057. Swan- The Intelligent Picture Book Part I. Single Line Drawings Of P S Remesh Chandran

057

Swan- The Intelligent Picture Book Part I. Single Line Drawings Of P S Remesh Chandran

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image By Moon Zigg. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

First published: 8th Mar 2014

Single line drawings are rare. Even those who attempted them in the past have not cared to publish them. In our estimate, after going through publishing companies’ catalogues and what internet search offers, no book of intelligent single line drawings has ever appeared in print or digital media. We have a few such drawings in the Archives of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, all done by Mr. P. S. Remesh Chandran in the Millennium Year 2000. We hereby publish them in their original form.

Are you still working on the Swan?

Are you still working on Swan?

Formatting this article presented us with a problem. As the forty-plus images made the article lengthy, we had to distribute the text evenly, in sections from beginning to end to contain pictures. They were a continuous self-contained introduction and still are.

Welcome By Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.

Welcome. Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books Trivandrum

We request readers therefore to read them as such, as a continuous introduction of a few paragraphs, even though they are apparently separated from each other and distributed distantly with images. We request readers also not to connect them with the images.

Pictures reflect loveliness, flair and feelings of the intellect, i.e., one's genius.

Pictures Reflect Loveliness, Flair And Feelings

The text in this article in no way is meant to explain images displayed above them. They are an independent entity. It is better to read the text first and then view the images. We hope our dignified and orthodox readers would forgive us for the inconvenience and somewhat inappropriateness this may cause.

Brain is the first thing that's born and the last thing that dies.

Brain Is The First Thing That Is Born

Single line drawings are very easy to create. They are also called one line drawings. They are constituted with a single stroke of the hand. Because of this simple structure of theirs and also due to their limitations in their scope for expression, they are usually created with pencils, pens, quills, crayons and wax, not with painting brushes.

Swan- The Intelligent Picture Book.

Swan- The Intelligent Picture Book. Cover

Painting brushes need more strokes of the human hand to finish a picture. They are usually meant to create depth in a picture through colours. Paintings enjoy much freedom of the movements of human hand. Single line drawings cannot take that much freedom or privilege.

Which is the question and which is the answer? Please turn the pages.

Swan. Turn The Pages Please

In a single line drawing, the movement of human hand is limited to one single stroke and therefore the movement of the mind also is limited. It is this limitation and barrier that we break or bridge by incorporating script in a single line drawing. We know, paintings do not have script in them generally.

The wave goes on through Life, Samadhi, Nirvana and Moksha.

Life Samadhi Nirvana Moksha

Leopold Stokowski, Pablo Picasso, all have done single line drawings in their time. Some made an external profile and filled in with continuous movements of a line to make their picture. Some envisioned the end product in their mind and realized it on the medium with a single stroke. Some just followed their crazy imagination and spontaneity with their hand.

Which is the horn and where is the elephant?

Which Is The Horn And Where Is The Elephant?

We have gone through hundreds of pictures classified under line drawings, out line drawings, one line drawings and single line drawings. The majority of them, of what we had the opportunity to see, were mostly interesting but not intelligent and stimulating generally. We now have the opinion that Sahyadri’s pictures are unique and that is why we dare release these pictures.

Which is the bugle and which is the pin?

Which Is The Bugle And Which Is The Pin?

We release these pictures as such, without editing, colouring or any kind of beautification and polishing. We know, once such things are done- the background print removed, lettering projected well-cut in colours and lines traced in other neon colours- it would add charm to these pages and make them magnificent to look at.

Which is the boat and which is the lamp with the flame?

Which Is The Boat And Which Is The Lamp?

But we leave this remaining task to gifted children all over the world, in the present and in future, who surely will come across these pictures in their time. It is their pleasure to do it. In their hands, with their craft, we hope, these pictures will fill up themselves and stand up and please their young minds.

How many factions and how many lines?

How Many Factions And How Many Lines?

Script in these pages may be in differing and unreadable styles but making them out with the help of pictures or making pictures out with the help of scripts is in itself a rewarding exercise, to be practiced by readers so that their multi skills- aesthetic as well as linguistic- may develop.

A cock brooding on an egg.

A Cock Brooding On An Egg

Sometimes, deciphering the script would be the exercise. There are also pictures with no script, the meaning of which are left to the common sense of readers. In such cases, the artist and designer had either forgotten to include suggestive writings or had nothing to write. Perhaps, he himself had not understood them. Anyway the readers also, especially the young and brilliant ones, may want to add their own meaningful script.

How many faces?

How Many Faces?

A few writings are in the author’s native land Kerala’s Malayalam language and a very few other ones are in the North India’s language Hindi. But the script is, generally, in English. There are a few others in the remaining two parts of this book which have incorporated words from French and Tamil.

Which is the spiral galaxy and which is the sea wave?

Which Is The Spiral Galaxy And Sea Wave?

Lines cannot have a language except one of emotions, appealing to intelligence. Sometimes there will not be pictures but writings alone. They too are meant to convey something intelligent, perhaps a coinage of phrases which, the author thinks, is meaningful.

Which is the sun-flare and which is the crescent moon?

Which Is Sun Flare And Which Is Crescent Moon?

There are several pictures from the author’s original diary excluded in this collection as they would be totally irrelevant to an international audience. Some of them are fully in regional languages and they depend more on script than lines to convey a message. Many of them are tricky advertisement posters and displays for films and books.

God sees the truth and sends waves.

God Sees The Truth And Sends Waves

Even though these pictures have their position on their pages, they needn’t always be viewed as such, in vertical positions. Often, rotating them on a computer will reveal their fuller meaning or other meanings, if writings on the sides, above or below suggest so.

Sitting at ease the eastern way.

Sitting At Ease

Skilled, patient viewers can read them anyway, moving their heads to the desired position, even without rotating pictures. It is safer to download and save pictures to your computer and make a copy before rotating, as rotating them may alter some of their properties.

Which is the alphabet hanging on the other?

Which Is The Alphabet Hanging On The Other

Copying pictures to a computer or a similar devise has also the advantage of being able to enlarge them and read undecipherable script easily, which is one of the challenges we want to pose before the readers through these pictures. Once they are in your computer, you can start Photoshop and Picassa and do what you wish. Whatever you do, you will be improving the picture.

The girl with the mirror. Back Cover Picture Of The Swan.

The Girl With The Mirror. Back Cover Picture

Reading different and illegible scripts is also a skill which we wish to impart to readers through these pictures. Where the scripts are obscure, they can certainly be guessed with the help of the lines and a little common sense. The lines and writings are meant to supplement each other.

Artist, Script, Design Credits for the book The Swan.

Artist Script Design Credits For The Book The Swan

We selected pictures according to the date of their drawing rather than selecting them based on theme or finery in perception. They stand as such- bare, unpolished and crude. It’s the world’s interested future generations who are going to build on them.

How many claws in this serpent?

How Many Claws In This Serpent?

There may be good ones among them and there may surely also be inferior ones. It is the reader who is to judge on them, not us. Even though these pictures were made in the 2000s, the idea of their publishing was thought about seriously only after a few years later.

How many plantain petals?

How Many Plantain Petals? Vaazha Pola.

This novel idea of a book was first put before Lulu Publishers who encouraged us to finish this book early and publish with them. Here is one mail from this worthy publisher. There were others also who presented us with options.

A splash on the head or a flowery design?

A Splash On The Head Or Flowery Design?

We will discuss the many publishing chances and scope for this kind of a book else where. This introduction which is spread in the three parts of this book only aims to show how these kinds of pictures can happen. Dear reader, from here onward, it would be the author of this book who would be speaking to you:

Where is the bird and where is the swan?

Where Is The Bird And Where Is The Swan?

You may ask why this collection of pictures is termed an ‘intelligent picture book’. It is simply because you can use it to gauge your own or another person’s intelligence without the aid of anyone or anything else. Gauging another person’s intelligence is a necessity human race has always faced. The tools which we can use to gauge one’s intelligence and quickness of mind are but few. Even those tools which are there are either not accessible to the ordinary citizens or unaffordable for them.

Where is the sea and where is the lotus?

Where Is The Sea And Where Is The Lotus?

Each man responds to this kind of pictures in correspondence with the level of his intelligence and clarity and alertness of conscience. Dormant genius and intelligence can be sparked up by quick glimpses of vision which the pictures may provide. Some may never read the script, some may never connect the script with the pictures but some skilled others will in no time read the script as well as connect them with the pictures, in whichever positions the scripts are displayed.

An absurd question with a picture or an absurd picture with a question?

Whose Egg, The Swan's Or The Crow's?

As a general rule, the lesser the time one takes to fully comprehend a picture, the better and clearer his intelligence can be gauged to be. If you know what is there in a picture, you can assess the intelligence of another person by gauging the time he or she takes to comprehend the picture fully, without you needing being anywhere near the higher level of his intelligence. If you are going to interview someone top for your company, be ready with these pictures. And never take these suggestive chapter headings with you. They will take away the suspense and deprive the test of its spirit.

How many submarines are there, doing what?

Submarine Entering A Lagoon.

Even though these pictures were done in the 2000s, their publishing was not taken seriously until 2009, the year of my beginning work in internet. When they were drawn, they were done on pages of diaries and costlier books. I could have drawn them on plain paper for I normally used criss-cross-type bond paper for all my writing.

Artful collection from Sahyadri Art Syndicate.

Artful Collection From Sahyadri Art Syndicate.

I knew someday these pictures will have to be cleaned, their background of printed words painstakingly removed and lines and pen-written letters traced in neon colours before sending them to a decent press- needing the expertise of a professional talent. I am not such a person and I do not have time to become one. What I wanted was that without a professional touch, these drawings shall not go to a printing press.

Advertisement for the book Jalaja Padma Raaji or The Lotos Band.

Advertisement For Jalaja Padma Raaji.

For a time, my dreams were full of the book becoming a hit and millions and millions of copies being sold all over the world. One certainly has the right to dream. But soon I came to know that publishing a picture book, especially this kind of a book, was not easy. For one thing, a book of single line drawings is not an accepted and popular idea in the book publishing industry.

Can you follow this picture through the eyes?

Can You Follow This Picture Through The Eyes?

For another, the pages of the book were not done in exquisite colours, resembling beautiful neon displays in a thoroughfare at night. Another factor against the marketability of the book is, picture books are usually published for little children. Publishing picture books for infants is a very large and lucrative industry indeed. ‘Swan’ does not belong to this category. After one or two years, Lulu stopped reminding me of the book. Even before that, I had stopped remembering it myself.

A cactus, spiral coil or which side of the fruit, the pine apple?

Cactus, Spiral Coil Or Which Side Of Pine Apple?

So that’s how this book came to be. It was started accidentally by a whim of ethereal elements and completed within a short period of time. Procrastination was in the publishing of the book, not in completing it. As to the modus operandi of this book- how these pictures were envisioned and how the script were conceived- I will discuss in the second part of this book.

The sunrise and sunset as usual played outside.

The Sunrise And Sunset As Usual Played Outside.

I will discuss the hard experiences and surprising retaliation from government I had to undergo after completing this book in the third part, which experiences made me more determined to release this book to the world though nothing anti-governmental is contained in this book.

A mummy's head or a purda-clad woman with apron?

A Mummy's Head Or A Purda-Clad Woman With Apron?

I must admit, some one dead and gone- actually two- took hold my hands and drew these pictures for me, though I was perfectly well aware of what they were doing through me. In those times, though it was a hard experience to withstand emotionally and physically, I did come up with this book.

Your Swan looks humpy. It is rejected.

Your Swan Looks Humpy. It Is Rejected.

There were not only pictures, but songs, excellent stories, threads for films, full length films, exhilarating discourses, all I spectatored in that times in the brain. How our forefathers can forcefully enter our brain and present us with a multitude of very interesting things to entertain us is a mystery indeed to many but not to me now. It is a legacy of life for our forefathers to come and enter into our brains, hide in our genes and express themselves to entertain us in times of our isolation, sadness and penury. They know how to console their young ones in times of need.

One maize choir equivalent, sunlit cloud could you have.....

One Maize Choir Equivalent Sunlit Cloud.

Brain is a very brilliant thing indeed. In our dreams we can see full length colour feature films which remain such vivid in memory for many years that we can draw them out in paper or in celluloid later. The speeches we hear in daylight or in the darkness of night from our brains are finer than the finest of orations we have ever heard from the most brilliant speakers on stage.

Fill up the flames and find out who?

Fill Up The Flames And Find Out Who?

The songs we hear in our brain can be captured on paper if we also get the respite and breathe-space to capture them in the midst of that fine mental orchestra and they can be recorded and made into gramophone records if we are equipped enough. It is a wonder what strange and versatile things our bygone parents can do on us by entering into our brains.

How many eels?

How Many Eels?

The only thing we have to take care is, while listening to these fine orchestras in our brains, do not stand there in the midst of the road but cross it safely also. Do not act with your hands and legs and face expressions in the drama that’s going on as prompted by our forefathers in the brain in the midst of people looking at us, but keep control of your self and learn the trick of keeping dual levels of brain activities.

Not a frog but a smudging donkey reversed.

Not A Frog But A Smudging Donkey Reversed.

Unless you do this, this simultaneous performance in the physical world as well as in the psychic world, your sanity will be questioned and you may even land in sanitariums. Thus you will fail in doing justice to whoever is possessing you by failing in your mission of expressing for them.

'The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on'.

The Moving Finger Writes And Having Writ Moves On.

They who enter our brains as part of their right- we may me their sons and daughters and beloved neighbours- have no physical barriers. They have no physique except ours which they seek, to fulfill our combined mission for the betterment of human race. That is the plan and schematics of life. In no moment in our life are we ever free of manifestations of the continuing workings of generations of our departed parents. The only thing that confuses us and which remains to be proved yet is, if our future generations in the ether also are manifesting their actions in us.

Which is the way out for the escapist?

Which Is The Way Out For The Escapist?

The forbearance I felt in those times is now past and today it’s a sweet memory. My mother stood by me in those hard times and without her presence, kindness, ardence, and affection and caring, I could not have withstood the confusion in those times which I could reveal to no one due to its special nature. She is now no more and I dedicate this book, ‘Swan- The Intelligent Picture Book’ to her sweet memory.

The bell who tolls for none.

The Bell Who Tolls For None.

Thank you dear reader, for following this article to the end. We admire your patience. This is the First Part of Swan- The Intelligent Picture Book’. There is a Second and a Third Part which we will publish here soon.

_______________________________________
Pictures are from the archives of Sahyadri Books
& Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Copyright rests with
P.S.Remesh Chandran.
_______________________________________

If you cannot access all pages of P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here:
https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/wiki-nut-articles

Tags

Art, Art Books, Bloom Books Trivandrum, Brain Teasers, Brain Tests, Intelligence Tests, Mystery Pictures, New Books, One Line Drawings, P S Remesh Chandran, Puzzle Pictures, Sahyadri Books Trivandrum, Single Line Drawings, Swan- The Intelligent Picture Book, Unique Pictures

Meet the author

PSRemeshChandra

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of 'Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book'.

Unmarried and single. Born and brought up in Nanniyode, a little village in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, Kerala. Mother University educated and father British Council-trained Teacher. Matriculation with Distinction and Pre Degree Studies with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma Studies in Electronics and entered Politics.

Article Title Image By Lars Nissen PhotoArt. Graphics: Adobe SP.