Episode Recap: Smoke and Mirrors

It's magic time! DARK magic time! Those models filing out of the medieval-looking edifice may look lovely and enchanting, but they're actually grotesque sorceresses who have used their magicks to transform their physical hideousness into a beautiful façade. The challenge facing the artists this week is to reveal the true appearance of these witches and let the world (or at least the judges) know!

Rob is giddy that he got to pick the Dragon Queen –- dragons are his JAM! He goes for a gnarled face, craggy cowl and dragon wings. Although it's a lot of work, it feels do-able –- until Mr. Westmore says that his face feels more like an old-age makeup than an old-dragon makeup. He makes some adjustments to the face, trying to keep the nose dragon-y yet feminine, and swaps the wing idea for a modified, wing-like spine and scapula to catch up on time.  

Anna is also feeling some pressure, post-Westmore: this is the first time she's done both a cowl and a face on her own in this competition, so her time management game is gonna have to be NICE. Mel's challenge from the Westmore Walkthrough is to make the fiery cowl for her Temptress of the Flame look recognizable as flame ... but not literal tongues of flame. With a little help from her friends, she's able to heat-blast some plastic into a flowing form and lay it into her clay sculpture.

Yvonne's enjoying a confidence boost from the fine work she created during The Gauntlet and uses it to turn out an ambitious sculpt: her Corpse Conjurer looks like an enlarged skull pressing right through the witch's skin. Walter starts off dry of ideas for his Emerald Empress but discovers a rocky silhouette across the shoulders and brow does the trick. Now the challenge is to get those stalagmites looking like actual emeralds and not just green spikes –- will he have time for that paint job? Probably not.

Robert is his usual sanguine self while working on Maris Tenebris, or the Darkness-of-the-Sea Witch. He takes a jovial approach and makes one side of the face a spiny fish with the other side eclipsing into that form. Melissa's Wiccan of the Woods has a serpentine cowl of vines that would've taken her two weeks IRL (In Real Life) but only takes her one day OFO (On Face Off).

Confidence is a potent force that powers Yvonne to Top Looks. Her subtle sculpting, making the distinction between bone and skin deliciously ambiguous, is a step above any work she's done so far. Rob, on the other hand, has crafted a head-to-toe character with unique forms and exquisite detail. His vision and technical expertise rocket him to the win this week!

Faring less happily are Anna, who let the proportions of her cowl get away from her, and Robert, who took a whimsical tack that didn't fulfill the challenge. Though Neville calls Robert "the class clown of Face Off," it's Anna who goes home this week. Too many technical aspects slipped out of her reach, but she and the judges are proud of what she produced during her time OFO.