Artist Uses AI To Create Amazingly Realistic Portraits Of Historical Figures

It’s impressive what cutting-edge AI can do.

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• February 3, 2021

Before photography emerged, paintings were the only ways of visual representation of events and historical personalities. Without them, we wouldn’t know what people who shaped history, and the way we live today looked like. When photos came, the paintings lost their documentary significance, but the artistic value still remains and is larger than ever.

Nathan Shipley is a VFX artist who decided to combine the fantastic qualities that these old portraits have and cutting-edge AI to recreate the portraits to be more realistic and life-like. Now we can see the Tudors, George Washington, William Shakespeare, and many more important historical figures in a way we couldn’t before. They look like their photo was taken just now.

1. George Washington

2. Queen Elizabeth I (Middle-Aged)

This image of Elizabeth when she was around 40 years-old is based on the "Darnley Portrait" from 1575 which is part of the collection at the National Portrait Gallery.

3. Mary Tudor

"Mary Tudor, A.K.A. "Bloody Mary"

Mary earned the name "Bloody Mary" for burning protestants at the stake for heresy during her reign. She is the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon."

4. Henry VII

"Henry VII was the founder of the House of Tudor, the King of England, and the Lord of Ireland until his death in 1509."

5. Henry VIII

"Henry VIII was the second Tudor monarch and was King of England from 1509 to 1547. Of the painting, the Barberini Corsini describes, "the subject’s frontal pose, his sumptuous clothes and jewelry, and his gaze staring out at the viewer all stamp the portrait with a vivid image of Henry’s grandeur and power."

6. Edward VI

"Edward VI is the third Tudor monarch and succeeded Henry VIII to be the King of England from 1547 to 1553. He was the son of Henry VII and Jane Seymour."

7. Anne Boleyn

"On Anne: Her beheading was ordered by her husband, Henry VIII. There is a good deal of writing and debate about the topic of Anne's appearance amongst historians. Descriptions of her by her opponents during her life make her out to be an ugly 6-fingered monster, while she is represented as beautiful in modern television; portrayed by Natalie Dormer in The Tudors. A Venetian diplomat described her at 21 as "Not one of the most handsome women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, a bosom not much raised and eyes which are black and beautiful."

8. Queen Elizabeth I (Young)

This image of Elizabeth is from 1546 when she was about 13 years old. It was painted before she ascended to be queen and is part of the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.

9. William Shakespeare

"That is the only portrait of Shakespeare that has a good claim to have been painted from life."

10. Anne Boleyn

Nathan enjoys arts and crafts. He has always loved to take pictures, sketch, and paint. "The combination of traditional art and technology has been a natural step for me and led to my career in VFX and animation," he said. He enjoys the creative part of the job. He is more interested in the journey than the destination, although he is always eager to see the result.

11. Queen Elizabeth I (Old)

The artist says that AI and machine learning have opened new and unexplored opportunities in his artistic efforts and saved resources. For him, it was captivating to discover how AI worked in terms of interpreting and recreating the world.

"It's great to see a finished image, but it's even more exciting to try new code, use code in ways it wasn't meant to be, combine different tools together, and create entirely new art through new processes."

Even though Nathan views this as an open experiment, it has its constraints. For instance, AI doesn't identify and recreate headwear; the wigs look a little bit off, etc. Even though AI has many possibilities, it is still a bit blind to discrepancies.

Damjan