Teaching field sketching and drawing plants

Back in early November, a full 3 months ago, I received an email from a PhD candidate at York University. She would be teaching an Introduction to Natural History class in the winter term and she invited me to give a presentation on natural science illustration, and to provide her class with drawing instruction so they would be able to record some plants at a greenhouse on campus.

My good buddy Imposter Syndrome jumped right up and did a full out dance performance with strobe lights and fireworks. It hadn't seen this much daylight in ages. With some support, I was eventually able to rein it in.

I considered that it was early November and that the presentation was scheduled for the end of January. November and December would be busy due to the Christmas rush, and it seemed like January would be more than enough time to assemble this presentation. Seems so reasonable right? But then life happened. My tenant moved out in December and the month of January was spent renovating, cleaning, and searching for new tenants. That search ended successfully on Jan 29. The day before the presentation.

Who was up until the wee hours timing her slides? Moi.

I think the presentation went well. I focused on field sketching and some botanical anatomy so they would have terms to describe what they saw. 

The students humoured me and participated in the warm ups and exercises I asked them to perform. I led them through considering the shapes found in plants and leaves, and in describing the characteristics of given plants. 

I wanted several sizes and types of tropical plants adjacent to each other so we could compare their characteristics and descriptions. It turns out that the perfect place to find this was the Ikea website!

They practiced lightly drawing basic shapes on their paper, then added in structure and detail to create realistic leaves. They produced some remarkable drawings during class. 

After this in-class section, we layered on our winter gear and trekked over to a greenhouse. This was one of the coldest days of the winter so far and York has many a wind tunnel. We were blasted with wind and snow. It was delightful change to be in a warm and humid greenhouse while winter howled outside. 

The students took their assignment seriously and got to work. I wandered around and occasionally asked them to describe to me what they were seeing. Sometimes that discussion led to an adjustment of the drawing they had created, and to additional notes on their pages. I was quite impressed with their effort and with the details they were discovering in plants that appeared nondescript at first pass.

Of course, I took the opportunity to gaze at, touch, stroke, and poke at every plant I could find. There was a tree that appeared dead at first. But on closer inspection, the very tips of its branches stated otherwise.

Signs of life

As we were in a greenhouse at a university, there were experiments happening as well. Another class was examining the effects of ethylene released by apples on the growth of a specific plant. Their data showed that ethylene slowed the growth of the plants significantly. The plant in question is a narcissus, commonly called Paperwhites. They had many extra bulbs on site so they sent everyone home with 2 of their own. Including me!

Here's hoping I can keep these alive until they bloom