Magic portrait effect

A row of hung portraits comes alive one after another. a wide shot of a long gallery wall hung with six framed portraits of invented sitters, each figure beginning to move one after another from left to right, blinking, shifting weight and glancing at the next frame, the wall, the frames and the floor completely static and photographic throughout, the last portrait still lifeless when the first is already moving, slow lateral dolly

A full-length painted figure walks forward inside its own canvas. a wide shot of a tall full-length portrait of an invented sitter on a stairwell wall, the painted figure walking forward inside the canvas until they reach the inner edge of the frame and place a painted hand on it, the painted background of their own scene receding behind them, the real stairwell banister and the frame moulding unchanged, static wide camera

Loose strokes swirl and settle into a different expression. extreme close up on the face inside a painted portrait, thick loose brushstrokes lifting off the canvas surface, swirling in place and settling back down to form a new expression with the mouth slightly open, individual bristle marks and paint ridges visible throughout the change, the canvas weave and the frame corner unchanged at the edge of frame, macro camera drifting slowly

Sitters in neighbouring frames turn toward one another. a close shot of two painted portraits of invented sitters hanging side by side on a plain wall, both figures turning their heads at the same time to look at each other across the gap between the frames, their painted shoulders shifting inside their own canvases, the wall and both frames completely still, the varnish on each catching light differently, slow lateral drift

A still portrait moves while its frame and wall do not. a close shot of an oil portrait of an invented young sitter hanging on a plain painted wall, the figure blinking and turning their head slowly to follow the camera, the visible brush texture bending with the cheek and the hairline as it moves, the frame edges and the wall completely still and photographic, warm side light picking out the varnish sheen, slow push in

Only the painted eyes move as someone walks past. a close shot of a framed portrait of an invented sitter with a real person walking slowly past in the foreground out of focus, the painted eyes turning to track them while nothing else in the painting moves at all, the brush texture on the irises shifting with the look, the frame, wall and gallery light entirely static, shallow depth of field on the eyes

A single painting turns its head across a deserted interior. a wide shot of a deserted sitting room at dusk with one framed portrait of an invented sitter above the fireplace, the painted head turning slowly to look across the empty room toward the door, the painted eyes catching the last window light while the real curtains and furniture stay perfectly still, dust visible in the air, slow camera arc across the room

A painted arm crosses the frame edge into real space. a close shot of a framed portrait of an invented older sitter on a gallery wall, the figure leaning forward until one painted hand and shoulder pass the inner edge of the frame into real room space, the painted surface keeping its brush texture even outside the canvas, a real cast shadow falling on the wall beneath the hand, the empty canvas visible behind them, static camera

A whole canvas melts downward, then gathers back into the sitter. a wide shot of a large framed portrait on an easel in a bare studio, the paint running slowly downward so the sitter dissolves into vertical streaks at the bottom of the canvas, then the streaks climbing back up and re-forming the same face with the brushwork reassembling stroke by stroke, the easel legs and the studio floor unchanged, camera pushing in steadily

A framed black and white photograph starts to move. a close shot of a framed black and white photographic portrait of an invented sitter on a hallway wall, the chest beginning to rise and fall and the hair stirring as if in a draught, the film grain and the print texture moving with the face rather than sitting over it, the glass reflection and the frame corners fixed, cool hallway light, camera holding still