I remember drawing this stick figure woman with the big spider leg eyelashes and,
you know, the angled face and this arched red hair.
She had very Asian looking eyes, very black eyes, very high cheekbones.
It kind of became an obsession to just sit down with crayons and draw this woman's face over and over again.
That woman with the high cheekbones, the black eyes and the flaming red hair.
was his mother.
Juano had been taken away from her age six.
His mom was deep in the grip of alcoholism, paying for it through sex work.
And Juano was living in the fallout that came with her chaotic lifestyle.
He had nothing, really.
He struggled to even find food.
But the little boy still missed his mom.
I wanted my mom as a wee boy.
A lot of the children would have maybe one or two photographs.
I had a photograph of my grandmother, but I didn't have a photo of my mum.
So instead, the social workers gave me a box of crayons and they said, you know, draw your mum.
So it kind of became an obsession.
This is Lives Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service.
I'm Mubeen Azhar with the story of the Scottish boy who became obsessed with drawing his mum's face so he wouldn't forget it.
and how he became an artist, now known for painting the faces of icons.