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Emmy Creative Arts: Makeup Artists Raise the Bar for Scars

Conjuring disfiguring scars and fantastical faces on today’s well-scrubbed actors.

‘Thrones’’ Hound Gets an Upgrade

In HBO’s “Game of Thrones” characters often encounter battle in their everyday lives — and have the scars to prove it. Makeup artist Jane Walker, brought on board for season 4, had the challenge of improving the Hound’s (Rory McCann) scar with a new design and material. She studied photos of burn patients and used silicone for a more flesh-like look. It takes 2½ hours to apply. To create the facial scar on Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Walker applied liquid plastic-like material to the skin. “You put some heat on it and it shrinks slightly causing that lovely puckering and dipping,” says Walker. “I tried to make it look as if the healing process kicked in.”

Giving a Witch Her Ghastly Glow

Season 3 of ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” brought on the famous characters from “The Wizard of Oz,” including the Wicked Witch of the West (Rebecca Mader). Makeup artist Sarah Graham says she went through a strenuous testing process for the character, “trying to get the perfect green.” Graham mixed seven shades of green, and airbrushed them in steps over every bit of the actress’s exposed skin. “Some of them being colors that were all over, some of them being colors that were a highlight, and others that were a contour.” Graham says she finished her off with a gold glitter to her skin. “They wanted her to be sexy and to sparkle.”

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Shaping Silhouettes for Buccaneers

“Black Sails” (Starz) is set during the Golden Age of Piracy, so to get a suitably rough-hewn look for its pirates, makeup artist Kirstin Chalmers looked at historical references, including paintings and tribal images. Hair styling was extremely important in shaping the silhouettes of characters. “I wanted their silhouettes to be very distinctive and different from each other so you know who they are from a distance,” says Chalmers. For Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), Chalmers went for a weatherbeaten look. “We literally painted on all of his different skin tones to give him a tan and weathering that made him look like he was out at sea for a long period of time,” says Chalmers. “We didn’t use conventional foundation.”

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