TERRIBLY DEEP INSIGHT

[telophase]

Earlier today I left a series of way-too-damn-long comments on someone's LJ, speculating as to why their stuff wasn't popular at a con they recently sold at. (No details here, unless they want to bring it up).

My DEEP INSIGHT[tm] while writing it all out isn't a realization of something I didn't know, it's basically something I already knew that managed to collapse into words. And it has to do with portrait-style pictures, that feature a character or two looking out at the viewer. This is what I posted there:

I really do want to emphasize that YOU are a character in the scene in the portrait pictures. The character is interacting with you the viewer, not just posing.

Yeah, not the most earth-shattering of insights, but well worth keeping in mind - that a successful portrait also tells a story, only the story is what's occurring between YOU and the character, not what's going on between the character and another one, or between the character and the setting.

Comments

[emtigereyes.livejournal.com]

Something I'm aware of but continue to fail miserably at. *le sigh*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

When I succeed, it's not because I deliberately set out to do it. :/

[emtigereyes.livejournal.com]

It works while still in my head, but when I start taking photo reference of positions, the posing of those pics takes over the piece until.... yeah, no life. Just transformed using a bankai? Great, now stand and smirk. *facepalm*

[droiche.livejournal.com]

ODD's a little slow today. Do you mean that if the portrait was obviously a work of love by the artist, then it will earn more attention?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

No, the YOU refers to the *viewer*, not the artist.

[droiche.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I figured that out a bit late. D:

[droiche.livejournal.com]

D'oh! I get it now. It's the interaction between the character in the picture and the person looking at the picture that counts in this instance. As in having the character look at the camera with s smoldering gaze or something.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yup! It's why portraits with the subjects gazing vacantly off into the distance somewhere over your left shoulder never quite seem right, no matter how good the technique may be. :)

[droiche.livejournal.com]

*nods* Getting the eyes to appear like they're looking at the viewer and follow them is a trick I've been attempting to master. >_>

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

*is enlightened*