nature in the art room

Nature in the Art Room Are you drawn to nature? Have you ever sketched a scene from a

photograph? Do your art classrooms adventure outdoors to draw? Let's look at how to use nature items in your art classroom. Where is creativity in nature? How can you bring nature into your classroom? How do you draw using scientific illustration methods? What is GNSI? Listen to ideas from artists who draw from nature as a profession. Gather useful drawing techniques to present to K-12th graders. Find out how creatively scientists use their drawings in their careers.

Come learn some helpful drawing methods and ways to bring nature into your art classroom. Listen to wildlife artists. See if you can reconnect with nature in the art room.

Michelle L. HansenDaberkow

Nature in the Art Room

I am a K-5 art educator teaching in Lincoln, NE.

I am in my 19th year of teaching art, 13 years in Lincoln, NE.I taught half time art for 6 years in K-12 in two different rural districts…while working on a M.S. in Art Education at Wayne State College, Nebraska.

I enjoy nature, and nature drawing. I joined the GNSI in Lincoln, NE.GNSI is a group of illustrators that use art and science in their careers, part time jobs, or just love art+science.

I enjoy playing cello, gardening, and reading. I don’t have a lot of time “making” art, so I enjoy art making often through learning about others and how they create and sell their work through this group.

I get to educate children as I teach illustration with the scientific methods that adults use. I teach both during the school year and in the summer. This gives me time to draw, and to share methods with students.


I work at Kahoa Elementary in Lincoln, NE is one of 36 public elementary schools. Two elementary schools in Lincoln do not have art.

My schedule involves 22 classes. Some of these classes are combined, and classes range from 22-29 students. Our K-5 school is site-based, so the principal chooses to have art, computer, p.e. and computer on a four day rotation. I teach 50 min. classes.

I feel very strongly about nature. I am an assistant director for Kahoa outdoor education. We fundraise and take 87 third graders on an overnight learning event. We provide school outdoors (fishing, canoeing, campfire) for two days, spending the night in cabins at a local camp.

Nature in the Art Room Are you drawn to nature?

What do we need to know about plants and creatures to sketch them?

How they look, how to measure them, what their habitat is, how we could help them survive.

Nature in the Art Room Have you ever sketched a scene from a photograph?

Magazines- Tails and Trails from Game and Parks, Ranger Rick magazines.

Photos – Close up shots of plants and animals in a file organized by Plant, Mammal, Bird, Insect, Fish, etc.

Using a grid system helps

students recreate the actual

creature or plant in the photo.

Nature in the Art Room Do your art classrooms adventure outdoors to draw?

What is Project Wet, Project Wild & Project Learning Tree?

Nature in the Art Room Let's look at how to use nature items in your art

classroom.

You may also find insects encased in plastic at museums and websites for students to sketch.

CollectCollect ArtifactsArtifacts

Nature in the Art Room You may borrow mounted insect specimens from

entomology departments. They are kept pinned in styrofoam or cork filled jewelry boxes for ease of transport from table to table. Insects are pinned.

If you need to order insects to sketch, try…Insects4sale.com


Nature in the Art Room You may collect sea shells and pinecones.

Students Grades K-5 can focus on radial design as they study the shells.

Part of studying the shells and pinecones is actually sketching them.

CollectCollect ArtifactsArtifacts 9

Nature in the Art Room Your State Game and Parks (mammal furs, skulls, bird

wings, feet, beaks, eggs and etc.) often have trunks of information on birds or reptiles to check out. They sometimes contain wings, or replicas of nature items.

These can also be collected from hunted birds/mammals in your area…but not from local songbirds nor endangered birds without state permission.

CollectCollect ArtifactsArtifacts 10

Nature in the Art Room Where is creativity in nature?

As residents of the Arbor Day state, Nebraskans recognize the value of trees. Forests foster economic development by supporting businesses, creating jobs and generating rural and urban income. Trees clean the air, extend the life of roads, save tax dollars by reducing the need for expensive “hard” infrastructure and reduce heating and cooling costs. In fact, properly placed trees can reduce cooling costs by up to 25 percent.

Nature in the Art Room How can you bring nature into your classroom?

Collect Artifacts-

Create files of all the animals and plants in your area, and keep them accessible to students for research.

How and what to choose?

Find a local habitat.Identify plants & animals.

Use of a local nature book such as this could be an essential guide for what is native in your area.

Nature in the Art Room Teach about your area.

It’s what you know.

My local area: A Riparian Forest(A forest living between a river and a prairie.)

Bring Experts and Speakers into your art room.

EntomologistsEntomologistsScientific IllustratorScientific IllustratorUNL Wetlands SpecialistUNL Wetlands SpecialistGame and Parks EducatorGame and Parks Educator

Nature in the Art Room Entomologists

Nature in the Art Room Live Endangered Salt Creek Tiger Beetles…

In a Summer Course I co-teach, sometimes we focus on the Salt Creek area of Lincoln, NE. We study the riparian forest creatures and focus on salt creek plants/creatures.

Sketching on vellum,pen/ink, and scratch board.

Nature in the Art Room Even a 15 min. portfolio share by a free lance artist in your local area is extremely beneficial for students.


What Tree Is That?A guide to the more common trees found in the Eastern and Central U.S.

Karina Helm Illustrator for Arbor Day Foundation 2008

http://www.helmillustration.com

http://www.helmillustration.com/

Nature in the Art Room How do you draw using scientific illustration methods?

What is GNSI?

Science + Art = Scientific Illustration

Scientific Illustrations are often more detailed than photographs.

The Guild of Scientific Illustrators (GNSI) has these as samples of scientific illustrations:

Nature in the Art Room GNSI illustrations are visual communications that

inform, explain, and instruct.

Illustrations include using a grid for a photo or using a ruler for an actual specimen. Measure for “landmarks” on the specimen. Write these down.

Create a map version of the specimen.

Then draw the specimen lightly with a pencil, including all the “measurements and marks” that make it unique.

Nature in the Art Room GNSI illustrations are visual

communications that inform, explain, and instruct.

http://www.gnsi.org/

Nature in the Art Room Listen to ideas from artists who draw from nature as a

profession.

My interest in art and the natural world happened quite early on in my childhood.

We camped and hiked as a family for vacations, and I always had an interest in drawing. I am a midwesterner who relocated to Pennsylvania when I was nine, living in rural PA and spending my playtime in the woods and marshes. I illustrated a field guide to my backyard woods when I was eleven. It was not stellar or original work, but then I let people use them when they came to visit, and they did work pretty well!

Freelance ARTIST: Sara T.

Nature in the Art Room I loved art in school, and my best art teacher was

actually when I was in junior high. He mixed it up, giving us classical illustration instruction such as drawing in perspective and printmaking, with more freeform and fun techniques such as sand casting candles or making clay sculptures.

He was also incredibly kind and patient, with a gentle sense of humor that really let kids bloom.


Nature in the Art Room My science interest was cemented in elementary

school also, and I kept journals and illustrated them and performed simple experiments.

Sometimes these were for school, but sometimes they were just me exploring the natural world around my home.

In college I majored in Biology, and my favorite classes had labs that involved drawing and observing as part of it. I spent hours illustrating my botany lab book.


Nature in the Art Room I eventually came back to the Midwest to get a Masters

in Botany/Genetics at the University of Kansas and took a scientific illustration class near the end of my program. I used my portfolio to apply for a job working in the entomology division of the Natural History Museum and worked for six and a half years there under a scientist studying Aleocharine Staphilinid beetles (Rove beetles). I then started my own illustration business in 2003. I do a lot of technical illustrations that start out by looking at specimens under the microscope, as I did for my job at the museum.


Nature in the Art Room I joined the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators in

1997, and that organization has been an integral part in my training and inspiration as an illustrator. I also began painting three years ago and have expanded my creative efforts beyond my business on occasion.

Interview with: Sara Taliaferro

http://www.happybeetle.com/portfolio.html


http://www.happybeetle.com/portfolio.html


My work is primarily published in books and journal articles, yet I also have been commissioned for fine art framed pieces. I began exhibiting in juried shows in 2004 with two pieces at the Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona.


Nature in the Art Room Interview with: Kaleb W. / Art Director

Cabela’s Incorporated

I don’t draw at all anymore I strictly design artwork on the computer for print or web...

Experiences that helped in my decision to become an artist started when I was young.

Being involved in Boy Scouts and taking a lot of art classes in high school helped my art background and experiences grow.

Art Director: Kaleb W.

Nature in the Art Room I’m an active outdoor person, I am very passionate

about hunting, fishing and camping. I believe all of this sparked when my parents would bring me along to hunt, fish or camp.

I graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor in Fine Art (Concordia, Nebraska). Attending a great college is where I fine tuned my skills.


Nature in the Art Room Being able to work for Cabela’s is an opportunity to

combine one of my favorite past times with my professional design job, it’s a great fit for my lifestyle. I’m currently the Retail Art Director for all of Cabela’s retail stores.

Interview with: Kaleb W. / Art Director Cabela’s Incorporated


Nature in the Art Room Johnson, Lana

Instructional Technology Project Manager

IANR Communications & Information Technology

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Designer: Lana Johnson

Nature in the Art Room HOW I got into Sci Illustration?

I didn’t take art in high school…don’t remember much about art in grade school either. I am sure we did some but it doesn’t stick out that I remember.

I was a Junior in College = premed track and at the liberal arts college I had to take some distribution classes to fulfill my BA degree. So as a hard-core premed science person I didn’t want to take creative writing, and also had nearly flunked PE classes so I signed up to take oil painting because I figured how hard could it be and I could do it pass/fail…never having had taken an art course before. They let you do that back then. About 1/3 way into class I really liked the painting process more than science classes.


Nature in the Art Room Art professor asked me if I was going to paint cells someday. I

didn’t even know about a field called scientific illustration. The next summer I studied at a marine biology lab through the University of Oregon at Coos Bay and they had a scientific illustration class that I took. It was absolutely the coolest thing ever. I loved science and this class taught me how to draw it. Two of us got A’s….one gal who was an art major and me!!!! I hadn’t taken much art at all at this point so it was a complete shock and thrill to get such a good grade. From that point on I knew I had to combine art and science somehow.


Nature in the Art Room In graduate school and taking a fisheries class,

professor asked me one day after class if I was an artist or what?

He told me about the scientific illustration program in Tucson and told me I should go. A year later I move to Tucson and enrolled in the graduate courses in scientific illustration. This lead to future freelance jobs and becoming involved in GNSI and eventually teaching scientific illustration at UNL.


Nature in the Art Room You could take a distance scientific illustration class…

info is at: http://entomology.unl.edu/distedu/syllabi/Scientific_Illustration.htm

You can take this course as audit or for UNL graduate credit.

Lana Johnson [email protected] distance students, our toll free number is 800-755-7765. Ask to be transferred to Lana Johnson at 472-2885.


http://entomology.unl.edu/distedu/syllabi/Scientific_Illustration.htm

Nature in the Art Room No art in high school..was premed and all science.

Most of science courses in college and graduate school though required illustrations to accompany lab notes or I just did them because it was easier for me to remember stuff from an illustration than from a bunch of words.

Medium..favorite is black and white – pen and ink or scratchboard. It is so crisp and clean and you can do so much with it.


Nature in the Art Room Objectives for this scientific illustration course:

This class provides an introduction to Scientific Illustration. Instruction covers both classical techniques and new technologies and media. Students explore the history of Scientific Illustration, copyright, typography, resolution and scanning principles, drafting techniques, and the creation, publication and presentation of scientific artwork. Students completing this course will have the knowledge and skills to create scientific illustrations using a variety of techniques. Students will also learn how to prepare graphs for scientific publication. Successful scientific illustrators must work with deadlines, and on time completion of assignments is a requirement for this course.

You may want to take this course to get in some drawing time!


Nature in the Art Room What is the common link in these artistic lives?

What is their connection?

You may be that connection.

Their parents might be that “push” that guided them towards what they found that they loved.

Their confidence in their drawing skills or visual skills is what carries them today in their jobs.

They strive to help other elementary students to dream about drawing…and nature as a future.


Nature in the Art Room Gather useful drawing techniques to present to K-12th

graders.

You may want to introduce your students to some “creatures.” They could sketch them as they romp in a blocked off area on the floor, or in a large container on a table.

If bringing in frogs or other small creatures that breathe through their skin, the creatures could be placed in clear plastic food containers, and passed around without actually touching the creatures.

How can art teachers spark nature art?

Nature in the Art Room Students may want to volunteer at your local zoo, or

animal center to be able to take digital photographs as a resource bank for accurate drawings.

Students may want to attend events at parks and recreation centers to go “birding” or hiking. Taking a sketchbook along and journaling these experiences can also increase their “bank” of images.

Perhaps you could do a “fieldtrip” into a nearby field with a sketchbook.

How can art teachers spark nature art?

Nature in the Art Room We found out how creatively scientists use their

drawings today in their careers.

Some use an online “bank” of illustrations and rearrange them to create new art for items.

Some artist/scientists use nature and draw from items on commission or through grant programs.

Some artists travel the world with sketchbooks, digital cameras, and return later to their studio to create for textbooks and companies.

Let’s Review:

Nature in the Art Room We’ve learned some helpful drawing methods and

ways to bring nature into your art classroom.

One easy way to teach drawing nature with scientific accuracy is to explore nature items in your room.

Nature in the Art Room Begin by having a collection of nature items in the

room.

Assign a five min. drawing each day of whatever items you have for them to sketch.

They will need sketch paper or a sketchbook, and a pencil. Then add mixed media…charcoal, colored pencil, watercolor, etc. to the mix.

Some elem. schools in Minnesota have nature specialists within their buildings.. They have snow shoes for students to go tracking…skulls to study, owl pellets, animal homes(nests, burrows), etc.

Nature in the Art Room Encourage students to design research by sketching an

entry for one of the national nature design contests.

One nature contest is FISH ON for 4-12th grade students.

Drawing state fish, write a one page paper about the fish characteristics, habitat, and conservation ideas.

Wildlifeforever.org state fish art contest.

Fish On CD for each participant…

Something easy for you to begin with:

Nature in the Art Room MORE national nature design contests.

When focusing on architecture, be sure to discuss animal homes designs. (incorporate honeybee comb constructions, spider web design, nest building, tunneling ideas, etc.)

www.fs.fed.us/outdoors/naturewatch/.../NWF-Animal-Homes.PDF

What can we learn from nature may save nature.

http://www.fs.fed.us/outdoors/naturewatch/.../NWF-Animal-Homes.PDF







Some local Home Builders Associations may have contests for drawing to be displayed and judged at your local home and garden shows.

Animal homes could be the basis for learning about ways to draw “If I Could Build a House” type contests in your area.

Nature in the Art Room Students could work online with virtual natural materials

at this site:

Nature in the Art Room Websites to find nature items, activities:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/rc/fieldbooks/

http://botany.si.edu/DCFlora/kidspage/index2.htm

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/botany/index.html

Cited:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/rc/fieldbooks/

http://botany.si.edu/DCFlora/kidspage/index2.htm

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/botany/index.html

Nature in the Art Room Resources for Nature Presentation:

http://www.exploringnature.org/pages/references.php

http://www.botany.si.edu/botart/

http://www.smithsonianconference.org/shout/vgf-natural-history/

Cited:

http://www.exploringnature.org/pages/references.php

http://www.botany.si.edu/botart/

http://www.smithsonianconference.org/shout/vgf-natural-history/





REVIEW:

Nature in the Art Room Review: We learned some helpful drawing methods

and ways to bring nature into your art classroom. We listened to wildlife artists.

Now it’s up to you~ you can reconnect with nature in the art room.

You are the “Connection” between students and nature.






REVIEW: