The Boys from Brazil (references posted now)

[tegehel]

These quick portraits were done first as an exercise but more importantly to prove a point: that is how well do you know your neighbour?

How well do we memorize traits, features, faces? You might see your neighbour on a regular basis, but would you recognize any of those people if they lived next door?

If you do, then the title will make more sense (assuming you know your classics.)

And yes, it's a scary thought...

C.

http://www.tegehel.org/graphics/newfolio/colors/ah.JPG

http://www.tegehel.org/graphics/newfolio/colors/jg.JPG

http://www.tegehel.org/graphics/newfolio/colors/hi.JPG

http://www.tegehel.org/graphics/newfolio/colors/st.JPG

[R_M]

Lately I have been trying to understand and memorize what is it that makes a face stand out from an other, and I find it helpfull to exagerate the facial traits a bit... but I haven't done my neighbours yet. also I have been studiing myself in the mirror a lot and that really helped to figure out how to draw eyes nose and mouth.

The portraits are rather good, I think....well actually I don't know cause I haven't seen the originals :D
I like the eyes, especially on the first one, but I am not to keen on the brush texture, and the golden frame is distracting.
Still the faces have a very nice 3D feel to them.

[Ant4d]

Hey!


I recognized first and the last one! main characters of history.
but the middle ones.. I think its my lack of knowledge of history. Anyways great job and interesting thread! I hope you'll keep posting similar things in the future:)


Anton

[egerie]

I don't like mustaches either :)

[tegehel]

ROFLMAO!

that's a good one, egerie! bullseye!

:ahha:

C.

[Carnifex]

remember..remember..remember..argh i can't!:bash:
good pics:thumbsup:

[afklamer]

OMG thats realy great

First i thougt "dam your neighbour looks similar too ...."
then i realized what was going on ^^

well but i don't get the middle guys, but ive that feeling that ive seen theme somewhere

:chug: great work !

[Erik]

All of those guys live right around the corner of me -- of course they had plastic surgery so they don't look like the pictures anymore -- but i'm sure of it! (* looks over shoulder*)


LOL!

good pics

[Cannibal80]

Yeah the mustache thing. :D

I just hope these guys 'll never be my neighbours...

[spline]

Well, the first one is Hitler, and the last one is Stalin, but I do not recognise the others...

[Jaku]

The second one, James Woods?
The third one no idea.... reminds me to another actor... Kevin Spacey, but really no idea...

[tegehel]

I'll give you a hint: the 2 in the middle were part of the same regime as the first one. They were top hats as well. Now, what's interesting is that for one of them, I actually did not remove anything. The other, on the other hand, has been "bared" out, so to speak.

They are a bit more difficult, but are as infamous for their deeds as the other two.

My point's proven: they could be living next door, you wouldn't realize who they truly were...but I bet (Europeans) parents or grand-parents would, though.

I'll post my references soon...

C.

[Turqy]

Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebels (sp?), Heinrich Himmler and Stalin.

The funny thing is that this my first post on this board. Lono keeps telling me I should post some art. But I felt I should reply to this since I've been working on Wolfenstein games for the past few years. The people in my office would beat me if I didnt know these by now...

The originals for the middle two:

http://www.salvator.net/salmat/pw/pw1/macht/bilder/goebb1.jpg

http://www.sulinet.hu/diktaturak/kepek/kicsik/himmler.jpg

[SaltyDog]

I KNEW James Woods was a Nazi!!!!!!

[tegehel]

We have a winner: Turqy. Having worked on Wolfenstein, indeed, you would have been beaten :)

Here's the reference promised.

Feel free to critic more now that you can see the originals.

C.

http://www.tegehel.org/graphics/newfolio/web/portraits_ref.JPG

and young stalin for the mouth reference.


http://www.tegehel.org/graphics/newfolio/web/stalin_young.JPG

[MrSmith]

heh, woods does look sort of like Goebbels.

[egerie]

Woohoo! Well I guessed 3 out of em :) . Didn't pick up Goebbels and was also distracted with his resemblanced with James Wood (http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0217363/3) (minus the eyes).

Young Staline ? My god... shock. This is a photo ? a retouched photo ? charcoal from a photo ?..

tegehel, I'd only start to worry if I'd been living in south america :) Altho it's rather interesting to see how face surgery blurs out points of references. Fooling us with different perception reguarding age, health, not considering our 'recognition' system. Sorry.. rambling a bit so to conclude, I saw a very interesting program a few months back on TLC named "The Human Face". If you're interested in traits, etc. I really recommend it !

ege, who still doesn't likes mustaches.

[tegehel]

Egerie, rambling's good if it's interesting :)

I actually don't know if this is a charcoal or an old photograph. It does look like a charcoal, doesn't it? then again, old pictured do have the tendancy to be blurry and lack details.

I would not call it plastic surgery or face reconstruction for all I did was to remove recognizable features (moustache, glasses). If the physiognomy changed, it's only due to my lack of skills and not purposefully done (well, those were "quick" paintings as stated above.)

But just removing those featured makes quite the difference. It was an experiment to show how we perceive things. I believe it was in a Sherlock Holmes story that I read something like "we all see things, Watson, but who really observes?"

Same difference between hearing and listening.

As far as the reference to the title, The Boys from Brazil, is based on the story that after WWII, Josef Mengele (infamous doctor who conducted experiments in concentration camps) flees to Brazil and tries to clone other versions of Hitler.

The movie, starring Gregory Peck as Dr. Josef Mengele, Laurence Olivier, James Mason amongst others, is quite frightening in concept.

"The fictional story involves real life German WWII "Angel of Death", Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) having cloned 94 baby boys from the cells of you-know-who and placed them around the world in environments that closely approximate the real life conditions in which the donor was raised, in the hope of reproducing an exact duplicate."

The Boys from Brasil (1978) (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0077269)

The idea of these pieces, therefore, was to take the concept of that movie and push it to nowadays. Today, the kids would be roughly 50 years old or more, and would probably look like the pictures above, be it from DNA from Hitler, Goebbels, Goering or Stalin, or anyone in general. Would they look like the original donors or would life change them to a point where they wouldn't be recognizable anymore?

I know not, but it fascinates me.

Additionally, there's another movie starring Rutger Hauer called Fatherland, and it's a WHAT IF Theoretical History flick: what if the Germans had won the war?

"Fictional account of what might have happend if Hitler had won the war. It is now the 1960s and Germany's war crimes have so far been kept a secret..."

Very interesting and also frightening movie.

Fatherland (1986) made for TV movie (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0109779)

[egerie]

And yet another couple of entries on my "to rent" list.

By the way, wasn't there a more recent movie made about the "what if" theory ? I thought I saw it advertised on TV a couple of weeks ago... What a frightening thought.. Everything would be completely different today wouldn't it ? Even the US would have a different face..

Now as for the clones, I *muse* that those kids would be physically the xerox copy of their original self but would have a different ideas. But I guess the squad of scientist that would've been trough all the trouble would make sure to endoctrinate those children as well.. Bah technicalities.

Did you watch "Hitler, Rise of Evil" that was aired not long ago ? Very interesting and creepy. (staring Robert Carlyle and Julianna Margulies)

"we all see things, Watson, but who really observes?"
Ahah so true. We get bombarded by so many informations that the brain has to 'filter' those out. And as artists, perception is very important... I remember in my first year of fine arts to "rediscover" the world. So many things are revealed when you take the time to observe.

I actually don't know if this is a charcoal or an old photograph.
What clued me in was the nose which seems to be a little off-perspective and has a strange straight highlight.. Also the blurryness you mentionned, it's smoothness and the overall dark tone of the piece. Ah.. youth :)

[tegehel]

Yes, I saw Rise of Evil. I thought it was pretty well done, actually and informative, but I thought Robert Carlyle, who obviously studied his subject's mannerism, acted well, but lacked the "evil energy" (for lack of better description) that emanates from the real character if you look the films of the era. I don't know, maybe it's just a psychological afterfact looking at "the real thing" as opposed to an actor, but I didn't feel threatened by the character. His intentions were, however. I thought the SA chief played by Peter Stormare was much more of an evil brute, but I think that was the point.

Here's a quote from imdb.com that I like:

"Hitler here is portrayed slightly humanized, or at least more so than ever before; and that makes him more of a monster in the end: he is no boogey-man of our nightmares, no invention to scare the young, but a real man who walked, talked, and plotted evil. The sheer fact that he did live makes him even more of a warning to the present and future of mankind--too easily can people slide into inaction, fall into the crowd mentality of "groupthink" and allow for good to be overcome.

This mini-series depicted the beginnings of the evil that would shape the century's most devastating conflict; and my only complaint is that the actor portraying Hitler did not don colored contact lenses--this would have completed the role and brought about a stunning bit of realism to the performance."

As for the charcoal, I still don't know, but if it was a rendering, the nose is on target, in my opinion: observe (heh) the facial features in the old and young Stalin and you'll see the similarities between the crooked nose, the shape of the chin, eyebrows, etc...The problem is that I don't recall where I got that picture. Perhaps the site would have had an explanation.

C.

[tegehel]

Additionally, interestingly enough, on the History Channel:

8:00 PM
Channel 41 HIST
Friday, 6
History's Mysteries
Hitler's Perfect Children
60 min.
An investigation into what happened to the children born in Hitler's Lebensborn program, established by Heinrich Himmler to help fulfill Hitler's plan for a master race. (VCR Plus+ 1460896)

Category: Documentary
Release Year: 2000

C.