A drawing class give by Theun to students from CFL at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary sometime in 2007

Praxis:

Exercise in which students practice basic drawing skills. Just to get an idea of their technical level. Simply rendering an object placed in front of them in this case a 'Puttu-pan' (see picture.)

Theory:

A general introduction to the working of the eye and the visual cortex and the implications this has on drawing.

• the working of optic nerves, horizontals, verticals and diagonals, and how to use this in drawing, by focusing on such shapes or on outlines, and inner-shapes.
• color perception and the dominance of green in human color perception, how this would make sense in a forest environment such as the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary.

Results:

They were really interested in how the brain actually puts together an impression of the world, but the exercise was not very challenging, because they have done this stuff before and can do it well. This made hem confident, but they did not learn fundamentally new things.

Since these kids are really trained at drawing a thing they see and can do this very well, I thought about introducing something new.

Praxis:

Transform the object you have drawn (the pan) into something new (like a robot or a flower.)

Theory:

Describe how you can discover to new and funny things in a drawing by imagining some new element to those already existing.

• the dominance of face recognition in human perception and how this can be used to create characters out off nearly any object or thing, like Disney does.
• what kinds of strange things can happen when parts of your visual system don't work (like Oliver Sacks account of 'the Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat'.)

Results:

This was more challenging. They were asked to do something new to them and the normal ranking of who does best in drawing was changed somewhat.

Visual memory can be a very useful thing, and drawing can be seen as a way to train this. Drawing as a way of investigation.

Praxis:

Exercise in which students practice visual memory, when drawing a familiar subject that is not physicaly present at the moment of drawing, in this case 'Hammely' the monkey that frequents the trees of the Sanctuary.

Theory:

Describe how large and adaptable the visual system is and how powerful our visual memory. And what a great tool it is for drawing.

• the awesome power of photographic memory, and what it enables people who have it to do. (They were really excited about this.)
• how to train your visual memory (by looking at the world as if your making a drawing of it.)
• how it can help you memorize things.
• how drawings from memory give others a unique insight into how you see the world.

Results:

I really had to push a bit for this exercise, which was apparently very unusual to them. Confidence was low and students were eager to learn how others were solving this problem. I stressed the value of not looking at someone else's work. This would undermine the effect of getting an insight into the mind of each individual student. In the end they did quite well, although they did not really think so themselves, because the results did not fit into their aesthetics. The boy who was known as the worst drawer, did best here, as the joker of this group, he seemed to be very observing and confident than the others.

Praxis:

To make an account of their experiences during their stay at the Sanctuary, Suprabha Seshan asked me to include an exercise on drawing a narrative.

Theory:

– TheunKarelse - 30 Jan 2007

A drawing class give by Theun to students from CFL at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary.

Exercise 1: Drawing from vision. Praxis:

Exercise in which students practice basic drawing skills. Just to get an idea of their technical level. Simply rendering an object placed in front of them in this case a 'Puttu-pan' (see picture.)

Theory:

A general introduction to the working of the eye and the visual cortex and the implications this has on drawing.

• the working of optic nerves, horizontals, verticals and diagonals, and how to use this in drawing, by focusing on such shapes or on outlines, and inner-shapes.
• color perception and the dominance of green in human color perception, how this would make sense in a forest environment such as the GurukulaBotanicalSanctuary.

Results:

They were really interested in how the brain actually puts together an impression of the world, but the exercise was not very challenging, because they have done this stuff before and can do it well. This made hem confident, but they did not learn fundamentally new things.

Exercise 2: Imagining. Since these kids are really trained at drawing a thing they see and can do this very well, I thought about introducing something new. Praxis:

Transform the object you have drawn (the pan) into something new (like a robot or a flower.)

Theory:

Describe how you can discover to new and funny things in a drawing by imagining some new element to those already existing.

• the dominance of face recognition in human perception and how this can be used to create characters out off nearly any object or thing, like Disney does.
• what kinds of strange things can happen when parts of your visual system don't work (like Oliver Sacks account of 'the Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat'.)

Results:

This was more challenging. They were asked to do something new to them and the normal ranking of who does best in drawing was changed somewhat.

Exercise 3: Drawing from memory. Visual memory can be a very useful thing, and drawing can be seen as a way to train this. Drawing as a way of investigation.

Praxis:

Exercise in which students practice visual memory, when drawing a familiar subject that is not physicaly present at the moment of drawing, in this case 'Hammely' the monkey that frequents the trees of the Sanctuary.

Theory:

Describe how large and adaptable the visual system is and how powerful our visual memory. And what a great tool it is for drawing.

• the awesome power of photographic memory, and what it enables people who have it to do. (They were really excited about this.)
• how to train your visual memory (by looking at the world as if your making a drawing of it.)
• how it can help you memorize things.
• how drawings from memory give others a unique insight into how you see the world.

Results:

I really had to push a bit for this exercise, which was apparently very unusual to them. Confidence was low and students were eager to learn how others were solving this problem. I stressed the value of not looking at someone else's work. This would undermine the effect of getting an insight into the mind of each individual student. In the end they did quite well, although they did not really think so themselves, because the results did not fit into their aesthetics. The boy who was known as the worst drawer, did best here, as the joker of this group, he seemed to be very observing and confident than the others.

Exercise 4: Drawing a Narrative.

Praxis:

To make an account of their experiences during their stay at the Sanctuary, SuprabhaSeshan asked me to include an exercise on drawing a narrative.

Theory:

• show ways in which a story can be told using a single or multiple images.
• explain how a time-line can be formed and used.
• note that text can be combined with pictures.
• give a range of pictorial examples and topics to broaden their range of ideas.

Results:

Some great stuff came out-off this. With very individual results.