New Video: First 30 Heads in My SFAU series Morphing

Hi folks. This is a updated version of the one I made for the first 25 heads, but I added more frames between images so it’s smoother, and this time I did it in strict chronological order (last time I did it in a way that I thought would give better results, but sometimes faces I don’t think would blend together well bring interesting surprises).

I use an old, free program to do this (might come with a virus!). Well, I do 2 heads at a time, and then assemble the results in a video editing program. The morphing program isn’t just automatic, you have to plot all the reference points between the two images. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty powerful and interesting technique to me.

I really like some of the pairs, so may do individual short videos for Instagram. Not that it will do me much good in terms of reaching an audience. I think to be at all successful on IG you need to be addicted to it, and I am allergic to all social media (as in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc). If I didn’t need to use it to try to get my work out there, I might not use it at all. IG is the least offensive to me because it’s just pictures, or rather, 99% of the people who I follow are other artists, and I just see their art.

When making this, honestly, I just see all the mistakes I made in making the portraits. As I gradually get better at it (thought I also make new mistakes of sorts), I can better see all the little things that are off.

In the past, up until the recent past, I was very interested in painterly effects. Now, in my own art, I’m more interested in accuracy. When you are being expressive (as in Expressionism), and painterly (y’know, looser, impasto, suggesting strokes), there’s a lot of room for imperfection as regards anatomy, lighting, shading, modeling, perspective, and so on… Think Van Gogh, or Francis Bacon. They are two of my very favorites, and enormous influences on me, but presently I am drawn to being able to render accurately, and realistically. The long-term goal, however, is to work from my imagination in a hybrid style, but having the power of representational skill under the hood.

More on that later.

~ Ends