How can we integrate science and art? There are so many ways! Today we’re starting a new series of six episodes about the integration of art and science!
We’ll start this series with a discussion about the basic shapes of trees. Basic lines and shapes are how we begin any art and it’s how directed drawings are done. Learning to see the basic shapes of any subject you draw will enable you to draw any subject. Plus learning the basic shapes of tree species will help you identify trees from afar!
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How do we capture the overall essence of a tree without drawing every leaf and branch? Knowing how to draw a tree’s overall shape comes in handy in landscape painting, backgrounds for portraits, and botanical drawings.
In science, understanding a little bit about the basic shapes of trees can help immensely with tree identification, nature journaling, and our common observation habits.
Things We Mention:
- “Look at Your Fish!” (also known as “In the Laboratory With Agassiz”)
- Linda Feltner– the instructor we recently took a bird drawing class from
- Podcast #34: The Methods of Perspective, part 1
- Podcast #35: The Methods of Perspective, part 2
- Podcast #13: Art History- How to Go from Confused to Confident
- Podcast #14: Why and How to Study Art History
- Van Gogh is coming to Houston, TX!
- The Anyone Can Teach Art book– you can follow our progress!
- Michael Hyatt’s new book, Free to Focus
- “US presidents George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight Eisenhower all painted. So did Winston Churchill. … The key to that kind of restoration, as Churchill himself said, is deviating from our work routines. We use our bodies and minds differently at play than at work. “A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it, just in the same way he can wear out the elbows of his coat,” he wrote in an essay on painting, adding an important distinction: There is, however, this difference between the living cells of the brain and inanimate articles. . . . [T]he tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts. It is not enough merely to switch off the lights which play upon the main and ordinary field of interest; a new field of interest must be illuminated. He went on to say, “It is no use inviting the . . . businessman who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend.” For rejuvenation to occur, it’s important to change things up.” (Hyatt, Michael. Free to Focus (p. 82). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
- Hyatt was quoting from Churchill’s short book, Painting as a Pastime.
You can find the Basic Lines and Shapes of Trees art lesson plan here:
You can also find the lesson within the Science Meets Art Drawing Package of six lesson plans here: