If you want to develop a good habit, like a daily sketching practice, you must be convinced that it adds value to your life and is worth the time you invest. Previously we’ve explored some benefits to such a practice, including its calming, meditative aspect, and that it encourages healthy outdoor activity. The drawing process quiets and focuses the mind to be in the moment. Like meditation, juggling, or throwing pottery, it takes 100% of one’s focus so all other thoughts or worries get put on hold.
For today’s challenge, I’d like to open your eyes to yet another benefit, and perhaps the most important of all; that of learning new facts about your subject. This benefit is especially useful to those studying biology; whether they’re a 7th-grade student learning about plant life cycles or a field biologist documenting behavior patterns of a rare species.
The simple act of observing your subject over a sustained period will give you untold insights into its anatomy, behavior, ecology, and habitat, more than any other method.
Here’s an example
Close your eyes and imagine what an American Robin looks like (or any animal you’re familiar with.) Perhaps you’ll envision a rusty orange songbird on your lawn hunting for earthworms. In contrast, after you spend the time observing and sketching a robin (for example in a previous lesson of this challenge), you will likely be able to picture it in your mind’s eye much more clearly, as if it’s a cherished friend. You’ll remember its black and grey head, broken eye ring, and slate-colored back. Perhaps you’ll even remember even more subtle characteristics like the pale white streaks under its chin, its yellow bill that is tipped with black, and its white belly. And once you’ve sketched it, you’ll likely be able to tell it apart from similar species like the Varied Thrush, Wood Thrush or Orchard Oriole.
This is the value of sketching.
American Robins
I first discover the educational value of sketching in college, while pursuing my Master’s Degree in Biology. I struggled at first, being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material I was supposed to learn. But once I took a course in biological illustration as an elective, my life was forever changed. I incorporated what I learned into my biology lab classes and soon had journals filled with sketches and notes on all manner of subjects; from the internal organs of fetal pigs and dogfish sharks to the bones of mammals and the structures of invertebrates.
I sketched while looking through microscopes the parts of a cell and the life cycle of parasites. Almost immediately my grades improved and retention of the material endured. But most importantly, my understanding and appreciation for the organisms I studied soared.
This is the value of sketching.
Scientists have long known the value of drawing that which they study, and thus drawing classes were a regular part of the biology curriculum for centuries. Muir, Darwin, Lewis & Clark, Audubon; they all drew for understanding, and to document as fact all the discoveries they were making as they sailed the seas to uncharted lands.
My favorite example is Maria Sibylla Merien, a bold and independent woman from the Netherlands who lived in the 17th century. She ventured far and wide, drawing and painting the natural world. She spent years in the South American jungle and illustrated phenomena previously unknown, or misunderstood, by science. In her book, Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname published in 1705, she proved through sustained observation and memorialized in her detailed paintings, that butterflies and moths go through a complex life cycle that includes an egg, caterpillar, pupa, and winged adult. This was quite revolutionary at the time when many believed that insects sprang fully formed from the earth and that these life stages all belonged to different species. 300 years later, her work is still admired and respected, in fact, a retrospective of her work was recently displayed in her hometown of Amsterdam.
What nature teaches us through sketching
Check out some example below of all that nature can teach us through sketching her beauty. Broad categories include anatomy, behavior, ecological relationships, habitat, life cycles and empathy.
- Anatomy: such as how to identify a mushroom that’s edible vs poisonous by noticing the structure of its gills or color of its spores.
- Behavior: such as how the carnivorous sundew plant slowly entangles its prey with sticky glue and roles its leaf around the struggling insect.
- Ecological Relationships: such as noticing that a certain butterfly prefers to nectar and lay its eggs upon a certain type of wildflower.
- Habitat: such as how alders and willows prefer a moist stream-side habitat, while pines prefer the drier uplands.
- Life cycles: such as when one sketches the unique life stages of a moth as Maria Sibylla Merian did.
- Empathy: Once you spend the time to draw an organism, you invariably gain a greater appreciation, understanding, and empathy for its life. I can almost guarantee that if you sketch something you dislike or fear, perhaps a house spider or garden bug, your attitude towards that critter may change from previously wanting to kill it, to perhaps choosing not to use toxic insecticide around your home.
Today’s challenge:
1) Choose any real subject (not a photograph) to draw for this exercise, preferably something you aren’t already too familiar with. Before you begin to observe and sketch it, review what you already know about it with a list.
2) Now observe your subject for at least 5 minutes before picking up your pencil. Verbalizing to yourself what you see; its shapes, patterns, colors, textures and (if alive), its behavior.
3) Next, complete a sketch of your subject.
4) Now write down the new things you learned about your subject through the process of observing and sketching it.
- Extra credit: Post a description or photo of your sketch and/or what you learned on our Facebook page.
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