My mom's friend has an old poster with Uncle Sam pointing and saying, "I want YOU for U.S. Army." Wherever you go in the living room, it looks like he is pointing at you and staring at you. When I was in intermediate school, there was also a portrait of a woman whose eyes always looked like they followed the person who looked at her. (It freaked a lot of the kids out.:)) How do the artists do that? What techniques do they use that make it look like the people in the portraits are staring at the person looking at them?
2007-05-05 07:21:03 · 6 answers · asked by tangerine 7 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Painting
It is based on prospective, depth, If the picture is realistic enough to achieve this then it should give the effect that the person is in 3D. Meaning it should look like it is standing there instead of setting in a picture. Mona-Lisa is famous for this effect. If the eyes are perfectly inline with each other. and adding shade to the corner of the eyes is the easiest way to do this. It isn't as hard as people think. Or make it out to be.
E-mail me and I will send you a picture of an eye for you to practice...bgraphic1@yahoo.com
2007-05-05 07:47:18 · answer #1 · answered by bgraphic1 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Its not exactly staring at you, its staring the atrtist who made it. Whwen you draw or paint a portrait the model looks at the artist and that is reflected in the final work. Its bidimentional so it not gonna change direction just for moving a couple of steps to any side
2007-05-05 20:53:16 · answer #2 · answered by patri 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Great question! Others have supplied very interesting answers. I wish I had taken Art History! Maybe someday, or in the next life. They say it's never too late.
I just wanted to add that Gilbert Stewart's portarit of George Washington (in my elementary school) always creeped me out. And also all those old Three Stooges shorts with the eyes cut out of the paintings in the haunted house! :)
2007-05-07 10:05:49 · answer #3 · answered by American citizen and taxpayer 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They are. No kidding. If you look into the lens of a camera you will also get this effect. Just look into the middle and you will look out the photograph.
Too simple? Adding some drama helps but this is the basic theory behind it.
2007-05-05 18:27:48 · answer #4 · answered by Puppy Zwolle 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The answer lies in the way your mind translates color. DaVinci was a genius in this aspect. the secret of The Mona Lisa's smile is his use of color if you look her in the eye she apears to be frowning,the eye can only see shadow from cirtain angles. thusly if you look at her from the chest she apears to be smiling
your eye translates peripheral images w/o depth range.
2007-05-05 14:36:17 · answer #5 · answered by dakkunan 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
There's no trick to it. The artist painted the sitter as the sitter was staring directly at them.
2007-05-05 18:36:31 · answer #6 · answered by Call Me Babs 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋