Emotion 2: Representing character emotion

She's sad

If you can read faces, you probably recognise the image above as a sad expression.

It's fake

But you probably also recognise it as fake. You can tell the subject, the actress Cate Blanchett, is not as sad as she looks.

Why is that? Is it something missing in her cheeks or eyes? Are her mouth and forehead too exaggerated? Is it because the lighting and background seem fake? 

It's really hard to put your finger on it, right?

You probably don't feel sad yourself

And you could feel all sorts of ways when looking at the picture: you might feel sad (because she looks sad), you might feel admiring (of her expressive face), you might feel amused (because you feel she’s doing a pantomime).

But it's interesting that we don't feel as sad as she is shown to be—which means there is a gap between the representation of emotion in the art and the feeling of emotion in the audience. 

She's grieving

This photo also represents sadness, but a very specific form of sadness, which is grief. 

It's real

We know instinctively that this emotion is real, even though we can see less of the subject’s face and her expression is more subtle.

What is it that tells us this is real? Maybe it's something about the lip and eyes, like they are doing two different things.

You probably feel more sad with this one

You may or may not have an emotional response to this image, but there’s a strong chance you feel more drawn in to this image than the previous one, that you feel like you want to either comfort or avoid Jackie Kennedy in a way that you might not have felt about the portrait of Cate Blanchett.