Age Progression Portraits

This a cool fusion of art and aging.

The text below was written by the artist, stop by and take a look.

HOW I DO AGE PROGRESSION PORTRAITS by D'Lynn Waldron ©07

There is no software that will age-progress a photo in either a scientifically accurate or artistically realistic way.
I am a classically trained portrait artist who has studied the medical forensics of aging.
I have been a developer of computer technology for the arts since the 1984 Mac.
I use a high end Mac, 30-inch cinema displays and most important a Wacom pressure sensitive tablet with a digital stylus that is used like a traditional brush
I now prefer digital technology to conventional media for most artwork.
( I also use my computer to edit my videos of symphony orchestras using Final Cut Pro and that in finitely superior to a Moviola and opticals for effects)

I am a third-generation conventionally trained artist. My portraits were first published in a book when I was 22 in 1959.
During my travels to such then remote places as the Cambodian jungle, the Himalaya Mountains and the Congo River, I worked in fine line pen & ink and watercolor (examples of this work are on my Web site.) I originally gave away all my watercolor portraits to the subjects until The Chenya Lama signed his portrait and handed it back to me advising I must keep some of my artwork. He was right and that watercolor portrait is in the British edition of my book.
I later became principally a photographer and I was one of the first photographers with the worldwide agency, The Image Bank.

I began doing age-progressed portraits when an advertising agency asked if I could do such a thing for a cosmetics company, because I had already done some medical illustrations related to effects of aging on the skin.

In doing age progressed portraits, I begin with the bone structure and then build the muscles over it using highlight and shadow in much the same way I would build up volume with clay in sculpting. Then I do the eyes, skin and hair.

The appearance of aging is determined by many factors including:
Genetics ~ Lifestyle ~ Health ~ Personality ~ Environment ~ Gravity's cumulative effects

Whenever I can, I work from as much information as possible about the person, family and ancestors.
I try to show in the eyes and the set of the mouth, the personality and perhaps just bit of the soul.