A Self Portrait

Warning: nudity

Tim paints beautiful brown circles on a white canvas sitting on an easel. The reality is that Tim cannot paint anything to save his life. He is a terrible drawer and painter. At least, this is the story that he has told himself for years. Tim is more of a writer. Dan, Tim’s twin brother, a real-life model poses naked and exposed. His hair is dark brown just like his brother’s. His arms are muscular and not lanky.

“Hey, keep still,” said Tim. Dan kept on scratching his nether regions. Dan was supposed to be sitting there like The Thinker. Dan should sit still and allow the outside world to observe him as he really is, naked and bare. As all human beings really are born into this world with nothing.

As Tim paints, he realizes that even though the assignment for class was a self-portrait, he notices that his brother is completely different than him even though they are identical twins. The twins had the same genetic make from their mother and father. Both boys being Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Filipino, they had white arms and dark trunks.

Tim really needs a good grade for this assignment. He really wants to impress his beautiful professor. His plan was to paint a self portrait and give it to his teacher so that he could get an A grade and possibly date his Professor Tamura. Painting a self-portrait using his brother’s muscular body was a smart move. After all he and his brother looked the same in the dark.

20 minutes later as he almost concluded the feet of his brother in the painting Dan was getting restless. Who can sit naked for 20 minutes in an air-conditioned classroom in a tropical region, too. Not to mention the windows clearly wide open with every nook and cranny of Dad ready to be consumed. Not that he cared.

“Why are you moving all around, Dan?” asked Tim. Tim was getting angrier. Stay still and stop moving around brother. It is so obvious that you don’t respect me. Tim could only talk to himself. His older brother in a few minutes would beat him down. The brothers would constantly fight with each other as one was jealous about what the other one got.

“Eh, where is all of this anger coming from Tim?” Said Dan.

“Just because you are older you think you can boss me around,” said Tim.

“I didn’t say anything,” said Dan.

Tim rushed the rest of the painting because he couldn’t stand his brother downplaying his love for his professor. He wrapped up everything nice, clean, and neat so that he could make it just in time for submissions.

“Okay, thanks Dan. Just so you know, if you had an assignment like this, I would not allow you to paint me like I painted you,” Tim revealed.

“Eh, no worries I hope that all your efforts will get you want you want. I don’t mind being your model. After all, I am the better looking one,” said Dan.

“Oh really, and that is why you are divorced,” Tim reminded Dan. Dan was a player. He had girlfriends while he was married. He was not the “role model” for marriage that is for sure. But he was a good model to use to impress Dr. Tamura.

Tim had to walk from one end of the campus to the other. As he walked to Dr. Tamura’s office, he saw tons of young men and women who attended the prestigious university. As he walked through the courtyard, there were statues gathered in a circle. This was supposed to be a work of art to show that students who attend University will become the next leaders of the world. At least that is the goal for most college students. Tim went to college to pursue a Japanese professor who he though was cute.

Dr. Tamura wore business like attire with black hair and smiled a lot. She wore designer suits and shoes. On some days she wore throw away shoes so that she could paint.

As he showed Dr. Tamura the portrait. She looked at the skill that it took for Tim to paint the portrait and focused 30 percent of her evaluation on the technique. She scored him low.

“This painting is pretty good,” Dr. Tamura praised Tim, which really made him blush to the point where he closed his eyes to imagine what Dr. Tamura just told him.

“Would you give me an A for this painting?” Asked Tim. Tim did not really care about the score but rather the praise and quality words that came from Dr. Tamura’s mouth.

He really thought that by painting a half decent picture of his twin, he could fool Dr. Tamura into thinking that this is a self portrait of himself. But also, think about the people who embellish pictures. Dr. Tamura wouldn’t know because the picture was essentially a “Self Portrait” so therefore the picture according to the assignment should be real.

After giving him a low score technique, Dr. Tamura moved on to the artistic grading of the assignment. The picture truly captured Dan beautifully. Tim did not leave anything out. The length and girth of Dan’s body was captured very beautifully and accurately, but again not professionally.

“Is this really you little boy?” Dr. Tamura whispered.

Dr. Tamura surprised Tim to the point of embarrassment. She looked at Tim up and down. Looked at the painting up and down. Looked at the painting one more time. She was in love with Dan not Tim.

“To answer your question Tim, I will give you an A for this assignment because you did a wonderful job painting yourself,” reassured Dr. Tamura. The point of this assignment was to see who or what you could paint with “The Self” in mind. Tim really captured the ideal physical outward appearing self. He did not want his brothers’ cheating traits and went home with a smile on his face.