Paper Tiger Fieldtrip: Creating Wolfboy

I’ll start by introducing myself. My name is Daria and I started working at Paper Tiger a few months ago as a project manager/ business manager, but I have an alter ego.  Before my days at Paper Tiger, I worked for 9 years as a makeup artist and member of the training team for MAC Cosmetics. I am still actively busy doing freelance makeup for various clients and try to keep myself in the industry as much as possible.

I have transformed all types of people into all things beautiful. From models during NY fashion week, to brides on “the most important day of their lives”, I have done it all. I’ve always wanted to do more, something a little less beautiful, and a little more fun. So when my friend Courtney asked me to help her out with a project she called "Wolfboy", I said yes without a moment of hesitation. I had no idea what to expect, except that we would be transforming the genius director and visual artist, Rob Roth (check him out!!), into a character called Wolfboy for his most recent experimental dreamscape, Nightvision 2.

We arrived at The Wild Project, NYC ready for the transformation from man to Wolfboy to begin. Courtney is an amazing makeup artist, fiercely creative, and breathes art from every pore. I couldn't wait to watch her in action and soak up as much knowledge as I could.

Rob arrived with a mountain of supplies that included a box of hair/fur, a package of Staten Island style Lee Press-on pink and whites, some black nail polish, adhesives, adhesive removers, a custom prosthetic nose and ears, and of course, the hackle. I had never seen a hackle before, but was scared. I am a bit of a spazz and a board covered in razor sharp long metal teeth looked like a really bad idea. (You will see in a minute that I was right.)

The first thing we needed to do was to blend the fur colors to create a palette that Rob wanted and untangle some of the fur. That's where the hackle comes in. I was on hackle patrol while Courtney applied the prosthetic nose began to paint Rob's face for background coloring beneath the fur. After only five seconds of "hackling" I proceed to (of course) drop the hackle, teeth side down inches away from my flip flop covered foot. Rob's response: "Don't do that again."

After Rob's face was prepped with color, it was time to start applying the hair. Applying the hair was actually much easier than I had imagined. First, you cut one end of the hair at an angle so that it lays naturally on the skin. Then, apply a thin layer of Spirit Gum adhesive and go for it. I had watched Courtney do a few sections before she looked at me and said, "OK, you're doing the other side." I don't know why didn't think I'd be doing any makeup, but I guess I just thought I'd be assisting (i.e. setting up, cleaning up, and occasionally almost amputating my fingers and toes with a hackle).

The first section was a little scary, but after that, it was pretty easy. The most challenging part is making sure that the hair looks like its growing in the proper direction and that the coloring looks natural and in the desired pattern that Rob had wanted. Funny enough, my years working with dogs had come in handy for the placement of the hair and knowledge of canine anatomy.

After the fur was applied, Courtney applied the ears, and began pinning the hair. I painted the ears using a chromacake and added sparse amounts of hair to the base. From there, everything else went fairly quickly. We repeated the process on. Rob's arms and chest until the transformation was nearly complete. We got to work on the nails. Rob sculpted them into a claw like shape, we painted them black, and applied them with nail glue. (All while singing the Kiss Everlasting French jingle repeatedly... I think we may have inhaled too much spirit gum) Rob inserted his pale blue contacts to add more contrast for the night-vision camera.

By this point in the transformation, we were completely covered in glue, fur, paint, and I even had a little blood on me from another hackle incident. Each time Courtney would have a cigarette, we couldn't help but notice the smell of burning hair.

After a few changes to the fur styling and color, Wolfboy was ready to take the stage. I had such an amazing time with this project and am very grateful to work with such talented people. I can't wait to see what my next journey into special FX makeup will be, but I'm hoping it involves a lot of blood (not from a hackle).