Face Off season 7

Cafe Society
1

No thread yet? Here goes.

Face Off is back for season 7. This season they have an overall theme that is supposed to play out in all their challenges: Life and Death.

16 new competitors showed up for the first challenge, only to find out they weren’t officially “on the show” yet, that this is their last audition, and 2 were going to be eliminated.

The challenge given was to take an item in a box (some sort of prosthetic) and apply it to the model of their choice (based on a first come/first served random scramble) from either Life or Death and create a character that embodies the theme. And then after a half hour, they were given a surprise second item (prop of some kind) to incorporated into the idea they had already created. That’s particularly devious, because the prop might not fit with the idea you were working.

The winner was Dina, a former cake decorator who wants to do makeup. She picked life and was given some form of elf ears, I think. She made a beautiful elfen woodland goddess in green, with plants and such in her hair and petals on her face. Her color palate was striking and vivid, with a bright mix to enhance the greens and some whites to brighten it up. She also did some interesting veinwork on the arms and such using her cake decorating skills of putting paint in a bag and opening the corner. Her paint job was also the best applied as far as texture. It was a clear win.

There were a few other High looks. Keaghlan also had Life and made a greenish plant goddess. Her prosthetic was some kind of plant texture eyebrow ridge, and so she went with it. Her color palate was a bit different, going with some bluer tinges, and she played the model’s beauty into the creation. It was a strong look and a beautiful result.

I wasn’t quite as convinced on the other two Highs that were given. Vince created a zombie creature with pale skin and veins, but gave it red hair and two tusks coming out of the cheeks. The judges thought the tusks were original and the red worked to brighten and offset the pale tones. I wasn’t as impressed with this result. The other High was Sasha and her Queen of the Crows lady. She did had a complete concept, but it didn’t really work for me. Also, she didn’t like the prosthetic which was an eye thing that was mechanical, so she turned it into a piece of jewelry on the wrist. I did think that was a creative way to use the required piece but not detract from her concept, so I’ll give her points for that.

One I thought should have been higher was the other Life guy in green, Cig. I really liked the use of moss for hair, and the paint is complex and blended. I don’t know why the judges didn’t like it.

Another honorable mention is Barry, who took a werewolf mask prosthetic and just turned it into a sneering guy. It doesn’t look like a werewolf, or at least conventional werewolf, so that was very well crafted and creative result.

Most of the others had varying degrees of success and failure. Poor Rachael had started her concept as a Sea Nymph and had applied seashells to the model’s chest when she was given her prop - a fur. She had to adapt her concept, so she tried to make a “Land and Sea Goddess”, which wasn’t as strong a concept. I’m not sure what else she could have done with the big fur skin.

But the bottom looks were rather obvious, there were two contestants that the end results were giant WTF’s.

The first was Scott. She stumbled in the mad scramble and didn’t get the Death he wanted, so was forced to go to Life. Then he found the prosthetic was a neck burn makeup. He didn’t know what to do with that for Life. He decided to adapt the neck piece into a face piece and make a Soldier of Life, so he tore eye holes and painted it up, then put the soldier in some jumpsuit with a weird helmet. Then he painted the face in whites and purples.

Looking at his piece, nothing makes sense. It doesn’t read as a soldier, the helmet has a foot-tall metal spire that is bizarre. The face color doesn’t read as life, but rather death. And the painting around the eyes is goofed because he didn’t paint all the way in, there are flesh tones around the eyes and the purple around that. :confused: Nothing about that piece makes any sense. Glenn told him he should have used the neck piece as a neck and built his concept around that, but basically I think Glenn was just saying that nothing about his concept worked. Anyway, he was incredibly bad. The odd thing was they stopped the judging in the middle of the reviews and sent him home immediately, not waiting until the end. That was weird.

The second Bottom look was Gabby, who picked death. Her disaster was also a giant WTF. She said she wanted to embody the nagging little thought of not being good enough, the self doubt. Something like that. Now that’s already a stiff challenge, some subtle concept theme, but then to try to play it out with preformed appliances and forced props was a really bad combination. At least she had the wits to recognize what her mistakes were - that she had a concept and tried to force the pieces instead of taking the pieces and then building a concept around it. But that’s kind of a mission task fail right there. They were explicitly told to take the given items and make the concept.

But even without that, there are serious issues with her result. There’s no way to get her concept from the result, and what she gave has no coherent idea to it. It’s a guy in a multi-colored (red, purple, gray) dress with blue hair, and a blue and black face, with a one eye goggle. And if that isn’t bad enough, she went for a split tone face, with blue on the upper part down to the cheeks, and black on the jaw. Now Neville said he liked the split tone concept, but the execution was all stark, just two tones, no blending or shading or anything. It just made the jaw disappear.

Anyway, she was also eliminated. Which is a shame, because she was cute. Oh well.

So there are 14 contestants that made it onto the show. Except I’m not quite certain what is different between 16 contestants having their final audition filmed as a competition to fill 14 slots, and 16 contestants having their first competition filmed with a double elimination. I think it’s just a gimmick to sound more shocking or something.

2

I dunno about the overall theme deal. I suspect we’re all going to get very tired of plant goddesses and zombies by about the third week.

I agree about this first show being the “final audition”. If the cameras are rolling and you’re on TV then you’re on the show, audition be damned. I mean what, did someone suddenly realize that there were only 14 beds in this season’s mansion?

The judges are usually pretty considerate of the talent – they can be blunt, but they’re not generally cruel or insulting. So I was really surprised when Glenn just said “Stop, we’re going to throw this guy off the bus now and not wait until the end.” Especially when Scott did get the short end of the stick – how the heck do you incorporate a burned neck into a “Life” build?

At this point, Dina looks like the early favorite. Her 4 hour character was better than some three day builds we’ve seen on the show. For me, the rest are just an undifferentiated crop of the usual eccentric wardrobe choices.

3

Yeah, the burned neck thing seemed pretty odd to me. Stacking the deck against someone, definitely. I mean, a flower eye prosthetic for life is pretty easy, but a burned neck for life?

Oh, and Ve Neill is busy shooting the Hunger Games sequel, so there’s a new judge in town for this season: Lois Burwell, an award winning makeup artist who has worked on The Princess Bride, Braveheart, Mission: Impossible, War of the Worlds, and Lincoln.

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This week’s challenge: Dick Tracey villains, inspired by real life gangster nicknames.

I wasn’t thrilled with this challenge, mostly because I’m not sure how to decide what is too far. I guess it’s good that it isn’t a standard demon challenge, but it was tricky.

Seeing the results, I have to agree there really was only one that was good - the Tuna guy. They made him look kinda like a tuna but still human, and the fatsuit was great, and the details were pretty neat, like the working cigar.

The typewriter guy was an okay concept, but the texture of the skin was pretty bad.

But Tick Tock was dreadful. The rat was horrid, the lopsided ear was bad, and everyone pointed out that the character name was “Tick Tock” so that needed to be the main feature. So Barry was the natural guy to be eliminated.

Also of note, Dina (who aced the first week) was on one of the bottom looks teams. The peanut guy was pretty bad all around.

5

I missed last week’s premier, but saw that episode and the new episode last night.

I liked the Dick Tracy challenge, I thought that was a nice change from Monster of the Week, but also open-ended enough to allow for some creative interpretations.

Tuna Guy was by far the best (but I would have seriously taken points off every time one of them did that horrible fake mob accent, wtf?). They really seemed to get it.

I thought the typewriter concept was good, but weirdly executed. The stencil letters didn’t look like type at all (these young kids, not knowing what type looked like!), and while I loved the idea of brass knuckles looking like typewriter keys … the final result didn’t actually look like typewriter keys at all. Puzzling.

The peanut … I can’t even. That was just dreadful. Glenn’s disgust was pretty funny. I thought it was interesting that Dina, who won last week, was on this team – but she is the one with the least experience (I think, she was the cake decorator previously), and she was paired with Jason, who was in bottom looks last week as well. I would have liked to see what Dina would have done with a different partner.

Tick Tock was also very poor, and I didn’t even like the time bomb. That was really the only way they could come up with to get the clock image in?

I liked the shark, that seemed very well done. The teeth were a great concept, maybe a little lifeless in execution but cool anyway.

I liked the needle guy more than the judges – I loved the very stylized look of the face sculpt … and yes, needles are obvious but isn’t making the tuna a fish obvious too? I feel like this one of those things the judges say when the overall look doesn’t work for them (and I get that).

Overall, the forced references to “life” and “death” are already annoying.

6

We haven’t seen this one yet (it’s on the DVR), but last season, we gave up midway because every contest was pretty much the same – demons, aliens, zombies, demons, aliens, zombies. Gets boring.

7

Well, Dina has fallen from grace, so it’s anyone’s game now. I would argue that the “peanut” crew lost during the opening exposition. When you’re given your choice of gangster nicknames to work on, why on Earth would you pick the peanut? What the hell can you do with a peanut? A tuna – yep. A typewriter – well, tricky, but OK. A clock – that practically cries out for some kind of steam punk gangster look. But a peanut? Can you envision anything more non-threatening and bland than a peanut?
That’s just bad judgement, and then they went for the obvious Mr. Peanut look.

I think the tuna guy was far and away the best (although I also liked the shark guy) but his skin texture really looked plastic. I’m not sure that would have been considered camera-ready, but maybe they don’t expect miracles from them on a 3-day build.

I think the judges made the right call in their elimination. It may have just been editing, but it was painfully obvious that the tick-tock team was utterly ignoring the theme of the challenge, and tacking on a time bomb didn’t make it better.

8

To be fair, Sasha made a preliminary argument and design concept for a clock, but Barry was adamant he wanted to do a rat, “because what’s a gangster story without a rat?”

This is where it becomes a speculation game. Should Sasha have argued harder for the need to use a clock? Or did she game the system? My reaction is that Barry was driving hard for that concept, so rather than have a conflict and a team that doesn’t work well together, you go with his concept, but make sure it’s known it was Barry’s concept. Then when it doesn’t work, since it was his idea, he’s the most likely candidate for elimination. Especially if you can make sure some element of the design and/or application that is yours is done well.

First off, Sasha made the point to Barry, but he insisted, so she went with it. Then when Mr. Westmore made essentially the same point, she actually defended the choice. So she certainly wasn’t hanging him out to dry, she was committing to the idea. I don’t think there was any active sabotage, just awareness that the concept had issues.

The design itself was a mess.

Absolutely, the right call on elimination. There was a lot of odd work and things that had problems, but that was the one that stuck out as missing the challenge. If you have someone who misses the challenge, that has got to be the prime candidate for elimination. And that’s what we’ve historically seen.

It also didn’t look much like brass knuckles.

Well, they had spent a fair amount of time on design and sculpt before Mr. Westmore showed up and pointed out they really needed a clock. At that point, it was hard to on the spot come up with a clock concept without reworking the rat concept they’d already spent all that time on. Making a time bomb at least was an effort, which was Mr. Westmore’s drop of the hat suggestion. A little obvious for clock, but at that point they were in deep.

I don’t know what to make of the shark. The teeth were interesting, I liked the effort in the teeth, and the multiple layers of teeth. Except shark teeth grow in rows, not in random assortments, so it lost points with me for that. Also, the face was almost too sharklike. The winning work had human features that looked like a tuna - except for the cigar in the neck fat fold gills that was smoking, but that’s a minor quibble for an element that was creative and well-executed. Like I said, I’m troubled by guessing how far to go to give the illusion of a character without overdoing it. I think the contestants mostly overdid it, except for the Tuna. Which is why they won.

Yeah, needles for hair seemed more creative to me than just having needles in his lapel or needles for fingernails and teeth. Also, they struggled with the edge line and not knowing how to smooth it out. Isn’t there some kind of putty they could use, some silicone or latex paint they could fill the gap and blend the edge better with? Surely?

And that’s another thing, this didn’t seem to have a “life and death” connection beyond being mobsters who kill. I think the life and death references are going to be either forced or overlooked, or perhaps both at once.

9

Fails like this always make me wonder if the concept could have worked with better execution. Often when the judges rail on about a poor concept, it’s one that is going hand in hand with a crappy execution. How about a rat that is a clockwork rat (sort of a steampunk thing, with a 30s gangster look), and the execution was FLAWLESS?

10

It’s interesting to think if execution could save a bad concept. A clockwork rat would have been a different concept, though it would have taken the part that didn’t seem to work because it didn’t have connection to the challenge and tied it in. But a steampunk look might not have fit the Dick Tracey theme very well.

This week was a big week, because they did an individual spotlight challenge with so many competitors left. The rundown on this list is going to take a bit.

The challenge was to take an iconic great historic architectural feature and propose it was built by aliens, then design the alien that inspired/built it. Some interesting landmark choices: Machu Picchu (Incan), Pyramid of the Sun (Aztec), Stonehenge, Easter Island, Giza Necropolis (Egyptian), Peruvudaiyar Kovil (India, Hindu temple to Shiva), Angkor Wat (Cambodia, Hindu temple to Vishnu). Naturally, there are shared locations.

Jason, Machu Picchu: his alien has glowing LEDs in the head to simulate the sun god’s glowing head. The face sculpt is pinch-faced, the colors are strange grays and purples, and the paint job is a bit muddy. It’s not obvious how the face shape fits the landmark. He ended up Safe.

Drew, Pyramid of the Sun: He took his look to be the feathered serpent god, and chose to use striking yellows and greens to tie with the red feathers. His concept was great and his sculpt work was pretty good, but the paint job ruined it. It washed out to look all yellow, no variations or highlights, and the green detail and stencil work doesn’t stand out, even up close. He got Safe.

Gwen, Stonehenge: Her concept was her alien getting trapped on Earth, showing his education to the Vikings and them teaching him how to survive. She sculpted a chest piece to emphasize he’s alien - no belly button - but then didn’t do much to distinguish the form from human otherwise, and then ended up covering it with costume. Also, she had a disaster during molding where the chestpiece had large bubbles, a separated inner layer, huge rips - pretty much any problem you can have with a prosthetic happened. She spent a ton of time trying to salvage the piece, which ate up all her time for application of the face and head and especially painting. The face sculpt had an interesting shape going on, but the paint was basically a white wash with some pink points, all the detail washed out. Combined with the costume of animal furs, and it looks more like a Pagan deity or demon rather than an alien. She was a Bottom look.

George, Machu Picchu: His design used a large diamond shaped head and flipper hands. He decided his alien was telepathic, and got rid of much of the face. I really liked this as a look, the shape is interesting, the sculpt details nice. I like the way he got rid of the face and made it very alien. The paint job is also excellent to me. The bright red pops, with the pale offset throat to stand out. The coloration has some subtle pops and really looks organic to me. I’m surprised he didn’t get better scoring, but I guess it didn’t feel connected to the culture or location. Pity, because otherwise it has some stellar work. He got Safe.

Vince, Easter Island: Vince took a fairly obvious approach, trying to sculpt a giant head with features similar to the statues. He gave a larger head and protruding jaw and big nose. It is similar to what I would have tried, though I would have tried to make the forehead more sloped and matched the look a little closer. But he tried to move the eye holes so he could make the head bigger, and didn’t do a successful job hiding them on the cheeks, and the paint is flat and blue with not much variation or subtlety. Combined with a dreadful costume, and this was a pretty dull and uninspired result. He was Safe.

Keaghlan, Giza: She took the idea of cats and mixed it with sculpture shapes that were reminiscent of the headdresses and chin beards of Egyptian sculpture. Her color palate used a white face with red trimmings and some yellow accents. There are gold accents as well, including eyelashes. Her alien tied in pretty well with Egyptian iconography, and that put her in Top looks.

Stella, Peruvudaiyar Kovil: Her alien is the inspiration of Shiva. She imagined her alien as the wife of the alien who came down and bred with the locals, so she got angry and opened her third eye and turned everyone to stone. Her look really draws in Hindu aesthetic. She has some strange sculpt choices that work for this look, like pulling the cheeks down toward the corners of the mouth. She also made a lot of jewelry adornments, including a neck collar she drew inspiration from a Hindu cow sculpture. From a sculpture and concept, it really worked. My one complaint is the color scheme. She picked red as her main color, tied in with the costume as well as the head. She broke it up with some yellowish overlay, but to me it just looks very muddy in color, and very monocolor. But the judges didn’t mention that, and gave her Top looks.

Cig, Angkor Wat: Cig decided the inspiration for Vishnu’s blue color would be a blue exosuit, and put in sculpt features to match the unique sculpture of the temple. I thought his face and head and body sculpts weren’t bad and the color scheme worked, but he had one big problem element: he wanted an extra set of arms, because that’s a big part of Vishnu art, so he made a second set of arms as part of the suit. Except they are wimpy small robotic looking things that he then tied to the actor’s arms with monofilament. They look bad and detract from his overall design. The judges didn’t mention them specifically, but he was only Safe and didn’t get he extra screen time scrutiny.

Rachael, Stonehenge: Rachael’s alien is an aquatic type lady. To me, the sculpt of the head is interesting, and she’s done some wonderful things with the paint job. The speckling on the head is good, the colors pop. What is less successful is the mouth, though is does look fish-like. And then it’s hard to tie an aquatic alien to a stone temple in the middle of a grassy plain. Another one that would have done better in a different concept. She got Safe.

Dina, Pyramid of the Sun: She opted for a very lizardish alien with a large V-shaped head and a red highlight in an olive green skin tone. The sculpt looks pretty good to me, the colors a little subdued and muddy, but not horrible. I think the big problem was connecting her design to the culture and the temple. She was Safe.

Doc, Easter Island: Doc is the WTF of the week. He picked Easter Island, with the big stone giants, and then takes the statement that they are known for their fish mouths, and runs with that idea. Wait, fish mouths? Anyway, he comes up with an art concept for a fishy alien, which has an interesting look, though doesn’t make any sense as the inspiration for the statues. When Michael Westmore is reviewing, he blunty says as much, which leaves Doc bewildered with what to do. So Mr. Westmore gives him a lot of specific advice on reshaping his design into something that looks vaguely like the Easter Island statue heads, and then Doc goes off lost and tries to implement what Mr. Westmore suggested, but without really feeling the concept. So what he ends up with is a gray, shapeless, lumpy mess of sad-looking blah. One of the judges comments that if that guy showed up, the natives would have killed him, not worshipped him. It’s a dreadful result from a guy just not getting in tune with the challenge. He ends up in Bottom looks. Me, I think his original look was much better, but there was just no way to tie it to the statues of Easter Island. He had an idea for an alien he wanted to make and didn’t apply to the challenge given.

Damien, Giza: He decided his alien was such an inspiration, the humans built the Pyramids to reflect shapes from the alien’s head. So he built a lot of angles and big points on the chin and head. He painted it in gold and wanted to highlight the edges in blue, which is very Egyptian, but applying the paint didn’t work and ended up muddying up the colors. Ve (yes, she was here this week) told him he should have applied the blue first and then highlighted the gold over it. Anyway, the judges didn’t like the sculpt, didn’t think it was organic or made sense, didn’t like the pyramid shapes on the head, and didn’t like the paint. The put him in Bottom looks.

Sasha, Peruvudaiyar Kovil: Sasha took Hindu elements with jewelry and tied it to a smaller head sculpt that focused on beauty elements. She had a smaller amount of work than some of the others, reflecting her skillset, but she made the most of what she did with a good paint job. My complaint is the pink tones are very pink, but she highlighted and shaded so it was bright in the face and had good variation and shading. The judges loved it and the way she incorporated Hindu cultural elements, and put her in Top looks.

So that’s 13 competitors for 13 aliens. The tops were Stella, Sasha, and Keaghlan (all ladies), the bottoms were Gwen, Doc, and Damien. In the end, the Winner chosen was Stella, because her unique choices, her incorporation of the jewelry, and the overall way it captured the challenge.

From the bottoms, Gwen was eliminated, not because she had a disaster, but because she made bad choices in design and couldn’t overcome the disaster. I could have seen Doc, because he floundered so bad on getting the concept, but can’t complain about this choice.

And even though Mackenzie reminded them, the judges did not elect to use their save this time. This is way to early in the season to waste it. There are plenty of disasters to choose from to save someone who screws up once, and it’s too early to see any patterns for who deserves a save.

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Couldn’t argue with any of the decisions this week, although I thought Damien’s alien didn’t deserve bottom looks. Maybe it looked worse in HD/real life.

Once again, I think the battle was lost during the choosing of themes. Most of the ancient ruins had some kind of iconic civilization associated with them. But I don’t think we know much about the people who build Stonehenge. I guess you could have gone Celtic and coated the alien with woad, but that’s not really much to hang a design on.

While some of this week’s designs were good, I’m not sure I’d regard any of them as standouts. So this season remains pretty much anyone’s game. We are starting to see who has trouble coming up with concepts and those contestants who might have issues with technique (really-- how can you watch six seasons of this show and not know that you have to practice your mold making?)

12

What’s the difference between an alien and a demon? The backstory? The costuming? I think her face sculpt could have worked for an alien, but the comprehensive picture didn’t convey it.

13

In theory? Demons come from magic hell dimensions and aliens come from other planets. In Face Off terms, aliens require a face piece and a cowl, while demons require a cowl and a face piece.

14

My wife and I watch it and are finally caught up after being able to binge watch it. Good and bad!

I was surprised that they eliminated Gwen, mainly because I thought she showed more promise than Doc. I guess I was surprised that they eliminated someone based on behind the scenes stuff but could get behind the reason of not seeming alien enough in the furs. Having said that, though, if the costume is the only thing that did it, Gwen still seems a bad choice as she had more potential than Doc, imo. I mean, are you really telling me that if Gwen had explained the furs as having to use local materials, that she would have done better? I think it’s because I don’t always like the single elimination when it’s obvious they are just having a bad day or aren’t familiar with the week’s challenge.

I really thought the top looks were awesome and they did a great job.

LOVED how Lois cracked Glenn up with her comments on how Doc’s alien would make everyone depressed before they killed it! I had to rewatch that to see him crack up, so I’m hoping for more interaction like that among the judges!

I do understand the judges being wary of saving someone. When they used their last one, the person they picked got bottom looks and was eliminated soon after, iirc. So they might want to wait until after the halfway point when they are more sure of the pick.

Fun stuff! Thanks!

vislor

15

It wasn’t just the clothes. First, the face had protrusions like horns. Second, she spent all the time to cast a full chest piece that wasn’t substantially different than human form, then covered it up with costume. So when it was destroyed in the molding process, she would have been better served to ditch it and rely on costume and body paint and really paint the face piece. Then she could have saved the “alien dressed by primitive humans in order to survive” look.

First off, this early in the season they really don’t have a lot to go on to see who is really going to be in the final mix. Two seasons ago, for instance, the person leading the first four challenges with three wins (Miranda) went out by confidence meltdown, and Tate was a runner up, but didn’t start getting good results until the sixth episode. And RJ, who was a repeat contestant who was a runner up his first season and by all accounts should have done well went out in episode 5, and had a weak showing up till then (only Ins, no Highs or Wins).

Secondly, this early there are plenty of contestants to do poorly, so it’s easy enough to find an excuse to save someone they think has promise or just didn’t understand the challenge by just picking someone else that just has poor skills. Save the save for when they are down to 5 or 6 contestants and someone who normally is performing well has a truly off week.

As for rating skills, of the three in Bottom looks this episode, Gwen had the worst overall record, with 1 Low and 1 In, while Damien and 2 Ins, and Doc and 1 In and 1 High.

The downside is this early in the season, it is easy to think someone showed some promise but gets eliminated before they have a chance to shine. That’s the nature of the competition.

16

So tonight’s episode was pretty good. Well, I only payed attention to the very beginning and the presentations. Even pausing the show to study the models I only was able to make brief observations. :frowning: Anyway, my opinions…

My top looks:

Doc & Jason (Bristle Cone Pine w/ Lightning strike) - Glad they won. They were my top pic too. My only criticism was the lightning strike makeup, but I loved everything else.

Sasha & Stella (White Birch w/ Burl) - The burl’s didn’t work for me. They mainly reminded me of dead eyes. But I get what they were going for and I thought they had an overall good look.

Safe looks:

George & Keaghlan (Silk Floss w/ Choking vines) - Loved the face, but the body was so so.

Dina & Rachael (Banyan w/ Fungus) - The fungus doesn’t look real. But the tree makeup is OK.

Bottom looks:

Vince & Damien (Sequoia w/ Rot) - I disagree with the decision to make it the losing look. Yes, the face looked costume-y and the body made it look like a tree jester, but I it did look like a tree, which is a lot more than what I can say for…

Cig & Drew (Weeping willow w/Bug infestation) - Horrible. The green tears? Didn’t work. The bugs? Didn’t work. and it didn’t really look like a tree. I thought this was the worse look.

17

Okay, fair points.

I think something they are also looking for is ability to work under pressure and get things done and to that extent, Gwen wasn’t able to do that.

I think we are agreeing here? I agree that it would be too soon to use their save. I do agree I didn’t look at past performances to see that Gwen did worse than I thought. So, good points!

We didn’t see last nights, yet, so avoiding any spoilers!

vislor

18

So far I am liking this season in the sense that the challenges have been going beyond “monster of the week” so this was another episode where I enjoyed the challenge.

(I missed the foundation challenge)

I thought both the top looks were pretty solid:

Doc & Jason - Bristlecone Pine (struck by lightning) I liked this as much as the judges. I thought the lightning strike maybe could have been more dramatic, but overall it was excellent. Agree this was the winner.

Stella & Sasha - White Birch (w/ burls) I think I agree with Nobody on this one, I definitely get how much work they accomplished, but the eyes weren’t really working for me. It even sounded good when they described the design, but the finished result was … weird. I know exactly what they are talking about, too – the way the bark of a birch looks like eyes, but I would have liked it better if they kept it more tree-like.

I don’t have that much to say about the Safe looks, other than I agree they were middle-of-the-road.

Dina & Rachael - Banyan (w/ fungus)
George & Keaghlan - Pink Floss Tree (w/ choking vines)

For the bottom, I differed from the judges in that I felt the Weeping Willow was the ABSOLUTE worst, and honestly I didn’t think the Sequoia was that bad.

Cig & Drew - Weeping Willow (w/ bug infestation)
Vincd & Damien - Sequoia (w/ rot)

I didn’t understand at all what the judges were criticizing about the eye. The tree is rotting from the inside, so one dead eye and one normal eye felt like a good choice to me. Maybe the judges wanted to see a rotting eye with more gore.

I agree that the body was mostly a blank … but the head itself made sense to me. I liked the texture, I liked the look in general. Because of the lack of work on the body, I understand why this was in bottom looks, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the willow.

Personality-wise, none of the contestants are making me loathe them (yet!) although it’s still early in the season. I usually don’t have stronger feelings about them as individuals until more have been eliminated and the show really focuses on the smaller number of those who remain. I can’t decide if Stella is really that much of an airhead, or if that’s just her affect.

19

So the Foundation Challenge was create a superhero from one of the costumed models, and incorporate elements of the costume for a cohesive character. There were some interesting designs and a lot of color. The winner did some interesting sculpting with the bald cap to change the head shape to make her alien. That gave Rachael immunity for the Spotlight Challenge.

The Spotlight Challenge, come up with an evil (twisted) tree character who is suffering from some malady. Pick a tree, get the malady. Pick your partner.

First off, I was sure that Dina was a goner. That Banyan Tree concept with fungus… it doesn’t look like a tree, it certainly doesn’t look like a banyan tree. I see Michael Westmore’s point about the original sculpt reading more like vines, with all the branches entwined and entangled. The banyan is a bunch of straightish columns and then branches reaching out. The thing Dina and Rachael came up with… :confused: . I was certain that was a bottom look, as it’s the only one that didn’t look like a tree to me. But then it was Safe? Don’t get me wrong, I like both of them and am glad they’re around for more, but WTF?

The other Safe look was George & Keaghlan with their Pink Floss tree with strangling vines. I agree it was a midling look. They could have broken up the human form a bit more. The use of the skirt and female curves to connect to the trunk of the tree was neat, though the skirt was a bit too flowing. But the vines didn’t look well thought out.

Top Looks: definitely Doc and Jason with the Bristlecone Pine and lightning strike. For all the reasons already stated. I liked that Mr. Westmore told them to go bigger. The arms didn’t work, but they covered it beautifully with the robe and made it work so well the judges didn’t notice. Good save and great sculpts, and the paint job to enhance it.

Stella and Sasha and their Willow man, I had issues with the overall form being so human. But they had beautiful coloring and texture for the willow bark, and the burls worked pretty well. Except for the dreadful hands, you’ve got to admit those sucked balls.

Bottom Looks:

Cig and Drew with their Weeping Willow and bug infestation had some serious flaws, even disregarding the disappearance of the limbs. (What do you mean, the model had weight issues with it? She just pitched crap? Holy shit, they got screwed over there. Yeah, that’s partially on them for not designing it well, but shit that’s a crappy response. That didn’t come up in conversation at last looks?) Too bad we didn’t get to see the final look with all the branches.

The green weepy shit, what was that? Does that have any connection to real trees? Why bright green? And her arms weren’t the same color, and looked very human even with the texture applied in places. That read like crap. And then the bugs that were slugs? What was that supposed to be? Yeah, bug infestation, but holes and termites or ants or even caterpillars would have been much better. Slugs?

Meanwhile Vince and Damien had a Red Sequoia with rot. My first impression was that it wasn’t that bad. My biggest complaint was the texture was polished and glossy paint. The hands and feet are pretty good, the outfit is kinda meh. For the face, I’m not sure the rot reads as rot, and the face is pretty obvious and plain. I think the idea of the rot infesting the eye isn’t horrible, but it didn’t convey to Neville. Part of a good make up is the concept begin understandable from the execution.

Given the comments from the judges, I’m not surprised Vince was the one let go. His choices where what stood out the most to the judges. Drew owned up to the fabrication failure, but his face sculpt was pretty good, so there was balance there.

Win going to Jason for the aesthetic of the bristlecone pine was a good decision.

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My wife and I were also thinking nothing was great but it was fun to watch. And the birch gloves were awful. It is too bad they didn’t dump them and just paint the hands, although they might have been dinged without having seen the gloves.

Nothing was a stand out here for us but could at least follow what the judges were saying and their decisions.