Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535749
24 • THE ARTISAN SUMMER 2025 accomplish the wild and varied designs I was pitching to the Kings. e Devil erapist was a character that I pitched for the finale of Season 1. I wanted to create a traditional "Baphomet"- style demon aer a slew of more abstract creatures we'd been delivering throughout the season. It has long been a challenge for make-up effects designers to effectively push or disguise the anatomy of the human face. Of course, that could easily be accomplished with digital effects, but I wanted to get as much "in camera" as possible. us, ALL our demons were designed with the idea that we would use a digital assist only when necessary. e erapist, we felt, could be accomplished with a combination of prosthetics and animatronics, effectively spreading the eyes of the character, while gluing down to the mouth. is allowed the performer to deliver dialogue without mechanical assistance. It proved quite tricky since the mechanical head piece had to blend down to a thinner foam thickness without obviously compromising the aesthetic of the character. is performer, Marti Matulis, was going to be compromised enough when it came to vision, as he was only able to look through the nose. Add to that that he was on stilted legs, and never once complained, and it is clear why Marti is my go-to for almost all the characters we create here in the studio. Working with John Criswell, who handled all our animatronics for the entire series, sculptor Joey Orosco sculpted the erapist's head. As Joey translated the design into clay, he paid close attention to the thicknesses of the sculpture, allowing enough space for movement of the mechanical elements, while tapering down the sculpture to meet Marti's mouth. Creating a character that incorporates both mechanical and prosthetic elements had proven to be much harder than a character that required only a prosthetic element. is would still be considered a prosthetic make-up, but it pushes those boundaries and allows for the restructuring of the human head anatomy, without digital effects, and that was the idea. Push the limits. Gil Liberto (our shop foreman), Joey, and I traveled to Brooklyn to meet up with Jeremy. I did some final hair painting touches before we would bring it to life for a definite high point in the series. e erapist was a reoccurring character, counseling and manipulating the character Leland Townsend … until Leland chops his head off (for which we built a severed head and neck stump). Abbey the demon succubus started during the lockdown. Because of this, we were only able to employ a skeleton crew. e upside of this was that I was able to sculpt the entire character by myself. It was also quite fortunate that my daughter-in-law, Ashley Edner-Tancharoen, played the character, so I could test fit elements on her without jumping over any quarantine hurdles. She did a brilliant job bringing this character to life, having hooved leg extensions and a mechanical tale to contend with. Once we had the suit back from Bill Fesh, Mark Killingsworth delivered a brilliant paint scheme, and Brooke built us a couple of wigs (as we weren't decided on hair color yet). e "Red Devil" character brought back Marti as nude, The Jinn played by Marti Matulis