Brilliant! I had to laugh.
Lol, how funny ;)
I'm afraid I'm what the French call "first degree." I need to get outside more.
It's a parody Melissa, i should have made that clear!
I think that's a hoax. And the way to right suffering is not by sharing it!
And here's what happened when they did this with men
I used to be stuck in that energy-sucking schema too, that's why I know it's possible to get out.
The world needs strong women!
Certainly Melissa, and I wish more of us had your optimistic outlook. But the trouble is, most of us do indeed have a very different view of ourselves from that of others. I find studies like these fascinating and given the artist's particular profession very important indeed. My earlier post stated my own experience and yes, Jennifer, the portrait hangs in my hallway and I still don't recognise her - and I still do my damnedest to cover grey hairs bulges and wrinkles. And as you and my then 12 year old son say - so what? Who cares? Get on with it.
Wonderful food for thought though James, thanks for posting it!
Thanks for sharing that James.
Ladies, let's wake up and shake off this societal-judgy-keep-us-down-and-distracted bull shit. There's fun to be had and problems to be fixed on this wonderful planet!
Blessings,
Melissa
F*&k that's a powerful video. Beautiful.
It would be lovely for you to see that picture again Celia! I have kept a photo that I have taken about 10 years ago that a professional took of me. I couldnt believe it was me, and sometimes people say "who is that?" as I am not wearing my glasses in it. Some may think its weird but I keep that photo in my house on display so that I always remember that it IS me and that even if I look in the mirror in "bad light" as we say and think i look rubbish/tired or whatever that I remember that part of me is always in there. :)
My father (professional artist) painted me only once when I was 11. His portrait was of a very pretty girl who I simply, even at that age, didn't recognise. I'd seen photos of myself of course and always thought I was rather plain. Many years later when I was having a bit of an identity crisis, finding it so hard to live up to others' expectations and views of me, my 12 year old son said, " why not just accept that that is how people see you? If they think you're beautiful anyway, that's alright isn't it, why do you feel you have to try so hard?"
I'd like to have seen more of the film, to marry the descriptions with the models. It's an interesting idea. A question to Brian - did your friends think the sketch was a good likeness? I occasionally did self portrait sketches which I thought were spot on, but others didn't recognise - I'd captured only one facet of my looks, the nervous and defensive one looking in the mirror (or the camera lens)!
Yes, he is a forensic artist. He is not looking at the sitters at all, and the sitters are describing the "criminals" but in this case, the "criminals" ARE the sitters.
Isn’t he a forensic artist, how could a forensic artists have knowledge of the sitter if the peron being described was a criminal and the description being given from a victim? Perhaps I’ve misunderstood?
I saw this video the other day. It touches a nerve. If I were to describe myself to someone, I’m sure that I would include negative sounding features and for a forensic artist to draw me, based on my words alone, I’m already looking away to not see what the picture would look like (but assume it would look the way I describe). That’s how I see myself, always have. Others, however, have commented that they find me pretty. The positive side of me would like to think that the picture they would describe would be a lot better than the one I described of myself. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Chances are, even if the picture they describe is “better”, I would not like it because I see MYSELF. Whole bunch of pshychological issues that are raised about the whole concept.
The idea though, is brilliant. You can see from all the pictures, that other people see the person in a more positive light than the person sees herself. THAT is the message regardless of how we see ourselves. OTHERS see us as better. So then, shouldn’t we all strive to be the best that we can be? That positivity could lead to us being more positive about ourselves and then woah! can you imagine the pictures then??
The whole art of portraiture is to try and show the 'real' person, as seen by the artist. By definition to achieve that requires some knowledge of the sitter.
Probably the most telling form of portraiture is in fact caricature.
Here we are seeing a quite nice promotional ploy - fitting the images to support the storyline.
As a lifelong Illustrator (I never refer to myself as an Artist) both these areas are the hardest to fulfil!
Wow, that's powerful - thanks so much for sharing!
The marketing aspects of the video aside, I 'm left gaping at the artist's drawing ability...what a gift. But it's true that others often see things in us that we don't. My daughter drew me a little 'portrait' with worry lines on my forehead!! which was a pretty good motivator to stress less!
Interesting since I was not satisfied with a set of portraits myself, nor were other people. One year during Cambridge Arts Festival somebody set up half a dozen very experienced portrait artists in a public area. The artists all took a single subject a time for roughly 20 minutes. Some friends took advantage of the couple of beers I had had at lunchtime and got me on the stool. The woman who was done before me was cross, took all of the portraits and ripped them to pieces. When I was finished that naturally stuck in mind. A couple of my friends were grinning inanely so I was ready to have a go anyway. I did not like. Took away and followed the example of the woman before me. Next day the bins were full of torn up paper again.
Yep, it opens a can of worms about what people see, thus how we perceive ourselves as well as how artists might see us. However, if there is the degree of discrepancy I saw in my time and is presented here, how reliable are forensic artists? The question makes it edgy.