Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Carter, and I'm gonna be guiding you through today's lesson.

We're going to be looking at the presence of nature in art, and I bet when you think about it, you can think of all sorts of art that includes nature.

And we're gonna really think about why artists have been inspired by nature and how that can come into their art.

I mean, they need you to really have a go at everything that we are doing.

Have a try every task, at every question, and we're going to do some fantastic learning and come out with some wonderful outcomes.

Let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to say, "I can create art that is inspired by nature using traditional materials and natural elements." So to do our learning today, there are a few keywords we need to feel super comfortable with.

So the first one is observation.

Observation is when we are looking, noticing, and paying attention to something carefully.

Organic.

You might be thinking organic is something that you've heard about in supermarkets or to do with food, but actually in art, organic means shapes that do not have straight lines and that they're shapes that are found in nature.

Geometric.

So geometric again is a word you're probably quite comfortable with.

In art, we use the term geometric just like you do in maths to talk about shapes that have uniform measurements that do not necessarily appear in nature.

And record, so this is in art a way to document ideas, observations, and creative processes for future reference or reflection.

Can you think of any ways that you record in your art lessons? Our lesson's got two learning cycles today.

We're gonna start with drawing from nature and we're going to then move on drawing with nature.

Let's get started drawing from nature.

Nature has inspired artists throughout history, and these students have been discussing it.

Izzy shares, "Some artists paint outside.

It's called en plein air." Sam shares, "Some photographers also use nature as a starting point." And Jake further adds, "Some artists draw from natural still lives." Can you think of any other ways that artists have been inspired by nature? Okay, check for understanding.

True or false, nature has only inspired historic artists? Pause the video and decide if you think that statement is true or false.

Well done if you said false.

And why is that? Nature has inspired artists throughout history, including many artists working currently today.

Nature continues to be an ongoing theme in artworks, in many artworks.

Some artists who've been inspired by nature include Kate Atkins, who's known for her detailed drawings of natural forms. Ellen Gallagher employs drawings and painting of natural forms in her work.

Hurvin Anderson and Ebony G Patterson developed their recording of nature into vibrant paintings.

And Brice Marden drew using sticks to create natural forms in his work.

Artists can record from nature through many skills including drawing and sketching, photography, painting experiments, printmaking, or rubbings.

Have you undertaken any of those activities? Artists record natural forms to document ideas, observations, and creative processes.

This can be a playful experimentation or a focused effort for close observation.

Which type of recording do you think this drawing is? So do you think that the artist has been really playful and experimental, or do you think they've really focused on the drawing to look really carefully at that natural form? Okay, check for understanding.

Which are the most accurate reasons an artist records natural forms? Is it A, to create exact replicas of nature only? Is it B, to document ideas, observations, and creative processes? Is it C, to experiment playfully? Or is it D, to limit their creative response? Pause the video and decide which of these reasons you think are the most accurate reasons for an artist to record natural forms. How did you get on? Well done if you said to document ideas, observations, and creative processes, and to experiment playfully.

There can be more than one reason why an artist would choose to record from a natural form.

Close observation allows artists to gain a deeper insight into their subject.

Artists may record the same object or item many times in different ways.

You can see here this is the same shell as in that first pencil sketch that I showed you, but the artist has chosen to turn it and look from a different angle and use a different approach.

So lots of hatching and expressive marks here and they've chosen to use a pen rather than a pencil.

This would increase the artist's understanding of the object and they're gonna feel much more confident with that form, that three-dimensional shape.

This drawing records the shell with a focus on close observation.

The artist has used shapes to create accurate forms. So we've got organic shapes there, you see those ellipses, and then geometric shapes.

And you can see that those have been used to create like a structure.

They're not perfect triangles and rectangles in the real, in the final drawing, but that really helps an artist to determine the exact structure that they're trying to draw initially without having to think about all of the detail.

Complex natural objects can be hard to draw.

By starting with basic shapes like circles, ovals, rectangles, artists can focus on the basic structure first, making it easier to build up this drawing step by step.

So if you imagine the drawing wasn't there and you start with those two ovals and circles or ellipses, and then you add those geometric shapes, which are simplified versions of those sort of spike formations coming out of the shell, you'd be left with something a little bit like this, which looks tiny bit random, but actually it's giving you a lot of information.

We know the proportion, so how big that ellipse and that circle need to be to each other, and then the positioning of all of those spikes.

Before we've had to think about, "Well, are they a little bit curvy? Where's the shadow on those objects?" So there's a lot of information the artists can use.

They can then add a little bit more of that detail, still using relatively basic lines and shapes.

And you can see here with those green lines, that really helps us to understand where those shapes are.

And you can see where the structure of those rectangles and triangles has been used.

So we're gonna do another check for understanding.

I'm gonna start with an I do.

So organic and geometric shapes can be used to draw this shell.

You can see those shapes there.

And I would use a great big oval in that large centre section of the shell and then rectangles to form those extra sort of spiral sections coming off the shell.

And a triangle at the very tip and a triangle at the bottom to give me those shapes.

Now it's your turn.

What shapes can you identify in this shell? Pause the video and decide what you think the answer is.

You might like to quickly sketch out what the basic shapes are that you would use to create this shell.

How did you get on? Did you find that you need to sketch it out or could you just do it in your mind? It really depends what works best for you, and both ways is absolutely fine.

You may have noticed the geometric shape of the triangle, that long pointy triangle going off to the left-hand side, as well as the organic curves of the opening of the shell.

We've also got the oval that helps us map the structure of that shell.

Okay, so for our first practise task, you are going to draw using close observation to record a line drawing of a shell.

And I've provided some images of shells here for you, but if you have something real in front of you, you can use that as well.

You can use organic and geometric shapes to create the form, so thinking about that structure.

You could begin by sketching the component shapes.

You could vary the weight of line to create emphasis.

So that means pressing down really firmly when you want a thicker, darker line or pressing very, very softly when you get a light line.

I would always recommend starting with a really soft gentle line.

It allows you to draw multiple lines and work out which one's the most effective, but also then to remove those lines when you've determined exactly the shapes that you want.

And if you remember that example, some of those ovals and triangles are not featured in the final outcome.

So drawing really lightly because you're planning to remove isn't because you think you're gonna make a mistake, it's because you are anticipating wanting to remove some of those lines.

You could also add mark-making to create texture in your design.

Pause the video and get started making your close observation to record a line drawing of a shell.

Now that you've done your outline, what I'd like you to do is use close observation to add tone to your line drawing of a shell, which will begin to create form, so that means it'll begin to make it look three dimensional.

In drawing, we use tone to create the illusion of three dimension.

And you can see here in the GIF, I've done a couple of different ways that you could build up that tone.

So one way is to increase the pressure, and you can see that the straight line, one way the pressure's been increased.

Or in the other version, which is crosshatching, I've changed the direction of the line marks and built up.

So the more pencil marks I put onto my paper, the more I'm covering the white of the paper and increasing that dark tone.

You can use either or both and combine them.

And you can see I've added all that information there.

So you could add shading to create tone, use pressure to create tone, and vary the direction of the lines with crosshatching to create tone.

So there's lots of options of how you can include tone in your work.

Pause the video and start adding shading to create that form on your shell line drawing.

How did you get on? Are you proud of your drawing? Well done.

You might have a drawing that looks a little bit like this.

And Aisha shares, "You can still see my geometric shapes lightly in my sketch, which I used to help me record an accurate form of my shell.

I found I had to think hard when undertaking close observation." Aisha is completely right.

It often requires quite a lot of choices.

You're thinking about what shape you're creating, how big that shape is.

It's actually quite a lot of deciding.

Or you might have a drawing like this.

And Alex shares, "I've been able to use an organic, almost oval shape to record the form.

I was also able to start adding in shading to create tone and a 3D appearance." And it looks to me like he's focused on using pressure to increase the darkness of the tone in the places where he would like the shadow to be darker.

Did you manage to get onto shading? Okay, so we're moving on to our second cycle to drawing with nature.

Artists can playfully experiment when they're recording nature.

How can you be playful when you are recording? What do you think? Well, Andeep shares, "We could work with short time limits to stay quick and loose." So if we've only got 30 seconds to do a drawing, you're gonna have to do it really, really quickly, and that'll loosen up.

You haven't got the same time to make all those decisions that Aisha was talking about previously.

Laura adds, "You could try drawing in a different way, like with your other hand." So if your dominant hand is your right hand, you could draw with your left, or vice versa.

And that's gonna reduce the amount of control you've got, which allows you to be a bit more playful with what you are making.

And Jun shares, "Maybe you could try using different materials to record." Okay, true or false, artists only record nature using close observation? Pause the video and decide if you think that that statement is true or false.

Well done.

How did you get on? Great work if you said that that was false.

And this is because artists can be playful when they're recording nature as well as undertaking close observation in their recording.

Recording playfully causes artists to create unexpected outcomes, which can reinvigorate their work.

This example has been done using their non-dominant hand.

So it's a right-handed artist who's drawn with their left hand.

And they've been able to achieve unexpected lines and marks.

If their dominant hand is used to drawing close observation, using their non-dominant hand just takes that away a little bit and it's really unexpected and really interesting, those lines that have been produced.

Artists can use natural forms as tools to draw with.

What natural form might have been used as a drawing tool for this artwork? This drawings been made by dipping a stick into ink.

How's the mark-making different than created with traditional pens, like a drawing pen? Drawing with stick and ink can create unexpected mark-making.

Have a look at these examples.

So these are tests of mark-making using stick and ink.

What did you notice about this mark-making? So a range of lined thicknesses have been created, and this is to do with the thickness of the stick itself, the width of it.

And you may find, especially if it's a natural stick, there might be even just by rotating it, you might get different thicknesses.

You might be able to produce a soft texture when the ink started to dry on the stick.

If you've used the stick multiple times and it's got lots of ink in, some will have soaked into the wood of the stick.

And as it starts to dry of the very wet ink on the outside, you may still be able to record some marks, and you can see those very soft ones have been produced at that stage.

The ink gradually runs out as the line is being drawn.

So you can see where the artist has started and achieved these much thicker, darker marks.

And then the ink has started to run out, they've continued to draw.

And you can also achieve splodges of ink that have been dragged across the paper by the stick.

They're spontaneous and unexpected marks, and it's something that the artist can't necessarily anticipate but might be able to learn to employ.

Okay, check for understanding.

True or false, drawing with stick and ink can create unexpected mark-making? Pause the video and decide if you think that that statement is true or false.

Well done if you said true.

This is because using a stick means that we have an organic form to work with, which means we'll gain unexpected mark-making.

You might even find that you've been working with one stick and if you were to swap with another artist and use theirs, you would get completely different marks than the first ones that you achieved.

Okay, so for our second practise task, I would like you to be playful in your experimenting to test mark-making using a stick and ink.

You're going to experiment with using different parts of the stick.

You might have a thin pointy end, you might have a thicker section that was attached to a branch.

Test out all of those different sides.

Does it change if you rotate it in your hand? Vary the amounts of ink.

I would suggest starting by dabbing the ink off your stick so that you don't transfer too much, and then building it up as you start to understand how the ink is going to work on your stick.

When you are tapping it, always tap on the inside of the container you're using rather than the top so nothing splatters out.

Test a range of mark-making skills.

So think about all those different shapes that you've produced before.

You know, squiggles, zigzags, hatching, cross-hatching, stippling.

Try them all out and try them all out with all different parts of the stick.

And pause the video and have a go at that mark-making.

How did you get on? Did you find it was quite fun? I think experimenting like that can often be really enjoyable.

You might have something that looks a little bit like this.

Izzy shares, "I was pleased with how many different types of marks I've been able to achieve in 15 minutes.

I like the contrast between my bold, inky lines and the thin, wispy lines.

I could use that in my drawing." Have you noticed how Izzy's learned about her particular stick and the ink? And she can actually now know which part of the stick helps her produce what kind of marks.

For our next task, we're now going to use playful experimentation to record a shell using stick and ink.

You should use organic and geometric shapes to create the form.

You're gonna add mark-making to create texture.

And you'll consider what you learned from Task A as you work.

I highly recommend that you use the exact same shell that you worked at before.

You've already done a lot of that hard thinking in that close observation task, and you probably know the shell better now.

So producing a second drawing of the same shell allows you to test something new.

Pause the video and give yourself a little bit longer on this task than you did on the experimentation so that you can really test and employ all of those skills that you've learned in Task B1 and in Task A.

How did you get on? You might have something that looks a bit like this.

And Jacob shares, "I'm pleased with the form of my shell drawing as I created a 3D effect through curving my lines.

I've noticed unexpected double lines at the top of my shell." Look, here's a closeup version.

How do you think he produced that? I wonder if his stick had two different sections to it that both were able to touch the paper to produce that mark.

Was there anything unexpected about your drawing? In summary of our lesson, the presence of nature in art, we've learned that throughout history artists often turn to nature as inspiration.

Artists explore nature through representation as well as literally creating work with and in nature.

Close observation allows artists to gain deeper insight into their subject.

Playful experimentation causes artists to create unexpected outcomes which can reinvigorate their work.

And well done for all of your work today.

You've actually created a lot of work and done an awful lot of hard thinking.

You should be really proud of yourself.

Well done.

I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson.