Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Wang
Hi Steve, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Steve Wang. I have been a special makeup effects artist and creature designer for over 39 years now. I have worked on films like, the original Predator, Monster Squad, Beetle Juice, Gremlins 2, Batman Returns, Underworld 1&2, Hellboy, Batman V Superman, Bill and Ted: face the Music and Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods, to name a few.
I was born in Taiwan in the mid 60’s and started drawing at the age of 4. I grew up on a steady diet of Japanese superhero tv shows and American monster movies. When I was in the 3rd grade, I saw an Ultraman movie at the local theater for the first time, and it changed my life. At that time, I didn’t know I would be making monsters for a living in the future, but I knew deep down, whatever I did, it would have something to do with superheroes and monsters.
After the 3rd grade, my family and I emigrated to the United States and within a few months of being here, It was halloween. My Grand Mother took me to a local toy store called King Norman’s, and lined on shelving after shelving were these fantastic latex rubber masks! I had never seen anything like it before! She bought me an ape mask with realistic hair punched in and it started my journey into collect masks. 4 years and 30 masks later, I decided I needed to do more than collect them. I had to know how to make them and I wanted to make my own.
I went to local libraries to find book about mask making. This was decades before the invention of the internet, so it was very hard to find good information back then. It wasn’t until I came across a magazine called Cinemagic, that had 2 separate tutorials about making masks and latex prosthetic appliances by professionals in the field that I really started to learn the process. I spent 5 years building up a portfolio, and at the age of 19, I saved up enough money to move to Los Angeles. I knocked on many doors of local FX shops and was hired by multi-academy award winners Stan Winston, and Rick Baker who were both my idols in the fx industry.
I got to work on so may iconic sci-fi, horror and fantasy movies over the decades. I even took some time off fx and became a writer/producer, director for 4 feature films and a Saturday morning live-action tv series called Kamen Rider Dragon Knight where we won the first daytime Emmy for best stunt coordination. I eventually branched out to create my own art studio, Onyx Forge Studio. Now we create everything under the sun from art installations, bronze monuments, creature makeups, specialty costumes and props.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was very fortunate in that my talents were recognized very early in my career so I had many opportunities throughout my career. But there was always times of great droughts in our industry, like the writer’s strike that recently happened that shut the industry down. Even though the strike is over, thousands of movie artisans, technicians and vendors have been out of work, some for almost a year. It’s been devastating and many people have left the business while others have hunkered down, waiting for the industry to start back up again. This has been my 3rd writer’s strike and each one was devastating. On the bright side, since my studio does not only serve the film industry, we have been fortunate to get other work to keep us going. But it’s always a struggle.
Other hardships come from client expectations. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, we had way more time to create the work for films. Nowadays, the newer generation of producers do not understand how long things take anymore and they expect us to do the same scope of work in half the time or less. That has become the norm. Also, music videos are especially brutal. Sometimes we have a few days to create full prosthetic makeups from scratch!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a special makeup effects and creature designer. I am a sculptor, painter, art director and technical supervisor. I am probably most well known for co-creating the original Predator creature for the movie: Predator in 1987. The creature got fx legend, Stan Winston an academy award nomination. I am probably most proud of the Arthas bronze monument my studio created for Blizzard Entertainment to celebrate their 25th anniversary in the city of Taichung, Taiwan. I believe what sets me apart from other artists is my distinct artistic style, but also my ability to branch out to other fields and tackle challenging “out of the box” art projects.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I have learned in my almost 4 decades long career is, one must have the ability and willingness to adapt to new technologies and trends. Our industry is constantly evolving, and new digital technologies are being developed faster than ever. It’s important to stay on the bleeding edge of technical capabilities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theonyxforge.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theonyxforgeofficial
Image Credits
Steve Wang
sails
Aki Ikeda
Richard Redlefsen
