Sanjiban's Correspondence with The Mother

12 December 1933

O my Mother,

I have drawn two hands and two legs. The foot of one leg has become disproportionately long, I think. I also tried to make a sketch of the whole body, but I could not do the feet well, so I left it and drew the two legs.

The sketches of arms and legs are good except one foot (not the longest which is all right but the other which is a little clumsy).

The whole body sketch is not so good because you have not kept the right proportion between the bust and the legs. The bust is all right, the legs are too short by two inches at least. It is because you started the sketch too big and when you arrived towards the end your paper was too small. When you want to do a certain sketch on a certain sheet of paper, you must first establish roughly the whole of it, keeping in view only the proportions. For a whole figure it will make it easier to keep the right proportion by keeping in mind that a normal body contains 7 heads including the head itself; less makes a short man and more a tall one.

I am sending you a sketch of a man with the seven heads marked.

Ma, should I make these drawings and sketches smaller than I am doing now? If I go on doing them in the present way, shall I be able to do them well when I am required to do them smaller?

This size of sketch is all right. For study the bigger the better.

12 December 1933