How do you portray someone who has had plastic surgery?

[Margaret Port]

I am curious to know how others handle the depiction of people who have had plastic surgery?

I think with the modern emphasis on looking young and unwrinkled, it will become quite an issue to portrait artists. Botox, facelifts, boob jobs, liposuction, etc, all have the effect of ruining the natural lines of a person. I have a nursing background which may influence my observations but I can spot artifice at 100 paces.

I recently attended a life drawing session where the female model had had liposuction and bottom lift and she had the oddest shaped rear end that I have ever seen. She was dented where she should have been rounded and visa versa. She thought she looked model perfect. The problem was that when she was portrayed as she was, the drawing looked wrong, obviously, so we all tried to use a bit of poetic license to modify the images. I cheated by only drawing a front view.

Has anyone encountered this problem?

[Kimberly Dow]

I tell your potential clients that you are less invasive and less exspensive than plastic surgery. Tummy tuck? One brush stroke can fix that.

[Timothy C. Tyler]

I think you've just got to paint um like you see um.

[Michele Rushworth]

Chris Saper asks her clients these questions: "What two things do you like best about your appearance?" and "What two things do you like least?"

If this doesn't help you to understand what they want you to do, just ask them politely. You can say, "You have a (scar, or whatever). How would you like me to portray that?"

[Alicia Kornick]

Margaret,

Not all people who have had plastic surgery look dented where they shouldn't and rounded where they shouldn't. The denting happens when the surgeon has been too aggressive in one particular area that was suctioned. The problems in plastic surgery arise most frequently when the patient has been overcorrected, ie. Michael Jackson. On the other hand, I've seen some beautifully reconstructed noses and faces and even breasts reconstructed following cancer surgery where they looked perfectly natural.

Plastic surgery gets a bad rap because the "not so good jobs" are easily detected. The good jobs are not easily detected, the person just looks better, more rested and youthful.

I think Chris Sapers advice is very good. Talk to your client about what they like and don't like about themselves. An overly Botoxed face loses expression around the eyes, but unless the client mentions it in conversation regarding the portrait, I would paint them as they are.