With being on the Buffy and Angel panel with James and Charisma at Pensacon last month, I have been left thinking a lot about my time out there. Not that I don't think back to that time relatively frequently, it is that I am now looking back at those years with fresh eyes and a much-improved opinion of that time. Even though my time in LA was two decades ago, I still come across work I have never officially shared with anyone. Today, I have a piece that is twenty-one years old and was created for episode 12 of the fifth season of Angel, You're Welcome. I was asked to design a new devil that would become a recurring character for the remainder of the series. I am, of course, talking about the one and only Izzerial, the Devil, or just Izzy to his friends. If you say to yourself, "Izzy??!?!", I understand entirely. But here we are all the same, so buckle up and get ready to learn about my contribution to making Izzerial the Devil for the Angel series.
Before I go any further, I must remind everyone that this work is a collaboration of many talented artists and technicians. I was one of many who brought this thing to life. This time, I was the designer and painted the final makeup appliances. After twenty-plus years, I am unable to properly give credit to everyone else involved. Sorry, but people's names were the first to go after I left LA.
I have never watched the episodes featuring Izzy. To be honest, I have not watched many of the episodes of Angel that I worked on. I have watched the Buffy and Angel series up to, but not including my involvement. Yes, it is strange, but one day, I hope to address this. I believe I have seen a clip of this devil in action or was on set when they were in a scene, so I have a nebulous memory of how the devil acted. They wanted this particular monster to be more in line with a classic devil in appearance. Internally, we also wanted it to be interesting and unique. So that was the direction I went with. Here are my concepts for Izzerial the Devil.
Izzerial the Devil - Design A
Design 'A' got things moving. If I recall correctly, for once, this was well received at the shop, and there were very few nasty comments made about it by my supervisors. They appreciated the ears being spiky and reminiscent of fire, the spikes in the hair that again memic fire, and the weird asymmetrical chin. They liked it and wanted to see it pushed further. So, I got to work on an updated design.
Izzerial the Devil - Design B
Design 'B' has the chin played up even more. We were all in a really good place with this one, and it was sent over to production for feedback. They loved it but had a few edits before we could make it. They wanted "normal" devil horns, a "normal" chin, "normal" ears, a "normal" jawline, no horns or stuff in the hair, and no irregular skin. So, if you are following along, they wanted a totally "normal" looking guy who is also a devil. They wanted something super lame again. So we gave them what they wanted. Here is a look at the final makeup pieces that I painted (I would also like to add that the head of makeup on set accused me of changing the paintwork on this monster after the episodes which he appeared. I am not saying this happened; I think it is a weird accusation to make, as I was the one responsible for photographing and documenting EVERYTHING we made).
Izzerial the Devil - Painted makeup appliances
The sculptor kept some of the firey forms on the ears, so there is at least that, but as you can see from the makeup appliances, they removed nearly all of the uniqueness from the design. This was also the third or fourth bright fire engine red monster we had to make for them in the last half of this season. I never figured out why, but they REALLY wanted all their monsters to be red and look nearly the same. Here is a look at the final makeup on the actor.
Izzerial the Devil on the set of season 5 of Angel.
Twenty years on, I am often embarrassed by much of my work at this time in my career. I was given a massive opportunity when my skillset was just starting to take shape. But there are a few stand-out pieces from my time in LA that I am still really proud of. There are also some pieces that I think are good, not great, but they got the job done, and I don't mind digging them out now. Izzy is definitely one of the latter. It is also one of the very few that I feel was better in the design and lost a lot once it was finally made. I found things usually improved as we all worked on a project together, but this time around, the choices production was making really watered this one down. They wanted a very predictable and recognizable 'devil,' and that is precisely what they forced us to make for them. So remember kids, artists, creatives, the people whose job it is to create new and wonderful new things just might know what they are doing and the people that sit around and count money do not.
That is all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here next week. Until then...
