The Vitruvian Woman Genesis

It must have been around Feb 2005, whilst perusing through "De Architectura" by Marcus Vitruvius that the idea landed of becoming a "digital surgeon" and putting Leonardo's Vitruvian Man through a sex change operation via computer graphics. Burning with curiousity I took to patiently re-drawing the iconic image - in some cases, literally pixel by pixel - into a convincing, stylistically and anatomically accurate Vitruvian Woman.

To that purpose and after several trials, I decided that the only satisfactory method would be to use suitable elements of the original picture in order to re-create it. This eventually involved extensive use of "cloning" or duplication of tiny segments of lines and other parts of the picture, then moving and pasting them into new positions. As well as distorting, stretching, shrinking, rotating, subtle tonal adjustments, etc.

The original male face, which I originally started to re-draw using the above techniques, I eventually had it replaced by Mona Lisa's. This meant not just a lot less work but also that a whole new stratum of symbolic readings was possible. In order to achieve a realistic result I still had to tweak a lot Mona Lisa's face until it blended gracefully into the picture, which I think it does quite convincingly. However, I'm hoping one day to retake the work on the original male face to fashion it in the likeness of a woman I love.

The whole project was - and still is, for I'm not yet fully satisfied with some aspects of it - a challenging if very rewarding labour of love. All in all, the basic work was done over a period stretching some 9 months during the years 2005 and 2006, a long night here, a couple of hours there, a whole weekend dedicated "in her pursuit"...  I never took note of the time incurred, but I reckon the total must have been around 200 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hermetic Significance

Sorry, this article is still a "work in progress" item, it should be finished by the end of December 2008

Go to Vitruvian Woman Detailed Samples