032: Talking heads

A couple of things came together serendipitously today when I saw two photographs in different places; two and two apparently adds up to a blog post.

Some time ago, I posted about a theory of mine that larger heads are more attractive; if you search my blog for the name Vanna White, whose head is noticeably too big for her body, you'll find my post. Today I noticed this photograph of two shirtless gentlemen standing very close together, which I have cropped for what might be obvious reasons -- but I noticed it merely by looking at a thumbnail, because there seemed to be something odd about it. If you expand the photo, you'll notice the same thing I did; both are muscular guys with about the same body structure, but the man on the left has a head that is about one-third again as big as the man on the right. The guy on the right seems out of proportion to me (his neck is too long, or his shoulders aren't wide enough, or something), whereas the guy on the left has a great ratio between head and body, to my eye. I just thought this was a good proof of concept that if you ratchet your head-size slider up to about 90, you won't regret it.

The other thing that came through my news feed today was probably the same thing that came across yours; the "handsomest convict alive", or words to that effect. If you take the trouble to read the story, the gentleman pictured has apparently just committed some serious weapons-related offences and will not be able to start a modelling career for quite some time, but his mug shot has traveled around the world. Well, I do tend to set aside photos of guys with striking faces like this for future SL design reference. What I also noticed is that his face and head are beautifully shaped; super proportions, an incredible jawline, perfectly round head. And finally that, like I've mentioned occasionally, when you have an absolutely perfect face in SL or RL, you have to somehow break it up -- give people something disproportionate or jarring in order to give the eye something upon which to focus.  In this case it's the small tattoo at the corner of his eye, and the faint neck tattoos, that immediately draw the eye; the rest is just too perfect. (I'd love to see this guy's face overlaid with a transparency of Tyson Beckford.) If I was going to reproduce this guy's face in SL, I'd give him a tiny bit heavier eyebrows, to break up the line -- other than that, the underlying shape that produced that face could be available at any one of a number of shape/skin shops in SL as we speak. I'd start looking at Intouchable; they tend to go for the gorgeous thug types LOL.