History Main / FourthWallPortrait

* [[www.dorktower.com/2022/12/05/portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-muskrat-dork-tower-05-12-22/ This]] ''Webcomic/DorkTower'' strip has Carson the Muskrat use a phone app to produce "a wildly stylised fantasy portrait" based on a selfie he took. When it produces [[MediumBlending a photo]] of an actual muskrat, Igor says it looks nothing like him, and Carson says he's going to get a refund.

Largely a subtrope of StylisticSelfParody.

* Most times a portrait or statue is seen in the background on ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', it's seen as a human, despite the characters all being animals. This includes monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. Unlike most examples, this is never commented on by the characters, and indeed [[FurryDenial they call themselves humans most of the time anyway]].

* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140207122756/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20080202.html This]] strip of ''Webcomic/JoyceAndWalky''. "My art teacher wants me to stop making up anatomy that doesn't exist." "Were you drawing lips again?" As that statement implies, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20050904142733/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20000924.html that wasn't the first time.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/TootAndPuddle'', the title characters have a very realistic looking portrait or painting hanging in their bedroom. What's more, it's a picture of a man with a beard and a [[NiceHat distinguished hat]], even though they live in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals.

* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0339.html This strip]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': a police sketch artist draws fairly realistic depictions, as opposed to the standard stick-figure style. "What are those [[TheNoseless weird bumpy things]] between their eyes?" Done at least partially as a TakeThat to those readers who thought that the stick-figure style was due to the creator's lack of artistic talent.

* ''Manga/{{NagasareteAirantou}}'': The animals on the island of Airantou look significantly different and are more cuter than normal ones. An outsider Mei-Mei loves to create realistic-looking animal costumes but they mostly scare the islanders.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin''. Tintin (depicted in a fairly realistic 3D-animated style) has his portrait drawn by a street artist, which comes out looking just like his cartoony depiction in the long-running comic series. Adding onto this is the fact [[InkSuitActor the artist himself is designed to resemble the late]] Creator/{{Herge}}, making it a fun CreatorCameo by [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall proxy]].

* Inverted in ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld. Scott asks, "Have you seen a girl with hair like this?" and holds up a sketch that looks nothing like Creator/MaryElizabethWinstead, but strongly resembles how Ramona is drawn in the comics.

* A ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip featured a still life of some fruit in a bowl, starting from a fairly realistic drawing and "improving" to the comic's cartoony style.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' "Free Willzyx" featured forensic sketches of the main characters in a realistic style. Of course, when those sketches were shown to residents of the town, nobody could recognize who they were supposed to be.

* A scene from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in which Homer worries that his children could turn into "hideous freaks, with pink skin, no overbites, and five fingers on each hand", followed by a shot of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie in a more 'realistic' cartoon style than usual, plays a slight twist on the same basic joke.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had Peter mention that he took some drugs once, and everything got "''way'' too real." Cut to a ''live action'' scene of a fat guy in Peter's clothes on a bench, wearing a fake Peter head, looking at his hands, and declaring he was "freaking out".

* When a picture of Music/ElvisPresley appears on ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', it's a photograph of the real article, rather than a drawing done in the film's unique style.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin''. Tintin has his portrait drawn by a street artist. It looks just like his depiction in the long-running comic series. The artist is a CreatorCameo from Creator/{{Herge}}.

* The MLP:FiM fanfic [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/421399/todays-lesson-the-fourth-wall Today's Lesson: The Fourth Wall]] include a piece of cover artwork. One character comments about the artwork.

* Happens in ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'', when Takagi and Mashiro create their first manga series. Since Mashiro wants his girlfriend Azuki, an aspiring voice actress, to give her voice to the heroine in the anime adaptation of his series, he [[ComicBookFantasyCasting makes the heroine resemble Azuki]], and the first draft design of her is ''much more realistic'' than the usual "big eyes" style in which Azuki is ''actually'' drawn within the ''Bakuman'' manga. Later he decides to makes the character more stylistic.
* ''Manga/{{NagasareteAirantou}}'': The animals on the island of Airantou look significantly different and are more cuter than normal ones. An outsider Mei-Mei loves to create realistic looking animal costumes but they mostly scare the islanders.

* Towards the end of ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'', main character Vladek's wife receives a picture of him confirming he is still alive. In an interesting twist on this trope, the photo is actually the real life photo of Vladek Spiegelman (the author's father.) This is very jarring considering he has been shown only as a stylised mouse for the rest of the story.

* Frequently used in ''Comicstrip/CalvinAndHobbes''. In very early strips, Calvin's imaginary excursions were often drawn in a cartoonish style basically the same as the main strip's art. Later on though, the artist experimented with different styles in different fantasy worlds. When Calvin played "house" or "doctor" with Susie, the art was in a style a lot like soap opera strips: normal human proportions, angular lines on characters, etc. The commentary in one ''Calvin and Hobbes'' collection revealed that it unintentionally showed Watterson's true talent. Whereas the usual Soap Opera Comic is drawn on a much larger paper and scaled down, Watterson's parody of it was drawn at normal scale without losing any quality of detail.

* Parodied in an AbridgedSeries of ''Anime/YuGiOh'' (no, [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries not that one]]) by [[https://www.youtube.com/user/puddleths puddleths]]. Yugi is asked to sign a deviantART drawing of him, and claims it looks nothing like him, even though it's drawn in anime style. He then praises a stick figure drawing of him.

* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0339.html This strip]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': a police sketch artist draws fairly realistic depictions, as opposed to the standard stick figure style. "What are those [[TheNoseless weird bumpy things]] between their eyes?" Done at least partially as a TakeThat to those readers who thought that the stick-figure style was due to the creator's lack of artistic talent.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' "Free Willzyx" featured forensic sketches of the main characters in a realistic style. Of course, when those sketches were shown to residents of the town, nobody could recognize who they were supposed to be of.

** Another gag involved Lisa explaining to Bart, thanks to evolution, humans would have an extra digit on their hands in several thousand years. She then shows Bart a picture of a five fingered hand, prompting Bart to hold up his own four fingered hand and comment on the weirdness of having five fingers.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had Peter mention that he took some drugs once, and everything got "''way'' too real." Cut to a ''live action'' scene of a fat guy in Peter's clothes on a bench, wearing a fake Peter head, looking at his hands and declaring he was "freaking out".

** There's also some live-action footage from a 50's monster movie about a giant spider.
* In the "Wacky Delly" episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' Filburt is helping to design the cheese character for the titular new cartoon, and draws a realistic (Even by RealLife standards) picture of a cheese wedge. Rocko is amazed, but Heffer quickly decides to "improve" it by erasing it and drawing a crude cheese-like stick figure which becomes the actual design for the cheese.

* In the WesternAnimation/DanVs episode "Baseball", Dan and Chris are wanted by the police for kidnapping the baseball commissioner. When their wanted status shows up on the news, their eyewitness sketches look exactly like their real life voice actors Curtis Armstrong and Dave Foley. Dan also notes that their sketches look nothing like them.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In "The Date", Penny's sister has a picture of their pet spider Mr. Cuddles in live action, despite Mr. Cuddles actually being 2D. While the backgrounds are live-action and most of the world outside their city is like the real world, Mr. Cuddles was represented in a different way.

* In ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice: The Devil's Playhouse'', there is a painting of Sam and Max on the wall of Momma Bosco's lab, as a realistic-looking dog and rabbit.

* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0339.html This strip]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': a police sketch artist draws fairly realistic depictions, as opposed to the standard stick figure style. "What are those [[TheNoseless weird bumpy things]] between their eyes?"

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In issue #9 of the ''[[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' series, Big Macintosh is presented a caricature of himself, drawn as a realistic horse than the cartoon style, by the pony-sona of the book's artist in the role of the caricature artist. Big Macintosh declines buying the artwork.

* [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0339.html This]] strip of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': a police sketch artist draws fairly realistic depictions, as opposed to the standard stick figure style. "What are those [[TheNoseless weird bumpy things]] between their eyes?"

--->'''Homer:''' I feel like I'm wasting a fortune just standing around here! Well, I better make the most of it. ''[Beat drums his fingers, then belches.]''

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'', Squidward is surprised at how [=SpongeBob=] is able to draw a perfect circle. When he asks how he did it, [=SpongeBob=] shows how he starts with a realistic human head, then gradually erases the features until he is left with a circle.
** Live-action humans actually do exist in the Spongebob universe, so this may not qualify as a FourthWallPortrait.
** When Spongebob imagined himself as a lifeguard, he saw himself as a guy dressed in a Spongebob costume. Also Larry the Lobster's reflection in one episode was that of a boiled lobster.
** When Spongebob and Patrick leave the water, they're usually "portrayed" by an actual sponge and starfish in live action footage.
** [[RogerRabbitEffect Except in]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie the movie]]
** In "Tea At The Treedome", [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick are turned into a real sea star and sponge when they run out of water.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CatScratch'' Blick rummages through a box and holds up a realistically drawn cat, not understanding what it is, he chucks it away.

* [[https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20080316022545/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20080202.html This]] strip of ''Webcomic/JoyceAndWalky''. "My art teacher wants me to stop making up anatomy that doesn't exist." "Were you drawing lips again?" As that statement implies, [[https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20080111143313/http://itswalky.com:80/d/20000924.html that wasn't the first time.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Babs left Buster to go to New York, and Buster was stuck trying to find a replacement co-host. One of the prospects was a normal, unanthropomorphic rabbit. It didn't last.

* When a picture of Music/ElvisPresley appears on ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', it's a photograph of the real article, rather than a drawing done in the film's unique style.

* ''Manga/BusouRenkin'' plays this straight when Kazuki draws a picture of Chouno to show around the school while they try to track him down. It's in incredibly detailed style and both Tokiko and Chouno himself are taken aback by it. That said, Kazuki did put [[HotBlooded his heart and soul]] into it.

* In the school yearbook in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', the FunnyAnimal students look "[[http://www.herdthinners.com/2004/kk0425.html stiff and formal]].