S13.E07: Maritime Monsters 2018.07.17

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The competition intensifies as the six remaining artists create original sea monsters in this week's battles, with the help of an industry expert in next week's elimination challenge on the line.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Sneak peek:

[mjc570]

To me, this show would have been a million times better had they started with fewer contestants.  Tonight, with only 6 left, there was time to hear more of Mr. Westmoreland's advice, and the judges' discussion.  I think Jordan definitely deserved the win, but Mel should have been disqualified from appearing on any future episodes (yeah, I know it wasn't an elimination) because of that abomination (showing how Mr. Westmoreland is always spot on).  I just don't get the Matt love, I didn't think his creature deserved the judges' praise. 

Every time I see the term "all-star" i get irritated - to me, all star means winners, not previous season losers. 

[Frozendiva]

I liked Walter's more than Matt's. Jordan's deserved the win.

The water tank seemed a bit silly as creatures in the sea would not have such calm water.

Don't know if Mel is around because she is the only woman left. Her creation was awful and most of her stuff this season has been sub-par.

I wish they had real All Stars like Anthony, Laura, Dina, etc. Ones that made even the rattiest creature challenge special.

[enoughcats]

The water in the tank was murky.  Did somebody leak all over it in a first try?  Did they get any input as to what adhesives NOT to use? or how the tank would be lighted?

Women who wear makeup know to test colors on themselves under lighting that will be what they live with.  No fluorescent bulbs for nighttime, and daylight is very different from romantic dinner lighting.  I can't expect most (maybe all) of the contestants here to know that, but somehow they must know something about colors, the color wheel, color intensity and contrast efficiency.  

Or do they?

When I recopy my digital copies onto tape there are a couple of things I will check for:  has Glenn ever said anything critial of Matt?  Is Vee the only one to indicate irritation with the ignorance of 'beauty' makeup? Which makeups impressed Nigel?  Who besides Mel gives good, generalized talking heads?  WTF does Matt have streaming heart tatoos on his left arm?  Who else has (to me) silly tats?  Do any of the guys know enough about female physiology to do chest pieces that allow for, you know, breasts? 

I do know that I'm going to miss this show, warts and all, mostly large, ugly overdone warts and all. 

[Maelstrom]

Ugh, this show is making me glad it’s ending. What a giant mess. Walter’s should have won over Matt’s, hands down. The seal/walrus face he did was perfect, and the paint job was beautiful, especially considering the time crunch. Clearly the judges have picked Matt as their favorite no matter what he does. They lavish praise on him and I just don’t see what they do.

Well, Jordan finally found the right challenge for a static mask. It sure was creepy as hell underwater, I’ll give it that. Damien should have gone home last week, sorry but it’s true. His makeup missed the boat last week, and this week it literally fell apart. Poor Mel, now I just feel sorry for her.

I had a bad feeling about this episode when Michael Westmore walked in and basically said, “Um, no” to every single contestant. And then I kept remembering past episodes with water creatures that were much, much better than these. In fact, pretty much everything about this season has had the effect of making me remember past challenges that were much, much better.

[mlp]

How were the models breathing under water?  They seemed to be performing for much longer than the average person could hold his or her breath and I didn't see any breathing equipment of any kind.

I thought Matt's work and colors were good but I didn't like the profile.  It didn't look like any kind of creature, and didn't remind me at all of a shark.  I wonder why he didn't add some teeth to this one.   I'd really like to see what Matt looks like with a shave and a haircut.  He has great eyes but his hair and beard are hideous.

I liked Jordan's creature.  I'm glad he won.  Mel should have been shown the door for that abomination and for not listening to Mr. Westmore.

[LittleIggy]

Matt looked good in the brief clip they showed from his original season. I was like “OMG, that was Matt?”

Mr. Westmore before going out to mentor: “Oh, no, not again. Just think about that nice check you get. You can do it...”

[Dennie]

Ok so what's going on with the judges and Matt? Walter's was so much better than Matt's this week yet the judges are continuing their bias. I felt bad for Walter. Matt is good but not every week and I agree with others that he never gets criticized for anything. I'm glad I wasn't the only one questioning his constant teeth misplacements. Walter is just as talented and he doesn't have the "full of himself" attitude that Matt is getting. I'm glad Jordan won over Matt. 

[Dennie]

OH and I don't like these match up competitions. Can't they just have everyone challenging each other. It's not as fun to watch when artist are matched up, grouped up, teamed up, partnered up etc 

[strippedhalo]

Walter definitely should have beaten Matt in that match-up. I didn't like Matt's at ALL, and I think on a normal season any other contestant would have gotten a comment from the judges about the anatomy being "arbitrary".

Jordan's was good, and his model did a lot to sell it in the tank. Very creepy.

If Damien had gotten to finish his paint job and if it had... not fallen apart, I think it could have been good. I liked his sculpt, anyway. Mel's was unfortunate, and I can't remember Derek's at all.

[Linderhill]

Matt's creature reminded me of one of the Kaiju from Pacific Rim. One they called Knifehead. Glenn may have been super impressed with the sculpting but it really wasn't all that original to me. I was shocked he didn't put in some random teeth like all of the rest of his work. Speaking of teeth, maybe that's why Jordan's creation won. I thought it was outstanding and the clear winner but with the way the judges (or rather Glenn, it seems) have been favoring over-the-top teeth this year, I can't help but wonder if Matt had included teeth whether it would have won. I too thought Walter should have won that pairing. Maybe Glenn just really digs Matt's hair.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Linderhill

[Rammchick]

In all the previous challenges, the facetestants went head to head with the same creature, i.e., every pairing worked on one basic concept.  So to have two artists work on two separate creatures seemed odd.  In this case, you're not judging them on which one was more successful with the assignment, but rather, which one was generally better.  No point in having anyone paired up for that.

The Shape of Water, anyone?  Where was Doug Jones when you needed him?

[Kathira]

14 hours ago, Frozendiva said:

Don't know if Mel is around because she is the only woman left. Her creation was awful and most of her stuff this season has been sub-par.

Boy, was she ever lucky that this wasn't an elimination round. That was genuinely terrible. I wonder if the format where they know there's no elimination encourages them to dog it a little. I know they're competing for a prize, but if you look around the room and it seems like you have no chance, I think the temptation would be there to slack off.

[seacliffsal]

My understanding is that the judges consider both challenges when they eliminate someone, so Mel should have been considered eligible for elimination in the previous episode as she had been in the bottom the week before.  I was wondering if the judges were sorry that they sent Graham and Kevan home last time instead of her.  Mr. Westmore clearly told her not to use the black for the base coat and how to apply the other colors.  Then, of course, she just did what she had planned on doing and then tried to unsuccessfully fix it.  I'm sure she is really nice and probably fun to be around, but I wish she had been eliminated a couple of episodes ago.  And, since I'm being negative, I thought that McKenzie's outfit was one of the worst she has even worn-she is lovely, but that dress just didn't look as flattering on her as another style may have been.

Like others, I thought Walter should have won over Matt.

[HurricaneVal]

Definitely Walter over Matt.  Mel will go next week.  Unless she pulls a total 180 at warp speed.... 

 

But wow, Jordan's was incredible, and he deserved the win.

[carrps]

I freaking loved Walter's paint job. He was robbed. I thought Matt's looked really artificial. I kept thinking of that moon-headed guy that McDonald's used in their advertising a while back. Just a big clunky solid white blob. Glenn seemed really excited by it, but Ve seemed to damn with faint praise. Glad Jordan won. It was a creepy looking creature. If it was supposed to be scary, his was.

Mel? Ah, Mel. It looked like a cheapy dayglo voodoo doll.

[SherriAnt]

I'm jumping on the Walter was robbed bandwagon  and the judges are totally swooning over Matt. I thought Matt's monster looked like a Lunatone with a purple vagina on its head! And what was up with the sticking out rock type nipples? Mel's was terrible, but at least she tried a different colour scheme. 

Edited July 19, 2018 by SherriAnt
Spelling is important

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Hard truths:

[Monty9]

Quote

Mr. Westmore before going out to mentor: “Oh, no, not again. Just think about that nice check you get. You can do it...”

(from Little Iggy) 

Heeeeeee.

Late to the party, work is trying to kill me. 1. I need to comment on the beady baseball hat Matt was wearing in the first round. Normally he dresses like a mixture of a sword and sorcerers movie wear and a hard rock musician but that hat was older divorcee hitting up Atlantic City on a weekend. 2. We know another model's name! Cristoph! Who I most remember playing the creepy uncle that resembled the artist's ( including balding head) strangely accurately. He hit that one out of the park and seems like a good guy. 3. I am terrible at art, and I know that it's hard to near-impossible to paint other colors over black, so when she was explaining what she was going to do even I was like "Oh noooo that is NOT a good idea". 4. Count me as another member of  team "Walter's was better".

[enoughcats]

12 hours ago, SherriAnt said:

Matt's monster looked like a Lunatone with a purple vagina on its head!

Do they still sell cuttlefish for parakeets? Matt must have been scared by a parakeet's cuttlefish at an early age, because the front of his thing looked like parakeet heaven.  White, ridges.  Nothing like what he was going to present until Mr. Westmore told him how to change it.   

Has Mr. Westmore always been this good and necessary , or did contestants in previous years have full fledged ideas of their own?

[WearyTraveler]

On 7/18/2018 at 4:10 AM, enoughcats said:

Do any of the guys know enough about female physiology to do chest pieces that allow for, you know, breasts? 

To be fair, they build the chest pieces over standard mannequins.  When the chest piece is for a male model, the differences are not that critical, but for the female models, they could be.  All those mannequins have breasts the same size and shape and we all know women's breasts are anything but uniform from one woman to another.  

 

Matt's make up, made me think of the Silver Surfer. And I agree Walter's was better.

 

Well deserved for Jordan!

[Maelstrom]

On 7/18/2018 at 11:23 AM, seacliffsal said:

My understanding is that the judges consider both challenges when they eliminate someone

That's what they say, but from what I've seen it seems to go out the window when it suits them. For instance, two weeks ago Graham won and last week he was a bottom look, while Damien was a bottom look two weeks in a row (IIRC), yet Graham gets sent home while Damien is saved. The judges have always seemingly played fast and loose with their own rules depending on what they decide they want to do.

2 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Has Mr. Westmore always been this good and necessary , or did contestants in previous years have full fledged ideas of their own?

Michael Westmore has always been awesome, though the earliest seasons actually had Mackenzie and one of the judges come through the studio on Day 1 to check in and advise. Then they changed things so Mackenzie and Michael Westmore came by instead, and eventually Mackenzie stopped coming so it was just Michael Westmore. In better, more talented seasons it's really cool to watch him brainstorm with the contestants. But seasons like this, where the talent pool isn't as deep as we'd like, it can be kind of painful to repeatedly watch him say, "Don't do that" and the contestants proceed to do exactly that. First rule of Face Off: listen to what Michael Westmore says.

[mjc570]

42 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

 First rule of Face Off: listen to what Michael Westmore says.

First, second and third rules!

[Kaoteek]

On 18/07/2018 at 2:45 PM, Linderhill said:

Matt's creature reminded me of one of the Kaiju from Pacific Rim. One they called Knifehead.

Same here. Once again, I'm baffled by the praise Matt receives from the judges : he's not in this season's bottom tier, far from it, but Walter is often clearly better than him (this week, for instance) and I just don't get the constant praise for Matt ("phenomenal", really ?).

To be fair, though, Matt mentioned aiming for something more kaijuesque, this week : I guess that's as close as you can get from "I'm gonna try and see what Pacific Rim's Knifehead looks like with humanoid proportions" without saying it out loud.

As for Jordan, it bordered on Halloween-mask grotesque, but it worked, under water. Better not talk about the rest of them, though. And I agree, this week's pairings were weirdly pointless, since nobody was working on the same creature.

[PepperMonkey]

Always and forever one of my favourite reality competition shows, I cannot bring myself to watch this season. I tuned into the first episode, underwhelmed, didn't even realize it was the final season until I came here to read the forum.

I think the show is ending because what they do now is outmoded, unless they want to do an event type of career or do beauty or subtle makeups with Vee or Glenn (?) on a movie set. Thinking what Nigel does, as a creature creator/designer is more like where they might find a career. But this group of "all stars" has even been less whelming than previous seasons, so I was disappointed. All stars, for me, don't HAVE to be winners, but they should at least be someone who maybe should have gone farther, but had a bad day, or someone who was a runner up or high place finisher on their season, who did some beautiful work.

I'll just watch here and I may watch the thing in toto after it's all over. Sometimes almost anything can be fun to binge watch. Meanwhile, I'll come here for the updates and hope that they might be able to revamp and come back at some point OR have an occasional special occasion showing. I will sorely miss Mr. Westmore MOST of all, but also Nigel, Vee and McKenzie. And I'll miss the days when I used to count down to the start of the new season of Face Off....

Edited July 20, 2018 by PepperMonkey

[diebartdie]

19 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

In better, more talented seasons it's really cool to watch him [Michael Westmore] brainstorm with the contestants. But seasons like this, where the talent pool isn't as deep as we'd like, it can be kind of painful to repeatedly watch him say, "Don't do that" and the contestants proceed to do exactly that.

Or even worse, when he has to tell them basic, bedrock principles of sculpting. "Blend the wrinkles in so they dont look like just scratches " "make sure you make this bigger than you think it needs to be, remember that latex/foam/silicon shrinks" "that does not look anything like what the challenge is. The challenge is to make a mushroom man. You seem to be making a post-apocalyptic robot ghoul on a meth bender." Or even MORE simple like "red and blue make purple"..... Anyway, Walter was robbed (AGAIN).

[Maelstrom]

5 hours ago, diebartdie said:

"that does not look anything like what the challenge is. The challenge is to make a mushroom man. You seem to be making a post-apocalyptic robot ghoul on a meth bender."

HA! This made my day, diebartdie, thanks for that.

[qtpye]

On 7/19/2018 at 7:55 PM, Kaoteek said:

Same here. Once again, I'm baffled by the praise Matt receives from the judges : he's not in this season's bottom tier, far from it, but Walter is often clearly better than him (this week, for instance) and I just don't get the constant praise for Matt ("phenomenal", really ?).

To be fair, though, Matt mentioned aiming for something more kaijuesque, this week : I guess that's as close as you can get from "I'm gonna try and see what Pacific Rim's Knifehead looks like with humanoid proportions" without saying it out loud.

As for Jordan, it bordered on Halloween-mask grotesque, but it worked, under water. Better not talk about the rest of them, though. And I agree, this week's pairings were weirdly pointless, since nobody was working on the same creature.

Did anyone else see that the tops of Matt's creatures thighs were not painted? It was just peaking out from his loincloth and totally ruined the effect for me.

 

10 hours ago, PepperMonkey said:

Always and forever one of my favourite reality competition shows, I cannot bring myself to watch this season. I tuned into the first episode, underwhelmed, didn't even realize it was the final season until I came here to read the forum.

I think the show is ending because what they do now is outmoded, unless they want to do an event type of career or do beauty or subtle makeups with Vee or Glenn (?) on a movie set. Thinking what Nigel does, as a creature creator/designer is more like where they might find a career. But this group of "all stars" has even been less whelming than previous seasons, so I was disappointed. All stars, for me, don't HAVE to be winners, but they should at least be someone who maybe should have gone farther, but had a bad day, or someone who was a runner up or high place finisher on their season, who did some beautiful work.

I'll just watch here and I may watch the thing in toto after it's all over. Sometimes almost anything can be fun to binge watch. Meanwhile, I'll come here for the updates and hope that they might be able to revamp and come back at some point OR have an occasional special occasion showing. I will sorely miss Mr. Westmore MOST of all, but also Nigel, Vee and McKenzie. And I'll miss the days when I used to count down to the start of the new season of Face Off....

Do you mean because these types of makeup artists are no longer being used because of CGI? I do think the show has lost a lot of its freshness and the talent pool is pretty shallow for this very niche industry.  However, it used to be great and I remember being wowed by some of the amazing makeups in the early seasons.

[Token]

F*** you, judges!  No way did Matt deserve to win that battle with Walter.  Walter's was awesome and Matt's was average at best.  Not impressed with that decision at all.  Obviously Matt's been touted at this season's designated winner.

[Lugal]

13 hours ago, PepperMonkey said:

I think the show is ending because what they do now is outmoded, unless they want to do an event type of career or do beauty or subtle makeups with Vee or Glenn (?) on a movie set. Thinking what Nigel does, as a creature creator/designer is more like where they might find a career. But this group of "all stars" has even been less whelming than previous seasons, so I was disappointed. All stars, for me, don't HAVE to be winners, but they should at least be someone who maybe should have gone farther, but had a bad day, or someone who was a runner up or high place finisher on their season, who did some beautiful work.

I agree that most creatures now will be CG, but I don't think it's outmoded, because generic police procedural X is always going to need a makeup person for the various victims or the drama will need someone to do the bruises and cuts for when the hero and the antagonist have their dust up.  I seem to recall they did a wound challenge in the early seasons.

 

12 hours ago, diebartdie said:

Or even worse, when he has to tell them basic, bedrock principles of sculpting. "Blend the wrinkles in so they dont look like just scratches " "make sure you make this bigger than you think it needs to be, remember that latex/foam/silicon shrinks" "that does not look anything like what the challenge is. The challenge is to make a mushroom man. You seem to be making a post-apocalyptic robot ghoul on a meth bender." Or even MORE simple like "red and blue make purple"..... Anyway, Walter was robbed (AGAIN).

I would totally watch a post-apocalyptic robot ghoul on a meth bender challenge.  But Matt will just add some teeth and walk away with it.

And Walter was totally robbed.

[carrps]

20 hours ago, qtpye said:

Did anyone else see that the tops of Matt's creatures thighs were not painted? It was just peaking out from his loincloth and totally ruined the effect for me.

 

Yes! And the palms of the model's hands, too. It was really distracting.

[Token]

Matt can do no wrong.