The State News: How did you become the forensic artist?
Casey Christman: I’ve actually never taken any type of art class … I’ve always been able to put things down on the paper … (One day), I was sitting down at the circuit court in Lansing, bored (and) waiting for a judge. I drew the person we had arrested, and one of our training officers saw it and showed it to detectives, and they decided I should be (the) department’s forensic artist.
How do you create a composite sketch?

I look for as much detail as possible. What I’ll do is I’ll try to get a vague description of what I’m looking for, I’ll draw it (out) … and I’ll show it to the person and see how accurate they think it is. Then I’ll tweak and change it … If a nose is too long, I can erase it, shorten it up, make it wider, flare the nostrils and so on.

SN: Have you ever compared your drawing of a suspect to the person who was arrested?
CC: I’ve actually had one drawing that ended up being identical to the suspect. Typically, people with features all have certain dimensions … and with this one drawing, the head shape and the spacing and shaping of the eyes weren’t even remotely close to being typical … I sat there thinking there was no way a person could look like that. But I have to draw what the witness describes to me, as opposed to putting in my own output. I thought it was the worst drawing ever … but it ended up looking just like the person.

SN: Do you work on your drawing skills?
CC: I attend training classes put on by the state police with most of the forensic artists from across the state of Michigan … We work on drawing techniques, and people shoot ideas back and forth, ideas on styles and interview techniques.