Ghost name

Lápiz

Acquisition

Instagram
23rd July 2016

Artefacts

Interactions with a stranger

Lápiz is from Instagram. After contacting 169 people over a 52 week period, Lápiz was the first person from this platform to fully engage with the project. Walking home from a gallery opening for group show I was part of on self portraiture. I thought to search the hashtag #selfportait on Instagram to see who would come up, his was a recent post from a few hours back. It was a pencil sketch of his face - his jawline was striking. Seeing he was an artist I'd hoped he'd see value in this work - I am so grateful for after so long to have someone like him wish to be part of what I'm doing "For me it would be a pleasure to join in. It is always great helping other artists :)"

Reporting on the creative process

The model came through near perfect except for a slight opening on his left side which I didn't bother to fix (does a 3D model even have a gender anymore?) I cleaned up his face in Zbrush, rebuilding his nose and lips a little more as they had fallen away in the acquisition process. I then placed him staring directly at the primary 3D camera and lit him with a 360º photo I took in the rain of a dark park illuminated by the city lights (but hid the light-source from the camera). I rested on this for a while, I enjoyed the simplicity but at the same time I also really loved his profile, the strength in his shoulder was captured so nicely. I've done "fake twins" before and really didn't want it to feel "same ole". Positioning him "within" himself removes him from being a twin. I've subtly welded the geometry at the junction points and added the triangular lights to give a sense of soft movement.