• Laney: Immortality
• Tate: Regeneration
• Roy: Psychic Powers
• Miranda: Chaos
• Laura: Occult Abilities

In contrast to Laura’s overconfidence, Miranda is concerned because she’s already done pointy ears in two of her challenges. Roy is skipping a cowl and is doing his sculpt all in one piece. Tate is creating a female character for his regeneration superpower. Miranda makes a Mayan headpiece because…why? Nobody knows. Laura thinks her vast knowledge of all things elf will hinder her character.

Meanwhile, Laney is pushing clay around a face. She is totally uninspired and has a minorish off-camera meltdown. After shedding four thousand tears and reapplying red lipstick (and the wrong shade of foundation), Laney goes back to work.The next morning, Laura finds a letter from Laney to the group explaining why she quit. She misses her family, and that’s sad. After an appropriate twelve seconds of mourning, the artists head to the workroom. Miranda is molding faster than she has ever molded before, but it’s not fast enough because at the end of the second day, she is nowhere near finished.

It’s the last day of the challenge, and Miranda puts her model to work opening her mold, power washing, and painting his own arms and legs. Laura’s scar-like transfers are the wrong consistency so she has problems, and Tate is busily working on an outer coating on his model’s skin. With only an hour left for makeup and finishing touches, Miranda is nowhere. I mean, she’s still pulling a cowl out of a mold. It’s really bad. I’m sort of embarrassed for her.

Judge time! Glenn, Ve, and Neville are ready for their elves.

The first is from Laura who made…I don’t know what it is, but it’s really well done. The judges call it beautifully done and well thought-out.

Roy’s warrior-like psychic character is more gnome than elf. Ve agrees, and thinks it looks more like a creature than an elf. Also, the enlarged head makes the body look too small.

Tate created a bronzed burn victim and it’s rather impressive. The judges think it looks fantastic, and the subtle details like the flaky dry skin are successful from a distance and up close.

Oh boy, Miranda. I’ve seen Halloween costumes at the drugstore that look better than Miranda’s creation. The judges want to know why she has an incomplete wreck. Ve is pissed, though she calls it “disappointed,” and Neville calls it an initial sketch rather than a finished sculpt.

Tate is the winner of the challenge. And because Laney self-eliminated, the judges have an opportunity to give Miranda a pass. But her work was so substandard that they are having a tough time coming up with a plausible excuse to keep her in the competition.  Well, they found one. Miranda gets to stay because she “did not give up.” That’s weak. It’s the equivalent of a participation prize.

Reprinted from RedesignRevolution.com

Next week, the final four contestants fight for a spot in the finale.

 

What follows is a scramble of bald caps, prosthetics, and a surprising number of covered mouths. I guess you don’t really hear death coming….Laura and Tate are the top looks, with the win going to Laura for her beautiful use of light and shadow.

Next, the artists go to the Laugh Factory to receive their next Spotlight Challenge. Turns out it’s Hollywood’s most haunted locations. So the spotlight challenge is to create an original ghost character that is both scary and funny, a la Beetlejuice (which happens to be Ve Neill’s handiwork).

Roy is making something involving two vaudeville ghosts stacked on top of each other, Miranda has a ghost wife returning to nag her husband, Tate has the ghost host of a television show, and Laura has a dead Bill Nye-ish character, Laney is creating an electrocuted artist, and  Eddie is maybe possibly working on some sort of doctor ghost which he ends up scrapping because it’s not funny at all. Eddie’s new concept is an angry 1920s baseball player who gets killed by his own baseball bat. I guess that’s funnier?

Laney’s freaking out over her wig and receives help from Tate who suggests using hair adhesive combined with hairspray and heat. Laura’s adding humor to her mad scientist by having his ear fall off. Then there’s Roy who has a two-part little person costume and it’s really quite hilarious. After seeing Roy’s creation, Eddie knows he’s falling way short of the mark. With one hour left, Miranda has plenty of painting to do and Eddie realizes that he is totally and completely screwed. Meanwhile, Roy continues blowing the competition away.

So let’s see the final results.

Laura’s mad scientists is a little too green for my taste, but it does straddle the line between death and humor.

Roy’s stacked vaudeville figures are perfection, and the judges cannot stop laughing.

Eddie’s baseball player is totally devoid of humor and isn’t even well crafted.

Tate’s old timey television cowboy is only rootin’ tootin’ funny because of his model.

Miranda’s vengeful wife is okay, but not her best work.

Laney’s electrocuted rocker chick is not funny at all.

Miranda and Tate are safe from elimination and head back to the makeup room. The judges call Laura’s mad scientist superb. Eddie is up next and…oof. “It doesn’t look funny, it just looks weird.” Nobody understands Eddie’s choices, including Eddie. Roy’s double character amazes the judges. Laney’s electrocuted character fails to explain why she looks the way that she looks, and it’s not funny at all.

The winner, of course, is Roy. He heads back to the makeup room with Laura. That leaves Eddie and Laney on the bottom. The judges send Eddie home for his utterly confusing character. Goodbye, Eddie.

Next week, the pressure starts to eat away at the contestants.

We’re going to the circus! Or…a very acrobatic burlesque show with spooky clowns. It’s Cirque Berzerk introducing the next challenge. Working in teams of two, the spotlight challenge is to create a dark and alien circus performer. And, added bonus! Their models are actual performers who will do their thing on stage covered in prosthetics and makeup and whatever else the contestants think up.

There’s a punk rock alien contortionist, an alien animal trainer plus bonus parasite, a ringmaster, and another space contortionist. The workroom is super duper quiet during the sculpting phase. Laney spouts words about tree frogs, Roy sculpts a “laser whip,” and Frank tells Miranda her headpiece looks like something from Hellboy.

On Molding Day, Laura turns her nostril-riddled face into a sexy fishy lady and Laney comes up with a clever way to use her model’s dreadlocks through the top of the cowl she’s creating for his head. Tate’s finger injury keeps him out of the mold room which puts a lot of pressure on his partner, Frank. There’s a little tension between Laney and Alana over scales and whether or not Alana likes Laney’s sculpture which is booooring bickering between exhausted reality show contestants.

It’s Application Day, the paint comes out as the performers arrive. Miranda and Laney’s headpiece is really complex and there are problems around the edges, so they remove the cowl and go with “an awesome paintjob” which is a risky move. Roy constructs some crazy tension piece for the wormy looking bug thing attached to his model’s chest piece so that should hopefully look disgusting in a good way.

The contestants face the judges who take a look at their creations before the scifi circus gets underway.

Laura & Roy

Laura and Roy’s bluish alien creature looks like something I’ve seen on Star Trek.

Alana & Laney

Laney and Alana’s fishy reptile alien is sloppy and ugly.

Miranda & Eddie

Eddie and Miranda’s aging beauty is gorgeous but her face is way too stiff and the head looks disproportionately heavy.

Frank & Tate

Frank and Tate’s creature perfectly captures that punk rock vibe while still being circus sexy.

The circus routine puts the makeup to the test. There are stilt walkers and acrobats and people spinning in rings and all sorts of flips and are bodies supposed to bend in that direction?

Tate and Frank present their punk spacewoman. Glenn really likes the paint job on the head, and Ve loves the way the stained ink looks like the coloring of her skin. Miranda and Eddie are next up with their space siren galactic contortionist. Ve and Glenn disagree on the sexiness of the creature, and Neville really likes the face sculpture. Alana and Laney present their disaster.I mean costume. I mean crafts project. The judges think it falls short of the challenge, and Glenn calls it “goofy carnival.” Laura and Roy are last to present with their creature tamer with a parasite host relationship. Glenn loves the idea, but thinks it could have been done better. Ve is not fond of the blue color, and Neville finds the insect superfluous.

The top team is Miranda and Eddie, and Miranda is the winner because of her superior sculpting and painting. The only bottom look is by Alana and Laney, and the judges send Alana home. Goodbye, lady.

The lab is filled with candelabras and models and Elvira. Did I mention Elvira? Yowza, how old is she? Doesn’t matter, she still looks good, I guess. The challenge is to create a new Mistress of the Dark with the assistance of a hair stylist. In two hours. Tate creates a kickass bride-of-Frankenstein-meets-sexy-nurse, but the win goes to Roy’s Elmira, the long lost cousin of Elvira, because it has that spooky sexy humor that is essential to Elvira’s schtick.  He gets immunity for the next Spotlight Challenge and a massive makeup collection.

The artists arrive at the Pacific Design Center that is filled with contemporary art representing cubism, surrealism, pop art, expressionism, and constructivism. Create an art movement and a character that could live within it. Oh gawd, Alana chooses constructivism because she used to “work construction” and thinks it might be related. Of course Laney is doing pop art. Laura challenges herself with cubism, Eddie is inspired by expressionism, Tate selects surrealism, and Alana suddenly realizes that she made a bad choice.

Back at the lab, Scott is making a surrealist version of his drunk father, Miranda is building a cubist musician who dies when she stops playing her instrument, and Frank believes constructivism emphasizes the use of materials so at least he kind of understands the art movement, unlike Alana who is hopelessly lost. Michael Westmore gives her some decent advice, including taking away the facial features in favor of the hard angles, so she may be able to salvage her work.

On the second day, Miranda annoys Frank by continuously asking for advice. Roy creates a fat suit for his creation that he is going to paint, or something. Meanwhile, Tate smashes his fingers on his mold. There’s blood everywhere, and while he’s getting medical attention, the other contestants help finish Tate’s mold. He returns with thirteen stitches in his finger and two hours left in the day.

It’s Application Day, which means everyone has too much work to do in four little hours. Wow, some of these creatures are looking fantastic, and some are looking…problematic. After some desperate airbrushing in Last Looks, it’s off to the judging with Glenn, Ve, and Neville.

Alana’s constructivist creature is unfinished and not quite constructivist.

Eddie’s impressionism dude is a little too…swishy brushstroking literal.

Laney’s pop art concoction is sloppy instead of slick.

Miranda’s cubist musician has an amazing face, but the rest of her is untouched.

Laura’s cubist creature is stunning in construction and paint.

Scott’s surrealist daddy issues are…weird, but not weird enough for surrealism.

Roy’s expressionist character is nice, but he didn’t manipulate the face very much at all.

Frank’s constructivist creation is bold and clever and subtle with a forced perspective.

Tate’s surrealist design isn’t very surrealist at all.

Frank, Roy, and Alana are all safe. The rest are the best and the worst. Miranda brings her cubist musician forward and doesn’t understand how amazing that face looks. Tate’s walking forest  hobbles forward and takes some lumps. It’s not “makeuppy” so much as “costumey.” Eddie presents his expressionist design and says he was inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The judges aren’t impressed with Eddie’s expressionism. Laura’s design blows the judges away with her constructivist piece. Scott’s surrealism reads more like confusism. Laney’s pop art creation impresses the judges with the concept despite a messy execution.

The judges give the win to Laura, with props to Miranda and Laney who all head back to the makeup room. With the girls gone, it’s the guys up for elimination. The judges send Scott home because he just plain missed the mark.

Next week, it’s an out of this world challenge.

Reprinted with permission from www.redesignrevolution.com

This week is the Face Off contestants’ first individual challenge. They meet in an empty utility substation over a network of abandoned tunnels. The challenge is to create a subterranean creature by crawling into several underground environments and imagining what creature dwells there and why it was driven underground. The guest judge is Jordu Schell, a concept artist and sculptor who worked on Avatar, Narnia, and Hellboy.

There’s a sketch of a mermaidesque creature who captures fisherman and drags them underground, a shrimpy lobster man, a wormy looking blob, a wounded woman with gashes and sores, a mole rat prisoner of war, and other creepy critters.

During the sculpting phase, Laney builds a bony back based upon Alana’s figure, RJ is combining the ears of a bat, the nose of a mole, and the body of an armadillo, Miranda is desperately seeking reference for her mole rat and guess what? Laura is also sculpting a mole creature. Gee, who would’ve guessed?

Michael Westmore arrives to review the progress, and recommends that Lyma remove the lips from her mutated multi-toothed scientist. When he sees Roy’s octopus creature, he is concerned about the size of the mold (which is gigantic). The next day, latex is flowing and tentacles are sculpting. When Roy pours the foam into his mold, he realizes that it’s a much more rigid foam than he expected. He has no time to clean it out, so he scraps the entire mold. He still has a face piece, but still. That ain’t good. Meanwhile, Laura’s going more rat because Miranda’s sticking with mole. These are the types of important decisions that happen on Face Off.

It’s Application Day, and Roy is frantically fabricating a squiddy suit. Scott has a tear in his latex piece around the neck area which looks like a wound, so…yay? Laney’s face mask is frightening in that it’s too close to human for comfort. RJ’s model is covered in moss, Miranda’s naked mole rat is a little pink, and Roy’s seasquatch is sort of a disaster.

Time to be judged! The judges are Glenn, Ve, Neville, and Jordu.

First up is Eddie’s toxic wasteman which is okay, but forgettable.

Alana’s kelp creature is very fishy, but the arms and hands haven’t taken a seashape.

Scott’s subterranean octopus is beautiful, but he maybe didn’t go far enough with the body.

Adolfo’s electrical man is ugly, and too orange.

Frank’s eyeless toothy chompy thing is stunning.

Miranda’s mole rat man is pretty cool.

Laura’s gross mole lady doesn’t make much sense as an underground creature since it’s very pink.

Tate’s seaweed blob is kind of nifty, and the makeup looks good.

RJ has a similar creature that is not as well executed, and it looks like an artichoke.

Lyma’s toxic waste man has a really disgusting mouth and I’m kind of wishing she kept the lips on because eew.

Laney’s decrepit creature is horrifying, but the legs are still too leggy.

Roy’s cobbled together octopus man looks cobbled together, and I keep expecting the model to say, “Roooaaaar, I’m an octopus!”

Frank, Scott, Roy, Laura, Adolfo, and Miranda are the best and worst. Everyone else is safe. The judges love Frank’s design, especially that the eyes disappeared through evolution. Scott, however, failed. The judges didn’t get the patterns on the head, and the painting is haphazard.  Miranda’s mole rat is a hit, especially the wrinkling in the face. Adolfo’s electrocuted prisoner looks “masky,” and his decision to paint the head orange is confusing. Roy. Poor hot mess Roy. There’s not much good to say about his creature. Laura’s mole lady is called “cool-looking,” though I’m not buying it at all.

Miranda is the winner, and Frank and Laura are safe. Adolfo is the one going home this week, which causes Roy to breathe a giant sigh of relief.

Next week, a Mother Nature goddess competition.

Reprinted with permission from www.redesignrevolution.com

This week’s Foundation Challenge on Face Off is inspired by the horror film Insidious. The contestants will create their own personal demons inspired by Insidious Two, which must be waaaay better than Insidious One because it’s a sequel. And in case you ever wanted to watch Insidious One, Glenn ruins the whole damned thing by explaining that in the climactic ending of the movie, “the father is shown to be possessed by a female demon,” so the contestants have two hours to turn their male models into female demons.

Glenn’s favorite designs are from Rick who closes up his model’s mouth with a metal something-or-other, and Roy who doused his model in shades of grays, obliterating all features. Roy wins the competition with his creative and creepy solution.

The Spotlight Challenge is to create an original whimsical character inspired by original Mother Goose nursery rhymes. The contestants have three days for this challenge and will work in teams of two. The teams are as follows:

• Frank and Laura: Little Miss Muffet
• Alana and Laney: Five Toes
• Lyma and Adolfo: Humpty Dumpty
• RJ and Roy: The Cat And The Fiddle
• Rick and Eric: The Crooked Sixpence
• Scott and Eddie: The Man In The Moon
• Miranda and Tate: Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Oh, also? This is a double elimination. The sculpting phase begins, and the concepts take shape. Lyma and Adolfo are turning Humpty Dumpty into a female character, Scott and Eddie are making a woman on the moon collecting pieces from Apollo missions, Frank and Laura are telling the Miss Muffet story from the spider’s perspective, and everyone is up to their elbows in clay.

It’s molding time, and Lyma and Adolfo’s mold isn’t setting right so they need to start over with some foam latex while Alana and Laney make a bacon bra out of tinted third degree. I’m not even sure what all of that means, but I want to visit the workroom and start playing with toxic materials. On the last day of the challenge, the teams fit various foam costumes and latex masks onto their models and begin their makeup applications. Quite a few creations are lacking that bit of whimsy that makes the Mother Goose nursery rhymes delightfully creepy rather than horribly creepy.

Glenn, Ve, and Neville settle in for the judging.

Lyma and Adolfo: Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty looks like a giant splattered egg crossed with a supermodel.

Alana and Laney: Five Toes

There’s a pig with…multi-boobs? And it’s dressed in Snobby Swine Chic.

RJ and Roy: The Cat And The Fiddle

The cat and the fiddle became the cat in the fiddle which is maybe too cute.

Rick and Eric: The Crooked Sixpence

The crooked sixpense is like a deleted scene from Waiting For Godot involving a lot of heroin.

Frank and Laura: Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet maybe got a little too friendly with the spider.

Miranda and Tate: Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Peter the pumpkin eater is a gorgeous piece of work, with a pumpkin head and stringy details on the hands.

Scott and Eddie: The Man In The Moon

The man in the moon is slightly green cheesy.

When the judges get a closer look, they enjoy Lyma and Adolfo’s egg paint job and get a kick out of Alana and Laney’s pig costume. They are confused by the anatomy of Rick and Eric’s crooked man, and aren’t feeling the spider. Miranda and Tate’s pumpkin head blows the judges away with its sculptural work and subtle details. They are also impressed by the facial movement in Scott and Eddie’s man on the moon.

Roy, RJ, Eddie, and Scott are safe. It’s clear that Tate and Miranda’s pumpkin head is the winning team, and the overall winner is Miranda because of her sculpt and paint. The loser is a little unclear. That spider is confusing and not done very well at all, and the crooked man completely lacks whimsy. In the end, Rick is sent home first for missing some basic anatomy in his work. The second person going home is Eric because his makeup work did not embrace the challenge.

Next week, subterranean creatures.

• Alana, Laney, and Laura
• Eddie, Miranda, and Sam
• Scott, Adolfo and Roy
• Frank, Eric, and Rick
• RJ, Lyma, and Tate

The guest this week is the creator of the Underworld franchise, Kevin Grevioux. He will look at the final creations and provide obvious advice like, “create something unique.”

Rick, Eric, and Frank concoct a pair of Frankensteins whose hands survive a plane crash. Alana, Laney, and Laura are three hundred years into the future. Eddie, Miranda, and Sam bicker over nanotechnology. RJ, Tate, and Lyma think about nuclear explosions where the only survivors are Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein. Roy, Scott, and Adolfo place Frankenstein in one century and his bride in another.

Sculpting, molding, setting, releasing, and…cracking. Michael Westmore visits the workroom to offer advice. He thinks Alana’s hand-holding battery charging pack is cool. When it comes to exposed brains, he cautions Roy that it might be too commonplace for the Frankenstein genre. Meanwhile, Miranda’s nose breaks off in the cast. Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark. But no worries, Eddie pastes it back on with epoxy in the worst game of Got Your Nose ever.

It’s the last day of the challenge, also known as Application Day, and there’s still a ton of work to be done. Lyma and Tate have two totally different painting styles which leads to bickering. As the deadline approaches, other contestants join in the squabbling. Just as time is called, Eddie realizes that he forgot to put the bolts on the head. Oopsie?

Ve Neill, Glenn Hetrick, and Kevin Grevioux are the judges for this week’s Spotlight Challenge.

Laney, Alana, and Laura’s monsters look gruesome but predictable.

Eddie, Miranda, and Sam did an amazing job getting their characters’ faces toxic and puffy.

Scott, Adolfo, and Roy present blah blahness that looks poorly constructed.

Rick, Eric, and Frank didn’t do much at all to their bride or to Frankenstein’s body.

Tate, RJ, and Lyma’s monsters are artistic and unique.

Alana, Laura, and Laney explain their power source concept. The judges like their work, especially the paint job. Sam, Eddie, and Miranda are next. They say something about experimental mind control, and the judges aren’t buying it (though I really like the mushy, puffy faces poking out of black leathery face masks). Roy, Adolfo, and Scott describe a cryolab love story. The judges are impressed with the concept, but their Frankenstein character is top-heavy and the bride is wishy-washy. RJ, Lyma, and Tate talk about something having to do with a war and Adam and Eve. The judges question the anatomy of their characters and criticize the airbrushy painting (which, again, I kind of like). Frank, Rick, and Eric are last. Their story is something about a crash and reanimated hands. The judges criticize Frankenstein’s random chin piece and note the missing rivets around his head. But overall, the two characters work well together.

The top team is Alana, Laney, and Laura. Meh. They didn’t do anything I haven’t seen before, but I suppose they did it better than the other teams. The winner of the challenge is Alana because of her work on the bride’s face.

Sam, Eric, and Lyma are up for elimination, and the rest of the contestants are safe. Lyma’s paint job is too harsh and unrealistic, Eric’s eye sculpting is awful and he forgot the rivets, and Sam’s face is oddly shaped and the hands were unfinished. Sam is eliminated, and the other two are safe to sculpt another day.

Next week, a double elimination challenge.