Hi,

I am working up a story involving different characters and I want as much as possible to make the character's facial features tell alot of their story.

Does anyone know of any good reference material or websites dealing with the psychology of facial types?

Example: I have a young boy character who I want to be "likable" at first impression. How do a mold his face to "likable" and avoid characteristics that our culture would read as "bratty" or "brainy" or "untrustworthy".

I'm not talking about expressions, I'm talking about things like:

"strong chin = proud",

"big forhead = intellectual" and

"dialated pupils = friendliness"

Things along those lines...

Thanks for any input!!!

Message edited on: 03/08/2005 23:18

Message edited on: 03/08/2005 23:20

Hmmm ... it's a very interesting question. One possibility might be to research what is considered a "beautiful" face. THe more you sway away from that, the less people are likely to like the character. As for a likeable face for a young boy ... how young? Things I think of that would portray "likeable" are wide, childlike eyes, smiling face, that "boy next door" look. It can also be mannerisms as well ... "likeable" people look you in the eye. "Shifty" people avoid looking you in the eye. "Bratty" ... pouty or frowned mouth, "I'm better than you" mannerisms, brows always scrunched in a frown. "Brainy" ... glasses, of course; sort of that "Harry Potter" look. 8-) Untrustworthy ... definitely shifty eyes and thin mouth. I almost wonder if there are cartooning books that might lend some info?

Excellent thoughts Deecey! I've been thinking that caricature books might provide useful insights.

The study I worked on for my undergrad degree in Psychology was a research project on what is considered "beautiful" among males and females in over 100 cultures across the globe. At least I got published in the tiny print for the "and others" section. Try searching the Internet for Dr. Michael R. Cunningham, Ph.D. The last I heard he was the chair at my alma mater the University of Louisville (Kentucky). He has done extensive social psychological research into beauty/attractiveness for both American and global test groups. From what I can remember (and this was about 20 years ago), here is are the "beautiful" characteristics and the psychology behind them. For females: In most Caucasian cultures, the preferred female has large eyes, high expressive eyebrows, high cheekbones, small nose and a large mouth. In fact, people often rated a photo where the nose had been completely removed as far more attractive than the same woman with a large nose. For Asian-Pacific cultures, the preferred female has a low, round cheeks, small eyes, and a small mouth. Most other cultures (African, Australian Aboriginal, and Native America/Alaskan Native) fall into one or the other categories. As a side note, many African cultures judge beauty for males and females either on the quality of tatoos, scarification and/or other mutilation or on the ability to work hard and provide well. The psychology: People are innately attracted to features of children/small animals but want their mate to be of child-bearing age. So, for the Caucasian cultures, the large eyes and mouth are childlike and the high cheekbones indicate that she is past puberty. For the Asian/Pacific cultures, the round face with low cheekbones is childlike while the small eyes and mouth are signs of maturity. The preferred male face is similar to that the female with the addition of signs of strength and maturity--large chin, strong nose, etc. There was one trait of attractiveness that was consistent among almost every single culture--males skin tones should always be darker than their female counterparts. It doesn't matter if the base skin tone is fair, brown, black or everything in between as long as the male is darker. The study I worked on was this one: Cunningham, M. R. Measuring the physical in physical attractiveness: Quasi-experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (1986), 925-935.

Why is brainy considered unlikeable????????? We have feelings, too! Some of us even have (gasp) friends!!! Why on earth would you want to indulge in stereotypes? They are boring and predictable. Make some interesting characters and involve your readers. Carolly

Attached Link: http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/attraction/index.shtml

Im providing another link to a scary paper. I do not know if it is a type of trick, the heading is 'Chickens prefer beautiful humans'. (PDF format) :~o

mmogul

"Why is brainy considered unlikeable?????????*** We have feelings, too!" And just how are you so sure you're brainy???!!!??? (just kidding! - just kidding!) "Why on earth would you want to indulge in stereotypes?" Ah! I knew this would be coming. We all indulge in stereotypes to some degree - do we not? Trying too hard to break stereotypes draws attention away fom the story and makes a "diversity" agenda the real story.

Aw Carolly you are seriously cracking me up!!! Jeffg3 this is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately with my characters...trying to figure out that psychology. I'm glad you brought out the part of different cultures...imho that's very key. My wife in her younger days was in the Peace Corps in Senegal where a skinny redish blond haired chick was considered pathetically ugly. She was once asked by a kind villager, (and seriously it sounds like all the villagers were most incredibly kind and wonderful people,) how she ever expected to find a husband looking as she did. It even got worse when the women of the village tried to do her up in corn rows! That gave them a pretty good laugh! In our culture she's a very attractive woman and always has been. I imagine a lean handsome Euro-type would get the same response in a culture where brute strength was needed to survive. Great thought provoking post!!! -jay

Jay - Red hair and/or green eyes are considered ugly and/or evil in a lot of cultures. As someone whose Irish ancestry is obvious, I found this very disturbing. hauksdottir - Why are you assuming that the facial features which constitute attractiveness rule out braininess? It is much easier to make a determination about strength, basic state of health, and whether or not someone is past puberty by looking at them than to tell how smart they are. I'm eligible to join Mensa based on my I.Q. and went through High School in the Advance Program. Although I am a long way from the ideal attractive person, there were several very attractive males and females in my class. The whole psychology of attractiveness is concerned with filtering suitability for mating from a first look whether the animals are human or not. Superficial? Yes, but it is an ingrained response based on both biological and cultural learnings.

Apart from attraction, there was a pseuod-science which was called Phrenology, which dealt with diagnosing peoples personalities based on the shape of their head. Here are a couple of links I quickly googled...but maybe you can find more with a more in-depth search. http://134.184.33.110/phreno/ http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/peter.friesen/ http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n01/frenolog/frenologia.htm http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n01/frenolog/frenmap.htm Hope this helps Rawn

and of course there's Retro-Phrenology. that involves a large mallet...

A while back, Anton posted some links about phi, the mathematical measurement of determining proportion and beauty.

Probably not the deph of what you may be looking for, however this book schooled me in drawing expressions and was as monumentous as realizing you could put negitive values in the poser face dials. ISBN: 0399508031 the authors name is Jack Hamm I always see this in the drawing sections at B.Dalton, Borders, etc. so you can check it out before you buy it

I have that book and it was very helpful in drawing and learning proportion. I learned to block things out before I drew the face. In poser, I'm not sure how to apply that same principle except for you have to determine whether you want symmetry and then use the dials to your aesthetic...

About stereotyping someone by appearance.... Several decades ago I had a friend named Dierdre who I brought with me to our Friday Night Group. The members of the Friday Night Group gathered for bridge and conversation and were all very high IQ, professional, artistic, and/or otherwise interesting people. None of them could be considered "average joes". They took one look at her, and wondered why I could possibly like her... not quite a dismissal at sight, but a reserve. Dierdre was of Welsh descent, but born in South Africa. Perfect china complexion, blonde curly hair, huge blue eyes, nice shapely figure. Oozing femininity and good manners... the sort of woman who gets written off as "a dumb blonde chick". By the end of the evening, they realized why she was my friend. She had a black belt in one martial art and a brown belt in another. She had a certificate from some Marine Corps marksmanship range (her father was the Commandant of Camp Pendleton so she had access). She could take a volkswagon apart in the dark one handed (well, ok, maybe she needed a lantern). She'd traveled all over the world, spoke knowledgeably about various cultures. She was enthusiastic about playing games or backpacking or otherwise being involved in activities. She did various arts and crafts. She was at least as smart as I am and could argue her points effectively. Under those fluffy golden curls was a brain. Stereotypes? Pah! Carolly

"She was at least as smart as I am"

!!!

"Stereotypes? Pah!"

Here's a good reason to stick with stereotypes in certain instances. Let's say I am making a story about a bomber in WW2 that gets off course and gets lost over the atlantic.

Let's say I decided to cast a 12 year old girl in the secondary role of the plane's gunner without explanation and solely on the grounds that a 21 year old white male was too pass Her age and gender had nothing to do with the story and were totally fabricated on my part for the sake of "diversity" and a desire to thumb my nose at a perceived "age discrimination".

Everyone who read the story would find their attention riveted on this out of place character and not the actual "plot" of the story. The story would unaviodably become one about a 12 year old, female WW2 gunner.

Stereotypes are useful and have a role to play in all forms of communications. Of course they can become tired with overuse, but to consciously avoid them all together is to create an unnecessary obstacle for yourself in communicating with your culture.

I would suggest grabbing a few how to draw and basic animation books to help you understand what "works" for portraying certain types of character through simple facial design and expression. I suggest grabbing a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel way. They have a great section on faces. Also the book, Action Cartooning, has a very large section on faces and facial types. The Animators Handbook is another great recource and if you're just into the psychological side of how your mind percieves images, try Understanding Comics. You'll never see a wall socket in quite the same way. I could tell you what I've learned from them but it's always best to go to the source.

Edit: That should read The Animator's Woorkbook. Not handbook. Sorry.

i get many of my ideas from actors/actresses or people in magazines who strike me as appealing....ie likeable...sexy...stubborn ect...i keep a notebook with the plastic pages to keep them in and then refer to them when i am working on a piece, it even helps me with natural expressions....i use it even when i am writing so i can visualize the character or scene in my head...i havn't gotton the hang of poser or daz yet and am a veritable newbie on that front but am a long-standing hand-work type artist and in all my paintings and carvings this idea seems to work well for me. i also do buildings architecture furniture any thing that inspires me to create...so i have several of those 'notebooks' on hand for whatever model i may have in mind at the time. i even keep textures or swatches that i get from furniture or stores like homedepot. i hope this helps....a quick little tutorial in creativity from me to you...lol :) P.S. not that i am a professional yet....i wish...lol

oh and by the way.. I tend to find faces of people from 'mixed' couples appealing as they carry a little bit of all cultural traits in them...the last of my little down home advice...go with what generally appeals to you...you may find that quite a few others find it appealing too.

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Message edited on: 03/10/2005 04:16

I just wanted to thank all you folks for the great resources and stimulating ideas!!!