Drawing his way into record book

Plan to draw caricatures for 72 hours

William Panipicha drawing caricatures at Marion Engineering College, Thiruvananthapuram, recently.

In a few days from now, a drawing teacher at a city school will attempt to draw caricatures for 72 hours in an attempt to set a record.

William Panipicha, a drawing teacher at St. Thomas Higher Secondary School, Poonthura, says though he does watercolour, oil painting, pencil sketching, and animation, he finds caricatures more interesting as they produce instant results.

The Guinness world record attempt planned at St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, near General Hospital, from November 1 to 4, he says, is his bid to further his talents to the maximum, and excel in his chosen field. He says he tries to tell his students that their skills are not limited, and whatever they choose to do, they should strive to master it.

Mr. Panipicha would know. Hailing from a fisher family at Pozhiyoor, he went out to sea during his early teens, his father having died in an accident. Though the changing shapes and colours of the sky near the coast and the vibrant hues of boats enchanted him, he realised that life at sea was not for him. The next few years were all about grabbing opportunities — after his SSLC, he learnt welding, finished his Plus Two, and headed to the Gulf. There, he took part in a shopping festival where artists from around the world flocked to, interacted with and learnt from them.

Versatile artist

Back home in Kerala, he completed a diploma course in drawing from the Pareeksha Bhavan, and his graduation in Mathematics. He also studied animation, learning the latest technology. In Bengaluru, he met cartoonist Prakash Shetty, under whose guidance he took up cartooning.

Mr. Panipicha works as a police sketch artist too, and is doing 24 paintings on the ceiling of a new church at Vettucaud. He also works a resource person for cluster meetings of drawing teachers at schools.

Trial run

Mr. Panipicha plans to conduct a trial run of his Guinness record attempt at five schools in the Pozhiyoor area on Monday. The trial, he says, will prepare him for the actual event and decide the strategies to be adopted, besides ensuring that more and more people turn up for the record attempt at St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, near General Hospital, so that he can draw them.

He’s attempting to break the record set in 2014 by Ronald Francis Hebering of Austria who drew caricatures for 61 hours and 55 minutes.