This is a limited series of works that started in 2015.

Concept

This series explores how digital editing tools transform and redefine perceptions of female beauty. Beginning with carefully staged portraits of women, the artist creates paired works that juxtapose the original image with a digitally altered version. Each pair highlights a specific computer-generated effect — such as blur, posterize, crop, or distortion— that subtly alters the facial features.

By requiring viewers to observe both images simultaneously, the series encourages a side-by-side comparison that reveals the often unnoticed impact of digital manipulation. The work challenges the observer to question the implicit assumptions of what a face should look like, exposing the influential role of digital tools in shaping contemporary notions of beauty and identity.

Inspiration

…

Process

…

Current Works

Cristina with posterize

A portrait of Cristina with light from below. A second small painting is showing the same person but with a posterize effect. The bigger work features soft light transitions. The small one in the other hand has banded color transitions. Posterization is reducing the amount of used colors and as a side effect it distorts further the image.

Dedicated Artwork Page:
https://miltosdespoudis.gr/archive/paintings/a2506230

Enza with facial blur crop

A portrait of Enza with closed eyes. Her eyes and mouth are blurred and distorted. A secondary work has only the mouth displayed with more clarity.

Dedicated Artwork Page:
https://miltosdespoudis.gr/archive/paintings/a2507060/

Maia with stretching

A portrait of Maia sitting at the table. Her eyes are closed and she looks calm. A second picture of her is displayed below that is her again but her image vertically stretched. We were having a coffee, the window was on open on one side.

The distortion in reality exists in a similar way in both images. The stretched image is not an accurate stretched image of the top. Or the top images is not following the image at the bottom. Nevertheless they give the illusion that they depict the same person.

Dedicated Artwork Page:
https://miltosdespoudis.gr/archive/paintings/a2507050/

Maia with inverted zoom

…

Dedicated Artwork Page:
https://miltosdespoudis.gr/archive/paintings/a16102700/

Vasilina with blur

…

Dedicated Artwork Page:
https://miltosdespoudis.gr/archive/paintings/a18011200/

Noor with horizontal displacement

…

Dedicated Artwork Page:
https://miltosdespoudis.gr/archive/paintings/a18053100/