SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION: Seeing to Draw, Drawing to See

 

Part 1: Looking Closely, Macroscopically

Drawing is not just a way of recording what you see, it’s a way of seeing. While you try to figure out how to make the marks that look like what is right before your eyes, you can’t help but notice extra details and how all the parts of the thing you are seeing relate to one another.

In science, we use biological drawings to share findings with others, to simplify complex images and make them easier to compare, and to look closely at an organism’s structure and functions.

 

Materials (one per student)

• leaf (or time outside to find leaves)
• 2 pieces of blank paper (each one can be half of a standard sheet)
• ruler
• sharp pencil
• clean eraser

 

Procedure

1. Choose a leaf to draw.
2. Without showing them the leaf, find a partner to draw it for you.
3. Working back-to-back, tell your partner every detail of your leaf, using your ruler as needed. Write down the details as you describe them. Here are some ideas:
4. Describe its size and shape.
   — Look for geometric patterns you can describe, like dots, straight edges, curved arcs, and repetitions.
   — Is one edge curvier than the others?
   — How much longer is this vein than that vein?
   — Are there any unusual features of the leaf?
   — How would you describe the texture, color, or different areas of dark and light?
   – How do different parts relate to one another?
   Your partner may ask clarifying questions. Write down your answers to their questions as details. Spend a few minutes giving your partner as many clues as you can for them to draw the leaf.
5. Switch roles: now you draw while your partner describes details of a leaf that you haven’t seen.
6. When both of you have finished describing and sketching, give each other the leaves. Compare your leaf to the drawing made by your partner. Are there things you could have described more precisely?

Now it’s your turn to draw your leaf with your own eyes and hands on a fresh piece of paper. You’ve just described the leaf in detail to your partner and written down the details on a piece of paper. Remember those details you shared with your partner, and incorporate those into your drawing. Here are some tips for your drawing:

• As you draw, try not to think about what the thing is that you are drawing. Draw what you see, not what you think you see. If you think about it being a leaf, you may draw it to look like all the cartoon images of leaves you’ve ever seen. Imagine you have no idea what it is. Treat the leaf like a fish or a butterfly, or even the map of a city.
• Add details, but not too much detail.
• Use sketchy lines only lightly to help place parts of the picture, and use bold, clear lines for your final drawing. Erase any sketchy lines as you finish.
• When you are done, add a title and labels.
• Measure the size of the leaf and the size of your drawing to calculate the scale or magnification of your diagram, and note it in one corner of the page.
• Write whether the view is a “top view” or a “bottom view.”

 

Part 2: A Closer Look: Drawing at the Microscopic Scale

 

Now we’ll use our drawing skills to record what we see in the microscopic world.

Your classroom may have various kinds of microscopes to use. There are traditional optical microscopes, digital microscopes, and attachments that can turn the camera in a phone or tablet into a microscope. Your teacher may also be able to provide you with a Foldscope. A Foldscope is a low-cost, easy-to-assemble microscope made mostly out of paper parts, designed at Stanford University for use around the world to look at the natural world and to help keep local communities healthy. Some designs of the Foldscope can also be used with a phone or tablet camera to take pictures or video.

 

Procedure

1. Open your lab notebook or this template in Google docs to take notes.
2. Look at a slide.
3. Describe in words what you observe through the microscope.
4. Draw what you observe through the microscope. Don't draw every detail. Look at the drawing below. It simplifies the image in the slide, showing only the edge of the cell and the nucleus.

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