Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277606
THE ARTISAN SUMMER 2020 • 25 day. We under-paint texture before stretching and stippling with Bluebird ager, then we apply 10 peel-and-stick prosthetic pieces (chest, neck, cheek-jowl/eye bag, crow's feet, frown line and forehead) with final beauty make-up on top and Elizabeth Hoel-Chang steps in to assist me with this make-up. Removal must be very gentle as we often have her working in her 20- or 30-year-old look the following day. Five other cast members wear prosthetic age make-ups, all with similar processes of application. We introduced two new make- ups this year on Justin Hartley and Milo Ventimiglia. Hannah Zeile, who plays a 17-year-old Kate, wears a prosthetic chin (applied by Luis), dental plumbers made by Gary Archer to fill her face and a body suit made by Vanessa Lee from Super Suit Factory to add weight to her frame. With so many actors in age make-up and tight scheduling, we need help and have been blessed to have Stevie Bettles, Tania McComas, James MacKinnon, Chris Nelson and Eric Porn work alongside us regularly. Much of our cast also must be de-aged ("Youthenizied"), so we employ a system of facial lifts using opposite tape hidden by Out of Kit blenders when paint and powder techniques aren't enough. The blenders allow us to hide neck lifts without having to rely on wigs or wardrobe. A combination of skin products and highlights and contouring make-up help complete the look. Heather is our master keeper of continuity. The nonlinear storyline is very complex. We often revisit scenes or time periods shot in previous seasons, so keeping detailed notes and pictures are key. We also must carefully match our younger actors to the adult versions of their characters. To assist with these transformations, we use contact lenses in the younger characters, even down to matching an eye mole! These are supplied by Professional Visioncare and our lens techs—Brittany McNeal and Whitney Le Pon—apply them. With a culturally diverse cast, our beauty make-ups range from very natural to a stylized character "Adela-a-gram" make-up on Chrissy Metz and everything in-between. Period beauty make-ups lead us from a colorful '70s with lashes and big eyes to the neutral brown '90s, and we are so very grateful for colors that are still made. Researching aging trends and designing for the future without tipping our hat to the audience was interesting. It's all about the skin and not the eyebrows! I make all the custom facial hair on our show, including eyebrows and beard extensions (with the exception of a beautiful beard made by Sasha Camacho this season). This gives us great control with cutting, piecing and hand-laying hair to our best advantage. Ninety percent of the time, Milo is wearing fake facial hair and sometimes we use lace pieces. There are times where the fake facial hair is hand-laid but that is only if we are trying to grow his own hair for another episode to give him a break. Sterling K. Brown has suffered a lot of glue and hand-laid hair this season as we have jumped around in time. Sometimes shooting half the episode with his own hair and half to match but applied by us. Darla Albright runs our BG. This is no small task as we regularly visit the 1970s, '80s and '90s, often all in the same day. The extras are all groomed to be period correct, using lace pieces, as well as laid hair to achieve period-correct looks. Like most other period shows, it's a lot of work to make sure small details are right and tattoos are covered. I am incredibly proud to work alongside such great artists and look forward to returning to work when we can safely.