I drew this Peter O’Toole portrait at a tender, pre-pubescent age. Yeah, I had a certain facility but the eyes are too big and the facial proportion is all wrong.
If I’d been an actual budding artist I would’ve drawn something from real life, but instead I tried to imitate a studio-issued photograph with pencil strokes. I was basically more into expressing obeisance before the glamour of the Movie Godz than trying to tap into visual creation itself.
I went to Silvermine Art College one summer and drew some nude models, but my heart wasn’t in it. In high school I got the idea I might turn into a rock-band drummer, but my drumming was mediocre at best. It was only when I turned to florid letter-writing in my early 20s…only then did I realize “okay, this might work out.”
