, which this is. Damien takes the concept that the Dryad has taken elements of the tree to be her armor and they have begun to fuse with her. That’s a different angle than the living tree angle, so originality points. He recognizes the twisted nature of the tree and plays to that look. Mr. Westmore advises Damien that he is covering up too much of her face, so does Damien listen? He also decides to make a big, oversized tree gauntlet on one hand. Ok.
Judging
First comment: This is supposed to be a beauty challenge, so what’s with all the guys doing full face prosthetics? Everybody but Mel and Jordan cover the face to the point of losing the model. sigh
Matt vs. Derek, Dragon’s Blood Forest: Matt certainly went big, but the reptilian look is wrong for this challenge, and his colors are dark and muddy, which admittedly is tree-like. I’m not a fan of what he did with the chest, either. Derek has molded a decent sculpt for the armor, but his color scheme is wacky, and the texture on the face is too much. What was that disease comment from Mr. Westmore to Kevon? It applies here. Winner - Derek, but not by much.
Walter vs. Graham, Painted Forest: Walter has a fish-faced creature. The painted colors work and fit the tree, and he’s done some great sculpt work, especially on the shoulders, and the blending to twigs various places. Graham seems to have lost the striped nature of the colors, and has added some swirly textures for some reason. Plus, I don’t see any peelable armor, so I guess he didn’t get it finished. He does have a mask. Winner - Walter, by a hair.
Mel vs. Damien, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest: Finally we get someone who didn’t cover up the face - Mel. The beauty make up could be a bit better, but I like this one overall. Damien has some nice forms to his sculpts that capture the twisted nature of the tree, but he covers most of her face and has black splotches sticking out from under the tree armor bits. Plus, that huge tree hand that is clumsy and not elegant. Winner - Mel - thank goodness.
Kevon vs. Jordan, Avenue of the Baobabs: Kevon has changed the color, so at least it’s not a brown turd. It’s a pink turd. He does have a fair bit of the face visible, so it’s not a full face prosthetic, but the cowl is anything but beautiful and the paint can’t help it. And though I’ve heard the judges congratulate asymmetry before, this is too much. Jordan has gone for minimal face appliance, which is good, though the beauty paint aspects are missing. He has good armor and a good character, but it’s dull. The judges say it is beautiful and balanced in the design between the Dryad and the tree. Winner - Jordan.
Top Looks
Derek: “All this texture in the face should not work, but up close it really does.” Glen likes the paint choice to not be one color and to have variety to show the texture.
Walter: “It feels like the spirit of the thing is emerging from the outer shell.”
Okay, where is the love for the uncovered faces?
Winner: Walter. His sculpting finally pays off.
Bottom Looks
Damien: “It would have benefited greatly from a more symmetrical approach to the face.” Basically, he covered up the face too much. “The big piece of tree trunk almost looks like a big crab claw.”
Kevon: “I don’t see that specific tree. These giant knots are so arbitrary and anonymous and not very well delineated.” Glen says the head has too much asymmetry - it’s a lumpy mess. Ve says he missed the mark with the body, it doesn’t’ fit the challenge.
Graham: “She doesn’t look pretty.” “The choice of the cheekbones feels unnecessary, because it causes her to feel her eyes are sunken.” “The best parts of your make up are buried beneath bad color.”
Eliminated: Kevon and Graham.
Given Mel won her battle and had a beauty make up, this was the expected eliminations from stats.
I want @Irishman to know that I still appreciate and read this thread, so again I’m commenting before he has a chance to do the newest.
WTF Mel???!!! When she realized she completely messed up the paint, it was over. Had this been an elimination week, it would have been her. Not to mention her overall pallet was not a good choice.
Obviously, Damien would also have been gone for not standing up in water and not being clean.
The others were quite good and I was impressed with how well Jordan’s turned out for having something come off so far of the actor’s face!
I was surprised Matt won. Not that I didn’t like his idea but I thought Jordan’s was so much better and they said it so finished, it could have gone to a movie set. Been a while since Ve, or any of them, have said that.
Thanks for the thread!
Thanks for the thread love. These take a while to compile.
This week: pick a creature from a real 16th century map and use it to inspire an original sea monster. This week everyone will have a unique creature. Hmmm, no head-to-head monsters concepts. Oh, and these sea monsters will be put under water, so make the make up waterproof!
Matt vs. Walter: Matt says his creature has an elongated snout like a goblin shark or swordfish. It looks to me more like a hooked beak of a bird. I guess I’m too literal for this game. He opts to make a long pointy snout but put it up between the eyes rather than at the mouth. Different. I think Matt is the only one of these who has competed in a water challenge before, which he won that challenge, so he’s definitely the favored competitor for this one. Mr. Westmore comments that the cheeks are basically skeletal and to put more creature in it. Walter says his looks like an otter and a sea lion, so he wants to do sea lion tusks (I think he’s thinking of a walrus) but then more fishy for the back half. His drawing does seem to have tusks and fins, so I guess that fits. Mr. Westmore tells him to deemphasize the human aspect. Give it more fish. I sense a common theme to his comments. Walter starts working on his cowl, giving a lot of thought to how it will flow in the water and making it look functional. He then puts on some really complex paint.
Derek vs. Mel: Mel gets a literal sea horse - a horse head and fish tail. She decides to incorporate sea horse textures and anatomy to the torso and then have the face be a little more land horsey. The artwork by the show artist is bizarre and not horse-like at all, so that doesn’t bode well for Mel. Mr. Westmore gives her advice to do her paintwork, don’t start with black, start lighter and then add black over it as accents. Does she do that? Nope. She starts black and then is painting yellow over it, which in turn starts looking green. Oops. Her fix is to paint stark black back over the green to get the yellow more gold colored. Derek has a “catfish coy dragon” as his artwork, so he wants to incorporate catfish whiskers. Mr. Westmore says his sculpt looks like a bat. He doesn’t say anything specific. Think more aquatic and monstrous is the best he gives here. Derek wants to add a transparent fin to his cowl, so he uses “fishskin”, which is a type of material that is hard when dry but when gets wet, it becomes soft and mushy. Um, it’s a water challenge. Okay, so he then layers liquid latex over it to give it some strength. Applying the chest piece, he runs into a spot that folds weird and won’t lie down smooth. They’re called boobs. He manages to use some blender pieces he made to cover the gap and seal down the edge.
Jordan vs. Damien: Jordan has a fish with spines as his inspiration, so he ignores the art at goes for angler fish for his look, with a protruding jaw of teeth. He also plans to add some spikey fins to his creature to fit the art work. (I like that we see his artwork for his creature concept.) Mr. Westmore gives him specific advice to make a hole is the bottom so the jaw won’t get caught lifting all the heavy water, but will drain. Damien’s artwork has a pig’s head with a frill, a scaly body, and lion paws. He decides to do some kind of underbite and a weird nose but avoid going piglike. He wants to add the frill and other fins on the body. He wants the frill to float and swoosh in the water. (Don’t make it too thin! Give it some rigidity.) Mr. Westmore is concerned his sculpt is “weak” and not dangerous enough. Damien says he wants the frill to stick out like hard cartilage. Then he makes a number of appliances to add fins all over his creature. He’s biting off a lot of work on application day.
Judging
Mel vs. Derek: Mel, what is that thing? It doesn’t look horsey or seahorsey, it is ugly, and it has a horrible paint job. Hot pink around the eyes? The gold around the nose and mouth just look like it’s been eating something. This is a mess. In the water, it looks worse. Derek has a scary looking monster. There’s something about the texture of the chest, or maybe the paint, that makes it read like poor quality shaping and application. Not his best work. In the water, it looks better. The whiskers and fin move pretty well. The chest looks better. Derek has an easy win on the battle.
Walter vs. Matt: I love Walter’s. I love the complexity of the sculpt and the paint that enhances the look. His looks great. The only thing I’m not sold on is the fin on the head that kinda sticks out backwards in a droopy way. Everything else is pretty awesome. In the water, the fins move great and the colors work well with the lighting. I’m less thrilled with Matt’s. He’s somehow pulled off making the nose where it is without looking comical, but I don’t care for the paint on the head, or the odd body protrusions off the chest that serve no purpose. The judges are more impressed by Matt’s in the water. The judges give Matt the win for some reason. Dammit.
Jordan vs. Damien: Jordan has a really scary looking monster. The big jaw works a lot better than I thought it might. He’s done the colors in more grayscale than blues and greens, but that’s okay - it fits his motif of a deep sea creature like an anglerfish. He’s done some great fins on the back that are damaged and yet look organic. In the water, it really pops. Damien’s, on the other hand, is bizarre. The paint job is woefully underdone, the fins are haphazard, and the pink on the face and frill just look like a disease rather than intentional coloring. In the water, Damien’s starts falling apart, with fin pieces floating off and the paint coming off. The frill was too think and just tore up rather than looking like a cartilage bit. The win goes to Jordan, easily.
Top Looks
Matt: “It’s probably my favorite shark head thing I’ve ever seen, period.” The shoulder details are shell-like and fin-like. Ve loved the way the chest piece moved with the model.
Jordan: “It gives us this cornucopia of forms and shapes and things to look at that are very controlled and very purposeful, and as a consequence very believable.” “Even though it is a mask technique, this is where you use that.” "It was the best match to the mythos provided.
Winner: Jordan. Thank goodness.
What annoys me is Matt winning over Walter means Walter was assured to not get a top look for his work, which was deserving.
Bottom Looks
Mel: “The way you treated the sculpture, didn’t feel terrestrial, it didn’t feel mythological, it starts to feel very alien, and it takes you way out of the challenge.” “If you were to just put that out in front of anyone and say, ‘what do you think this challenge is about?’, they’d never guess.”
Damien: “The paint job fights the sculpture, it doesn’t help it.” “The pink tissue around the face feels anonymous and unresolved.” “It was the same blue paint job as two other people - and not done as well.”
If this were an elimination week, these two would be out. There wasn’t a third for the comparison.
Current stats:
Matt: 2 Wins, 3 Tops, 0 Bottoms, and 5 battles
The next closest is
Walter: 2 Wins, 0 Tops, 0 Bottoms, and 4 battles
Jordan: 1 Win, 1 Top, 1 Bottom, and 6 battles
Derek: 0 Wins, 2 Tops, 0 Bottoms, and 6 battles
Damien: 1 Win, 0 Tops, 3 Bottoms, and 3 battles
Mel: 0 Wins, 0 Tops, 3 Bottoms, and 2 battles
I know I put Derek ahead of Damien even though Damien has a win and Derek doesn’t. I think the overall record reflects that order.
I apologize for again commenting ahead of @Irishman’s excellent summary but we just finished it and I had to talk about it.
DARN IT!
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It turned out that they eliminated three tonight and suddenly it was the semi-finals leading to the finals.
WTF? Granted, as it’s the last season, maybe it’s a money or timing thing, I don’t know but that was a surprise, to the contestants as well, it seemed.
Definite bigger spoilers after this break.
Spoiler
space
Okay, going into the first viewing to the judges, I really thought Mel had a chance. They seemed to like her make up and outfit and it stood out as being a vampire but being feminine. I wanted to say that they have it out for the women but looking back, it’s actually been five years since no woman has been in the finale. I think the problem is that I really like Mel and knew she could make it to the finale but was so up and down this season that it’s also tough to fault the judges for her not making it.
I was not expecting Walter because I agreed with him that the burn part wasn’t great. I think that the burn thing tipped things another way. I think that It was going to be Matt and Jordan but I think that the Damien, Walter, and (maybe) Mel had a stronger chance before the burn. I can’t argue that only Derek seemed to put thought into the direction of the sun. I think Mel used the umbrella for some of the burn sites and patterns but it wasn’t obvious enough.
So, finale next week. I can’t argue as these guys have been consistent so it should be good. I’m also sad if this is going to be the last season but it’s been fun.
Like some of the other posters here, I’ve been thinking that a lot of the work this season wasn’t all-star quality — but this week, that changed. Before the burning, all six were really impressive. Some handled the damage better than others, and to me, only two really stood out: Jordan’s was very good, and Derek’s was amazing. The others ranged from “Meh” to “Huh?” But again, the six original make-ups (it’s the last season and I’m still not used to using that plural) were top-notch.
Me, too. Ve had some complaints about the original, but it was definitely the burn version that cost her a slot in the finale.
It’s funny, but I thought his burn wasn’t anywhere near as bad as he seemed to think it was. Not amazing (see above), but certainly not disqualifyingly bad, either.
I think Mel would have gone on if they hadn’t had to do the burn. I enjoyed her joke about thinking she should be exempt because she included a parasol in the initial costume. (More vampires should carry parasols.) Also, attempting to use the parasol to inform where the burns went was a good idea, if not well executed - might have been better for her if they’d had more time to do the burns, so she could actually plot it out and come up with a better effect.
Glen seemed to be pushing a bit for Matt, which bugged me (although I did like his, despite wanting not to, because I’ve got a hate-on for him ever since the two consecutive nonsensical-teeth makeups).
Ve’s complaints about directionality and the lack thereof were on-point, and something a lot of artists don’t really put enough thought into.
Comment away - this is a thread, not a blog. 
This week, the lab is transformed into a bat cave. It’s Semi-finals week, so that means dropping from 6 to 3 competitors. Also, they’re dropping the head-to-head format and going “battle royale”, which is each versus all the others. This is not a big surprise, we knew they had to at some point, and given we’re at week 8, that leaves 2 for the Finale.
This week’s challenge is Vampires! Take a real bat and use it as inspiration for an original vampire character.
Jordan, Horseshoe Bat: Jordan earned the help of expert Todd Masters. The bat has a horseshoe-shaped nose that gives it its name, and they want to take the nose and ears for concepts. I think that’s pretty much what everyone needs to do. Jordan wants to do old and sunken cheeks, so he’s adding an old-age make up to the challenge. He decides to just do a face and cowl and focus on quality over quantity. Jordan and Todd jump between the face and cowl to make sure it has a cohesive look. Mr. Westmore is concerned over the droopy ears that look very much like Dobby from Harry Potter. So Jordan reworks the ears and they look better.
Matt, Mouse-eared Bat: Matt says his bat has large angular ears and he wants a large, intimidating character. His bat is pale, so he’s going to go pale like albino for coloration. He also decides to add one big back spike instead of trying to do two wings. Interesting choice. Does it make sense? Who knows? Mr. Westmore suggests watching the painting, making it paler on the face and letting it make its own shadows rather than trying to paint all the details. Interesting. He breaks the back sculpture when trying to mold it, but manages to find a way to repair it in place.
Mel, Painted Bat: Mel decides she wants to focus on a beautiful vampire, a “glampire”, so she can use what sets her apart from the guys, the beauty makeup aspect. The painted bat fits that with the bright colors. Mr. Westmore is concerned she isn’t doing enough to make it a vampire. He wants it to be scarier. Mel decides to tweak the forms on the nose and ears but remain true to her vision and not go scary. I approve. What bugs me is her ear placement and how they look integrated into the forehead rather than either closer to the center of the head or more protruding. She also decides to make wings in addition to the minimal face, so she uses a new technique. She sculpts the forms onto a mannequin, and then applies liquid latex to that to create the wing membranes. This makes the wings part of the arms, so her model will be slightly movement constrained, but it shouldn’t be a big deal. She also makes an umbrella for her character.
Walter, False-vampire Bat: Walter made a vampire before, with big fake-looking wings. Let’s hope he learned his lesson. He wants the bat’s big jaws and big ears. He adds a big chest and big neck on the cowl. He has to rush getting the molding done and getting the clay out of the mold, but he manages to make it in time. However, the mold wasn’t quite set and leaves some rough spots on the cowl from steam pockets. He has to figure a way to cover them up.
Damien, Bamboo Bat: His bat is tiny and cute rather than ferocious, so he opts for a sleek and sexy creature, a sort of hedonistic party vampire. Damien asks a practical question about leaving the neck edge of the cowl open or closed, which Mr. Westmore suggests leaving it open so it has more flexibility during application. He apparently has enough time to run a first face the first night and practice paint on it while running a second face the next night to use during application. Smart use of time?
Derek, Slit-faced Bat: Derek’s bat supposedly has a big slit up the middle of the face, though it’s hard to see on the TV. He decides his vampire has been locked in a dungeon for centuries, so he’s going old and emaciated with it. Mr. Westmore suggests making the flares of the slit bigger. He then adds a hump to try to give a creepier profile.
Judging
Matt, Mouse-eared Bat: Scary and intimidating. I don’t know if it is “mouse-eared”, but it looks good. I am concerned about the “scorpion hump”. It does alter the profile, but feels out of place for vampire lore. However, Glenn likes the bold choice to be different.
Walter, False-vampire Bat: I love that his false-vampire has false wings, i.e. he’s wearing a large cape. He’s gone big with the head and ears, but he enlarged the neck and it fits with his bat. He’s also painted it well so the face pops. Ve loves the coloration.
Mel, Painted Bat: She has a pretty looking vampire, but I still don’t like the ears. I think she’s done enough to sell the vampire, so it’s a pretty good minimal make up, with the wings and chest to make sure she did enough work. The judges think it is well done and Ve loves the femininity. Glampire was the wise choice.
Derek, Slit-faced Bat: His vampire reads pretty good as well. He really played up the facial anatomy, and the chest and hands are pretty good. However, they don’t show us the hump. They finally show us while the judges are looking. Glenn thinks it helps sell the age, but Ve thinks it looks like a backpack. Perhaps it is how it is integrated at the neck - not well.
Damien, Bamboo Bat: He has a tiny vampire for his tiny bat. I don’t like the face, it reads to much like noodle art. I don’t know what to make of the chest anatomy. His is probably my least favorite. The judges like the chest - Ve says it’s beautiful.
Jordan, Horseshoe Bat: Jordan made the right call in focusing on the head and cowl. He has a really good age make up in the great vampire look. The ear fix was the right call, too. He’s painted it well to bring out the wrinkles and textures. He’s made his character a black-market blood salesman, with vials inside his coat like the stereotypical street watch salesman. He’s also done some great hair work. Ve comments on the detail of the wrinkling and Glenn comments on the use of paint to accent the sculpture.
Surprise Time! Additional challenge point, alter your make up to show your vampire after exposed to sunlight. 1 more hour of last looks and another review. Oh shit.
Matt, Mouse-eared Bat: He uses artex to add burn texture, and says light is coming from lots of different angles. I don’t think he puts much thought into that part. Glenn likes the texture, but Ve comments on the lack of directionality. Glenn comments that the damage is placed in a way to retain the beauty of the original design.
Walter, False-vampire Bat: He applies gelatin for melted skin and tissue paper for peeling burned skin. But he’s not happy with how it goes. I think he did okay with the burn texture, but didn’t do enough damage to the underlying structure on the head. Ve says at least it all looks like the light came from one direction. Glenn comments that he killed pretty much every challenge, which is interesting because the stats don’t reflect that. However, he was up against Matt a couple times where Matt won the battle, so he was necessarily precluded from a Top Look. And a couple times he had great make up that just missed some element they wanted.
Mel, Painted Bat: Mel wonders why she isn’t immune since she included an umbrella in her original design, but does it anyway. She adds artex for a melted look, and then adds lots of little spots and blood drips. I don’t think she has thought very much on how it happened that way, she just wants the creepy look of blood everywhere. It just looks messy and not thought out. She did sing the hair, and the umbrella has a lot of holes in it, so they speculate she was going for light poking through the holes causing the spotty damage. I think Mel did that to the umbrella for the first part of the challenge, but it helps the judges see a thought process that maybe wasn’t there. Neville says she fell short on the femininity, and the burn make up didn’t work.
Derek, Slit-faced Bat: He definitely thinks about the light direction, and burns one arm and half the face to show that thought. He applies prosaid to make crispy burn material and then adds yellow for pus and blisters. His is realistic in the texture and colors as well as the directionality. Glenn comments that the original makeup was good in the face but the rest was kind of nebulous. But he had one of the best burn makeups.
Damien, Bamboo Bat: He applies gelatin to make raised burns that he hopes read as burns deep into the anatomy. I think it just reads messy. Glenn says it helps the forehead. Neville likes that it cuts into the torso for depth, but Ve comments no directionality or sense to the burns. They don’t like the original face or the burn makeup.
Jordan, Horseshoe Bat: He begins by plucking away holes in the foam and then goes over that with paint to show blood and such. He seems to have an idea of the angle of the sunlight hitting one side of the character. I love the level of damage, and so does Neville. He singed the hair as well. Neville thinks it reads more like erosion, but was well done.
Finalists:
Walter: Great makeups all season.
Matt: strongest record all season, so no surprise there.
Winner: Jordan. Yay! I’m so happy it wasn’t Matt. But I think I liked his best anyway, so I think he earned it.
Comparing to the records, this is the expected results, even with Walter’s stats not really reflecting the overall quality of his work. I think they picked the best this week as well as the strongest all season.
I don’t think Mel’s was good enough to overcome her overall season performance, even before the burn. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t like the ears and Neville thought it missed on not being feminine enough. It’s too bad, she had a strong season when she was first on, but this season she didn’t do well.
We didn’t watch this week since it was part one. We will both of them together after the second one airs.
Just an FYI!
Finale part 1
Challenge: take a new chapter for “Through the Looking Glass & What Alice Found There” and create two characters for a short film. The director is John Wynn.
Matt - Damien and Graham, “Questionable Queen?”: The two characters are a Porcelain Prince and a Tin Jester. Porcelain Prince sounds like a wacky euphemism for a toilet to me. Matt is worried that the Tin Jester would be too monochromatic, but tin toys are often painted. His concept for the Jester is metallic with angles to the face and a drill for a nose. He wants the Porcelain Prince to be made of porcelain and have his crown integrated to the head like it is broken in that form. Damien sculpts cracks into the face and neck. On application day, Graham devises a key and gear mechanism for the Jester’s back, but they are scrambling for time so they put that off and only apply some of the paint work to give the idea of what they are going for in the details.
Walter: Derek and Yvonne, “Tea Time”: The two characters are a beautiful and clueless Lollipop Ballerina, and an old and flustered Ginger General. Walter is puzzled by the general and doesn’t want to do a Gingerbread man since he’s done that this season, so he thinks about doing a rabbit. Except he did one of those, too. Then the director tells him to avoid animals, that these are representing real people from Alice’s life. He says focus on food, he’s overindulgent and eats lots of desserts. He is an extension of food. They come up with an idea to make his arms like cream-filled cookies, and set to molding Walter’s arms. He sets Yvonne to the Lollipop Ballerina design. Then he decides he wants to add ice cream cones to her head to look like horns for some reason. Yvonne questions him but goes with what he wants. Derek makes a huge fat suit for the general. Then he and his team run into a series of catastrophes with their work. The hand molds don’t work, the fat suit is running behind schedule, then the Lollipop Ballerina cowl mold breaks. Talk about a string of bad fortune. They end up running the fat suit in polyfoam on application day. They are scrambling with incomplete paint, bad costumes, and just a lack of organization.
Jordan: Kevon and Mel, “Garden Games”: These two characters are the Dapper Grasshopper and the Spring Fox, who is boyish, overprotected, and soft. Jordan asks if it is more realistic or more cartoony, which is an important question for him to get correct. He is told it is Wonderland, so fantastical is okay. They get to sculpting, but then aren’t happy with the direction for either and have to rework them. Mr. Westmore suggests the Fox nose needs to be bigger, that it looks like a bunny rabbit. Kevon works on the whole grasshopper body - including a butt and wings and legs. Mel works the Fox face, and Jordan focuses on the Grasshopper face and cowl. Jordan has a neat idea for the grasshopper eyes to use mesh to give them a faceted look. Interesting. Seems to work out well. As far as the fox, they resort to applying patches of hair instead of laying hair just to give the idea. For the Grasshopper, the biggest element is getting the greens to be consistent.
Lighting Test
Matt: Mr. Wynn likes what he’s done with the Tin Jester, and wants to see more metalwork brought in to the arms and chest as well, which means more work (of course). The coloring works for the lighting. They need to work some of the copper coloring into the headpiece more for more depth, but overall it is strong. Graham mentions his key device, and Mr. Wynn loves it enough to rewrite the scene around using the key to wind up the Jester. Cool. For the Porcelain Prince, Mr. Westmore says the cracks are overdone. There’s one spot on the back of the head that is less cracked and it apparently is painted better. Mr. Wynn says something about it having a shadow the others don’t have. He seems to be at a good place overall, not needing to remake anything, just add to it and get better with the painting.
Jordan: The Grasshopper needs a few tweaks. The antennae need to be angled up more so they don’t poke the Fox in the face. The eyeholes for the actor are a little too visible, and the actor’s eyes need to be masked so they won’t show through. As far as completion, they need to do the rest of the legs instead of using bad trousers. For the Spring Fox, his snout isn’t long enough to read as a fox. Mr. Westmore suggests sculpting an extension, a prosthetic for the prosthetic, that would keep from having to remake the whole thing. For color, he’s a little washed out on screen and needs to pop more, so needs more color contrast. So their Fox needs more color definition, plus actually laying hair work, plus a new nose. The Grasshopper needs full legs and some contacts, plus maybe a bit of color tweaking. They have a bit more work to do.
Walter: Both of these are a mess. For the Ginger General, right off the bat he doesn’t read as a general. The costume is open to show off the fat suit, which hides the flourishes that show he is military, so he’s just wearing clothes that are falling off. Then the whole look is too menacing, not welcoming and friendly. The face is supposed to be an old age make up but it isn’t working. For the Lollipop Ballerina, she’s too much the dessert ballerina. Her face paint is not a beauty make up at all, the pink “looks like a rash”. Mr. Wynn says both characters are a mishmash of things, the root of the problem is to give each an identity. Both of these need major rework, from conception through execution. He is way behind.
Finale Part II - Wonderland
Everyone is still soaking in their results from Part I, and trying to think about recovery. 2 more days to revise and update make ups before a third day of application and shooting. SURPRISE TIME!* They now have to make a third character - a manifestation of Alice in a form that fits that scene. More work means more help, so Jordan picks Jo, Matt picks Sasha, and Walter gets Kelly. Also, there will be a guest judge for this episode, Rick Baker.
*This is not a surprise at this point, the third character thing is a staple of the finale movie challenges. What is a bit of a surprise is that they are doing Alice herself.
Matt: Alice shows up in the throne room, and is a wooden toy. No rework required, but some additional work for the Tin Jester. And of course Alice needs a face and cowl and arms as well. Plus some detail work to finish out all the characters. Plenty of work, but a good base to work from. Day 3: Sasha starts on Alice. Damien prepaints the new Tin Jester pieces. They have added red to some of the pieces to contrast with the silver tones of the tin. Hey look, they painted the tin toy like I suggested. Then he does the application and begins painting on the model. Graham applies the Porcelain Prince, and the face is overlapping the cowl a bit too far, but fortunately they have a crack line right there that they cut along and it makes the joint invisible. Matt is running around helping all the others in bits and pieces.
Walter: Redesign of the Ginger General makes him into a giant cookie monster - he’s made of cookie. It’s not a straight gingerbread man, but something more amorphous. The Lollipop Ballerina is going to be more strictly lollipop themed. That makes the characters animated food, so Alice is going to be made of icing like a cake. They have a ton of work to do, so he puts Derek to work on the Ballerina cowl, he takes on the Ginger General face. He has Yvonne run the mold on the General arms, and Kelly is assigned the Icing Alice. Day 3: Walter starts painting the Ballerina cowl, Derek is going to work on the General. Kelly gets to work on little details, and Yvonne has to fix some bad edges for Alice’s face. Those mean a lot of time applying cabo patch to blend the edges, and that eats up a lot of painting time. The Ballerina cowl gets a wrinkle above the face during application, so Walter grabs some L200 and quickly makes a tiara piece to cover that spot. When time is up, the paint work on Alice and the Ballerina is still deficient.
Jordan: Alice is an animal, so they go with bunny. Mel has a cool idea to do silicone hand pads that will make her hands a bit more bunny-like. Kevon gets assigned the Alice face and ears, Mel gets to fix the Fox face by making an appliance for the appliance, Jo gets assigned to make a fur body suit for the Fox character so that looks better. And Jordan takes on the Grasshopper leg pieces, so they can ditch the trousers and have grasshopper legs. They get all their molds done so they can prepaint on day 2. Day 3: Jordan’s team goes first sense they have to be sequential, not simultaneous. The Grasshopper legs include upper legs that are molded and body paint over strips of latex to make the lower legs. Alice gets a cute bunny face and floppy ears, and then Jo applies fur to the Fox to make a cowl out of faux fur panels. Mel works on Alice’s hands, but they don’t apply well and she struggles getting them smooth. Finally she has to give up so she can paint the rest of Alice.
Shooting:
Jordan: The Dapper Grasshopper is a complete character and the judges are impressed with the paint and the legs. The Fox is also well done. The nose fix does look more foxlike, and Glenn approves that the mouth is animated and doesn’t look just stuck on - that was a criticism of Jordan’s style before and he got this one right. I also like the tail, the way it moves when the Fox moves it almost looks mechanized. Alice, however, is a little more troubling. Primarily, the hands look bad and there is a key scene that highlights the hands, so they have to come up with a quickie fix. They opt to put on gloves and then make some holes for fur to stick through to sell that they’re not normal. The judges think she does have a cute profile.
Matt: The judges find the appearance of wood texture on Alice very well done. The hair reads as wood. Alice has a pull string ring on her back, but that scene doesn’t work on first try as the string is too long, so they shorten the string and reshoot, where it works great. The Porcelain Prince is shiny and the judges think it has a good porcelain quality. The cracks are also toned down on how they’re painted, and they read better. I really like the additional red to the Tin Jester - it gives more texture and definition, plus some brightness. Neville is impressed with the Jester make up, and Glenn says the joints for the neck and torso move in an accordion fashion giving the impression they are springs.
Walter: John Wynn is very excited about the changes and how much better the characters look. The Ginger General is much more friendly and inviting, like a cream filled cookie. The general outfit is blue instead of brown and the medals and accents are more visible, selling the General element better. The judges are happy. What strikes me is the most interesting lollipop elements are on the back of the head and hidden by the collar on the dress. The face feels too bland to me. The Alice face is too dull, so they go back in with some color to the swirling on her face. Ve thinks the eye make up is way too heavy. But the touch up on the face helps it read better. The judges are definitely impressed with how much had to be done to recover and the results achieved.
Judging:
The film is cute. Alice steps through the looking glass and meets the Dapper Grasshopper and Spring Fox playing croquet in the garden. She is a bunny. After an exchange with those two, she runs off through the hedge and ends up inside a tea room, full of tasty sweet treats and desserts. She’s made of frosting. There the Ginger General and the Lollipop Ballerina try to educate her on manners, and then she ducks under the table to exit, and finds herself in a throne room, and she’s a wooden toy. There the Porcelain Prince mistakes her for the Queen and has her sit on the throne. But when she speaks up to prove her place, her voice disproves her, and she has to run to get away. The Prince grabs her pull string, but it breaks free and she escapes through another mirror to awaken back in her original room. It was a dream - or was it?
Walter: Glenn loves the Ginger General as original and fitting the world, however, the choices on Alice’s face were confusing. Ve loves the Lollipop Ballerina and the work on the back of the head. Rick Baker thinks the Ballerina had a regal quality. He also compliments the choice to avoid a regular Gingerbread Man, as it would be too literal and boring. Alice’s face makeup is too heavy, but the Ballerina’s was okay.
Matt: Ve is really impressed with the wood texturing on Alice. Neville thinks the highlight was the Tin Jester - great shape, great form, great execution. Rick Baker thinks the Porcelain Prince really read like porcelain. All three were superb, very finished, and fit together.
Jordan: Alice had a great silhouette, capturing a great balance between the actress and the bunny. And the Grasshopper was well executed. Rick Baker thinks the Fox snout is difficult to pull off, but they did. Neville says his characters conveyed the whimsy best. Glenn compliments the Grasshopper for the sculpt and fabrication, but also how the paint supports the forms. The Fox is great. He does point out there is a seam in the middle of Alice’s face. I don’t see it on my screen, but they apparently can. “The farther shot where you couldn’t see the edge or the hair, that worked.” “Jordan has show us the ability to take every single note that we’ve given him and grow from it…”
Winner: Matt. I’m not surprised, his was the only set that didn’t have any problems with any of the characters. Also, it feels like the judges have been leaning toward him. Jordan had a good set, but the Alice bunny had a flaw with the seam on the face. Even though he showed the ability to absorb critique and implement it, this set was just behind. And Walter’s had problems with the Alice face, and I thought the Ballerina could have been brighter.
And that is it. Let’s hope it isn’t the end of the show, and we get more at some point.
Thank you, Irishman, for doing yeoman’s duty once more.
Random thoughts:
The tin jester and the grasshopper were both perfection and then some. Just amazing. And the lollipop princess or ballerina or whatever was beautiful, too (but you’re right about the collar).
Should I be concerned that I can tell when Megan is the model under the makeup by the way she moves?
I don’t understand the bug up Ve’s … uhh … bonnet about Pastry Alice’s eye makeup. Yeah, it was heavy, but not disturbingly so, and it looked like icing.
Matt’s work was a 10 all around, and he definitely deserved to win. But Walter should have gotten a special award for going from -5 to 8 or 9 in just two days.