Behind the Scenes

But before they entered the party in full makeup and attire, they had to 'become what they became' and here is how it was accomplished. A step-by-step commentary comes from Dayne and Diane themselves as we walk through the process of becoming a demon. We begin with the makeup application for Edward [Comedy Demon]. "The prosthetic I'm putting on is the raw, right-out-of-the-mold prosthetic, it hasn't been painted or anything yet," Dayne begins. "I'm going a little slow at this point, trying to get it to fit exactly because it wasn't made actually for him. I'm just adjusting but I'm using good old prosthetic medical adhesive to glue it down with and then get into the coloring part."

Edward comments that the appliance is so light in weight that he doesn't even feel as if he were wearing anything. But because this piece wasn't molded for him, Dayne takes a tiny pair of scissors and clips away at delicate areas to make any needed adjustment. "I'm doing 'basic surgery' as we call it right now, trying to make it fit and look good," he explains. "I can't let him run around all night and not look good. I'd have to tell them somebody else did it," jokes Dayne. "I'm just kind of cutting little pieces out to make it smoother around his eyes and lips and stuff. Still in that raw stage right now."

Since the prosthetic is in the raw form, there is no coloring on it whatsoever, so once the piece is set on Edward's face, Dayne begins to apply the coloring makeup process. "Now that it's all glued down and fitting as well as I can get it to fit, I'm putting down the base-color which is called a PAX paint; an acrylic based makeup which actually uses the same glue, the medical adhesive, that I used to glue it down with." He adds, "To keep the paint on the prosthetic it's got that base in it. After that I'll start the airbrushing."

The final phase, once the prosthetic and basic makeups have been applied, is the artistic finesse. Dayne is now the painter and Edward's face the canvas for him to emphasize the demon's look. And what a demon he has created! "We've pretty much passed most of the base color and the application, now I'm just doing the final touches with the black air-brush color. His lips have been done and now we're going to do this air-brushing, then we'll go on to doing a little bit of hand work around his eyes and I'll be done. Then we'll go into hair department," he happily states.

Edward steps three seats down and finds himself in the very capable and pretty hands of Diane who is responsible for all the wonderful hair pieces and for making everyone's curls-to-tresses on Angel look so perfect. She is someone; all the female viewers would love to have living in their house! Giving that added touch to the Comedy Demon, Diane completes the picture of malevolent evil with just the right hair. "For this particular look we created 'period' looking wigs," explains Diane, "they are machine laced wigs so they can look more natural around the hairline when you put them on. Then we add black air-brushing to that to blend it in so it looks like his hair."

One demon is being completed while Dayne starts to work on Lynne [Le Vampire]. As soon as the appliance is fitted to her face, she already resembles one of the most memorable female vampires on Buffy, the love of Spike's unlife, Drusilla. The prosthetic fits so perfectly there is no need to trim, Lynne was made for the undead. The process is very similar to Edward's except for the colorization used. "Quite a bit of a difference in the coloring process for this," clarifies Dayne. "We're making this more flesh tone, trying to match her skin. I've put two-to-three different colors in, stippled two-to-three different colors on to make more of a spotty look, a stippled look, so it makes more of a skin texture."

In the finishing touches, as Lynne goes from sweet and adoring human to evil and blood-thirsty vampire, there is a slight variation in the product base as well as Dayne explains, "On Lynne I'm using some grease makeup as I call it, rubber mask make-up that will help smooth out the edges and make it look softer." Then, with a delicate brush Dayne adds the final highlights to emphasis the vampire's brow and cheek line giving depth and contour. When asked if sitting here through the lengthy application process was hard, Lynne replied, "No! It was fascinating. It must be much more painful for Dayne who stands on his feet for hours doing all the work." And with the added touch of a corset here and a lace shirt there, these two normal individuals have been horrifically transformed to demons in a mere 4 hours. Once they arrived at the party fans and media alike instantly surrounded them. A huge success!

Written by CoA Head Writer, Kristy Bratton

Check out our other PBP Weekend coverage:

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer & ANGEL Posting Board Party 2002
- The Bronze Age -

PBP Weekend ~ Fashion Emergency!
Chasing Amy ~ Mission of the CoA Women

The Undefeated Champion
An exclusive follow-up interview with Mark Lutz

Much appreciation goes to Diana Acrey and Dayne Johnson for their contribution of time and product, a great experience and an outstanding job. No wonder these two are some of the best in the business!

If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Behind the Scenes' feature, we would love to hear from you. Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com