For those inclined toward drawing this sounds like a interestin workshop at the Mellwood Art Center.

This workshop is a two-day hands-on course in the use of the
camera lucida, as described in David Hockney’s best-selling
book, Secret Knowledge.Registration is limited to five
participants.

Each participant will
have the use of a camera lucida for the two-day course.

Under the guidance of Michel Samson,
learn how to work with this device which can be used for portraiture, landscape,
and still life. Each participant
will come away with the exhilarating experience of being able to render a
life-like image of whatever one wants to depict. Participants will need
drawing pads and
drawing pencils. Five
cameras lucidae will be provided.

Saturday, February 16 and
Sunday, February 171-4
p.m
Mellwood Arts and Entertainment
Center
1860 Mellwood Ave Louisville, KY
40206

Workshop fee is $50 per student, spaces are limited to five
students

to enroll contact Scott Scarboro (502) 895-3650 scarboro@mellwoodartcenter.com

Technical details of the workshop after the jump.

From the press release

A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. It was patented in 1806 by William Hyde Wollaston. There seems to be evidence that the camera lucida was actually a reinvention of a device clearly described 200 years earlier by Johannes Kepler in his Dioptrice (1611). (cf. Edmund Hoppe, Geschichte der Optik, Leipzig 1926)


The camera lucida performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed and the surface on which the artist is drawing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface simultaneously, as in a photographic double exposure. This allows the artist to transfer key points from the scene to the drawing surface, thus aiding in the accurate rendering of perspective. From Wikipedia


Instructor Michel Samson, native of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, comes from a family which has been involved in the visual arts for generations. He had his first exhibition in Amsterdam as a child prodigy at the age of six. Since then, he has exhibited in various galleries in The Netherlands, Italy, and France. In 1971, he made his American debut in a group show in New York City. That same year he had a one man show at the opening of the Fort Wayne (IN) Arts Center, a building designed by legendary architect Louis I. Kahn.