Digital @ The Arts Unit Creative Classes - Fun with flowers

Digital @ The Arts Unit Creative Classes

Fun with flowers

Discover the creative and scientific art of botanical illustration and respond to drawing through poetry and music

Student visual arts, music and poetry writing resource developed by The Arts Unit

Year 5 and Year 6 visual arts

What will I learn?

You will:

examine the creative and scientific practice of botanical drawing
create a botanical illustration
write a cinquain poem
compose a piece of percussion music
practise your botanical illustration skills by adding colour to a drawing.

Welcome to the class

Duration: 00:31

Video full screen - Welcome to the class
Video transcript - Welcome to the class

Before you begin

You will need:

a variety of flowers which have been collected with stems and leaves attached and dried in a flower press or between some stacks of books
a set of graphite pencils 2B - 6B. Any lead pencil will do the trick if you don't have graphite pencils
A3 white cartridge paper. You could also use art paper or copy paper
eraser
watercolour pencils. You could also use watercolour paints or coloured pencils
percussion instruments (at least 3 different instruments). You could experiment with Chrome Music Lab if you do not have access to instruments.

Examine

The term botany is used to describe the scientific study of plants.

A botanical illustrator is an artist who creates accurate, scientific illustrations of plants that are mainly used for the study, analysis and understanding of plants and plant life. A botanical illustration accurately depicts the form, colour and details of the plant and they are often titled with a description. These illustrations allow the viewer to be able to accurately identify the plant from the illustration.

A botanical artist also often draws accurate images of plants and plant life. However, they add creativity and expression to their artwork to make it a more appealing and beautiful work of art. This might be the type of artwork you would find in your home or local gallery.

Watch the video MBT - Botanical Illustrator to learn more about being a botanical illustrator.

MBT - Botanical Illustrator

Duration: 05:18

Fun fact: World explorers, including Captain Cook, brought artists with them on their expeditions to record plants by painting and writing journal entries about them.

Here are 3 examples of botanical illustrations:

Time to think and respond ...

Do you think it would be interesting to be a botanical illustrator?

What would you enjoy about it?

What would be challenging?

Create

Look at the following 3 examples of botanical artworks created by students in the 2020 Operation Art exhibition! Haven't they done a great job!

Roses

Elissar SabihNuwarra Public School

The lost cactus

Ivy Horrigan-HopsonGosford East Public School

The beauty of spring

Yue GuCabramatta High School

Student watercolour drawings hydrangeas and hibiscus

Now it's your turn!

Watch the video tutorial - 'Step-by-step Line Drawing: Botanical Flower Art Tutorial' for some tips and tricks to help you with your drawing.

Step-by-step Line Drawing: Botanical Flower Art Tutorial

Duration: 07:09

Grab some cartridge paper, graphite pencils and the dried pressed flowers you prepared earlier.
Use your eyes to closely observe the shapes, sizes and proportions of your flower.
Start drawing!

We can't wait to see your botanical artwork!

Adding colour to your artwork

Now it's time to add some colour!

Photocopy your original black and white botanical drawing.

Watch the video How to Use Watercolor Pencils - Techniques and Demonstration and follow the instructions on how to add colour to your original drawing.

Using water colour pencils (or water colour paints or other colouring pencils you have available) colour in your photocopied version of your botanical drawing.

We can't wait to see your finished creation!

How to Use Watercolor Pencils - Techniques and Demonstration

Duration: 18:37

Write a cinquain poem

Now it's time to use words to poetically describe your botanical illustration!

Let's have a look at the structure of a cinquain poem.

A cinquain poem has 5 lines in total:

Line 1: One word giving the title (noun).

Line 2: Two words describing the title (adjectives).

Line 3: Three words that express action (verbs).

Line 4: Four words that express feeling or describe more (adjectives).

Line 5: One word that gives the title a different name (synonym).

Here is an example of a cinquain poem about a rose:

Rose

pretty, pink

blossoming, breath-taking, billowing

making the air fragrant

flower

Now it is your turn!

Have a go at writing a cinquain poem about the flower from your botanical artwork.

Be sure to use descriptive language to help make your poem more interesting and engaging.

Flower

Stephanie TruongCabramatta High School

Below are some words which may help you describe your botanical illustration:

Abloom, abundant, amazing, aromatic, arranged, assorted, beautiful, blooming, blossoming, botanical, bountiful, breathtaking, bright, brilliant, budding, captivating, cheerful, dazzling, delicate, delightful, divine, dramatic, dreamy, elegant, enchanted, exotic, expressive, exquisite, extravagant, festive, flowering, fragrant, kissed, large, lasting, long stemmed, lovely, magical, natural, new, open, ornamental, pastel, precious, pretty, radiant, ravishing, smell, spikey, scented, seasonal, sensational, sentimental, silky-smooth, soft, special, spectacular, stunning, sun-kissed, timeless, touching, tropical, unique, unusual, Vibrant, whimsical, wonderful, wild, year-round.

Extension activity

Time to make some noise ...

You will need:

One pressed flower or flower arrangement
Some different percussion instruments
Blank paper
Pencils

A group of percussion instruments including maracas, tambourine, tapping sticks and triangle.

Watch and listen to the following 4 videos of percussion instruments. Think about what they sound like. Write down words that express the sounds these instruments make.

1. Triangle instrument sound effect

Duration: 01:15

2. Castanet sound - sound effect

Duration: 00:37

3. Rain stick sound effect

Duration: 00:29

4. Wood block percussion sound

Duration: 00:35

Follow these instructions:

You can do this activity on your own or you might like to split into groups of about 4 students.

Select a dried flower or floral arrangement.
Brainstorm different adjectives which describe different parts of the flower you selected. For example: petals are soft and smooth, stem is long and rigid, thorns are hard and spiky, leaves are jagged and curled.
From the percussion instruments you have available, select some instruments which make sounds that could be described in the same way as the parts of the flower or floral arrangement.

Starting from the top of the flower and working your way down.
Play the instruments to match the different parts of the flowers.
You may like to record on a piece of paper when each instrument will play.
Some instruments may need to play at the same time. For example: If the leaves come off the stem these two instruments which demonstrate the long and rigid, and jagged and curled sounds may play at the same time for some of the time.
Once you have composed and played your piece, repeat it like a pattern.

You could also experiment with percussion instruments in Chrome Music Lab - Songmaker.

This would be particularly useful if you are doing this task by yourself or have limited access to percussion instruments.