Fulbright Experience

This is an illustration of Cajal's sketchbook by artist Dawn Hunter.

Dawn Hunter: in her own words.

"All of the drawings in my Cajal portfolio are created straightforwardly with markers and pen. I do not use a pencil sketch to commence each work. Therefore, I do not begin the drawings from the process of erasing and correcting the formative layer. Each illustration is created through the building up of an additive process and no erasing. Why would I do this?

It is about the form and content of the project. I will explain. In 2017 I was fortunate to be awarded the Fulbright España Senior Research Fellowship to the Instituto Cajal, Madrid, Spain. By the time I received my award, I had already recreated through observing and drawing the primary source, over 14 of Cajal's scientific drawings that had been on display at the NIH. I had begun to develop theories about the construction of some of his drawings: He did not use a pencil to create some of his scientific illustrations but instead just drew them directly with ink."

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Gallery of Dawn Hunter's Artwork

Dawn Hunter's recreation of Cajal's 'Células Pequeñas de Axon Horizontal', drawn at Instituto Cajal in Madrid. The piece mimics the original's absence of preliminary pencil lines and includes water stains, the effect of light, and a protective frame. Cajal's signature is added for balance and aesthetic contrast.

This is a drawing by artist Dawn Hunter of the Museo de Cajal in Madrid, Spain.

This is an illustration by artist Dawn Hunter of the inside back cover of Cajal's first sketchbook from Valencia.

Top image is Santiago Ramón y Cajal's original inside back cover of his first sketchbook from Valencia. Below is Dawn Hunter's re-creation of the same, photographed at Instituto Cajal in Madrid, Spain.

Cajal's sketch of Pyramidal neurons of a duck, displaying both front and back. Initial pencil outlines were later inked. Notably, the middle handwriting by Cajal indicates the printing size as '1/2' (una mitad), distinct from the underlined text.

This is a drawing by artist Dawn Hunter of Cajal's hands juxtaposed with his microscope and a pyramidal neuron.

Photograph of Santiago Ramón y Cajal's first sketchbook from Valencia, opened to pages featuring an insert, ink spatters, and pastel smudges, as captured by Dawn Hunter.

Dawn Hunter's re-creation of Santiago Ramón y Cajal's Pyramidal Neuron drawing of a duck using ink, marker, and pen on paper in 2017. This reimagined artwork, created without the use of pencils or graphite, instead utilizes fine-tip yellow-green pens to mimic Cajal's original pencil lines.

Dawn Hunter's illustration of Santiago Ramón y Cajal's research chair, crafted using marker and pen on paper in 2017. The chair in the artwork is characterized by a dragon embossed on its leather, symbolically linking to Cajal's childhood interest in dragon imagery.

Cajal's drawing 'Células Pequeñas de Axon Horizontal' from Instituto Cajal, Madrid. The piece lacks preliminary pencil lines, features water stains, and displays use of white ink for line erasure in the final work.

Dawn Hunter's re-creation of pages from Santiago Ramón y Cajal's first sketchbook from Valencia, drawn using marker and pen on paper in 2017. This meticulous reproduction not only reflects Cajal's scientific observations, but also reveals an Easter Egg - a smiling face hidden in a cell at the top of the left page, located beneath the word "fresc," a detail Hunter discovered during the drawing process.

An artwork by Dawn Hunter, created in 2017, depicting the death mask of Santiago Ramón y Cajal. The image, rendered in marker and pen on a 11" x 14" paper, features the intricacies of Cajal's facial features preserved in the mask, providing a silent, poignant tribute to the legendary neuroscientist.

"Dawn Hunter's re-creation of pages from Santiago Ramón y Cajal's first Valencia sketchbook, where he drew neurons for the first time. Executed in marker and pen on 11" x 14" paper in 2017. The artwork subtly captures Cajal's tentative line quality, hinting at his initial insights into the nervous system's individual, interconnected nature."

"Dawn Hunter's artwork 'Colorizing Cajal's 19th Century World, Two Silverias,' created in marker and pen on 11" x 14" paper in 2018. This piece presents a colorful reimagining of two black and white photos of Silveria taken by Cajal, though not originally juxtaposed. The creative interpretation breathes life and color into the historical images, reflecting the transition from the mid-1940s to the present day."

Dawn Hunter's ink, marker, and pen re-creation of Cajal's Pyramidal neurons of a duck drawing. The artwork, part of her series where yellow-green fine tip pen symbolizes Cajal's pencil lines, captivated her imagination, prompting her to reproduce it without the use of pencil or graphite.

"The brain is a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and great stretches of unknown territory."

― Santiago Ramón y Cajal

"Why do I think he did this?

1) Pragmatic: It is a more efficient way of working because he would only have to draw a work once - opposed to retracing it with ink.

2) Philosophic: In some cases, it is a more accurate, truthfully descriptive way of expressing the realism of a neuron's contour.

When I arrived at the Instituto Cajal, I wanted to look at his sketchbook and original, rarely studied journals. Behaviorally, how his drawings are constructed in his sketchbook would reveal a great deal about his disposition toward drawing. If there were a lot of erasing and redrawing of forms or if the images were drawn confidently one time without erasing them, it would reveal a lot about his attitude toward and behavior while drawing. I found the latter to be true. He used a wide variety of materials in his sketchbook. He used pencil primarily (based on the line quality, I suspect a 2B or darker lead value) in his sketchbook, so he was always prepared to erase. But I found that he did not do this upon examining the entire sketchbook. Absent were the residue, smudges, and other scars that occur to the paper's surface when one erases lead or graphite. The most common imperfections I observed in the sketchbook was torn out missing pages, food and water stains, or spills and ink splatters.

Because I can recreate his work through drawing with accuracy in one sitting without using a pencil or eraser, I believe he drew some of his work outright like that, too."

This is an illustration of Cajal's sketchbook by artist Dawn Hunter and featured on the page are sketches of rabbit cells and Easter eggs of "emojis" of smiling faces.

"The experience of drawing Cajal's sketchbook pages was vital to me. I had looked at the sketchbook for several days by the time I drew this drawing. It wasn't until I drew this drawing that I noticed the Easter Egg - the smiling face in the cell at the top of the left page under the word "fresc."

Aside from researching Cajal's sketchbook, I also drew and examined objects from his life. These items include rare items like the original mold for his death mask, his research chair, photos he printed, or photos printed from the negatives of images he took and other personal items housed in Legado Cajal."

~ Dawn Hunter, University of South Carolina

Dawn Hunter's Cajal Artwork Portfolio