
Beautiful People Are the Hardest to Draw: Interview with a Courtroom Artist - dwwoelfel
http://ratter.com/ratter/all/inverse-published/213837-courtroom-artist-l-d-chukman
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tmalsburg2
Not an expert for face perception but I think faces are believed to be stored
in memory in terms of their deviation from the standard face (the average face
in your environment). Since beautiful faces happen to be precisely the faces
that are close to the average, it's completely unsurprising that they are hard
to capture because their deviations from the standard face are really subtle.
Storage of faces as differences from the standard face also explains why white
people find it hard to distinguish Asian faces (and the reverse): they all
deviate from a white standard face in a similar way. Caricatures can also
explain by this because a caricature is what you get when you amplify
someone's deviations from the standard face.

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divan
Nice model, but unfortunately it's not true. Neocortex doesn't have 'special
face diff storage mechanism'. It doesn't work like this.

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hugh4
Really? How do you know this? I thought that our knowledge about how things
are stored in the brain was extremely poor.

It seems that we do have some pretty specialised mechanisms in our heads for
dealing with human faces, given how good we are at recognising them compared
to other things. Even tiny changes in face shape (ie expression) are instantly
recognisable and can cause major emotional responses.

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elchief
Here's poor Tom Brady (Patriots Quarterback) in court:

[https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/cmoycq4woaa2mt1....](https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/cmoycq4woaa2mt1.jpg?w=1000&h=750)

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marincounty
"They're cutting each others' throats as vividly as they can."

The very last line of the interview is what scares me about our future. Yes,
we've always been cut throat, but in my life--right now--I see people whom are
willing to sell their souls in order make more money. Or, maybe since a lot of
us question whether their is a soul; we do horrid things in the name of
business? Or, maybe I'm too sensitive to how money can corrupt; my sister
pretty much put my mother on the streets with her greedy, money manipulating
mouth.

I wasen't part of the Hippy generation, but they did not act the way we are
acting now? At least they tried to change?

I don't find our current society progressive, or fashionable. The "Power
Couple", "I will do anything to make the Paper", "Buy that book on how to
manipulate people, and make money." "I'll build my scalable site so I can live
like that little weasel?" I honestly find it all disgusting--

(Off topic, but through out that interview; it just reminded me how ugly
society has gotten, and not just the defendants in the court rooms. I guess I
just was expecting a light article about art?)

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sebkomianos
Only commenting to say you are not alone thinking about this.

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evolve2k
It was an interesting read, but I'm frustrated at how link baity the title is.

There actually was no discussion of how "beautiful people" are hard to draw.
Read the whole article looking for the line. Very frustrating.

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Steko
It was in the Tom Brady section.

 _You know what 's hardest to draw? Beautiful people. Reproducing beauty is
hard. Beauty is usually based on very fine, careful proportions with no
irregularities. There are a couple judges who are just too handsome or too
pretty. It's a challenge going in to draw them. It's a challenge to get a good
likeness of them. A lot of beautiful people are just bland._

~~~
mirimir
Yes, some "beautiful people" are bland, with very symmetrical features, etc.
What seems to matter is some mix of averageness, and ratios of feature sizes
and arrangement.[0,1] But I've also noticed that some strikingly beautiful
people not at all like that. And in some contexts, they can be just as
dramatically ugly.

[0] [http://petapixel.com/2013/05/28/what-averaged-face-
photograp...](http://petapixel.com/2013/05/28/what-averaged-face-photographs-
reveal-about-human-beauty/)

[1]
[http://faceresearch.org/students/averageness](http://faceresearch.org/students/averageness)

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afarrell
Pro tip: If you are ever trying to report on a high-profile court case and
there is an overflow room where they pipe in CCTV, go to that room because the
camera angles will be much more conducive to getting a good view of the
defendant.

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sandworm101
Unless you want to see the reaction of the jury. Those cameras rarely cover
the jury in my experience.

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sandworm101
>> There are a couple judges who are just too handsome or too pretty. It's a
challenge going in to draw them.

There are no beautiful people in courtrooms. Everyone is under some sort of
stress. Lawyers and defendants can win or loose, jurors don't want to be
there, the court officers are busy moving prisoners around and acting
authoritatively. Even the galleries are full of unhappy family members. It's
no surprise that this artist mentions the judges. They are in charge. They
know that no matter what happens they will still be in charge come the end of
the day. Confident people always look better than those under stress.

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gnaritas
Stress doesn't make someone not beautiful, your premise is flawed.

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pjbrunet
Men are easier to sketch because shadows, sharp angles and the
"irregularities" of your pencil line tend to look masculine. For example,
shadows tend to look like facial hair. The slightest flaw on a woman's face is
generally more dramatic and unflattering--you want a thinner, softer, smoother
line without shadows. Sketches by definition are quick and dirty--which
doesn't work out as well for people with delicate features.

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jrapdx3
Don't know about we learn much about the difficulty of drawing beautiful
faces, however the images of the artist's work were impressive.

The traditional boundary between "art" and "illustration" isn't hard and fast.
The latter is valued for its utility, but there's always a possibility that
mere workman's duty will be exceeded, with the result carrying a sensibility
well above its intended purpose.

I think that may be the case for this particular sketch artist. The drawings
seem to capture not only how individuals look, but also portray something of
their emotional states, contrasts among them obvious, interesting and
surprising. The relational elements are echoed in the subtleties of spacing,
angles and proportion, factors that begin to delineate "art" from the prosaic.

The article shows the artist to be quite a character himself. In a way
reminiscent of 1940's newspaper photographer "Weegee" (Arthur Fellig), who
similarly transcended the common utilitarian aspects of his job, ranking among
the best photographers of the 20th century.

It's refreshing to know there are inspired souls putting forth such noteworthy
effort and contributing more than we could expect.

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marsay
Is this drawing thing in court rooms specific to US? And why is drawing
allowed and not taking pictures?

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wodenokoto
Because you have to draw the line somewhere.

It's kinda similar to how you can take notes, but not record.

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ctdonath
The font used for the interviewer's text is striking. What is it?

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Encosia
Freight Micro Pro: [https://typekit.com/fonts/freight-micro-
pro](https://typekit.com/fonts/freight-micro-pro)

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rokhayakebe
Ah, that is why I am so un-photogenic. Explains it. Thanks.

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ZenoArrow
It explains it how? Have people told you that you have an easy face to draw?

