In April of 2006 I made a post called Evil and Ignorance. The picture for it was a statue of Socrates that I colorized and tried to bring to life. It was alright but a rush job. I decided to try again, this time with the founder of Stoicism, Zeno. In the Socrates picture, the weakest points were the sculpted hair (which doesn't look right even if you colorize it) and the eyes. So this time I decided to take the Zeno statue and blend in some similar eyes I found online (from a mug shot of some guy), and got the hair from Daniel Dennett's beard, then blended in patches to make it match the shape and style of Zeno's. After that I painted in the various skin tones, added highlights and shadows, and colorized the clothing and background. I think this version came out better. It might be the closest thing we have to what Zeno may have really looked like - I hope anyway!
Update May 23, 2007: Dr. Keith Seddon of the Stoic Foundation has decided to place my picture the foundation's homepage at www.btinternet.com/~k.h.s/stoic-foundation.htm. He put a neat fading effect between the two images, which can be seen in MS-Explorer. Firefox shows the two back and forth, but without the fade.
That's absolutely excellent. What a keen eye you have. Brilliant stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Nullifidian :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
ReplyDeleteDo "Alexander the Great" next. I've always wanted to see what he "really" looked like.
His eyes are completely wrong, flat, and formless, they need re-doing completely.
ReplyDeleteThe eyes are the most important feature of any face. If you can't get them right then forget the rest.
I'm afraid you'll have to take that complaint to the parents of the man whose eyes those are a photograph of :)
ReplyDeleteI like the eyes. They seem to look off the page and straight at you.
ReplyDeleteThanks JS :)
ReplyDeleteI like it. He's got a wise Obi-Wan look about him. :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, thanks anonymous. Incidentally, there are some interesting parallels between Jedi and Stoicism.
ReplyDeleteAmazing work! The eyes are right dt strain because the glance is pleasant and peaceful. This resurrection from scultures is incredible. May we ask for Epictetus?
ReplyDeleteThank you Philippe! I would like to do Epictetus sometime. Not sure when though :)
ReplyDeleteI'm ambivalent about the eyes really. Sometimes they seem just right and then again.... a certain glazed look to them. Still an excellent effort though.
ReplyDeleteThanks Fred :)
ReplyDelete