(David Harbour in full makeup with Joel Harlow. All images courtesy of Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
By Lexi Stewart
"It's a tough act to follow for sure...we all made a conscious decision not to reference any of the live action versions that came before. We focused on the artwork and the comics." - Joel Harlow
When it was announced to the world that a new Hellboy was in development, the masses fiercely loyal to Guillermo del Toro were skeptical. Famously brought to life by Ron Perlman, it seemed as though audiences would never accept anything else. Over time, however, the concept has been embraced and those same masses are now hungry for something new. David Harbour of Stranger Things fame has taken the character by the horns with confidence, and that confidence was no doubt helped by the fact that the best artists in the business were behind him all the way.
Jump To Section
- Creating a New Look for Neil Marshall’s Hellboy (2019)
- Building Hellboy
- Making an Otherworldly Collection of Creatures
- Designing and Building Gruagach
- Bringing Baba Yaga to Life
- Listen to the Audio Interview with Joel Harlow
Creating a New Look for Neil Marshall’s Hellboy (2019)
The task of creating the new look was given to none other than Academy Award-winning Makeup and Effects Artist and Designer Joel Harlow, who spoke to Stan Winston School recently about how the project came about. "I received a phone call from one of the producers. I was preparing Godzilla: King of the Monsters at the time, and while I was preparing that, Hellboy came in. I submitted a budget, got the go ahead, and then we started building."
This time around, Hellboy goes up against revenge-ridden sorceress 'The Blood Queen' (played by Milla Jovovich), staying true to the graphic novels by Mike Mignola. Being caught between human and supernatural worlds means that there was a lot for Harlow to sink his teeth into. "My role on this was both as special character designer and special effects makeup creator, so I oversaw not only the designs for the prosthetics and animatronic suit but also the digital characters. All in all, there were about 30 characters to do."
(Hellboy, Gruagach and Baba Yaga as they appear on screen in the new Hellboy. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
(Hellboy design maquettes by Joey Orosco, with and without horns. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
The filmmaking team tried to be vigilant about keeping Hellboy's design as distinguishable from the original live-action films as possible, hence their decision to take their inspiration directly from the amazing source material and the illustrators who had populated the comics in the past. They kept as close as they could while still ensuring the character would be tangible and realistic among humans. "If we translated the comics one to one, David wouldn’t be able to perform, and so much of this is performance. We had to scale it down because you want his expressions to translate."
(L: Hellboy sculpture by Joey Orosco. R: Design concepts for Hellboy's 'Right Hand of Doom' by Richard Luong.)
Harlow was thrilled to work alongside director Neil Marshall, a big fan of practical effects, and the Hellboy makeup FX team had his full support from the start. "We all understand how these films are made and we know not everything can be practical. He’s a very soft-spoken, easy guy to communicate with, and he really liked what we were doing. So as long as he liked it, then I liked it."
Building Hellboy
Joel Harlow made sure to hire only the best for the project, and almost 60 people were involved with the build of Hellboy and other characters. "The build was very quick but you have to have a testing period of course. He had to feel gritty, he had to feel lived in and feel like he could be among us."
Harlow went about testing the face first, followed by the body, one of the most labor-intensive elements of the character. "Right off the bat, the body worked great, and I give the lion’s share of the credit to Mario Torres who sculpted most of the body and did an amazing job." Josh McCarron, known for being one of the best in the business, ran all of the silicone face appliances, and Roland Blancaflor cast the body suit which was entirely foam.
(Mario Torres and Norman Cabrera sculpt Hellboy's muscle suit over a life cast of David Harbour. Image courtesy of Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
A lot of thought was put into Hellboy's coloring, which had to differ from past versions in order to help his blemishes and imperfections stand out. "We scarred him up a little bit and didn’t go for as deep of a red color as he’s portrayed in the comics and prior movies. What we cast the prosthetics in was more between a salmon and a red, so it did allow us some leeway to make him feel a little more real, with blemishes and all that," Harlow told SWSCA.
One of the main concerns was the actual physical challenge of David Harbour wearing the prosthetics, especially since he was relatively new to the experience. "When you’re dealing with a makeup that requires a lot of acting chops, you want to help your actor. David had not been in makeup to this extent and it’s a massive challenge wearing this level of prosthetics." Despite this, Joel Harlow spoke highly of Harbour and said that there were never any issues throughout the shoot.
(Josh McCarron & Harlow apply the Hellboy prosthetic makeup & bodysuit on actor David Harbour. Image courtesy of Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
(Josh McCarron and Joel Harlow dial in the details on David Harbour as Hellboy. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
Harbour was in the makeup for approximately 55 days, and Harlow's team were able to apply the entire makeup in 2-3 hours, an impressive feat. "Heather Mages and I applied Hellboy every day. If you consider it's really just a face, lip and ears and almost everything else is the suit, it was about two and a half hours to apply. Some days it was two hours. So it was lightning fast. David was dedicated to not just the look of the character, but the performance of the character because it's heavy what he had to do."
(Heather Mages doing on-set touch-ups. Image courtesy of Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
Making an Otherworldly Collection of Creatures
If Hellboy himself wasn't enough of a challenge, Harlow was also tasked with developing a myriad of about 30 other creatures from different supernatural realms. These characters are populated between 3 worlds, which Harlow describes in detail. "I kind of divided the world up into three different sub-worlds of characters. There are the characters from our world, with the people of the surface handled by Richard Luong, including Hellboy, Baba Yaga, Camazotz, etc."
(L: Hellboy concept design by Richard Luong. R: Super Gruagach design by Daniel Carrasco. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
"Then there are the characters we referred to as from the ancient world, which were handled by Daniel Carrasco. Goblins, ferries, ogres, giants etc. Then there are the characters from hell, which were handled by Allen Williams."
('Ancient world' character design concepts by Daniel Carrasco. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
(Allen Williams' concept designs for Hellboy's characters from Hell. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
Designing and Building Gruagach
(L: Gruagach concept design by Richard Luong. R: Super Gruagach design by Daniel Carrasco. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
One of the other featured creatures is Gruagach, who Harlow describes as a 'giant boar man', performed by Douglas Tait. The design and build were primarily executed by Norman Cabrera and team, with an animatronic head by John Criswell.
(Norman Cabrera sculpts Gruagach's head while Don Lanning leads the body sculpting team. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
Some digital effects were also used to augment the face and for lip syncing. "It came together great. I mean it's a real imposing foe for Hellboy. Cabrera is a frickin' amazing artist, and I'm very lucky to have gotten him for this. Hopefully, I'll be able to get him for the next one, if there is a next one."
(Norman Cabrera and Francisco Charlie Hernandez paint Gruagach. Images courtesy of Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
(L: Mike Rotella helps Douglas Tait get into the Gruagach suit on the set of Hellboy. R: Douglas Tait roars with the help of John Criswell's animatronic Gruagach head. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
Bringing Baba Yaga to Life
(L: Baba Yaga concept design by Richard Luong. R: The finished Baba Yaga makeup. Images courtesy of Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
(Harlow sculpts Baba Yaga's face. Image courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
(Troy James in the Baba Yaga makeup. Images courtesy Joel Harlow/Lionsgate.)
The process of character design from concept to completion allowed the team to transition seamlessly between the practical and visual departments. "Whenever we had a design approved and we knew that the design was going to be executed digitally, I would get the ZBrush files from Carrasco and send them to Dave Grasso, who is also a brilliant practical/digital sculptor." Grasso would render them out and turn them over to the Visual Effects department who delegated from there.
This year's Hellboy (now out in cinemas) harks back to the monsters of the '80s, but with new technology, and Harlow felt that hint of nostalgia when he saw the final product. "What I took away from it when I saw the rough cut is that it's a good fun monster fight. Whether they're practical or digital or whatever, it's a fun monster fight, and you don't get many of those anymore. It’s almost like an eighties movie, just with some different techniques utilized."
(Harlow doing on-set touchups on David Harbour as Hellboy.)
All were in agreement that the film needed to distinguish itself from the previous versions, and Joel Harlow signs off with full confidence that it has. "We knew we could bring something new to this. A different take. I'm a fan of Mignola's Hellboy comics, so it was a take on his character that was truer to the source material. Not to take anything away from the films that have come before, but this is something else."
