Mutual UFO Network              Newsletter
103 Oldtowne Road               Dan Wright
Seguin, Texas 78155             Deputy Director, Investigations

                     November 1, 1989

THE INVESTIGATOR'S EDGE

The witness has just concluded his account of a dramatic, prolonged close
encounter with an object of unusual shape, including exterior trappings.  You
ask that he spend a few minutes in sketching the vehicle's design.  After a
bit, he produces a two-dimensional, asymmetrical scrawl and says sheepishly,
"Never could draw."

The woman has described two identical entities in her bedroom that she was
permitted to inspect in a conscious awareness for long minutes.  Asked to
reduce to paper what they looked like, she prepares with some care a drawing
that is nevertheless remindful of a 4-year-old's rendering of Daddy.

Sound familiar?  Conquering such a problem is really not at all mysterious, as
every major police department long ago discovered:  An artist is brought in to
work with the witness to reconstruct the villain's appearance.

For the limited purpose of devising an accurate rendering of a craft or
entity, the facilitator need not be either a professional artist nor have
formal MUFON membership (though the latter is certainly preferred).  At least
some several million people have a marked ability in this area and have taken
some classes.  Frankly, given the horrible drawings that so typically
accompany case reports, anyone with an acumen for drawing would be appreciated
and should be utilized.

The reality in our business - and in the art world generally - is that
vehicles and portraits involve fundamentally different skills.  So, consider
the idea of having two persons available to press into duty.  In that CE-1s
are far more commonly reported than CE-3s or CE-4s, a person with *mechanical
drawing* skill will likely be valuable more often.  For the occasional entity
case, someone who has had an art class in human anatomy would be the wiser
selection.  Certainly, someone who has both types of abilities is ideal.

A few considerations in utilizing an artist:  First, of course, the person
must realize that, in agreeing to offer this assistance, (s)he may be called
upon with no forewarning - even raised from his/her bed on occasion.  Second,
the drawing is to be a faithful rendering of what the witness describes, i.e.
without artistic license.  [Certainly, questions of the witness along the way
are both appropriate and necessary.]  And third, when the drawing is completed
to the client's satisfaction, it should be *signed and dated* by both the
client and artist.  Naturally, the investigator must clarify in the case
report that the drawing was made with the assistance of the person named.  For
the sake of objectivity, the witness should be asked to attempt a drawing
without assistance before the expert is brought to bear, and that drawing, no
matter how crude, should accompany the report.

It cannot be overemphasized that we as an organization fail to make critical
ties among UFO events occurring at different times and locations because of a
lack of adequate drawing skills at the ready.  Every college and most high
schools in America have at least one instructor and several students able to
fill this critical need.  Please make a concerted effort to find one or more
to assist yourself - and encourage your members to locate additional volunteer
artists in their own locales.

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