Middle School Studio Lesson
to
From
Lollipops
V-Trees

Madison, grade six.

Art educators know all too well that teaching kids how to “see” the world around them and render life as they see it is a monumental task. Many stu- dents, when left to their own devices, even at the sixth-grade level, still draw familiar symbols for common objects because it is in their comfort zone to do so, and because it is easier and faster. The famous “lollipop tree,” a green circle shape attached to the top of a brown stick, is a fine example. Kids are always in such a hurry! This lesson slows them down and expands their knowledge at the same time. Laura Reichert

Studying Trees

We began by looking at actual trees outside. Students noticed their half-buried, gnarled roots and sturdy trunks near the ground, and compared those to the daintiest outermost limbs at the tops of the tall oak trees in our neighborhood. They noticed, too, that if trees are nearer, they look larger and more detailed than trees off in the distance.

Back in the classroom, we discussed key terms related to this activity: foreground, middle ground, background, realistic landscape, abstract landscape, value, contrast, overlapping, solid, and textured. We then looked for evidence of these in works of art. We defined perspective as the method of showing the illusion of distance on a flat piece of paper.

Practicing Perspective Students put their understanding of perspective into practice by placing a

piece of paper in a horizontal format and lightly drawing three horizontal lines indicating three levels of ground on the bottom third of their paper. These would eventually become the foreground, middle ground, and background in the final composition.

On scrap paper, students practiced drawing a simplified and abstract version of a tree using the letter “V” as the branching off point for each limb. Yes, this too is a symbolic way of drawing trees, but I used this activity as a bridge between the lollipop tree mentality and the higher-level direct observation of actual trees. Experience has taught me that as students grow they become more aware of their surroundings, and when they frequently draw from observation, the gap between symbolism and reality diminishes.

Drawing a Landscape of Trees

I asked students to return to their
larger drawing paper and lightly pen-
cil in a landscape that included a min-
imum of three trees, one each in the
foreground, middle ground, and back-
ground. As the drawings progressed,
tree limbs reached out to each other,
sometimes overlapping, and the com-
positions became full and interesting.
Once the trees were drawn, students
outlined their pencil lines with ultra-
fine black permanent markers.