Blind butterflies and Kaleidoscopic eyes

or, how to draw like an insect 

 

Introduction

Some time ago there was a movement called “The age of reflection” which was an intellectual movement that incorporated romanticism to science and humanities. and advocated for the increase of scientific knowledge and the importance of sharing any new discovery with the world. Alexander Von Humbolt dreamed with a community where artist and scientist could grow from each other, and it happened. Humbolt’s expeditions inspired writers and artist alike, he is sometimes considered the father of ecology, as being the first to saw relationships between organisms and their environment, but before Humbolt, there was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator who saw this connection long before Humbolt himself. Maria Sybilla Merian is considered one of the founders of ecology. Insects were her leitmotif, she looked and depicted the natural world as no one did before, she went on expeditions to South America and financed her publication long before it was fashionable. This workshop is dedicated to her.

“Merian documented, many years before the naturalists of the time, the life cycles of butterflies, moths, and other insects. Her work is exquisite from an aesthetic perspective, but what interests me more is that as a woman in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, she was able to make scientific contributions that would have been impossible in virtually any other field, simply by virtue of using the specimens from her own garden. She eventually traveled to Surinam to study the brilliantly colored insects of the steamy jungle, but that was after her interests had been firmly set. Although she, like many other women scientists and naturalists, faced opposition for her unfeminine activities, the accessibility of her subjects meant that she could keep doing the work she loved.”

Marlene Zuk,

Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World

 

 

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Workshop

 

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-This is a drawing workshop, inspired by insects. It requires no drawing skills-

Materials will be provided

10 People max

One hour

 

Blind butterflies and kaleidoscopic eyes, or how to draw like an insect is a drawing workshop, inspired by insects and dedicated to the work of naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian. This workshop will explore the creative process of drawing through fast strokes, unexpected compositions and different techniques. Mistakes are embraced as part of the finals compositions of our own plates. A scientific illustration is one that communicates visually the structure and specific details of biological subjects, this workshop aims to develop skills of close observation and plastic exploration.

There will be two main parts to the workshop. One will be focused on drawing through insect eyes (not scientifically accurate), with exercises that challenge preconceived notions of drawing. The other will develop different techniques to illustrate insects, from exquisite corpse methods to create our very own specimens.