“Higher, Daddy, Higher!”

A father throws his son up into the air. (Artwork by Dale M.A. Johnson)
One day I’ll be big.
Way bigger than I am now.
I’ll be taller than my big sister, so she’ll have to be nice to me even when other people are watching.
Maybe I’ll be taller even than my dad, and he’ll have to look up just to see me!
I’ll be stronger and braver, and all my friends will think I’m cool.

But for now, for today
All I want to do is fly.

This is based on an old sketch I drew some time ago. Families and the dynamics of their unique relationships have long been a fascinating subject to me. Brothers and sisters; parents and children; the way they interact. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the blood bond they share that is not so easily broken? Even though at times, of course, sometimes they wish they were. 😛 On that note, I’m the oldest of my siblings, so I can only wonder what it’s like to have an older brother or sister…

Regardless, the theme of this piece is not siblings but fathers and sons. In hindsight, I guess it’s kind of appropriate, what with Father’s Day coming up and all. Dads that take the time to actually play and talk with their sons are always cool in my book. 🙂

Painted in Photoshop. Time taken: ~3-4 hours. Brief prose intro is nothing special; just something that kept coming to me while I worked. (And it amused me thinking about how the boy’s big sister is implied to be really sweet to him whenever no one else is around to see it.)