Sean C. Morgan
Move over, Tim Meyers – Your son is angling for your job.
Westley Meyers, 14, is busy making a name for himself at Sweet Home Junior High. He is the son of Tim Meyers, who painted several of the murals around Sweet Home, including the one recently covered at Sweet Home High School.
Eighth-grader Westley has recently started drawing people, and staff members at Sweet Home Junior High are paying him $10 each to draw children and grandchildren. He also has done drawings of his classmates.
“I started drawing when I was real little,” Westley said. His dad bought him a pencil set and paper and gave him several books on perspective and drawing techniques.
“I’ve been drawing stuff for projects, like animals,” Westley said. During school, he usually just doodles, including a couple cartoon characters he created. “I draw mostly animals. I just started drawing people not too long ago.”
His other drawings, animals for projects or fun, and people are impressive, lifelike representations of the real thing. The new owners of his drawings can’t heap enough praise on Westley’s talent.
Right now, Westley is on a piece combining individuals from three different photos. He is doing another of a teacher’s daughter and a drawing of a wolf for another student.
Despite the demand and praise for Westley’s ability, he is not satisfied.
“I want to get better, more realistic drawings,” Westley said. He thinks he can improve his shading; but most of all, he wants to be able to draw his subject from memory without a photo or model.
Westley draws his inspiration from his multi-talented father, who draws blueprints and oversees construction among other work.
Westley has three brothers and sisters, who all draw too. A younger brother is good at it too.
“It’s fun,” Westley said. “You get to use your imagination.”
Westley will typically spend a couple of hours with each drawing, larger ones longer. People are harder than animals, but filling in details that are left covered by shadows is one of the biggest challenges.
Also, drawing facial features is more difficult, and “hands are a lot harder,” he said. “Hands and eyes are really the hardest part of drawing people.”
Now that he is drawing people, he sees them differently. When he looks at someone, he can see the lines and shading that he needs to use to draw the person.
“Now that I’ve started to draw more, I’m seeing it more,” Westley said.
Westley uses a variety of pencil grades, from number one to number two. With a number seven pencil in hand, he can do a whole drawing without sharpening it. He usually works in a drafting studio upstairs at his home, but he is comfortable drawing anywhere.
The toughest drawings he ever did were one of an Indian, something he saw on TV and was trying to draw from memory. He also drew a giant bear on a sheet of paper the size of a wall.
He would like to start inking his drawings and adding watercolors. He also would like to explore other media, like oils and pastels. Westley has also worked with pottery.
Westley plans to attend college and take art classes as well as prepare for a career.
“I like animals,” Westley said. “I’m leaning toward being a veterinarian…. I wanna kind of do the same thing my dad does.”
In either case, Westley plans to keep up his drawing on the side.