Forensic Art
Forensic Art
Forensic Art covers composite imagery, image alteration for identification, facial reconstruction, and courtroom exhibits. The exam tests process discipline: the artist records what a witness or an image actually provides and avoids introducing features.
Composite drawing
Use a cognitive-style interview: free recall first, then open questions, then specific features. Build the face feature by feature from the witness's description, use reference catalogs of individual features rather than whole faces, and let the witness direct revisions. Record the description verbatim and note uncertainty. Never suggest a feature the witness did not describe; suggestion contaminates memory and undermines the composite's investigative value.
Reconstruction, superimposition, age progression
Facial reconstruction from skeletal remains uses tissue-depth data and anatomical landmarks. Photographic superimposition compares a known face with a questioned image and depends on matching pose, focal length, and scale; without those controls, landmark agreement proves little. Age progression extrapolates from known aging patterns and family resemblance and is an investigative lead, not an identification.
Worked example
A bank camera records a suspect in three-quarter view. To compare with a booking photo, the analyst first corrects perspective and scale using a known reference in the frame, then matches head pose and camera geometry. If the questioned image is too low-resolution to show fine facial detail, the conclusion is "not suitable for comparison," not "similar."
Traps
Leading questions and feature suggestion; drawing a face after viewing a suspect photo; superimposition without pose and scale control; and presenting an age-progressed image as an identification.