Fun episode.
My immediate reaction when the pairings were announced: poor Megan, getting Jenna. Dammit Autumn got paired with Anthony, that means she’ll be safe. And then her remark about not having to worry and just coast irked me.
Anthony’s remark that Autumn was a strong player confused me. Did he mean opinionated? He made a remark about the best way to handle her was make her think she had more control than she did. Honestly that face wasn’t horrible, though the paint on the cleft was a bit dark and overemphasized it. But he did some shaping and finishing on that one as well as the details on the body.
Great faces on the torso, judges loved them. Think how that would have turned out with someone with actual skill working with Anthony. Also, when Autumn turned to the costume and let Anthony work on the paint I thought that was an excellent split of labor, and probably a judicious misdirect on Anthony’s part. Maybe he was afraid of the sewing machine, or maybe he just said that to give her something to do.
I immediately thought Eric F and Chris were biting off too much. Eric has that problem of overestimating the time and underestimating the work. They both worked fast and hard and were racing at the end to assemble at last looks, making up the costume on the fly. Not a good strategy, but they pulled it off amazingly. The concept was excellent, the scope of work was staggering, and the creativity of the little guy and the stabbing of the hand was neat. The sculpt of the heads was great. The eyes could have used some detail, and a bit more effort in costume might have been nice, but you could tell from the judges’ reactions they loved it. When they actually pulled it together, you knew the win was that team and Eric because it was his concept and execution down the line.
Eric is going to face the same risk that Roy did last season, going too big and not getting done. If he can pull it in just a smidge, he will put a strong challenge to Anthony.
Poor Megan. The concept wasn’t spectacular to begin with, but the double-stacked head was at least creatively unique as opposed to two heads side by side. But Jenna’s injuries combined with inadequate design on how to mold the head/cowl so it would stay on, and they were headed for disaster. There was some good work in the face lost because of the edges and fail on the second head attachment, and just general incompleteness. And then there were the problems with the molding and the poor design that didn’t allow separation and then didn’t go back together well. At least Jenna took the heat. It’s sad that she can’t perform because of injury, but there’s no room for someone who isn’t up to the work.
House and Wayne’s tree giant was pretty good. I think the torso/head looked a little too much like a puppet. I’m not sure, maybe putting structure in the torso to make it less bendy. Having the actor stand with a bit of a lean and sculpt the torso a bit to move the actor’s head to the side a bit and center the heads a bit. Nice work overall.
Alam and Eric Z, just dull. The heads on feet could have been a creative concept, but the sculpt and paint was way too cheesy for the look. They were crappy, and that design decision limited the form changes that the challenge presented. Doing multiple heads up high allows some dramatic work (supergiant with 2 heads most demonstrative). Having your giant look essentially like a person with a morphed face and big feet kinda seems lame, even if the paint work had been much better. The face sculpt was just blah, the feet were dreadful.
Maybe next week Autumn won’t be able to coast on someone else’s skill.
