The Design & Publishing Center _/_ D'Lynn Waldron, PhD_/_DT&G_/_Back to UG Network

Age Progression and Fugitive Identification Portraits by D'Lynn Waldron, PhD ©99 How I Work Sat 1 also wanted to do a feature story on me doing the work, with their cameras in my studio, but I told them photographing portrait painting is like watching a glacier melt, and besides I don't want any personal publicity. So instead I gave them a set of images showing the work at different stages. __ Because this whole set of portraits was done in just three days, they are not the quality work I normally do, however I do like the picture of the toddler, which has been widely featured in Germany. (See Illustration.) To do my digital paintingsI use a fast Mac with a lot of RAM and hard drive space, Photoshop 5.5, a Wacom tablet . __ Normally it takes me about 25 hours to do a good quality photo-realistic portrait, and the work is spread over a week to let me look at it with fresh eyes and for it to go back and forth to the client. __ I always work in close consultation with the client to get the features as they image they would be, and to get the right eye color and hair color, which are rarely accurate in a snapshot. __ I e-mail the work in progress to the client as screen-size jpegs, for corrections and suggestions. The actual file is huge; often 72 megabytes. __ The client gets a wide choice of hairstyles, which I take as screen capture thumbnails from Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover and composite with a thumbnail of the face. After the client chooses the hair style and color, I paint the hair from scratch as digital art. The client also gets to choose the background and clothing. __ I do the output on my Epson Stylus Photo inkjet on glossy paper, usually 8 x 10, but sometimes in 11 x 17 size. For larger size prints I use my Epson 1520, though I do not like the skin tones as well. I also give the client, at no charge, a CD with all my files, plus the scans I have made of their photographs. __ I always scan the photographs and return the originals the same day I get them- (hey, this is earthquake country, not to mention tidal waves, as I live right over the ocean, and I don't want the responsibility.) With one of a kind photographs, I request that the client take them to a Kodak photographic copier and send me that print (Color Xerox copies are useless!). Four to six snapshots can be grouped on one 8 x 10 sheet. __ My photo restoration work involving painting in faces is also very much in demand. Jerry Bruckheimer (producer of "The Rock", etc.,) came to me to make a 22 by 28 inch portrait to fit an antique oval frame, based on an old family snapshot that had barely more than shadows to show the structure of the face and placement of the features. This portrait was an exercise in forensic reconstruction. Mr. Bruckheimer was very pleased with the results, which now hang in his living room. __ I usually do my portraits from scratch as digital art. As source material, I use pictures of the subject and of the subject's relatives at the same age, and at the target age. (See more detail in this pop-up window.) The work combines portrait painting with forensic anthropology. Next, Other software for Aging Photographs. . . <- Back _|_ Top

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