Welcome to Websleuths, crestedibis:
You are correct that artist recreations are used (particularly in here, in DoeNet, and in the media) out of sensitivity, but also in an attempt to reach more people who otherwise would be repulsed by images of deceased. Although some of the older posts include postmortem images in open view on the thread, Websleuths policy is now requires that we post them in such a way that they are available to those who wish to look at them (with a warning message accompanying the link), and any comparisons in open-view should be done using the reconstructions.
I created the color image above, (as well as about 40 or 50 others), and this particular image was one of my earlier attempts at doing facial reconstructions. I appreciate the critique, and I don't mind hearing constructive criticism.
Despite that this comes from a fairly clear image of the decedent, it was quite difficult to get an overall sense of the woman's overall look, even if I get the individual features and shapes correct. I probably spent more time on this image than most of the others, and I still feel like something is not quite right.
I am certain that in life, this woman didn't have the morose look that she has in death, and the difficult trick is to show her as she might have looked in life, rather than depicting a dead person with opened eyes. Many of the adjustments that I made to make her look alive, such as adding muscle tone to the cheeks, and straightening out her badly contorted lips, and fluffing up her hair (it was wet in the PM photo) have affected the resemblance to how she looks in death.
Perhaps when I feel ambitious, I might try re-doing this one now that I have more experience with the graphics software, and a comfort level drawing with a mouse rather than a paintbrush.
Thanks again, and ... :welcome5:
Probably in 1989.
