Prosthetics department head Sean Sansom and makeup designer Mike Hill discuss the enormous task of creating the monsters for the Netflix series.
’s creature makeup designer, was first contacted by del Toro when the director commissioned original artwork from him. “We became friends,” he explains. “He bought more stuff from me, and then whenBoth artists explain that their entry into the unique field of creature design reflects the choice of many of their peers: “We just had such a love of monsters as a child,” says Hill. “I didn’t look up to soccer players. I looked up to famous monsters. To me, they were as real as everyday people.
Sansom and Hill chose episode six of the series, “Dreams in the Witch House,” to submit for Emmy consideration. It portrays a terrifying tree witch who climbs out of the forest floor to haunt the episode’s protagonist, played by Rupert Grint. The look of the witch began with sketches, from which Hill sculpted countless prosthetics, including facial pieces, dentures, a crown, a chest piece and gloves to fit the actress who would be wearing them.