The Somerton Man: Video: The Face of the Somerton Man

A Photo-Realistic Image of the Somerton Man.

Based entirely on the face of the plaster bust, this is who Jestyn reacted to

After numerous attempts to produce an image of the Somerton Man as he would have appeared before his death, I had arrived at a point where I honestly thought that, aside from actually finding the man's identity, we would never find an image that would do him justice.

Then there was a moment, the moments that you hope for and get to when the obvious eventually dawns on you. As is usual in this case, the answer was right there in plain sight. I realised that we already had a good image of SM and one that was, to all accounts, recognised by no less a person than Jestyn. We have the plaster bust.

If you recall, Jestyn's reaction on seeing the bust was immediate and it shook her. What better a model could we possibly have?

I got to work upgrading a few skills and was able to produce reasonable skin and eye colouring and then to simply follow the shapes and details that existed in the plaster bust and the result is as you see in the image above. I did have valuable input from a couple of artist friends who wish to remain anonymous but they are nonetheless acknowledged.

The nose, the set of the eyes, the forehead, the chin and the mouth are exactly as they are in the plaster bust. This has to be the best possible image that we could have of the Somerton Man.

There is one thing that could be improved, or rather 2 things, his ears. When Lawson created the bust he bought in some special modelling clay that he set about using to create, as near lifleike as possible, the man's ears. He said later that he failed to do that. It could be that there is more to that story, but for now at least, it will have to suffice.

Make no mistake, this is another major breakthrough for this blog. It came about as a result of persistence and because of always listening to the words and advice of others. In the end you never know just who it was or what was said that fires off a chain of thought that leads to breakthroughs like this. In that regard, the ongoing offline discussions with Pete Bowes, Clive and others, have all played their part, I acknowledge that with thanks.

Where to from here? Well, I think ot would be of great benefit if we had a walking, talking 3D rendered model of SM. That would entail a level of skill and resource that I don't possess to the level required. The specialised photography and modelling skills for the task would reside in others, perhaps Adelaide University Professor Derek Abbott?

Video: How The  Photo Realistic Image 

Was Matched To The Bust..

This video shows how we were able to create the photorealistic image of the Somerton Man that is absolutely true to the details of the Plaster bust. It was this plaster bust that caused Jestyn to react to the extent that she was visibly shaken by it's appearance.

This is as close an image of SM as has ever been achieved.The hope is that someone will now recognise the man in this video.

Please share this video far and wide, our man could be from any country in the world. For convenience, I have included a reasonably sized version that you can download. I make all of my material available to anyone, all I ask is that if you use this or other material, please quote your source as being the Tamam Shud blog.

Comments are always welcome.