Visual arts: proposition on the tree issue
1st approach: drawing and painting
1st step: observation, study and drawing
observation and study:
What must be done here is to bring the children outside the workroom to meet trees in their nearby environment or in an area where they will discover lots of different species of trees. The aim is to confront these “living creatures” which are altogether different and similar to human bodies in their features and behaviour.
If a tree is a living creature, then he breathes, he wants to live, he gives life and sometimes death, he suffers, he may be hungry, cold happy.........
Through questions and answers, during the walk, the children’s attention will be focused on the elements that will justify and confirm the tree’s behaviour.
For example: how does a tree find his own food? How does he breathe? What does he wear? How is he when it is cold or hot? Or when it snows? Etc....
The instructor will organise his quiz in relation with the children he is in charge of, taking into account the orientation of his excursions.
The study could also be made both on the aerial and the underground parts of the tree to discover the importance, the functioning and the role of each part, as we would do if we studied the functioning of the human body.
The best solution would be to organise outings. If it is not possible, you will have to find interesting videos on trees’ behaviour and have them seen by the children.
NB: the instructor must have a complete documentation on trees to be able to answer the children’s questions accurately. (a lot of information can be found on internet)
drawing
During the working sessions, the children will be able to make one or more drawings in a drawing notebook helped by the answers to their questions.
According to his personality, the child will draw the part of the tree corresponding to the tree’s character or behaviour (IE nutrition = roots, breath = leaves and bark, sap = blood, arms = branches etc....)
This exercise is repeated for each different tree studied by the children.
What is worth pointing out here is that the drawings made by the children will all be different even if they start with the same knowledge and they will constitute an important picture library.
Caution: it is vitally important to let the children draw according to their observation and imagination
2nd step: composition
1st orientation: creation of a tree
Using the sketches made in their notebooks, the children will be lead to make a bigger composition of a bigger size (paper or canvas). So making a composition means gathering the different drawings on a paper to rebuild a tree, several trees, or a whole forest
caution: you must not oblige the child to represent a tree according to its real shape (aerial and underground parts) but to let him create his own tree. Anyway the different parts of his drawing will correspond to the real elements which constitute a real tree. He will be able to mix his different drawings as he wishes. Consequently, the composition could be one tree ,or several trees on an horizontal, vertical or oblique line or with various forms.
2nd orientation: drawing with a theme
The main theme being the study of a tree, then the sub-themes can be defined for each shape: the life of the tree, the breathing of the tree, the clothes of the tree.
Then the child will only use the drawing corresponding to the sub-theme.
3rd step: painting
The instructor will lead the children to draw their own drawing according to the available means.
1st suggestion:
a) ask each child to use the same colour as the colour the tree has in nature, to cover the different parts of his composition.
b) Choose colours to cover the places which are not part of his composition, or to create landscapes around.
Second approach : collage
This approach can be divided into 3 steps.
1st step: gathering of magazines and newspapers on trees.
The instructor will have to collect as many magazines and newspapers as possible and also to invite the children to do the same and bring what they have found to the group.
2nd step: cutting up
Define the elements to be cut up in newspapers
Form 2 or 3 groups with the children: one group will have to cut up all the pictures of trees either partly or entirely; another group will cut up letters, words or phrases that will allow them to make texts about trees.
Required equipment: scissors to cut up, paper clips to gather pictures and texts according to their category, folders to classify the documents.
3rd step: collage
All the children will stick the documents according to 3 options:
1st option:
Stick the pictures on paper and make compositions (for example invert the parts of the tree)
2nd option:
Stick the pictures according to their category: the leaves, the trunks, the roots....
3rd option:
Stick some parts of trees and complete with freehand drawing.
Then the different sentences which have already been cut up will be stuck on or near the pictures according to the orientation or the message that needs to be transmitted.
Necessary equipment: large size paper, 350gr, glue, brushes, gouache and felt pens.
Guy Bolivar Djoya
(237) 77 55 19 41
BP: 40 Douala_Cameroun