Every parent has them: a collection of treasured daubings, lovingly drawn by their children, but barely recognisable to anyone outside the immediate family.
With a couple of stick legs, two lopsided eyes and a blob for a body, their naivety is part of their charm and a poignant reminder of the innocence of childhood.
But one father was so tickled by his two young sons’ early attempts at animal drawings that he reimagined them as real-life photographs — with utterly hilarious (if slightly terrifying) results.
Tom Curtis turned the scribblings of sons Dominic and Alistair into a globally successful Instagram account and a hit book. ‘I start by almost mapping the photograph on to the drawing,’ he explains
Using the editing software Photoshop, Tom Curtis turned the scribblings of sons Dominic and Alistair into a globally successful Instagram account and a hit book.
‘I start by almost mapping the photograph on to the drawing,’ he explains.
‘I never change the drawing because I love the way young children often seem to draw animals with eyes on the same side of the head. I gradually build up the picture like a jigsaw by adding bits of photographs and placing them within the drawing until I have a kind of digital collage.’
Tom’s Things I Have Drawn Instagram account was launched in 2015 and two years later Things I Have Drawn At The Zoo was published, based on his sons’ visits to Whipsnade Zoo.
Today the Instagram account has more than 600,000 followers and Tom is inundated with drawings from youngsters all over the world, keen to see their art immortalised.
Tom also accompanies the pictures with a poem — his zebra picture above, for example, has the witty ditty: ‘A zebra’s a bit like a black and white horse. Here’s one (with something that’s missing of course).’
Tom’s Things I Have Drawn Instagram account was launched in 2015 and two years later Things I Have Drawn At The Zoo was published, based on his sons’ visits to Whipsnade Zoo
Each picture takes Tom, 44, around ten hours to create. ‘I have a full-time job as creative director of communications agency MediaCom, but I hate switching off, so most weekends I’ll be on the sofa watching TV with my wife Becky with my laptop on my knee working on a new creation.’
Dom was just five and Al two when TIHD began, but at 11 and eight the boys’ drawings are now almost too sophisticated.
Luckily Tom still has files full of their old drawings scattered around his Buckinghamshire house, plus those he receives from young fans.
‘The perfect age for these type of drawings is between four and seven — when a child can begin to recognise form, but they don’t yet look too real,’ he says.
‘I have no plans to stop because I love encouraging kids to draw.’
And with Britain under lockdown, there has never been a better time to get creative.
‘You can’t go to the zoo just now, but if you have a garden or can see things from your window like a butterfly or a bird, you can get drawing,’ says Tom.
Here, Tom talks us through some of his barmy but brilliant pictures…
Things I have Drawn At The Zoo by Tom Curtis. Trapeze Books, £9.99
Toucan play at that game: A little lad called Seb, a work colleague’s son, drew this when he was eight. The photo is made up of one I took at home of a blackbird — and I can’t guarantee the legs are from a toucan either!
Wonky woodpecker: I found this lying around the house recently in one of the piles of the kids’ pictures. Very young children often draw a mouth and a beak!
Why the long face? This drawing is by six-year-old Beatrice from our village, when she was on a camping trip. It’s a horse, of course! I put a load of pens and paper on a table for the kids to draw and Beatrice was particularly prolific
Jaws the goldfish: Al drew this when he was seven. You can just make out his brother in the background of the picture. This one caused a bit of debate online about whether it was a mouth or a fin on the body! Luckily the comments are always good-natured and positive
Not a purr-fect smile: This is Cleo the cat who belongs to our friends Florence and Elise from Peckham. It’s by Dom when he was eight and his style had become more cartoon-like. The teeth are mine, from a selfie!
Looking a bit ruff: Tia, our neighbour from across the road, drew me this picture of her dog Mia, when she was nine. It has a cartoon element and that’s a great way to get older children involved.
You’re having a giraffe: Dom drew this aged six. To edit out all the spots on a giraffe would have taken hours, so I used a photo of a horse and added the pattern.
He’s ’armless enough: Al drew this when he was four and I made sure to keep the arm removed from the body in the photo.
Turkey twizzler: My son Al did this recently and I think it’s so inventive. We used elephants tusks and turkey eyes. It’s grotesque but wonderful.
Earning your stripes: Dom drew this (below) when he was five and I used a picture of a white horse then added the lines to make a zebra
Dom’s drawing is pictured above. He drew this creature at the age of five
The butterfly effect: Dom also drew this when he was six. I made the collage from photos taken in my in-laws’ garden.
Picture research: Claire Cisotti