Zeng and Friends

Prismacolors on Bristol, 2010.

According to the 1985 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records (which published the photo that this drawing is based on): " ...the acromegalic giantess Zeng Jinlian of Yujiang village in the Bright Moon Commune, Hunan Province, central China... was 8 ft 1 in when she died (at 17 years of age) on February 13th, 1982...Her hands measured 10 in and her feet 14 in in length. She suffered from both scoliosis and diabetes. "

Am I a morbid person, or do I just have secret aspirations to design fashion for the exceptionally tall? The truth is, when I don't know what else to draw, I always copy from old photographs, preferably no more recent than 20 years ago. Somebody on my street was throwing out a Guinness Book from 1985, so I snagged it with the hopes of mining images from it. One man's trash is another man's art project.
No doubt, there will be more drawings to come. I still have all of those old National Geographics. Now that school is out, I can make elaborate drawings on a more regular basis, but I am not any more inspired than I was while classes were in session.
You don't normally think of a giant as a fragile person, but they usually are. Reading about Zeng is very sad, but I embrace any opportunity to embellish a scene of emotional ambiguity. Are the two normal-sized girls her friends, or just two passers-by whom the photographer recruited for his shot of the giantess? Did her community accept her or treat her badly?
We always get the facts and the stats, but The Guinness Book doesn't include any human drama. When I add bright colors to the figures, I fictionalize the image. I'm sure that living on a commune meant that the clothing was more drab. I am a sucker for patterns and color relationships. I wanted to suggest harmony among the three young women by my color choices even if there wasn't any in their lives- that's why I say it's a fictional drawing.