Asymmetrical faces

Chris Saper · 02-09-2006, 10:06 PM

I just ask.

"I see that you have an eye that is sleepy; I see that you have a birthmark; I see that you have a scar..." the subject already knows if there is an anomaly. Just ask how you should convey it.

Rod Lamkey · 02-10-2006, 12:47 PM

Thank you Steven and Chris for your comments. From now on I will ask people who sit for portraits about things which might be of concern to them. That was the first time anyone reacted adversely and I was thrown for a loop. I say 'first time' because there will surely be more to come. Knowing that other artists have dealt with asymmetry, however they dealt with it, helps. Thanks again!
Rod

Claudemir Bonfim · 02-10-2006, 04:14 PM

I'd like to add my comments here too Rod,

Chris and Steven are right, you need to know what your client wants, so just ask how you can please him or her.
Use a mirror next time, it helps a lot more than the photos.

Sharon Knettell · 02-21-2006, 10:44 PM

The only thing that I can think of that would be relevant and symmetrical is a vase or a pot.

I remember seeing an article in a magazine many years ago when they made a celebrities face perfectly symmetrical by using one side of the face and reversing it to make a whole. It did not look like the person, even though the subject had quite a regular face.

Most primitive and archaic portrait art was symmetrical. It is only when more knowledge was gained in Western art, that it was abandoned for the sophisticated portraiture of later Greek and Roman art. That knowledge was lost during the medieval period and reborn in the Renaissance and furthered by Golden age of English and French portraiture of the 18th-19th century.

You CAN improve somewhat on nature and sotto voce some discordant flaws if the need arises.

Karin Lindhagen · 02-28-2006, 05:14 PM

One of the very first commissioned portraits I ever did was of an old man, quite good-looking but with a very large nose. I assumed that showing the nose as big as that would embarrass him, so I painted it smaller. As the client took a look, he told me that the painting was progressing well, but he complained that really his nose wasn't as small as I had painted it...

This taught me that it is the special personal traits that make our character and our particular looks. Of cause I want my portrait to show the client at his best, but I do not deliberately lie. If the client starts looking drowsy during a live sitting I suggest we continue another day. But I do not paint him with different features than I actually see.

We have a TV celebrity in my country that has an extremely assymetrical face. Every time I see him it fascinates me. I think his face is quite extraordinary. I do not suppose ordinary people notice, but being a portrait painter you just cannot help seeing it. If someone were to paint him reducing this assymery, the painting would loose the best of his fascinating looks!

In my experience, men are easier to paint because their whole identity does not depend on them being handsome; they generally will accept their looks as they are. Women are more complicated since we often believe that our value as humans depend on looking good...

Bianca Berends · 11-08-2006, 04:09 AM

I had a commission about a year ago, to make a painting of a woman, who thought herself very beautiful, which she was in a way. I painted her portrait and they were very disappointed, her husband said to me, that he thought I would paint her even more beautiful and wanted changes in more or les al her features (her portrait was very accurate. I told myself I would make one attempt, but I had the feeling it would be in vain, because he would never be satisfied. And that was indeed the case. I taught me, that I have to listen to my intuition, because in retrospect before I started the painting I had a feeling that these clients had expectations I could not meet.

Karin Lindhagen · 11-08-2006, 05:27 AM

I also paint portraits of people's horses and dogs, and there some clients tell me at an early stage (often in a joking voice) that they hope I will paint their pet younger or less fat or something like that.

I always explain that I cannot do that. I will of cause try to capture their animal at his best, but if I were to start making changes to what I acually see then the picture would no longer show this particular animal. So far, the clients have always accepted this explanation. Perhaps the logic of this is easier for the client to accept when the subject is an animal.

Clayton J. Beck III · 05-11-2008, 03:09 PM

There are many ways to deal with asymmetry in portrait work. Much can be done with lighting and with pose. I find asymmetry in nearly every face I see. Unlike the Greeks or renaissance artists I don't find this to be "ugly". It is the normal condition of any living thing. A strong light place to one side of the face will create such an asymmetrical distribution of values and edges across the face than any asymmetry in the anatomy of the face will be overpowered. Another way to deal with this is by tilting the head at an angle or turning it away slightly. Both of these suggestions in pose we'll throw off the viewer's natural tendency to see right and left side and compare. When you really can't solve it, you can always try a profile.

Clayton