Principles of Design: Proportion

Greg Curnoe, Myself Walking North in the Tweed Coat, 1963, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

© Estate of Greg Curnoe / SOCAN (2019)

Courtesy of Sheila Curnoe

Greg Curnoe, 1963, Courtesy of Lynda Curnoe.

On a vertical line the height of the figure, the halfway point is the hip, the one- quarter point is at the bottom of the knees, the three-quarters point is the chest, and the seven-eighths point is the bottom of the head. These proportions can be adapted to drawing children, depending on their age: a three-year- old is, on average, five heads high; the neck is less developed than in adults and the face and body are rounder. A teenager could be seven heads high with a smaller head and less rounded face than a child.

Did Greg Curnoe follow these conventions when drawing his own self-portrait?