- The Art and Science of Putting on a Face

Since I have been on an art trend as of late, my last post was of a Skull on the Blockchain. Once I got tired of attempting to perfect the skull I finally posted it on Steemit, but once I had it up, I thought, why not try to put a face on the skull. I had never done anything like that before, and I have always been fascinated when watching forensics programs on TV.

On some of those TV forensics programs they sometimes show criminal cases where there is an unsolved murder or homicide and the police do not know the victim's identity. During these types of shows, they sometimes do find a body, usually a badly decomposed body, and then they use an artist to help give the victim a face, and in some cases they even goes as far as to actually hire artists that sculpt an actual head out of the skeletal remains of unknown victims.

I also know that there is software out there now that also helps in reconstructing facial features on skeletal remains besides using artists. I imagine there will be a time where most sketch renderings of criminals or facial reconstruction of victims will be done completely by technology. For now, Facial Composite sketching and Forensic Facial Reconstruction is done using a combination of science, technology and the human touch.

Forensic Facial Composite Sketching and Reconstruction is both an imperfect art and science when it comes to forensic anthropology. Parts of this field use known sciences such as anatomy and osteology when rendering the subcutaneous features but ultimately rely on artists to provide the exterior facial features such as hair, lips, nose and eye brows. This is mostly soft tissue, and cannot be reconstructed based on the skull features like skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscle size and length can be based on actual features of the skull such as jaw size. Ultimately the final rendition of a skull's facial reconstruction is left to the artist, who base their art on top of a solid scientific foundation.

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img src: wikipedia
In the future, as science and technology advance, especially in the field of DNA, features that are currently not based on science will eventually become a thing of the past. As the secrets of human DNA are unlocked, it is opening the door to more knowledge about the intricacies of the human body. So today, when an artist must put the finishing touches on a facial reconstruction they must use their "artistic feel" to render eyes, lips and nose, but in the future, DNA will provide the blue print for whether the victim had thin lips or full lips, small ears or big pointy ears and so on. This will lead to much more accurate facial reconstructions in the future.

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Now back to my imperfect and inaccurate facial reconstruction. I know he looks a little creepy and it needs a lot of work and has many imperfections but I don't think it is too bad for my first attempt. I know I had better skin tone, not sure what happened, but I am still learning how to use Photoshop and the Wacom/Cintiq tablet more and more. I have to watch more Photoshop videos and artist tutorials on Steemit.