When we think of working on various forms of art and design, the first and foremost factor, which comes to our mind, is ‘Drawing’. If you are interested in studying the minute ins and outs of drawing, then Pencil Jammers welcomes you to its 7th Pencil Jam 100 Day Program.
Pencil Jam, founded in 2010 and based out of Bangalore, is an Academy that teaches and nourishes Visual-Thinking through Drawing and Visual Arts. Founded by Smitha Shivaswamy, George Supreeth and managed by Soman Patnaik, this team believes that drawing is driven by critical thinking processes like Visualizing and Spatial thinking. The team conducts various workshops on subjects including figure Drawing, Children’s illustration, Character Design and many more.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com’s Zeenia Boatwala about the idea behind Pencil Jam, Smitha Shivaswamy, Founder, Pencil Jam, says, “We set up Pencil Jam 
to disprove myths around the process of drawing. The biggest myth being that a person has to be born with the talent and the other is that drawing is only useful if you wish to pursue art. We also noticed that, to develop decent drawing techniques one needs to complete a 4 year art course. Hence, as a team we made a decision to design a learning system that would be absorbed much faster and this idea developed further into this 100 Day Program.”
The very first Pencil Jam 100 Day Program was conducted in 2011 at Bangalore and received 8 participants.
Starting on the 22nd Feb’ 13 at Bangalore, this 7th, 100 Day Program, is a structured system that will use scientific insights on Visual Perception, which would help students see their limitations and knowledge effectively to learn drawing. Within this 100 Day Period, students will be immersed in a wide range of subjects around visual arts including art appreciation, visual arts theory, and drawing a wide range of subjects including still life, human anatomy, cross-synesthetic drawing, drawing from imagination, sculpting, painting and many more.
Expressing about the Pencil Jam, 7th 100 day Program, Smitha, informs, “This program is specially designed for those with No drawing ability at all. The first batch was conducted free of cost for the applicants specifically with the condition that they have no prior drawing experience”
The sessions at the 7th 100 Day Program would be conducted by specialized instructors from various Art Backgrounds who have extensive knowledge about drawing, anatomy, perspective, etc. The program has a mix of theory and practical learning. These sessions would be of 2 hours and further continue with extensive practical and research assignments.
For participating in this program, a student will be asked to complete 3 drawings, which would help the team at Pencil Jam assess the student’s skill levels on subjects such as understanding of tone and line, ability to compose, attention span, etc.
Instructors would be then given the profile of students that would help them craft advice for each student in the program.
“The most challenging aspect in drawing is to draw what you see effectively. Animation is the art and science of movement and Drawing is the art and science of understanding structure and unquestionably important for 2d animators. For 3D Animators, it is essential to understand the dynamics of contours and lines, which can only be learnt by drawing. 3D includes modeling and movement of solids. And to make 3D easier, Drawing stands out as a useful tool to quickly establish thumbnails and moods for character or environmental sketches much before investing long hours of time in modeling and animation.” shares, George Supreeth, Founder of Pencil Jam.
The last date of registration for this program is 18th of February 2013 and the fee is INR 30,000, which includes venue fee, library and facilities access, and drawing materials required to complete the program. For registering and knowing more about this program, you can give a call to Christina on 9901293823 or 08041492446
Another venture of Pencil Jam titled ‘Pencil Play’ that is set up to demonstrate drawing as CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY, which can be used to visually teach science, history, maths and many other subjects.
Smitha adds further, “We feel that Drawing as a subject in schools holds immense potential and is more than a leisure activity. Currently, Pencil Play is being beta-tested in a couple of schools. We invite interested schools or parents to log on to www.pencilplay.in and sign up to be intimated on the release date of the service”
Also slated is an upcoming figure drawing workshop by Pencil Jammers at Bangalore by anatomy artist Prosenjith Roy.
“Learning to Draw is to learn to think. Through drawing from life, one learns of various cognitive biases that are inherent in everyday thinking. Drawing not only helps you think and communicate better, it is an invaluable tool to understand the fabric of nature and decode the complexities of everyday life.” concludes, George.