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Drawing Plants From Imagination

In this lesson, you will draw an extraordinary plant from your imagination using lines, shapes and visual textures.

You will need:

1 sheet of white paper, �9 x 12” or 12 x 18”�An Ebony or regular pencil

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Drawing Plants From Imagination: Creating Our Own Plant

What does it mean to draw from imagination? How is it different than drawing from observation, or from photos?

How can we use what we learned while observing natural objects and drawing plants from photos to create our own imaginary plant?

There are different ways that we can�create our own plant.

We can combine feature from different plants. We can also exaggerate the characteristics of plants, making them bigger or making more of them.

Luigi Serafini, from Codex Seraphinianus, 1981�https://www.scaruffi.com/museums/serafini/index.html

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Drawing Plants From Imagination: Imagining With the 5 Senses (1)

Let’s explore ideas for your imaginary plant using our 5 senses!

How will your plant look?

What distinctive features will it have? Will you repeat or exaggerate any of them? Is your plant tall or wide?

Is it growing upwards or outwards? �What kind of stems, roots, seeds or leaves does it have? How many?

How will your plant feel if you touch it? How will you draw this visual texture?

Melita Couta. Untitled. 2014, Colored pencils on tissue paper, 29 X 42 cm.

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Drawing Plants From Imagination: Imagining With the 5 Senses (2)

How do you imagine it �might smell?

Is there a part you can taste?

Does it have fruit or flowers?

Can it make a sound?

Melita Couta. Untitled. 2014, Colored pencils on tissue paper, 29 X 42 cm.

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Drawing Plants From Imagination: Composition and Shapes

Where on your page will you draw your plant? Will your drawing paper be vertical or horizontal?

How big do you need to draw your plant to fill your paper? Which part of the plant will you focus on?

What kinds of shapes will you use to draw your plant? What kind of lines will make the edges of these shapes?

Start by drawing the largest parts of your plant, using light lines.

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Drawing Plants From Imagination: Adding Details and Visual Texture

What details and visual textures will you add? �How many?

Remember that you can combine features from different plants, exaggerate parts of the plant, or make more of them, to make your plant extraordinary!

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Reflection

What lines, shapes, details and visual textures did you use in your drawing?

What distinctive features �did you add to your plant?

How did you make your �plant imaginary?

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Vocabulary

Imagination

Exaggerate

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Remote Arts Learning Partnership

Module One �

Studio in a School NYC Project Team

Julie Applebaum, Senior Director

Belinda Blum

Andrea Burgay

Traci Talasco

Graphic Design

Don Giordano

Cover image: Luigi Serafini, from Codex Seraphinianus, 1981 https://www.scaruffi.com/museums/serafini/index.html

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