"All photos by Danny Alexander unless otherwise stated"
As people who work in a haunted attraction we don't really get to celebrate Halloween or even have time to plan out a costume. Back in 2015 the Monster Bash was started. Monster Bash is a big party that happens about two weeks after Halloween where all of the haunted attractions in the region are invited to come celebrate Halloween and the haunt season. A lot of people dress up for this party since they don't get to dress up during the season in a costume of their choosing. With it being a Halloween party for people that work in the Halloween industry you can only imagine some of the costumes and makeup you see.
I have never been interested in dressing up for Monster Bash. I always looked at it as a opportunity to network with other makeup artists to talk shop and thought that showing my face was better suited for such things. As much as I love everything Halloween I find wearing most costumes and makeup to be uncomfortable. This year for whatever reason I felt the need to dress up. Our Makeup team at the Devil's Attic (http://thedevilsattic.com) is called Team Demon Fabulous. It was a no brainer that we all go as demons. This would all give us the opportunity to do our own style of makeup.
With their being many different demons none of us had to really look the same, it could all be our own design. The one unifying feature we would all have was our demon's sigil on our foreheads. I chose the demon Lucifer. Through a little bit of research I found that Lucifer was the demon of pride. I started looking at inspiration photos and drawing ideas from a lot of different places. Not that there is anything wrong with red demons but not only had I already done one months ago but our Devil at the haunt is red and I didn't want to appear that I was trying to take his throne.
I had seen trailers for the new Fantastic Beasts movie and was really inspired by the look of Johnny Depp's character "Grindelwald". His silvery white hair was striking and I knew that was something I wanted my demon to have. I knew a spray in color would look terrible and probably flake off all over my black clothes. I also knew finding a wig that color and length would be extremely difficult. To achieve what I wanted I was going to have to bleach my hair. My hair is not the darkest shade of brown but it took two rounds of bleach and a blue toner to knock the yellow down to get the desired silvery grey color.
Promo Photo of Johnny Depp in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
I let the new color of my hair dictate the color tones of my demon makeup. Using EBA Performance Makeup Endura airbrush paint (http://www.europeanbodyart.com) I based myself in pale blues and lavender which got me in the right pallet for the look. I contoured with a darker purple. To really bring in the silver look I added an iridescent high lighter to heighten my features. It doesn't really show up in photos but I also used a shimmery purple eye shadow on my upper lid. I then smudged in just a bit of red shadow on the lower outer corned of my eyes to not only give my eyes a slightly irritated look but to bring out the lime green in my mostly black "Storm" lenses from Primal Contact Lenses (https://us.primalcontactlenses.co). This pale look to me gave to idea of being burned so long in hell to have all of the color like when charcoal turns white. Also it made since to be pale as Lucifer is known as "the Light Bringer".
I don't feel that all demon's need horns. That being said I do feel like the demon Lucifer needs horns. After looking at a lot of store bought horns I couldn't find any that really grabbed my attention. I didn't want a coned horn I wanted something a bit more organic and gnarled looking, almost like an antler. I posted something on Facebook looking for different places I hadn't thought of to look for horns. Richard Teachout with Asylum Props offered to let me come out to their studio and make my own.
I have applied prosthetic appliances before but I had never made my own so I was excited to learn a new skill. With this being my first sculpt I am glad it was something small and organic looking. They aren't perfect but they didn't need to be. I was happy how my horns came out.
photo of Wes Borland
With Lucifer being the demon of pride I wanted him to have some type of "war paint" as I called it. Not so much to go to war but to basically show off. Guitarist Wes Borland was my inspiration for this facet of the makeup. Just because I don't like Limp Bizkit doesn't make him any less of an amazing guitarist and the looks he would wear to perform were amazing. They were sometimes simple in design but bold enough to change the look and shape of his face. Creating that illusion is what I wanted. I didn't want a lot of prosthetics on my face for comfort reasons but I wanted people to do a double take not knowing it was me at first. Blacking out the bottom of jaw with very straight lines and wearing all black seemed to achieve this. I also used a product called lip tar to make it look as if tar was dripping from my mouth. This gave the exact effect I wanted.
As far as costuming went I knew I wanted to be comfortable. Being a jeans and t-shirt kinda guy I had the idea of an updated street wear druid look. I wore black boots, pants and a t-shirt. Now this is pretty much what I wear everyday so it wasn't anything special. To bring the look into more of that druid feel I add a black infinity scarf and a long black hooded open cardigan thing. The scarf elongated the black makeup down into the costuming and with the hood up in all black my bottom jaw all but disappeared in some lights. It doesn't sound like much of a costume but with the makeup and vision I had it was very effective and more importantly comfortable.
I was very pleased with the way my demon came out and as a team we really "showed up". Rebecca Rhodes looked beautifully demonic in her Lilith demon makeup. Rebecca was able to go with me and sculpt her own horns as well and they came out great. The amazing Danny Alexander was nice enough to come photograph our makeups before the party and did this really cool effect where he had us look away and then into the light creating a ghosting image. Unfortunately Mary Proctor showed up later and was not able to get photos with us but her Abyss demon was awesome. Mary even made her own teeth which completely changed the shape of her face. Portia Greene is kind of an honorary member of our team and while her halo didn't workout her archangel looked gorgeous. Due to having oral surgery Phoebe Conrad was not able to participate in the makeups but I would have loved to have seen what she came up with. As Phoebe leaves us to go to Cinema Makeup School I am excited to see all of the things she creates in the future. Maybe one of her creations away at school will be a demon, we will see.
Rebecca Rhodes as Lillith
Selfie of Mary Proctor’s Abyss Demon on herself
Portia Greene as an Archangel
the Squad
Our team was also able to secure a few awards for our haunt as well. With Lauren Perry as our seamstress we took home the Highest Rated Costuming award. We also snagged Best Makeup for the team and my Egyptian Godess/Priestess Makeup won us the Best Character Makeup. We were also the only haunt to get a 10 out of 10 for anything which happened to be costuming and makeup from Body Bag Reviews! I am very happy with our 2018 season and am ready for the changes and challenges that the 2019 season will bring.
