Why are figures so handsome?

[thegoodsgt]

Why are a majority of the men depicted in the figures on the commercial market so handsome? If you look around you, most of us guys are fairly modest looking, and a few ugly, yet most of the figures we paint look like models. (There are a few exceptions.) In fact, most of the male faces across all the figure manufacturers look fairly similar.

Is this a conscious decision on the part of sculptors with an eye toward driving sales? Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a figure every once in a while that looked like Steve Buscemi or Paul Giamatti!

 

[Paul20100]

I do not think sculptors chose to make handsome faces for commercial considerations (except when they purposely portray famous characters). In a sense, they are in line with the ancient Greece tradition of instilling a certain idea of perfection into their works BTW, you will find that very few sculptors are able to produce expressive faces and to vary their characteristics. Latorre, Laruccia and Horan do it very well (although I suspect them of recycling some of their heads into several of their productions). One must remember that we are talking about soldiers which by nature are solid individuals spending most of their time outside in campaign. The way we paint faces also has a considerable influence on the final impression.

 

[Marcel]

I think that sculptors are trying to achieve a similar look for the left and right side of the face. In general the better the likeness of the left and rigth side the prettier we find the face. But I guess also that ugly faces don't sell so well.

Marcel.

 

[Sambaman]

I think we have to consider the fact that we are dealing with things in miniature, and as such we expect to see an almost "more than perfect" scaled-down representation of the life sized subject. Marcel is exactly right in the assumption that a sculptor will always try and achieve symmetry in a face sculpt. After all, beauty in human terms comes predominantly from symmetry.

I think the idea of these subject matters being "idealized" and essentially someone’s interpretation of certain subject mater, we would predominantly like to see an attractive representation of that idea rather than an unattractive one. This will piss a few people off, but art is a VERY pervasive component of what we do. Look at the classical paintings and sculptures of lore, very few "dogs" out there on canvas and in marble. After all this is a hobby, it's an escape to a part of the past, of fantasy and adventure we've never known. I'd rather do that with my character represented by Hugh Jackman rather than Jack Black............Although, I know full well Jack Black would be more appropriate! LOL!

Jay H.

 

[Einion]

Is this a conscious decision on the part of sculptors with an eye toward driving sales?

Partly, definitely. I would say that some of this isn't conscious but aesthetic concerns drive the market in so many ways.

It's much the same with the motivation that is behind much of the paintwork that we see, where even on weathered figures the dirt is often 'pleasing' or 'artistic', rather than being quite how it appears in the original.

Einion

 

[1969]

My first ever facial sculpt was indeed very ugly although that wasnt the intended result. As a sculpter i think we all start out with crude and not so great looking features and we seem to strive to make good looking faces as a recognition that we are improving in our sculpting skills, this can of course become habit forming in the same way as sculpters can get stuck in a certain way of sculpting faces which all resemble each other.

Paul is quite right about not many sculpters being able to put expression into faces and i for one find that aspect very difficult at the moment.

Maybe there should be far more less handsome faces around in figures but there must be a reason why there isnt, figure retailers are the best to judge if its because they dont sell i think.

Steve

 

[T50]

From my limited experience in this hobby and business,
it does help to have a handsome face to sell.
Yes, it would be interesting/nice to see different or less
attractive faces on figures. But it would more interesting
and nicer to make figures that sell.

Also, it is more difficult to make "convincingly" ugly face
than a handsome and symmetric face in my case.

 

[housecarl]

I know I may be drifting from the point, as Dimitrios states. It's not just the looks, nearly all minis look like they've spent hours in the gym, or popping steroids. There was a pirate released not long ago that's a good example.
Pot bellied, balding,
Carl.

 

[tonydawe]

There's certainly a blatant commercial consideration involved in producing handsome looking figures. I think most of us are attracted to, and like to buy figures that "look good". That doesn't necessarily mean the figures have to be "good looking", but it doesn't hurt. If good looking figures sell better, then producers are going to keep making them in preference to more realistic,plain and ugly ones.

Perhaps military miniature sculptors are trying to capture something of an ideal image of the warrior; be it a Spartan hoplite, a samurai, a Native American, a Stormtrooper or a Zulu, and in doing so they try to incorporate the most noble and admirable elements of the warrior's martial culture; such as their pride, physical strength and prowess in battle, into their sculpt.

I tend to agree with Jay. Painters and sculptors throughout history have tended to flatter, worship and mythologise the warriors of their times, and chosen to show them in a heroic light rather than in a realistic way. We military modellers are no different, we just paint and sculpt smaller versions of the same types of idealised versions of warrior manhood that the Greeks and Romans were doing 2,000 years ago.

That's my two bob's worth.

 

[Einion]

Lots of parallels with the height and build of most figs too. Take the most popular subject for modern figures, nearly all of us will have a passing familiarity with photos from the era and plenty of them show that WWII German soldiers varied widely in height, bulk, proportions, fineness of features etc., yet commercial figures are generally 7 to 8 1/2 heads tall and scaled above average height, look like they eat enough (regardless of date or front), as well as being reasonably good-looking if not downright handsome. It's what sells, generally speaking.

Einion

 

[Einion]

Also, it is more difficult to make "convincingly" ugly face
than a handsome and symmetric face in my case.

Yep, was going to raise that point - it's too easy to interpret a less-attractive face as weak sculpting (ditto with other atypical or unusual features or proportions) but particularly if it's not done to a really high standard where the verisimilitude is just immediately evident.

My problem is with souless, empty faces that many manufacturers produce. I mean you can be symmetrical and still show happines or sadness or despare.

Well said. Gotta say this does bug me - often a distinct lack of character in faces, but I'd settle for a facial expression sometimes!

I know I may be drifting from the point, as Dimitrios states. It's not just the looks, nearly all minis look like they've spent hours in the gym, or popping steroids.

Yeah. It's not that people back then couldn't be fit or look it, but not all of 'em and if they are it's not necessarily the same 'look' you get from working out in a gym. Although if the model depicts a professional soldier or a member of a warrior elite in their prime we should expect them to look like athletes or sportsmen.

Einion

 

[T50]

I never sculpted anything so i m not sure if a perfect
anatomicaly face is easier than an ugly face to sculpt. In fact i m not sure that
i have a problem with perfect faces. My problem is with souless, empty faces
that many manufacturers produce. I mean you can be symmetrical and still
show happines or sadness or despare. And who said that ugly faces are not
symmetrical? It s the harmony among the characteristics that makes someone
beautiful or ugly. Not the characteristics per se. Bottomline is that i would prefer
to paint a Celtic warrior with Jack Black's belly thatn one with Hugh Jackman's six,
eight or twelve pack!!! Maybe that is just me.

Soul, life and character?
Figure kits are just pieces of resin or metal.
It's the painter who brings life into it in my opinion.

When one paints a handsomely sculpted face, he can always make it
look less so. Come on, I see this happens all the time.

 

[jimias]

Soul, life and character?
Figure kits are just pieces of resin or metal.
It's the painter who brings life into it in my opinion.

When one paints a handsomely sculpted face, he can always make it
look less so. Come on, I see this happens all the time.

T50 i really have to respectfully disagree with you in that matter. Figures are small scaled sculptures. If we think of them as pieces of metal or resin then we must think of this one as a piece of marble.

 

[jimias]

As painters we can add a bit of character but no expression. I can't draw a smile in a closed mouth bust. Painting a good looking face bad, doesnt make the face ugly. Just the painting poor!(if i get your point).

 

[Einion]

When one paints a handsomely sculpted face, he can always make it
look less so. Come on, I see this happens all the time.

ROFL

Einion

 

[T50]

T50 i really have to respectfully disagree with you in that matter. Figures are small scaled sculptures. If we think of them as pieces of metal or resin then we must think of this one as a piece of marble.

Every time I send out my latest figures to an artist to
paint the boxart, I regard them as just pieces of resin.
For me, I'm making a figure "kit", not a figure.
Until a modeler assembles and paints it, it's just resin parts.
But that's just the way I see it.

Sorry to hijack the thread like this, Steven.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yes, I agree that good looking soldiers are a response partly to the sculptor's wish to provide an ideal face and partly due to consumer demand. It is also worth noting that these figures are of good-looking Caucasians. No problem for most periods, but in Vietnam, African Americans often constituted 25% of the American fighting force. You see very few Black Vietnam or later soldiers in the model catalogs and almost no Mexican Americans, though many, like one of my sons, served in both peace and war.
Glancing through an online catalog this morning, I was amused to find a 54mm figure with one of the ugliest faces that I have ever seen on a model. Take a look here: http://www.miniatures-berlin.de/?pid=16&gid=47 Scroll down to the pic of the Luftwaffe ace. Now, would you really want to paint a model that looked like that?

 

[Johan]

Well, what matters most for me personally is that the figure looks the part :

What do I mean by that :

a historical miniature should look as close as possible to the real person as he might have been - that means, for starters, that I wouldn't be convinced by a figure that represents an obese person for example : soldiers who were overweight were extremely rare a hundred years ago (reenactors are a different matter, as has been said above). See also Don Troiani's approach in looking for models for his paintings, he usually seeks out persons who are what we would call rather skinny ...

So, no athletes who just come out of the modern day gym, no fat boys either, and when speaking of female figures, no silicone b**bs.

As for the face of a figure : have a look at the Hornet 1/35 scale heads range : Roger Saunders is the master of sculpting the most beautiful ugly faces

cheers

Johan

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Because we all tend to sculpt our own features and this hobby attracts only handsome specimens......of course!

Colin