Face Off Season 11 Episode 10 Recap: Cursed Covens

Welcome back to your favorite Face Off recap. Read on to see what happened during Episode 10 and the “Cursed Covens” challenge.

This week on Face Off , the artists are in for another super-team challenge. The theme is “Cursed Covens.” Find out which contestant cast a spell on the judges and who got spooked out in this recap of episode 10.

The artists walk into the studio, which is done up with a dark and misty night-time wood, steaming cauldron, and four huge books with esoteric symbols. The theme’s inspiration is movies like The Craft and TV shows like American Horror Story: Coven.

McKenzie says they will explore the world of witches—powerful beings who can use spells and curses to manipulate the world around them—in this week this week’s super-team challenge.

Face Off All Stars Season 10 Episode 11 Spotlight Challenge (Screencap via SyFy)

The Challenge

Each team needs to make three witches or warlocks inspired by the ingredients in one of the spell books on display. But that’s not all, of course. The two covens are at war, and cast curses at each other. The teams need to name the spell that affects each coven based on the magical ingredients. So what did they choose?

Cig, George, Ben and Evan: They like the spell containing pickled rat’s tails, so they choose that book. The other ingredients are deadly nightshade, the forked tongue of a snake, and dried nettles, so they decide to name their curse “The Shadow of the Spiteful Serpent.” A spell comes to magically comes to Cig and he recites “This coven must remain within the light, for the shadows carries the serpent’s bite,” in a scratchy, witchy voice. Their characters will be subterranean rat creatures being overtaken by a snake curse. Their coven includes two witches and a warlock in different stages of transformation.

FACE OFF — “Cursed Covens” Episode 1110 — Pictured: Emily Serpico — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

Emily, Logan and Tyler: The horn of goat speaks to Logan, so they go with that tome. A bundle of sage, the sap from a poisoned willow tree, and the last breath of a dying man complete their list of ingredients. They name their curse “Suffocating Sage Of Willow.” Emily and Tyler will each work on a witch, and Logan will make the warlock. Tyler’s witch will be a willow suffocating by her own branches. The last breath of dying man inspires Emily to design open sores running with sap, and a pale palette, and Logan to make a mouth-less warlock.

Lab Work

Both teams get into the clay. Cig, George, Ben and Evan sculpts are skewing snakey already. Emily, Logan and Tyler are rushing to complete their body and cowl sculpts on day 1, since there are only three on their team. They’re cleverly designing their body pieces so the models can slip them over their heads like shirts.

FACE OFF — “Cursed Covens” Episode 1110 — Pictured: (l-r) Cig Neutron, Evan Hedges — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

Michael enters the lab for mentoring time. Cig, George, Ben and Evan show him what little sculpting they’ve done, and Michael looks worried. He asks to see their sketches and is not impressed. “This is snake you’re putting into this?” Ben is worried Michael’s concern, which, yeah, he should be. Michael doesn’t see the witch challenge represented in their sketches, which he isn’t nuts about in the first place. The guys are dejected by the criticism. Ben and Evan are especially worried because their idea is just a mishmash of ideas and they realize it. The judges aren’t going to see the characters without hearing their backstory.

It’s a different story entirely for Emily, Tyler, and Logan. Michael is blown away by the amount of work they’ve accomplished already, in addition to their sketches and plans being on-point for the challenge.

After Michael leaves, Cig, George, Ben and Evan decide they need to sleep on it. If they need to scrap everything, so be it.

Day 2

Overnight, Cig, George, Ben and Evan decide to scale back on the snake (haha, scale back, good one, Ben) and focus on the rat aspect. Their new idea is to make gross plague rat witches, and they’re much more excited by this concept. They start over with renewed excitement.

FACE OFF — “Cursed Covens” Episode 1110 — Pictured: George Troester III — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

On the other side of the lab, Emily, Tyler, and Logan’s sculpts are looking completely fabulous. But Emily thinks maybe her face sculpt is too generic, which could be a big mistake at this point in the competition. So she decides to work in some little horns to mimic the goat horns on Tyler’s warlock.

Cig decides his team should spent time on icky rat hands (which he normally thinks are totally adorable, because of course he does). George and Ben fabricate rat tails and backs for their warlock and witches.

Application Day and Last Looks

Shockingly, there is no mold drama at the start of application day. All the foam and latex pieces come out pretty good, edges and everything. But when Evan goes to peel his face piece off the model dummy torso, it rips. He needs to apply and patch at the same time, but luckily, it’s a gross, diseased makeup, not a pretty one. The models come in and Tyler, Emily and Logan apply away. Cig starts applying the rat hands, and they look pretty cool.

FACE OFF — “Cursed Covens” Episode 1110 — Pictured: Emily Serpico — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

Everyone moves on to painting, and Emily still thinks her face sculpt is boring, so she concentrates on makeup. It’s not going well for Ben, though. He’s behind and doesn’t have time to put the rat hands on his model before time is called.

FACE OFF — “Cursed Covens” Episode 1110 — Pictured: Cig Neutron — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

In last looks, George scrambles to apply the hands to Ben’s witch. George, Ben and Evan start painting like mad, trying to finish in time. There is so much to do. Cig is a bit ahead of the rest of his team, even though he’s working mostly on his own. Ben thinks his paint job looks horrible.

Again, everything is different on the other team. As Emily paints detailing to make her makeup more interesting, Tyler actually uses the time to perfect the tiniest details of his character, because he’s otherwise finished. Logan adds sap, and they’re looking great.

FACE OFF — “Cursed Covens” Episode 1110 — Pictured: Tyler Green — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

It’s just the regular judges this week for the Cursed Covens challenge. The models file out onto the reveal stage and they all look almost shockingly good at first glance. But what did the judges think?

Top Look

Face Off Cursed Covens Season 11 Episode 10 Emily, Tyler and Logan’s last looks (Official image via Syfy)

Tyler, Emily and Logan

Left Witch: This is Emily’s. Neville thinks the face sculpt is boring, but they all agree that the makeup makes up for it, and that she did an amazing amount of work on the rest of the character. Ve says she’s scary and has incredible textures going on, especially in the chest.

Warlock: Logan worked on the warlock. Ve loves how the breath of a dying man is symbolized by the willow branches growing over the warlock’s mouth. The texture and detail of the mushrooms is beautiful. He’s very regal.

Right Witch: This is Glenn’s favorite. Neville says it has great under-structure and reflects real anatomy that’s been dressed close to perfection. Also, it’s a beautiful paint job. Her face is unbelievably cool. She has a great distance read, but when you get up close, she’s just magnificent.

They judges are impressed by the coven’s harmony. They used their favorite makeup as a tiebreaker, and that makeup was Tyler’s willow witch. It’s truly amazing.

Bottom Look

Face Off Cursed Covens Season 11 Episode 10 Cig, Ben, Evan and George’s last looks (Official image via Syfy)

Cig, George, Ben and Evan

Left Witch: The left witch is Cig’s. Glenn finds the form of this makeup is astounding, and Neville loves all the little details, like the whiskers. Glenn says the execution of the little rat pads on the fingertips is just awesome. The coloration around the eyes and nose is perfect. The judges love everything a out this makeup.

Warlock: Evan and George both worked on this character. Neville calls the nose a work of art, and Ve thinks the little yellow teeth are a nice touch.

Right Witch: This one is mostly Ben’s work. Glenn is very impressed by the sculpt, and they all think the ears are just great. Ve doesn’t think it feels as developed as the rest of the characters, but Glenn thinks its a nice balance. It’s anatomy isn’t quite in sync with the other two, though. She’s just not as well-realized.

The coven as a whole is great. The rat element is well-done and comes across, and the profiles are exquisite. Ben is going home. Glenn tells him his makeup was quite good this week, but everything else one else on stage was just a little bit better.

Going in to this week’s episode, I felt like Ben was the sacrificial victim. Apparently he kinda did, too. His level of excitement and inspiration continued to flag, and his technical skills are just not quite up to the other all stars’.

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