I was in fourth / fifth standard , and as part of holiday homework an art work was to prepared on a piece of chart . I asked my father to draw an animal on it , so I could do my art work with threads and shiny small things and other odd things . My father refused to draw , instead he showed me how to draw using grids . I found a picture of a camel in that week's Saturday's Young World paper. (Of course , I read each week's Young World end to end ).
He drew a grid over the picture of the camel , and he drew a grid on the piece of chart , just that the grid on the chart was measured to scale and the squares larger, something like the picture attached. All I had to do was start from one point , go from square to square, copying it from the original picture . It was mostly like joining the dots, focussing on one square at a time. At the end of it, I had successfully drawn a much bigger camel . He made me draw the camel's outline with a marker , and erased off all the grid lines.
The Camel looked nice and neat , and I did some art work on it with golden threads and little buttons borrowed from my mother's precious collection . I took it to school feeling very proud of myself , and my teacher asked me over and over again , if I drew it all by myself. I tried explaining my best about how my Dad drew squares on the chart and I copied the picture square by square. I made no sense to her , and she gave me a doubtful look. All said and done , the camel looked glorious , thanks to my Dad.
Only years later, did I realize what a simple trick it was , and only an engineer Dad would think of it!!
My daddy rocks!!
