Good Grief! Bad GRIEF!
The Key Concept: Expressing true grief requires the whole face to contort. Botox freezes the forehead and negates this expression. |
Good Grief! Bad GRIEF!
Figures 1 & 2. Here are two photos of two persons experiencing grief; they both exhibit tightly stretched lips and active cheeks. Notice the difference in each person's forehead and eyebrow action; Figure 1 (actress Brooke Shields) looks like she's stifling a smile; Figure 2 (police brutality protester, Ikea Coney) shows a genuine look of painful grief and sadness. What's going on?
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No CROWN for "The Lion King"
Figure 1: A still from the 2019 CGI remake of "The Lion King." Mufasa is definitely King of the Jungle, proud and expressionless, beside his expressionless offspring, Simba. The freshly-minted, hyper-realist reissue of "The Lion King" is a magnificent piece of CGI artistry. From the sweeping African landscapes, to the herds of fabulous savanna beasts, to the charming bits of business with little bugs, Lion King 2019 is a tableau of mastery. Congratulations to the teams of character designers, animators, riggers, compositors and everyone else whose talent came together to create this visual masterpiece.
SAD Doggy? Smart Doggy!
Figure 1. How can you say "No" to those sad doggy eyes? This is a real photo of a charmingly plaintive dog, not a graphic image of a digital dog created in a CGI studio. Science now tells us that dogs are capable of emoting sadness with a specialized eyebrow muscle no other animal has.
Don't get Panicked about ANXIETY
"Only have EYES for You"
Figures 1, 2 & 3. What do these 3 stylized characters have in common? They are limited to their eyes alone to express their emotional state. The robot’s expression is highly ambiguous; Spiderman’s obliquely-shaped eye opening appears aggressive; Eve’s expression of Joy, missing her mouth, is handicapped without the addition of body language and sound.
Damsels in DISTRESS
Figures 1 & 2: Actresses Lori Loughlin (left) Felicity Huffman (right), as depicted by the courtroom artist, Mona Shafer Edwards. Note the very different facial expressions of the two defendants; only one looks distressed,
Don't be SAD, get MAD!
Figure 1: (left) NYC protesters display upside-down Amazon logo "smiles" with added dot "eyes" to express their disapproval of the company's plan to expand their operations to Queens; Figure 2 (right) the author has modified the protesters' signs to create angrier, more threatening, Amazon frowns and eyes.
EMOJIS 1 : Anger & Surprise
Figure 1: A quick clip of emojis on the web show a variety of artistic interpretations of two of the cardinal facial expressions - Anger & Surprise.
The BEST of 2018 That Mysterious UNCANNY Valley
Figure 1. The charming and beautiful young Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia, alive and in the flesh.
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FAIGIN FACE BLOGSo many faces. So many ways to express emotions. Faigin examines facial expressions in movie stills, cartoons, fine art, illustrations and photographs and shares his insightful analyses in his monthly blog. Archives
September 2020
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