The Kristyan Mallet Prosthetics Masterclass at Delamar

Highly respected prosthetics artist Kristyan Mallett, delivered the longest, most detailed master class we have had so far at Delamar Academy. As a prosthetics designer, Kristyan has worked incredibly hard to get to his position in the industry and we were in for such a treat. Fifty of us enjoyed  hours of expert prosthetic application of a vampire character, on performance artist Malik. You could hear a pin drop in the room!

As a very down to earth and humble artist, Kristyan started his journey aged somewhere between 7 and 8 years old, watching the film Legend, a 1985 Ridley Scott feature starring Tom Cruise. A devil character called Darkness captured Kristyan’s imagination, and the rest was certainly not history.

Instead, there followed years of hard work on a turkey farm, a BTEC diploma course in make-up, selling gas door-to-door, saving and grafting to fund training on a specialist prosthetics course. After getting the money together, Kristyan was taught by Harry Potter make-up designer Nick Dudman (a Delamar gradate).

Nick was designing the Harry Potter films and invited Kristyan to work for him as a trainee. This one opportunity saw Kristyan recommended from job to job for years. In the masterclass he bashfully admitted to not once needing to present a portfolio until setting up his own company and being approached for the tender of Game Of Thrones make-up design. Kristyan’s career is very impressive. To date he has racked up credits on Batman, Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi, Hard Sun, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Bodyguard (very recent BBC drama series), Britannia and recently Artemis Foul, a huge Disney production soon to hit the big screens.

 On setting up his own company, Kristyan wanted the creative control to steer the direction of his work by choosing which projects to do. He spoke so honestly about taking a realistic and balanced view of the industry. Understanding the pressures people are under, Kristyan said that passion is of the utmost importance so those who are privileged enough to do their dream job should enjoy it.

One huge takeaway Kristyan gave to a room of potential Prosthetics Artists is the secure knowledge that our industry is accessible to anyone who has the skill and drive. It is often said that if you want something badly enough, you will make it happen, as Kristyan himself did. The industry always needs prosthetics make-up artists! Our students were told to accept that there are no tiny success rates to get hung up on, or to worry about their chances of succeeding as a statistic. We were told to think only about working hard at our craft and being “a nice person”, something Kristyan believes is the most important skill of all.

Malik’s transformation was effortlessly taking shape as Kristyan, talked and entertained us whilst applying the ears followed by a chin piece, a neckpiece and finally the full face prosthetic. This character was a terrifying vampire creature that came to life when Malik put in red contact lenses. He looked at individual audience members intensely; making us all a little disturbed by how suddenly, Malik was no longer human. The final touch was some dirt applied over the top, to add a grimy looking finish to the vampire skin. 

This is one of if not the most impressive make-up transformation we have seen here at Delamar Academy.

For more of Kristyan’s work you can follow his Instagram KMeffects here.

A huge thank you to Kristyan and his brilliant performance artist model Malik!