Distrestoration - for those with imagination but not many photos

[kerryb]

My problem is not imagining what any of my ancestors looked like, I tend to visualise them when I am researching them anyway, may not be a correct visualisation of them but it is how I see them and as they are all dead, noone can correct me.  For instance George Pilbeam, farmer, Sussex, 1851 was fat and bucolic with a bit of a temper. 

My problem would be transcribing those images onto something physical.  How do you start?  How do you choose your medium?

Kerry 

[ymfoster]

I think you can sometimes go by what the descendants look like, whether the face was round, square or long, nose & ears are also a clue, & some eyes are very sunken.

I am one of the lucky ones & have 3 large albums of my grandmother & gt.g'mother's going back to the mid 1800's, but my husband's side is not as fortunate, but I have made contacts over 20 years or more & have gleaned a few photos of his gt.g'parents & also more of mine, .... so put your ancestor's names on a number of well known sites & get those contacts, photos are so easy to copy now without fear of them being lost.

I have imagined relatives completely wrong through corresponding with them, & then to meet them & be totally surprised

Yvonne

[Gadget]

I don't think it's accuracy of looks that I was really saying. It's a whole feeling that you might have about them - colours, shapes, textures.
Those photos that some put up that are out of focus or torn or faded might be a start.
Don't be too literal.

Gadget

[ymfoster]

I see what you're saying Gadget, 
a general perception you have of folks from that era & social standing, .... I'm not too good at putting images to paper, with my painting I was better copying something    ..... I suppose it's a bit like impressionist images that you're thinking of, it sounds very inspiring & would put your own slant on your history.

Yvonne 

[dennford]

Having chosen nursing as a career Keith's  suggestion that it was a woman's way of thinking got me wondering if there is something about the way male/female brains are wired up when it comes to visualisation of things   - or is it just that my wires are crossed.

Russell, I did once hear that a womans brain is exacly the same as a mans, it's just that god put them in back to front.

                                           Name not for publication

[Gadget]

I quite like you once Denn 

[Gadget]

I see what you're saying Gadget, 
a general perception you have of folks from that era & social standing, .... I'm not too good at putting images to paper, with my painting I was better copying something    ..... I suppose it's a bit like impressionist images that you're thinking of, it sounds very inspiring & would put your own slant on your history.

Yvonne 

Your getting there Yvonne - exactly. Try thinking of how you drew and painted as a child. That's what you have to feel. (That's what Picasso tried to do, so who's to argue 

Take Kerry's fatty, bucolic farmer, for example, I can nearly draw the image now. Apple- shaped - red jagged edges, swirling mist, rub some of it out, emery paper it......

better have another coffee, I'm into right brain stuff 

Gadget

[kerryb]

Do you know I might find some paints or something and have a go at that!  I just need to tell my brain not to try to be literal.  Think Picasso or Monet or something rather than photo!

Kerry

[ymfoster]

I see what you're saying Gadget, 
a general perception you have of folks from that era & social standing, .... I'm not too good at putting images to paper, with my painting I was better copying something    ..... I suppose it's a bit like impressionist images that you're thinking of, it sounds very inspiring & would put your own slant on your history.

Yvonne 

Your getting there Yvonne - exactly. Try thinking of how you drew and painted as a child. That's what you have to feel. (That's what Picasso tried to do, so who's to argue 

Take Kerry's fatty, bucolic farmer, for example, I can nearly draw the image now. Apple- shaped - red jagged edges, swirling mist, rub some of it out, emery paper it......

better have another coffee, I'm into right brain stuff 

Gadget

My painting was too chocolate boxy, more realist until we were shown how to just suggest something in a minimulist fashion, but I think I was too old when I took to painting again, a child picks those things up better before he's been influenced by traditional methods.