In 1964, brother Peter arrived in a Sydney hospital. If you’ve been following along (see The Eyes Have It, posted last month and linked below for easy access…) you’ll know that my Dad had distinctive large, round, blue eyes.
It wasn’t long after Peter was brought home that it was obvious he had inherited this particular family trait.
My mother, the inveterate photographer, snapped a number of tender sibling moments shortly after the baby’s arrival. In attempting to provide a drawing that captures one such moment, I am struck with the thought that perhaps I should just publish a regular old memoir, with lots of words, and a couple of sections of black and white photographs…
But wait, it gets worse…
So, let’s have some fun with this, shall we? Starting with the gigantic baby in the tiny playpen, diaper saggy and bulging, rotund thighs - there is nothing in this infant that reflects correct human baby proportions. And, things don’t get any better as we move around this family scene. Take a look at Dad. Grave error number one, no mustache, though that is one flaw that could easily be rectified. I think I’d given up by then.
Poor dad is tiny next to his gargantuan offspring. He looks haggard, a look he will rock in his eighties but in no way reflects his appearance as a young, happy father. His nearside ear is the size of a hubcap and his mouth is twisted almost as badly as his dress shirt collar. His ankles are the size of toothpicks and his arm and body don’t connect properly. I think he may only have one arm.
My neck is nearly the width of my shoulders and I am taller than I ever grew even in adulthood. The wimpy hair is pretty accurate but the ear seems to be growing out of the side of my neck somewhere.
I could go on, but it seems a tad unnecessary to point out the obvious.
However, I am bravely sharing this effort (and yesterday’s ludicrous depiction of an art class drawing a nude model) because after seeing this mess, I have downloaded some ‘How to Draw People’ tutorials. Tomorrow will be a fresh, shiny new day and I will sharpen my pencils and get serious about figuring out some basic anatomy. I’ll share some of the exercises and as soon as possible, transmute the anatomically correct figures into family members so I can simultaneously continue to fill in more biographical gaps while wowing you with my fine drawing talents (heh heh).
Even if my people wind up being very simply drawn, they need to be more or less correctly proportioned. So… that’s the plan. Stick around if you want to see how it all turns out.