Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/910903
two different colors of chrome acrylic. Vera would complete the "beauty " portion of the make-up with lashes, eye make-up and lips. Both Vera and I had worked with Will Huff in the past, and we knew that his talent and temperament would be amazing for this team. Mike Ornelaz and his team had to create a new wig for Gamora, as well as refront one of the original wigs for a backup. Mike had all the hair pre-dyed the correct brown color, and then dyed the ends with the correct magenta color. Mike assigned Connie Grayson-Criswell to spend hours ventilating both Gamora wigs. Tina Fabulic recolored some of the origi- nal stunt wigs to match the new Gamora wigs and was also brought on to be the on-set hair stylist for Legacy. Gamora's final on-set application and styling of the new wig was handled by Camille Friend, the film's Department Head of Hair. Overall application time for Gamora was reduced to 3½ hours, including hair. Drax One of my favorite characters from GOTG was Dave Bautista's "Drax." Originally, the Drax make-up consisted of approximately 24 overlapping or interlocking silicone prosthetics. Although the prosthetics were thin, the mandate from the studio was to address the issues of the wrinkling and buckling of the prosthetics, as well as alleviate the bubbles of heat and sweat that would build up over time. Reducing the make-up application time was also key. We approached this redux from two fronts. One direction was to create a "vest" that could be "pulled over," saving his torso from the wear and tear of the make-up process. All the scarification for the torso was sculpted in, and the vest was run in foam latex. His arms, head and neck would undergo the same make-up process as our second direction. This vest was pitched for days when stunts and harnesses or long shots would work. For the second direction, I thought the best approach for the Drax scarification would be prosthetic transfers, so we would only sculpt the scars as the prosthetic, and not have to incorporate a thickness to accommodate the "grey skin" in the silicone prosthetics. I envisioned that each window or cutout of the sculpture would be Dave's skin. This would allow the prosthetic transfer to move with his body and reduce or remove any wrinkling or buckling. These windows would also allow his skin to breathe and reduce any buildup of heat or sweat. I flopped the theory of how the original make-up was applied. Instead of applying all the prosthetics, then painting whatever skin was left over, the make-up team of Robin Pritchard, Jon Moore, Matt Sprunger and I would paint him, then apply the prosthetic transfers. Because Drax has his dry dialogue, we first had to glue a microphone to his belly and chest, then cover it with a foam prosthetic. We then attacked him with rollers and brushes, painting his upper torso, arms, hands and head with the Maekup Drax base color. We used four separate colors to create the break up in his skin tone, then applied the pre-painted prosthetics. Another make- up product that we used on Drax and many other characters in the film was a crème' tattoo cover from the company Jordane Cosmetics. I first met this vendor at IMATS LA and loved the idea of this crème' make-up that would set like a tattoo make- up and wouldn't move or crease. It worked great around the eyes, nose and mouth areas. Christina Patterson recreated the look of Drax's lenses from the first film. The "scar" prosthetics would be the last thing applied. Ken Calhoun fabricated them, was involved in the resculpt of the scars and ran the Drax prosthetics department. The scarifica- tion was broken down into 27 pieces. Once the pieces were run and dried, any Pros-Aide residue from the edges and "cutouts or windows" needed to be cleaned, so that all that was left was the meat of the sculpture. The prosthetics were pre-painted, and then once again cleaned from any paint overspray or resi- due. This ensured that when the final pieces were applied, that his grey/brown skin tones could be seen throughout. Once all prosthetics were applied, we would tie the pieces together, rak- ing the scar detail with fan brushes and Skin Illustrator palettes. Prosthetic transfers can be difficult to remove and we had an actor with his whole upper torso and face covered in the unyielding stuff. Our first make-up test with Dave took Alexei Dmitriew, Mike Ornelaz, Scott Stoddard and I about 2½ hours to apply, and almost two hours to remove. We had streamlined the make-up process; now streamlining the removal process was paramount. Prosthetic make-up artists always try to find better ways to keep the make-up on the actor. Our enemy is heat and sweat, and we had heat from the lights, body heat from the actor, and the muggy Atlanta heat and humidity. It dawned on me, don't run from it, run to it. We need to get the actor's core body temp up before the make-up removal process. We ordered a portable sauna from Amazon and created a tent for the actor to sit in, with his head sticking out of the top. An attached Dave Bautista (center) as Drax with his make-up crew.