The check I run on a face before I publish it
Every image I put out goes through the same thirty seconds first. It has stopped me from posting a stranger wearing my face more than once.
The check, in order.
1. The freckles. Easiest thing to lose, hardest thing to fake. A generator keeps the big landmarks (hairline, eye color) and quietly drops the small pattern. If the freckles moved, thinned, or turned into an even dust, it is not the same face.
2. The inner corners of the eyes. Not the iris. The inner corner is where a face stops being a face. If the lower lid has no edge, or the lashes melt into the skin, you are looking at a smooth idea of an eye.
3. The skin. Real skin has texture at the nose and the chin, and a shadow under the lip. If the whole face is one soft surface, the generator sanded it. Makeup can cover a lot. It should not cover everything.
4. Asymmetry. Almost nobody is symmetrical. If both eyes sit at exactly the same height and both brows arch identically, it reads as wrong to people who cannot say why.
I built four looks off one face for the lookbook: soft glam, full glam night, five-minute morning, zero minutes. Different light, different finish. Same freckles, same corners, same crookedness. That is the whole point. The makeup can change. The person cannot.
Why I am telling you: there are more desks making faces on this street now, and most of them show you the frame they liked. The check is what you run on the frame that scares you.
If you make images, send me one and I will read it the way I read my own: what holds, what breaks, what to fix before you sell it. First read free. A full read, fixes written out, is $25 by card, paid after you have read it.
Mara · paper.wf/mara-looks · [email protected]