Skin Wars - General Discussion

[RedRockRosie]

So...Lana won. I am actually cool with that. All three did an amazing job...I'm glad I didn't have to choose.

 

I did immediately see her blue crab before I saw the humans making up the image. Can't say the same for Avi's, even though I thought it was really amazingly beautiful, I didn't get "chameleon" and felt it was hard to make the bodies "disappear" into the design. Aryn's butterfly was very impressive. I liked her clean lines & design but for me it was hard to make the human bodies into wings. Still she did quite well in this challenge. I'm sorry all three couldn't win because they are clearly all very talented.

Wish they could split the prize money between the top 3 finalists....largest percentage to the winner of course & at least something to the others.....

 

Oh...and thanks show. I couldn't have ONE FREAKIN NIGHT WITHOUT CHERYL ANN??

 

Hope next season they drop the cattiness & the drama. Not sure if I'd bother again when there are such annoying people  that for some reason the judges seem to make allowances for so they can continue the (fake) drama. Get a clue from Face Off.

[GaT]

CRAP, my DVR didn't record the program, so I came here not realizing the show was on tonight, & that it was the finale, & I spoiled myself. Stupid Comcast schedule, stupid Comcast DVR. 

 

Edited: I started watching a repeat of the show & realized that I didn't remember Cheryl Ann being eliminated so I looked up last week's episode to see if that was when. That was when I realized that I didn't see that episode either. Apparently the series recording disappeared from my DVR, & I never noticed. That says a lot about how much this show grabs my attention. I also realized that they did camouflage on last week's episode, so after I finish watching the finale, I'll go watch that because that's what I watch this show for. Stupid DVR. 

Edited August 20, 2015 by GaT

[LoneHaranguer]

When the challenge is to do a cohesive design with five models, how is it a good idea to spend a big chunk of your allotted time to add something else that will emphasize that there are five models? Avi and Aryn practically gave the win to Lana, especially Avi, who allowed his idea to severely compromise what the judges actually asked for.

[Eliza422]

I was glad to see Lana win...I got ***really*** sick and tired of Avi's dramatics.

Everyone's got problems, sheesh....

I also didn't think his chameleon was that readable - bits of it were good, but if he hadn't told us it was a chameleon I would have had a hard time figuring it out.

[Maelstrom]

I'm so glad Lana won! All three are clearly talented, but I think she did the best job of meeting the criteria for the challenge. While Aryn & Avi's "transformation" makeups were cool ideas and very creative, IMO it detracted from the time and focus they put into the main job. Lana was smart to focus only on one idea, and do it well (and the fact that she managed to get anything done despite Cheryl Ann's classically-trained presence impresses me even more). I agree that Avi's chameleon was not immediately readable as such - I could make out the head and tail, but the middle turned into a mess of elbows and knees IMO. And while Aryn's did look like a butterfly, it also looked like five people painted to look like a butterfly (with strangely 80s prog-rock face paint). Lana's looked like a crab, not a tangle of contortionists.

 

Backstage shenanigans-wise, it seemed to be the producers were clearly stacking the deck in Avi's favor with his teammates - he got a two assistants he worked well with (one of whom was a good friend) while Aryn and Lana each got a PitA on their teams. (Though I personally maintain that Fernello has been coached to act like such a colossal ass, because there were a few points earlier in the season when he came across as a decent guy. But this "King Fernello" persona is annoying as hell, according to this ticking time bomb *eyeroll*).

 

What I really wish is that they would split the prize money three ways instead of having one mega-winner and two very tired runners-up. Why not give, say, $50k to the first place winner, $35k to second place, and $15k to third? All three of those guys are talented and deserving of a prize.

 

Anyway. Despite the talented final three we got to watch, this has been a long season, hasn't it? They damn well better have learned their lesson with the Drama, and not have another Cheryl Ann next year, because I can't take anymore of that crap. But yay for Lana!

Edited August 20, 2015 by Maelstrom

[needschocolate]

When Aryn was eliminated, I thought, "well, that kills the suspense - Aryn was second best, so now it is obvious that Avi wins."  Then, Lana wins, and I thought "Avi was robbed! What does Cheryl Ann have on the judges that, if she can't win, then the team she was on has to win?"   

 

Then I came on here and many of you pointed out what I missed - how well Lana fit the challenge.  I was impressed by the transformations that were part of Avi's and Aryn's work, but they probably should have spent their time perfecting what was actually called for, instead of doing the extra work. 

 

The best part of Lana winning - Lana was Cheryl Ann's "arch nemesis"

 

The worst part of Lana winning - I am sure Cheryl Ann will think the win was because of the great job she did on Lana's team. 

[Kaoteek]

Avi overreached with that chameleon + 5 animals. I was the more ambitious of the three, but it ended up too complicated for its own good.

As for Lana's crab... I just couldn't see a crab. I saw contortionists posing as a roughly crab-shaped form, but not a crab. But then again, I never was a huge fan of Lana's style during the season, so...

I liked Arin's stylized butterfly much more than the other two creations, but the caterpillar, not so much. Still would probably have given her the win.

Could have done without the Fernello & Cheryl Ann drama, though.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Kaoteek

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I am with Aryn - FEET! I am ticklish so I was giggling just seeing the models laugh. While Aryn had the most original positioning of the feet, I liked Avi's and Lana's finished products much better. One of the things I carry over from watching Ink Master is that the art needs to be readable from far away and Aryn's was the least readable to me from even a few feet away (no pun intended!).

 

I HATED Rebecca's top with a million chains during the feet challenge and then I hated her faux see through black bodice for the final judging. It looked like a black Pnina Tornai stripper fairy dress.

 

Aryn was hilarious: "All of our painter friends are back! And Fernello." He is such a shit stirrer for asking who was the most hated and then saying he was robbed. STFU. Loved that Rebecca brought up his dickish "ticking timebomb" comment, but of course he had to act like he was doing Aryn this HUGE FAVOR by "letting" her do her thing. I have to admit that when the other painters were backstage saying they thought Avi would win (including Cheryl Ann who just told the judges a few hours earlier that Lana was going to win), I laughed when Fernello said, "Screw you guys. I'm going with Aryn." When Rebecca said Aryn didn't win, Fernello seemed genuinely disappointed for her and his hug backstage seemed more sincere than Cheryl Ann's loud and fake, "Oh, honey!"

 

Ha, I love that Rio still doesn't regret what he had said to the judges when he was eliminated. Did we know before now that Avi and Kyle knew each other before the competition and are BFFs? I really liked that even though Kyle is friends with Avi, he was still able to be objective and recognize that he was having issues with time.

 

Ugh and Cheryl Ann can still STFU. Lana is headstrong? Girl, have a fucking seat. This is Lana's design, not yours, so she has the right to direct you and check up on you and make sure you are doing what she wants. She probably just wanted to make sure that Cheryl Ann wasn't painting horses on every model.

 

Lana's crab was very readable from a distance but it was also very detailed up close. Avi's, on the other hand, I wouldn't have known was a chameleon if he hadn't said so earlier. The rainbow colors were beautiful but when the models were all piled up in their final pose, it still didn't really look like a chameleon even though that's what I knew it was supposed to be. I liked the separate animals in theory, but for me only the frog was really clear. Aryn did a better job with the two different looks than Avi because it was much more obvious to me what both sides were (caterpillar and butterfly). I hated the skull faces on the guys who were the wings.I get that's her thing, but the skulls looked out of place on the butterfly. If she had found a way to make them look more subtle, maybe more like the big spots that some butterflies have on their wings, I would have liked it better. I would have had the guys stand closer to the female model in the center and then had them lean out to the side more to make the wings look bigger.

 

I am a little curious about what Lana said she planned to do if she won. How would opening her own shop let her spend more time with her daughter? When you are hired for body painting, you have to paint when the clients want the models to be painted regardless of whether you paint them at your own studio or on site.

 

Was this the first multibody challenge of the season? By multibody, I mean that the models were posed together, not the team challenges where the artists had multiple models but they had a theme. I definitely remember at least one  challenge from S1 similar to this week's final challenge where each artist had three models and they had to do a multibody design.

 

Ha, i was kind of cracking up that after the golden models turned around to show Lana's name on their backs, they were STILL standing there not moving when everyone came up with champagne to celebrate.

[Monty]

The sketch Lana made for her crab was fantastic. As soon as they showed it, I was rooting for her to win.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

I am a little curious about what Lana said she planned to do if she won. How would opening her own shop let her spend more time with her daughter?

If Lana has her own shop, she cam have her daughter around while she works. Most employers consider that a distraction and object to employees doing it for anything more than an occasional special situation.

[papillon rouge]

I loved Lana from day one minus a few stumbles when she would over do it and overwhelm the judges but I feel she reined herself in and proved herself. Although avi was technically perfect from the start I really think it came down to thst final pose and I couldn't automatically see "chameleon" due to the separation between the bodies. His animals on the other side were brilliant. I couldn't figure out what the one animal was though. There's the cheetah, monkey, flamingo, frog and ? Does anyone know?

[Monty]

I convinced myself it was a scorpion because the pose suggested that the model's raised leg was supposed to be a tail.

[papillon rouge]

Monty, I think you're right. I just wasn't paying attention when they were coming up but scorpion makes sense.

[Richness]

Am I the only one disturbed by the idea that they are rubbing the paintbrush all over some guy's junk and then rubbing it all over someone else's face?

 

Are you just as disturbed by them rubbing a brush over some woman's vagina and then over someone's face? There's no difference between the two as far as hygiene goes since both genitals are covered by the same type of clothing. I bet the robot challenge made you REALLY uncomfortable.

[90PercentGravity]

Yes, definitely. To be honest, I'm disturbed by them rubbing it on any part of someone else's body and then moving to another person.

Fyi, referring to the naked thing in NYC not the show.

Edited August 24, 2015 by 90PercentGravity

[zxy556575]

Starts April 20 on at 10pm on GSN!

[GaT]

I had forgotten all about this show, but I think I'll pass, it never made any sense to me.

[zxy556575]

I thought everyone acquitted him- or herself well tonight. I'm a little iffy on Shelley -- her Simchat Torah painting looked smeary and had a lot less detail than most of the others. I hope she isn't going to be another Cheryl Ann whose work stinks but whom the judges inexplicably keep praising.

 

Tiffany couldn't possibly have been pissed that Alison swiped her holiday, could she? Why would she care between two unknown foreign celebrations. I hope it's not a harbinger of stupid feuds. Tiffany won, anyway.

 

Ru had Rebecca as a guest on his first show of Gay for Play; I'd totally forgotten until tonight that they're on Skin Wars together.

 

As usual, I wish the first episode of competitive talent shows didn't boot anybody. I would have liked to see what else Black Jesus could have brought.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The hard part about the first episode of shows like this is that there are so many contestants that I can't keep their names straight. So of course it figures that the one guy with a memorable name gets eliminated first. Fare thee well, Black Jesus!

[needschocolate]

I feel like the wrong person won the wrong person lost.  Hans's painting looked flawless to me, whereas the painting of the guy who won was very good, but I could see a few places where it was off a bit.  It feels like they gave him the win because of his sob story. 

I think the woman that lost was really the second worst.  The other guy had barely any painting on his model - all his fault for putting her in lousy poses and he didn't really own up to it being his fault to the judges.  I guess they base it more on the body of work (no pun intended).

I really wish they would get rid of the "Go wash off your canvas" good-bye.  "Pack your knives and go" makes sense, but telling them to wash off their canvas creates the image of the painter getting into the shower with their model and scrubbing her down.  Change it to "Send your canvas to the showers" - still a crappy tag line, but it at least it makes sense. 

And speaking of things that annoy me - the host needs to talk faster at the end.  She takes such a long pause before saying each name I forgot the name by the time she said the next one.

Edited April 29, 2016 by needschocolate

[LoneHaranguer]

9 hours ago, needschocolate said:

I really wish they would get rid of the "Go wash off your canvas" good-bye.  "Pack your knives and go" makes sense, but telling them to wash off their canvas creates the image of the painter getting into the shower with their model and scrubbing her down.  Change it to "Send your canvas to the showers" - still a crappy tag line, but it at least it makes sense. 

Not really once you consider that all of the models are hitting the showers, so the winning work is going down the drain right along with the loser. Something to do with packing up does make sense, but I think Ink Master has already been using a similar sendoff.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

First let me say that I loooooooooove camouflage challenges! I wish they would do more of them each season because I find them so much more interesting.

The first modern fairy tale challenge was fun. This was a challenge where the artist's interpretation and creativity was as important as the actual painting. I think Jess won based more on her concept with the online predators as the modern Big Bad Wolf. Hans also had a good concept turning the yellow brick road into the Hollywood walk of fame.

I couldn't muster any sympathy for Michael when he "lost" two hours of time during the camouflage challenge because it was his own damn fault. First of all, he said that he is great at camouflage which means he's done this before which means he should know how to give a camouflage model a comfortable/doable pose. But secondly, Rebecca made it a point to tell everyone that choosing a pose that is comfortable WITHOUT LOCKED KNEES was key to this challenge. His first pose was terrible for the model. I felt so bad for her. I'm glad that she spoke up and told him that she couldn't do that pose for three hours. But I hate that he minimized his own role in the problem during judging. "She started feeling sick"? No, you asshole. She didn't get sick. She was physically unable to hold the pose that your chose for three hours. It shouldn't have taken him three poses to get her into a comfortable position. Plus he tried to make it sound like he gave her that third pose to be a nice guy. For me, it was too little too late. What he did paint didn't look good either.

In the top:
Hans did a great job. His model was almost completely invisible against the cars. And he was smart to let his model sit on a little car.

Tiffany's was good. Her model was mostly invisible. There were a few spots where I could tell things were a little off but it wasn't super obvious. It kind of looked like there were was a ripple in a sci fi movie.

Rick's balloon area looked pretty good. His model mostly disappeared. If not for the model's feet and the lower part of her calves where the shelf was, I wouldn't have seen her at all.

In the middle:

I liked the way that Brittany tilted the model's head, but she didn't make her totally disappear in the dolls.

Kyera's was helped by the actual setting of ball cage, but I could still see her model very clearly. I'm not sure why because it seemed like she did a good job with both the straight lines of the cage and the round lines of the balls. It wasn't just the stools (and props to another painter who gave her model a more comfortable pose than Michael did) - her head and left leg were really visible to me. I think part of the problem is that all the balls looked flat instead of three dimensional.

Allison's would have been much better if not for the silver on the shelves. The stuffed animals looked fine.

Luis's gumball/dinosaur was good in that she blended in really well but Craig pointed out that there wasn't a lot of detail and I agree. In Luis's defense, that was smart choices but it wasn't nearly as impressive as what Rick or Hans did.

When Otto said he had to keep giving his model breaks, I was like well, that's what you get for giving your model that pose. It's hard to kneel for three hours straight. I don't know if the quality of his camouflage was due to having to reposition her after each break or if he just isn't very good at it.

Shelley's beach area was bad. Her model was really visible from far away but when they zoomed in on the picture, her mistakes were even more obvious. The black dots on the pegboard behind the shelf were totally uneven. And when they zoomed in on the model's head, you could see that Shelley put a white outline around the yellow thing on the top shelf. She didn't bother to paint the rest of the backdrop white which made the white outline really stand out. I would have sent Michael home instead of her though.

One thing I loved about the judges this week was that they called people out. When Michael tried to tell the judges that his model "got sick," Craig immediately asked if he had given her a pose with locked knees. When Michael said he had less than two hours to paint because his model "got sick," Ru told him it was his fault for giving her that first pose and that he would have to learn from that. Craig said that they can only judge the painting they see, regardless of the excuses. LOVED when Ru asked Jess why she came on the show without attempting camouflage. That's the question I want to ask contestants who go on The Amazing Race without being able to drive a stick shift, swim, navigate, etc. or chefs who go on Hell's Kitchen but can't make risotto. You KNOW you're going to be asked to do this! I also liked that in the first challenge, the judges asked the painters how their designs were modern versions of the fairy tales. And I love that they said they want the paintings to stand on their own without the explanations. ITA

Hans can STFU. It would be one thing if Rick had done a terrible job and won, but for Hans to be disparaging because Rick is "a child"? That just means he didn't take as long as you did to get to the same level. Just because you're older or you've been doing something longer doesn't mean you should disparage or dismiss people who are younger or who haven't been doing it as long as you have. Why didn't Hans call Jess a child when she won the fairy tale challenge? She is barely older than Rick (she's 24 and he's 20, while Hans is an old man of 36).

I found it weird that so many of the body painters, who, in case you've forgotten, paint NAKED BODIES, were so freaked out/uncomfortable with Michael swimming naked. He was covering his junk with his hand until he jumped into the pool so I don't see what the big deal was. It's not like he got out of the pool and was shaking his balls in everyone's faces, yet they were calling his nudity annoying and gross. It really makes me hope that they have to do a challenge with all male models very soon.

[PityFree]

I am so glad I found all of you here! I didn't think I'd liek this show, but I really enjoy it.  

Maybe they don't like Michael nude because it isn't in a professional setting? It's one thing to face penis/boobs at work, where both you and the model are both trying to be as professional as possible (plus they have pasties and thongs on). It's quite another to have actual nudity forced on you in your living space. 

I wonder how much they pay the models. I am sick with jealousy over how perfect their bodies are. 

So far Rick the 20 year old is my favorite. I am so impressed with his skill and that he was self taught. IMagine how good he will be by the time he is Hans' age!!!

[Madding crowd]

I agree that the pose the model had was uncomfortable, but they have had the models do poses way more difficult than this. Depending on how your toy section was set-up, there really was limited poses you could do without everyone doing the same pose, and being able to camouflage. Obviously you can't expect anyone to lock their legs, but that model also seemed uncomfortable sitting down with her knees up. I don't think he handled it well, but I also think the model was maybe more sensitive than some of the others. Not blaming her, I wouldn't be able to do it at all. 

[zxy556575]

I don't understand what the judges meant by locked knees, to be honest. Aren't they locked when standing up straight? It would seem to me to be more difficult to hold a pose with bent knees

[Madding crowd]

Yes, the first pose seemed to be the model standing up straight with one arm up and against the display. The second pose she was sitting with bent knees. I just didn't think there was anything outrageous about either pose. The models should always be free to say something if they are in pain, but the judges were really acting like the guy did some convoluted pose which I didn't see. 

[needschocolate]

10 hours ago, lordonia said:

I don't understand what the judges meant by locked knees, to be honest. Aren't they locked when standing up straight? It would seem to me to be more difficult to hold a pose with bent knees

I was also confused by the term "locked knees." I looked it up and got a bunch of sites that talked about a medical condition where your knee can't bend - not what they were talking about here.  There were a few other sites that discussed not standing with your knees locked for a long time - like when the military stands in formation or when choirs sing, or if you are in a wedding - which is what they meant on the show.  Unfortunately, none of those sites were "official," just people answering a question, but there seemed to be a general consensus, which is ---  

Locking your knees means standing with your leg completely straight, which actually bends the knee joint slightly backward (one person said that if you sit on the floor with your legs out and try to touch your toes, that is the position your knees are in when they are locked). If you stand with your knees locked, it will stop or slow down the blood flow back to your heart, blood will pool in your legs and, not getting enough blood to your brain will make you pass out. You should relax your knees, bending them slightly, so that they don't lock.  

Like I said, this info did not come from any sort of official medical site.  

This makes it sound like not locking the knees is something the model has control over. If the pose requires standing and your know you are supposed to stand for 3 hours, then make sure that your knees are slightly bent (I assume not bent enough to cramp any muscles).  So, unless the artist tells them the model to straighten her legs completely, I am not sure how this is the artist's fault (which changes my opinion of Michael a little bit).

[zxy556575]

Thanks for the explanation. It still seems like it's up to the models how they stand. At any rate, I hope they're well compensated since they have stand for hours under the best of circumstances.

I was looking at the gallery for the camouflage challenge and the still photos show the outline of the models a little more than seeing them through the TV, but Tiffany, Hans and Rick are still really good. The model's big yellow hand on Kyera's piece is killing me.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

It's one thing to face penis/boobs at work, where both you and the model are both trying to be as professional as possible (plus they have pasties and thongs on). It's quite another to have actual nudity forced on you in your living space.

Like I said, it's not like he was shoving his balls in their faces. He was cupping himself with one hand so no one actually had to see his bathing suit parts. Then he jumped into the empty swimming pool. You know that if it were one of the female contestants jumping into the pool naked, all the guys complaining about how "gross" Michael's nudity is would be all for it. Female nudity is only gross when there's breastfeeding in public!

Loved the 2D challenge. The best part was in a few shots we could see the models' naked/unpainted backs which was a hilarious contrast to their cartoonish fronts.

Kyera's was one of my favorites. She didn't rely on the dots as much as the others but she used strong black lines and shadows. I loved the bows she added to the model's hair and arm, and the way she used the ice cream cone was my favorite use of props for this challenge. Adding the black between her fingers was a great touch too.

Rick's story about his character using a paint roller to paint a suit on was a creative way to work in the paint roller. I liked the clean style of his comic book character. I also liked Luis's which was similar since his model was also wearing a suit. Robin was so in love with the shadow he drew on his torso for the arm that I knew he was a contender to win this challenge.

Hans really went overboard with the comic book style to the point where it looked like a parody. I know he got a bum prop (the plunger) but his story about the coy kitchen whine was too out there for me. I loved that Rebecca, Ru, and Robin were all like uhh, say what now?

I wasn't crazy about Otto's red devil lady with a cake. Was she supposed to be a devil? Or was he just exaggerating the skin tone? I thought the lines weren't successful in creating a 2D look and her face looked terrible. I also didn't like that he gave her huge porn star boobs.

While I didn't love Alison's execution, I liked the idea behind it. Painting a face that is facing the opposite direction of the model's actual face was quite a challenge. It seemed like only the face really satisfied the 2D part of the challenge. The newspaper print on her arms and the big EQUALITY were definitely references to the comics but they weren't 2D per se.

Jess's gin drinker was really striking and I loved that she was able to achieve that flat 2D look by only using shadows, lines, and highlights (without any dots).

Michael's model had so many huge red dots on her face that she looked like she had a supersized version of the chicken pox, which is a shame because he painted her face so beautifully. Ru wasn't kidding about her looking like a Swedish supermodel with amazing cheekbones.

Team challenges always annoy me because I feel like they're created in the hopes of creating more drama among the contestants and I am not here for that. I just want to see the best body painting possible. And teaming people up also makes it more difficult to judge the individual contestants.

I still can't stand Hans and his entitled/snobby attitude. He seems to think that just because he's older, that automatically makes him better. If you're a good artist, it doesn't matter how long you've been doing it. In high school, there was a girl on my dance team who didn't start dancing until she was 13 (which is REALLY late for dancers) but she was by far one of the best girls on a team of 40. She had great flexibility, clean triple pirouettes, beautiful leaps, and amazing technique. She was equally good at jazz, lyrical/contemporary, hip hop, and jazz. The fact that she'd only been dancing for two years made no difference when you compared her to girls who had been dancing since they were 6 or 7 years old. She was just better than they were. That's what happens when you have innate talent. I'm not saying that Hans is a bad artist by any means. He is clearly good. I just think he needs to quit acting like being older or painting longer that means he is better. I would have a lot more respect for him if he just said he was better than some of the others instead of constantly bringing up how young they are, how old he is, and how long he's been painting.

In contrast, I love Rick and his laidback attitude. He knows he is good but he doesn't feel the need to brag (or do that other annoying reality show thing which is talking about how everyone else underestimates him because he's sooooooo young). I also liked that when the judges asked which of them should win, Rick said he'd be willing to take it but when they asked why, he joked about the details.

Hans and Rick's owl was really beautiful. Have the painters been allowed to use material before? I was surprised when I saw that the wings were fabric. When they were initially talking about the concept, it didn't sound that interesting but seeing it changed my mind. The lines were clean, the design was strong, the colors were bold, and it didn't need any explanation (ahem, unicorn coming out of a chrysalis).

The thing I disliked the most about Otto and Tiffany's 'Murrica mural was that the airbrushed parts looked too soft. The flag really bothered me too. There weren't enough stripes and although I know they were going for a rippled/windblown flag, from leg to leg the angles and edges of the stripes didn't line up which was really distracting.

I give Brittney and Michael credit for trying to go above and beyond and to create a more dynamic piece with motion, but I didn't like the large faces painted on the models' bodies. I also felt like some of the colors got a little muddy instead of popping.

I didn't like Luis and Jess's frog idea when they were talking about it and I didn't really like the end result. The best part about it was the tongue. The frog had nice colors but like the guest judge, I had to try too hard to actually see the frog. If I hadn't been told anything about their concept beforehand, I would have seen a fly in front of a colorful background.

Kyera and Alison's mural was a mess. If they hadn't explained the caterpillar and the chrysalis and how they related to the unicorn, I would have had no idea why all three of those elements were there. While I agree that the caterpillar looked better, I'm glad that Robin pointed out that a caterpillar is just a cylinder and therefore much simpler and easier to paint. The unicorn didn't look good but there was a lot more to it. I give Kyera credit for making an effort to have the unicorn in motion coming straight at the audience, but it wasn't executed well even in the basic forms. And were those white things suppose to be wings? Because unicorns don't have wings. A pegasus has wings, not a unicorn.

I understand that people miss their families when they have no contact with them during filming, but pull it together, Alison! This is only the third episode so it's been a week at most since they started filming. As was famously said on Project Runway, you can cry but you have to cry and keep working.

Edited May 8, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Monty]

I'm really enjoying Rick. A lot of the artists have to spend ten minutes explaining their concepts to make their work make sense, but he can't really do that because he doesn't seem into talking too much. So he has to let his work speak for itself, which is how it ought to be (according to me).

Also, I think there's a chance that he got so stoned before the show started that it would take the entire run of the show for him to come down.

[zxy556575]

As a Drag Race viewer, I loved seeing the various queens again but thought the final looks were kind of lackluster. I guess because the artists subverted their own desires to suit their clients? That doesn't work well on Project Runway, either.

I wasn't that taken with Alison's winning look but I'm probably biased because I don't much like her personally.

[xingcat]

I didn't think Jess deserved to go home. Milk's look was exactly what Milk is about, and I thought the puppets and that....thing in the middle of his belly/groin area were a bit off-color and totally strange, just like Milk. She was absolutely gobsmacked to be going home, but she was incredibly gracious about it, which I appreciate.

Also, April Carrion is the most gorgeous girl and boy ever. And PhiPhi O'Hara, who I didn't like at all during Drag Race, has since become one of my favorites with her 365 Days of Drag on Instagram, and you could tell she LOVED her look.

Good seeing Joslyn Fox. I used to see her before she got on RPDR in clubs in MA and RI. She's a good egg.

[LoneHaranguer]

10 hours ago, lordonia said:

I guess because the artists subverted their own desires to suit their clients?

Assuming they had any. It's an attractive idea that they don't have to come up with anything, do what the client says, and if the judges complain, say "that's what she wanted". But, as was pointed out to one artist, it's still their responsibility to integrate the ideas into a good, coherent result.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

First a hearty DAAAAAMN for that black dress with cleavage cutouts worn by Rebecca. Yowza!

Secondly, after so many of the male contestants were so negative about Michael jumping into the pool naked a few weeks ago, I loved that they all had to paint drag queens this week. Talk about delicious schadenfreude!

Hans brags so much that I couldn't believe how simple and unpolished his bathing suit was. The concept was way too plain and the execution was not good. Alyssa Edwards was not one of my favorite RPDR contestants but she deserved so much better than that.

Alison did a pretty good job with Yara Sofia's bright pink bathing suit. It complemented her hair without being too matchy matchy and the gladiator sandals she added were fun.

I felt bad for Jess that Milk's undergarments weren't taking paint well. I think if she had used a black and white cow print instead of that brown, it would have looked more fun. From a distance, it looked like Milk had a bunch of mud stains on her outfit.

I didn't love April's blue bathing suit. I really didn't like that Otto added cleavage and then painted from the collarbone down in a lighter blue because a bathing suit with such a high neckline made no sense to me.

Lineysha's bathing suit had great colors. A drag queen pageant bathing suit challenge is definitely one of the times when you can get away with lots of bright colors. I didn't like how smudged the pink and orange looked on the front though. On the back, it looked more like a tie dye or water color pattern but on the front it just looked messy.

I liked Tyra's because the lines and colors looked very clean and it looked like a real bathing suit even at close range.

Michael did a great job with Joslyn's striped and strappy bathing suit. I also liked that he added the lifeguard speedo. Having a sense of humor is always good on this show.

Phi Phi's bathing suit was very cartoonish but it was fun. She looked like a retro pinup cartoon character come to life I liked the bold colors and shapes that Tiffany used.

I don't know what Rick was thinking when he created Kennedy's bathing suit which didn't look like a bathing suit at all. The blue swirls were pretty and the lines were clean though. The gold highlights were nice too.

As on Project Runway, I feel that in challenges like this, the most important thing is to make the client happy because that's the way it works in the real world too. If a client hires you and you do your own thing instead of listening to what they want, then you are the type of artiste who should not have clients.

Jess's interpretation of Milk's club kid theme worked for me. It had the craziness that you would expect from a rave themed design. I actually liked the flowery beard too. My issues were more with the execution. Some of it looked messy. But overall she captured Milk really well.

I didn't love the concept of Joslyn's fox in rabbit's clothing but it was painted really beautifully by Michael. The red and gold was very pretty and was a good backdrop for the big rabbit on the front. I really liked that he switched the color scheme on the back to that dark teal color.

To be honest, when Alison said that Jara Sofia wanted to be a jungle bomb, I had no idea what she was talking about. A bomb in the jungle? A bomb made out of jungle? It was very striking from a distance due to the red/yellow colors on the body and the green on the eyes. The night sky detail was very pretty.

Rick's mermaid design on Kennedy was a mixed bag for me. I thought the colors were a little too dark and murky, but when Rick said that it looked brighter in the work room, I cut him a little slack. Did he draw on all those scales or use a stencil? The seaweed on the front Kennedy's legs were so wavy and graceful that it looked like it was really underwater.

Brittney's warrior concept on Tyra didn't read as warrior from far away. Closer up, I liked it. The details like the striped shading and the gold designs were great. I liked the turquoise/purple/fuchsia color scheme and the lotus on her back surrounded by the gold designs were beautiful. I think she had the best face makeup on the runway.

Oh, Luis. I know I said you should give your client what she wants but that doesn't mean you have to give her EVERYTHING she asked for. He could have edited her list down to create a more cohesive concept. When they were talking about it, it sounded like she had everything but the kitchen sink. When she appeared on the runway and the screen said the concept was "spark," I still had no idea what I was looking at. What I disliked is that on the runway, Linaysha made it sound like she was trying to be game and sell a turd when it was all her concept. My issue with Luis is that what I saw was messy. The messiness of the necklace was really noticeable while they were talking to her on the runway. I remembered that Linaysha mentioned fireworks earlier but when I saw her on the runway, I thought those were snowflakes on her arms.

Otto, on the other hand, had a really simple theme: Puerto Rican night. Adding the phoenix was a nice touch. I really liked the phoenix head on one side of her face and the red/gold contrasted well with the blue from the night scenes, but I wish he had done more to portray the fire than just adding white highlights to the red/gold.

Phi Phi's cosplay superhero idea was fun. Tiffany did a great job with it. She made her look buff but feminine by putting that yellow leotard part of the costume over the purple base. I also liked the design she put on the purple.

Alyssa's Texas struggle (sorry, "inner reflection direction") was not my favorite. I didn't like that HUGE face painted from her neck to her waist. It was just way too big, plus having it go over her chest made the face look lumpy and misshapen. Hans must have airbrushed the picture of Alyssa looking at herself in the mirror because it looked really soft and messy. He put four different faces on her body and none of them looked good so I think that painting people/bodies is not his forte. Hans is just so sour. So what if you put a lot of thought into your concept? That doesn't mean you should automatically win.

I love that one of the things that Ru was very focused on during this episode was whether the designs were complimentary to the queens' bodies. They are not all built like Naomi Smalls, so their specific body types have to be taken into consideration.

Loved seeing all the queens, even the ones I remember disliking on RPDR. It was so fun to see all the queens rush to huge Yara Sofia when she was announced as Miss Skin Wars.

I would have kept Jess over Luis. It seemed like they didn't like her concept and eliminated her for that. I thought that hers was a more cohesive concept and it was painted better.

[qtpye]

Quote

As a Drag Race viewer, I loved seeing the various queens again but thought the final looks were kind of lackluster. I guess because the artists subverted their own desires to suit their clients? That doesn't work well on Project Runway, either.

I wasn't that taken with Alison's winning look but I'm probably biased because I don't much like her personally.

I agree.  I was excited by this challenge and most everything looked like a hot mess.  Even the winning looks were ugly and had to be explained before you understood the concept.  I am glad a lot of the Drag Queens liked their looks because pleasing your client is important.

[goodbyeglittergirl]

I was glad to see all of the Drag Racers but most of the looks were awful. 

[zxy556575]

Wow, what a sniveling little shitstain Alison is.  Non-conformist my ass.

Ru, in order for a contestant to disrespect the show, it has to be something worth respecting. Which, no. It's a low budget reality show on a bottom feeder cable network, so no need to damage your vocal cords.

Edited May 19, 2016 by lordonia

[LoneHaranguer]

It was pretty transparent that Ru just thought the contestant was disrespecting him and didn't want to risk sounding petty.

[Mamarazzi]

The whole moody artist vibe who talks in circles without really saying anything....was a bit much. I absolutely loved the death card. That was so amazing.

[Monty]

You see, when I'm not showered with praise for everything I do, I have trouble doing my best work. So really, it's the judges' fault I stink.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I loved the illusion challenge at the beginning. I was so excited to see what the painters would come up with!

I liked Michael's alligators, but I appreciated that Craig remembered he had done the same thing with wolves.

Rick's was so complex and colorful. Between the black and white checkerboard and the blue flower/mandala pattern, it was very strong. The turquoise, red, and yellow really made his design pop even more (and he showed that he was listening to the judges!). I was really impressed that he did so much detailed work in only three hours.

Tiffany's quilt was so good. It was a great concept and she made it look so real. Loved that the needle and  thread were painted on too.

Luis's was great. Loved that it was a skeleton wearing a skin t-shirt and that you could really see the edges of the shirt rolling back slightly. The black and white pinball-esque center was so well done, as was the skin being pulled back. The skull on the face was great too. The marbles were shiny and reflected light realistically too.

Otto's robot lady felt like it didn't fit the challenge. I laughed when the only comment was Rebecca saying, "Okay, thank you, Otto."

Allison's design definitely looked similar to Luis's but it wasn't an optical illusion in my opinion. As Craig said, if it had been an eyeball challenge then she might have won because that big reptilian eyeball looked great, but the way she had the skin painted to look like it was being pulled away from the eyeball didn't look realistic at all.

Hans's prisoner painting was not my favorite. I didn't like the squares on the face. The only part I kind of liked was the fish tank windows on the boobs. I didn't like the man in the stomach cage.

Brittany's lattice was very nice - the shadowing was done well. I wasn't crazy about the airbrushed rose at the top though. I understand why the judges wanted her to use more black because of the black background, but I thought her illusion was better than a lot of the others we saw.

Allison made no sense to me during the tarot card challenge.. The hierophant represents conformity, tradition, and religion so I'm going to paint a really shitty self portrait of my Hot Topic self on the model because I was such a non-conformist rebel. What the hell? That doesn't even make sense. That would be like if Rick said, "I got the tarot card for the moon, so I painted the sun on my model." Why would you do the OPPOSITE of what the card is? The model's face was beautiful. I loved the turquoise color with the very subtle highlight in the center to look like there was a light shining on her face.

Rick's moon was interesting to me because from far away, it was just kind of meh but in the close up shots, I really liked a lot of the details. The night sky with all the stars and the phases of the moon was very detailed and pretty. Those black areas where the skin was "cracked" to show more sky and stars was cool too. I didn't love the crescent moon on the front, but I did like the reflection of the moon on the water (but that's just something I love anyway - a million years ago, I learned that there was a specific word that means reflection of moonlight on the water and I wish I could remember what the word is!). Good use of glitter there. The sky stuff on the front of the model's legs was still a little too dark and muddled for me though. I was surprised the judges didn't say anything about that since they've mentioned his colors being to dark in previous weeks.

Britney's wheel of fortune was good. I liked the rainbow colors and I totally loved that the crack of the book was right on the model's ass crack. And she was one of the few people who rendered a face that looked like a real face this week, which was probably more difficult since it was in the model's butt. I wasn't crazy about the way she painted the model's actual face though.

Luis's hermit card was not my favorite. I know he was super excited about the wrecking ball concept but I felt like the hole in the wall was just a black spot instead of having any sort of dimension, which was especially disappointing after he did that amazing 3D checkboard hole in the earlier challenge. I also disliked how sloppy the brickwork was. When I was in high school, we had to paint a wall to look like it was brick so we tried a bunch of different techniques and most of them ended up looking really fake, so on the one hand I understand that it's not the easiest thing. But on the other hand, all he did was paint his model red and then paint crooked white lines on top.

I loved Michael's death card. The two toned skeleton on the front looked so good. The actual skeleton part looked realistic, and the red/blue backgrounds really made the skeleton pop. The DNA on the back was a little messier, but I liked not only the turquoise on top of the red but the other orange and white colors he used on the back to make it look swirly. And I liked that the gold headpiece he made looked like another skull on the back of the model's head.

The thing I liked about Otto's sun card was the color scheme. It was bright and happy and there was good color contrast. But I didn't like the cartoonish sun he painted on the front (which really just looked like a weird orange and red head). The portrait of his daughter on the back looked like the work of a bad caricature artist. And what was with the cowboy in the model's crotch?

Tiffany's star card was a mixed bag for me. The model's face looked gorgeous. Loved the use of the blue and yellow with the stars. And the big eight pointed stars had a great visual impact on the runway against the blue background. But I really disliked the girl shse painted on the front. The parrot on the back had weirdly short wings. How did the girl and the parrot represent hope and vitality or anything about the star card?

Hans needs to STFU. He really thinks that he is too good for this. "Art wasn't made to be judged." Then why did you go on a show that involves judging? This is the third season so you had to know what the format was. Did you think they would just give the grand prize to someone without judging anyone's art? "I want full creative control!" Then paint your friends. But if you do this for a living, don't the clients get a say in what they want? I also HATED that when the judges came around to check on everyone in the workroom, he said he would have a long story for them about his piece at judging to explain everything. Just no. Art should stand on its own merits. If you have to explain your piece, you didn't do a very good job. Then his story was just "this is the card." While I liked the pattern on the front, he went way too literal with the tarot card concept. He just gave up because he was pissed about never winning a challenge. Then he had the nerve to say that all these other things like glitter and glitz aren't art. Oh, sorry, only what YOU do is art. The other competitors are just posers. Riiiiiggghhhhht.

I felt bad for Otto and Luis having to awkwardly stand there while Hans just babbled about nothing. "Everything in this competition has been a new question and a new riddle within each day so this right here is a riddle like the rest." I don't blame Ru for losing it. First he asked Hans, "Do you really want to be here?" Hans babbled nonsense about inspiration and passion and being uncomfortable. Then Ru asked, "Why be here?" and Hans said, "Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't want to be here," and then went off on a tangent about making models in LA look beautiful. Craig said, "We need you to want to be here," followed by Rebecca asking, "Do you want to leave the competition?" Hans responded by going on about his best work and having a passionate place to do it, so Robin told him point blank to answer the question and asked again, "Do you want to stay or do you want to go?" More babbling which is when Ru finally lost his temper. Hans had been asked REPEATEDLY if he wanted to stay or go and he refused to answer the question. It's a simple either/or question that doesn't require all of this pseudo-intellectual babble. Just make a fucking decision and verbalize it.

I was really surprised that after Hans FINALLY said he was leaving, the judges still eliminated Otto. I guess that means we will be getting a non-elimination in the next few weeks. Alison was such a bitch to Luis when she found out he wasn't eliminated. It's one thing to express dismay that Otto was eliminated but damn, there's no need to be insulting. Was this just sour grapes because their designs in the first challenge were so similar? Or did she dislike him before this week? I can't remember.

Michael definitely deserved the win this week. His death tarot was my favorite.

[needschocolate]

If there is one thing that is consistent on this show it is that if you spend your talking heads bragging about how great you are, you won't win any challenges.  

 

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Allison made no sense to me during the tarot card challenge.. The hierophant represents conformity, tradition, and religion so I'm going to paint a really shitty self portrait of my Hot Topic self on the model because I was such a non-conformist rebel. What the hell? That doesn't even make sense. That would be like if Rick said, "I got the tarot card for the moon, so I painted the sun on my model." Why would you do the OPPOSITE of what the card is? The model's face was beautiful. I loved the turquoise color with the very subtle highlight in the center to look like there was a light shining on her face.

<snipped for space>

Hans needs to STFU. He really thinks that he is too good for this. "Art wasn't made to be judged." Then why did you go on a show that involves judging? This is the third season so you had to know what the format was. Did you think they would just give the grand prize to someone without judging anyone's art? "I want full creative control!" Then paint your friends. But if you do this for a living, don't the clients get a say in what they want? I also HATED that when the judges came around to check on everyone in the workroom, he said he would have a long story for them about his piece at judging to explain everything. Just no. Art should stand on its own merits. If you have to explain your piece, you didn't do a very good job. Then his story was just "this is the card." While I liked the pattern on the front, he went way too literal with the tarot card concept. He just gave up because he was pissed about never winning a challenge. Then he had the nerve to say that all these other things like glitter and glitz aren't art. Oh, sorry, only what YOU do is art. The other competitors are just posers. Riiiiiggghhhhht.

<snipped for space>

I was really surprised that after Hans FINALLY said he was leaving, the judges still eliminated Otto. I guess that means we will be getting a non-elimination in the next few weeks. Alison was such a bitch to Luis when she found out he wasn't eliminated. It's one thing to express dismay that Otto was eliminated but damn, there's no need to be insulting. Was this just sour grapes because their designs in the first challenge were so similar? Or did she dislike him before this week? I can't remember.

Bolded top section - Not that this makes more sense, but she said that being a nonconformist was her "religion" in high school.  I think she had an idea of what she wanted to paint and then tried to make it tie out with her story.  Instead of thinking, "Well, my tradition is to be a nonconformist, so I will paint that on my model" she probably thought "I want a picture of a Hot Topic girl from the 1980's so I will just claim that nonconformity is my religion."  even if it made sense as a story, it doesn't make sense in the challenge, which was to update a tarot card, not make the tarot card be about your life - but then I get the feeling that Allison perceives most everything as revolving around her.

Bolded middle section - If he watched the prior seasons, he should have also known that "He who brags in his talking heads doesn't win challenges."  

Bolded bottom section - That was very rude - "How was his worse than yours?" Sometimes the words just come out wring, but she didn't try to clarify it in the least - she must have meant it the way she said it.  But she could have phrased it differently, like saying, "Wow, I didn't think Otto's was the worst." At least that way it leaves room for Luis to think that she thought Hans's was worst.  It would be better to have kept her opinions to herself though.  

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Woo! Black light painting! I would love to see another full body black light challenge. Brittney's jellyfish was simple in theory (adding ribbons to her model's fingers) but she did it so well. I loved the way she made the blue of the body look luminiscent. Michael's moray eel was GORGEOUS. The color gradations were beautiful and so realistic. The way he painted the face on the hands and used the inside of the hands as the mouth was great. He totally deserved the win.

I loved the way Alison used color in her angler fish but on a shallow note, I am so sick of hearing about her son. WE GET IT. YOU HAVE A KID. When she's not crying about how much she misses him, she's going on and on about his favorite fish. She's making me think that she's one of those annoying people who can't talk about anything but her kid.

I had no idea what Luis was doing when I saw him working on his model, but the coral reef concept with a fish that pops out was cool. I liked that there were some black areas to make the colors pop even more. I was surprised that he hasn't used an airbrush yet.

Rick's jellyfish was really beautiful. I loved how he made it look like the light was shining from above the water. I do think he should have done more with his two hours. Tiffany was able to make five different tableaus which was really impressive, but I felt the painting itself was a little simple.

Doing a head to toe underwater look is quite a challenge. I knew Luis was doomed, not only because he hadn't used an airbrush before, but because he didn't know about the powder and fixatives needed to add to the process.

I don't mind giving the winner an advantage, but I dislike giving the winner the ability to punish another competitor. I loathed this on Project Runway: Threads too. I'd rather that Michael got an extra 30 minutes to paint instead of taking someone else's tools for 30 minutes. But then again, Alison has been getting on my nerves so if anyone were to be penalized, I'd rather it be her than anyone else.

Brittney's alligator looked great. The face was so fierce and scary. I wish she had pinned up her model's hair though. Loved the alligator eyes on the back and shoulders.

Alison's yellow and blue cuttlefish/mantle shrimp looked good, but the blue was a little too close to the color of the water and the background. I agreed with Craig that the face looked unfinished.

Luis's lobster was a little too pink in the front. It was much redder in the back. I liked that it was whimsical but it was really obvious during the judging that they were telling him he could not continue in the competition without knowing how to airbrush.

Tiffany's mermaid was very pretty. I loved the gold edged scales. I know the judges were initially concerned about her putting a bald cap on her model but I loved what she ended up doing with the headpiece and the fabric. Her mermaid looked regal and the flowing fabric gave her that graceful mermaid look. So glad that she won this one.

Michael's octopus was really colorful, but he had way too much foam on his model. That poor girl was trying so hard to push herself down in the water. The tentacles did look very pretty in motion underwater though. I liked that he had enough of a sense of humor to later tell Luis, "Everyone knows foam floats."

Rick's seahorse was really beautiful. I'm glad he listened to Robin's advice to go lighter with his colors. The yellows and purples looked so good underwater. I loved how everyone gasped when his model was revealed. Hee, and how cute that Robin asked if he had a crush on his model. He was so gracious when Tiffany won too, telling her that she deserved it.

I'm looking forward to some feel good vibes during next week's challenge!

[zxy556575]

I thought the octopus was well done and looked great underwater. The model not being able to completely submerge herself wasn't the total! epic! failure! the judges made it out to be. I'm glad Michael didn't go home over it.

I can't really quibble with Alison's work but keep hoping that she'll screw up and skedaddle. She's right up there with Cheryl Ann on my annoyance meter.

Whoever is dressing Rebecca, just wow. She looks gorgeous every week but that pink and yellow dress was awesome on her.

[Monty]

I can't believe they made the model wear her lobster claws while trying to wash off her paint. Of course, I also think it's going to take a lot of effort to wash off paint that was specifically applied to stay put underwater.

[needschocolate]

On 6/2/2016 at 1:55 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I loved the way Alison used color in her angler fish but on a shallow note, I am so sick of hearing about her son. WE GET IT. YOU HAVE A KID. When she's not crying about how much she misses him, she's going on and on about his favorite fish. She's making me think that she's one of those annoying people who can't talk about anything but her kid.

Alison does manage to mention her son a lot, but, personally, I am tired of hearing from her about anything and everything.  I know that the producers interview everyone and they decide which talking heads we see, but I find her annoying and I wish they would stop focusing on her so much.

[lh25]

Quote

I don't mind giving the winner an advantage, but I dislike giving the winner the ability to punish another competitor.

I agree.  And really, it becomes an advantage to all the other painters, not just the one who won the challenge.  Give the winner an extra 30 minutes like you said, or first choice of models or some item only they can use.  Not foam though...:)

[PityFree]

Rick kills me! He is soooo talented. He's adorable and cracks me up.

[Christina]

Who is Tiffany? Where did she come from? Has she been there the entire time? I watch while doing other things, but I swear I've never seen her. I think all these reality competition shows insert people in the middle of the series to see if they can get it past us. For me, they succeeded, as usual. 

Other than that confusion, I really enjoyed this episode. I liked everything, and it was nice seeing everyone working. A few episodes seem like they decide to use some of their 42 minutes on repeating talking heads and "Coming Up" previews. Alison is annoying to me, but all of the painters are so talented, that I don't think I can complain about any of them winning.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

During the intro for this episode, I was shocked to realize that there are only five painters left.

On a shallow note, I loved Robin's flowered dress. She looked like she was ready to go to high tea.

Usually I don't like when reality shows try to emotionally manipulate me (and I have some issues with the way breast cancer is marketed - if you haven't watched the documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc., I highly recommend it) but this episode was a rare exception because it celebrated these women and I loved seeing the painters collaborate with them and make them feel beautiful. I had to grade on a curve because for me the most important thing was that the models liked how they looked.

I was a little apprehensive about Alison giving her model a day of the dead look because it seemed a little morbid, but she made it uplifting and she made her model feel pretty, so I was happy with it. I also liked that she used a lot of pink to give it some lightness.

Brittney's hummingbird was full of light and hope. Normally I would expect very bright vivid colors for a hummingbird but the soft color palette that she chose worked well.

Rick's lotus was really beautiful. I am so glad that he has been listening to the judges about using lighter colors. Having that red and yellow flower contrast with the deep blue water and the white background made the colors pop even more. The tiny butterflies were a nice accent. I liked that he added the boxing gloves for that personal touch. They weren't the most realistic looking boxing gloves, but given the very short amount of time they had for the first challenge, I was totally fine with it.

Tiffany's phoenix was gorgeous. The bird was so bright and vivid against the softer purple background. The blue highlights in the background were really great and provided even more contrast for the phoenix.

Michael's light and dark was so pretty. I loved the light flowers overpowering the dark. And I really liked the his subtle use of glitter. He made his model look so pretty.

I don't like behind the scenes drama which is why I sometimes get annoyed when reality shows give us footage of the contestants at the house after hours. But in this case, it was interesting to see that they had a room with mattresses lined up on the floor. GSN didn't want to spring for bed frames at Rent a Center? Anyway, I was okay with the conversation between Brittney and Michael we saw at the house because it was related to the challenge, not just drama.

Why would they give the painters only three hours to do the second challenge That's ridiculous for a head to toe front and back design.

Tiffany's film warrior princess was an interesting concept but I couldn't get over those wonky red hands on the model's chest. I've seen elementary school handprint turkeys that looked better than those. The other problem was that Tiffany didn't do a very convincing job explaining her choices.

Rick's butterfly warrior was very pretty. The butterfly on her hands was so detailed, I liked the lotus flower on her stomach, I loved the gold scroll border, and I really liked the scaly design on her back. But he left a lot of her bare skin exposed. The most egregious thing was that her underwear was showing. I understand that the gold paint looked beautiful on her skin tone, but he should have at least painted a background color over the underwear.

Alison's winged warrior started out well. The bright pink and green contrasted well, but the torse was so muddled. Heh, I had to agree with Michael. I would not want anyone's dirty feet on my stomach or chest. Ugh.

Michael's amazon warrior was gorgeous. Loved the blue/purple/pink color scheme and her blue face with those gold lines was so striking. His painting made such an impression even from a distance. I can see why Samantha was concerned about using the cancer cell on her breasts but it was like subverting something that had power over you and having power over it. The most important thing for me was that his model was okay with it. I'm glad he won instead of Alison.

Poor Brittney. It sucks when your model gets sick. But I was cracking up because when she asked her model, "Do you need a snack?" I initially thought she said, "Do you need a smack?" and I was like girl, calm down there! Her model really stood out on the runway, even in the long shots. Loved that fuchsia pink on top of the blue. The yellow lines were so strong too. Her face was so fierce too.

Normally I get annoyed when the judges pull the non-elimination, but I knew this was coming after Hans quit and then they eliminated Otto anyway. I'm glad Rick wasn't eliminated because he has been so strong this season.

Edited June 9, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo