Questing for the "ordinary" face?

Research topic 1: The ordinary face

First reveal of a detail in my story: the protagonist is a chameleon- a human one, that is (I know a book with a real chameleon for a main character could be quite original and inventive, but that is not for this work-in-progress).

But how to describe a character that doesn’t look singular at all, who could just as easily look like a dozen other people, and wouldn’t draw a second stare from anyone, or would be difficult for anyone to specifically remember and describe?

I first tried to find out if there was such a phenomenon as a “common face”.  Besides dozens of dermatologists’ articles that insisted everyone has different and unique skin, I most frequently ran across a study conducted by ------- in -------.  This study was interested in collecting faces and comparing them for rather different purposes than mine- to analyze what different peoples find beautiful in human faces from around the globe.  To this end, they collected pictures (“samples”) 100-1000?) of faces in various countries, and then “averaged” them by digitally combining the pictures with a sort of overlapping software.  The end results gave more even, balanced faces that didn’t quite look like any of the faces, but were generally rated more attractive in the subsequent part of their study, wherein they asked participants to rate the attractiveness of three different faces, one being a real face, the second being a combination of two, and the third being an average of several faces.  Interesting, but not particularly helpful for me.

So I resorted to quora.  I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I turn to that varied collection of experts and enthusiasts to address some curiosity of mine.  But even though one answer basically revisited the ----- study, I found plenty that was more on track, and certainly more intriguing (helpfulness is a quality I’ll determine partly at the end of this post, and partly when the books is finished- and hopefully published).

Even if you’ve never written a description of a fictional character, you’ve no doubt found it easier to describe an individual to someone else when you’ve got some marked feature to work with.  A cleft in his chin, a scar by his ear, thick eyebrows, small eyes, a crooked nose, a square jaw- these are all features you’ve at least heard of, read and can picture.  They often serve as a convenient shorthand for action writers in identifying unnamed characters who appear quickly in the midst of the action, but aren’t distinct or important enough to get names of their own.  However, what you  may not have found is that when a person doesn’t have something unusual about them in their appearance to latch onto, it becomes possible for people to mistake them for others.  One gentleman volunteered his experience having a ‘normal face’ that has gotten strangers from around the world to come up to him and insist they know him from somewhere- just where they’re not sure, but whether it’s a movie or an acquaintance, they see something in his face that seems familiar.  He just happens to know that, since he hasn’t been to that part of the world before, and he’s not famous, neither possibility is true, and they must instead be constructing from his “ordinary features” the face of someone else.

That would cause rather different scenarios than I’d originally thought of for my chameleon protagonist.  But another answer gave some more insight that seems to make more sense with what I’ve observed.  The actual appearance of the nondescript person is found in a certain kind of expression rather than a type of face- a dull, inexpressive and slightly stupid look that makes any face anything but memorable.  The opposite of charismatic, it’s apparently something that most actors and security personnel learn how to do- so it being a skill for my protagonist doesn’t sound implausible. 

In conclusion, it appears that there is such a thing as an “ordinary face”- but it might not have the effect of just blending in that I originally thought it might.  On the other hand, there is a way to intentionally look forgettable, developed as a skill rather than acquired naturally.  Sounds workable for my MC, who will probably be both plain and adept at blending in.

Ultimately, however, all this research into what makes faces memorable has raised some other questions for me:  What makes faces memorable?  Is it regularity in the features, or similarity to the majority of other faces we’ve seen in various aspects, a combination, or something else (something personal but not purely physical, like charisma, expression, etc)?

What I find incredible is that to Our Maker, we are all Unforgettable, each perfectly unique and just as He intended us to look.  A very comforting fact when accepted, though nevertheless a source of questioning and doubt before that.

But, as I do have to focus on actually writing this novel, rather than exploring every tempting rabbit hole of enquiry that presents itself along the way (those are both my joy, help, and bane), I will save that search for another time.