My Visual Artist

Leonardo da Vinci

    For ny Arts IDP, I chose Leonardo da Vinci as my visual artist because I find his paintings and also his life very interesting. His real name was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. He was born on 15th of April 1452. He was from Italy and besides being an artist, he was also an Italian polymath, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and a writer. But mostly, I chose him because he was a painter, a really good one. He is widely considered as one of the greatest painter of all time and perharps, the most diversely talented person ever to have lived in this world.

Mona Lisa

    Two of his famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied potrait and religious paintings of all time. I bet you're wondering what did I meant by the most parodied potrait right? Well, it means that his paintings especially the Mona Lisa is always being copied by people in the current century which we are living right now, and a lot of people imitate and change the picture, example like the face maybe, to another face but in a funny way, like the one with Mr. Bean's face and a lots more.

    Well, let's not talk more about his paintings first. Let's get to that later. His life, I bet you're wondering, even though he's famous all that, not every one knows about his life right? So let me tell you about it a little, okay? Well, you already know from up there that Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on the 15th of April 1452. He was born in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River in Florence. He was the son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruasino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine notary and Caterina, a peasant.

    In his early life, he had spent five years in the hamlet of Anchiano in the home of his beloved mother, then lived in the household of his father, grandparent and uncle, Francesco, in the small town of Vinci. His father married a young sixteen-year old girl named Albiera, who loved Leonardo dearly but died young. Leonardo received an education in Latin about Geometry and Mathematics.

    When Leonardo was sixteen, his father remarried with a twenty-year old Francesca Lanfredini. And for your information, Leonardo's father remarried quite a lot of times, maybe around three to four times. Well, in later life, Leonardo had two childhood incidents. The first one was when a kite had dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle, its tail brushing his face. Well, it wasn't that serious but it's still called an incident, right? The second one happened when Leonardo was exploring in the mountains and he discovered a cave and he was both terrified and curious to go in, so he went in.

The Last Supper

    Leonardo died at Clos Luce, on the 2nd of May, 1519. Some twenty years later after his death, Francis, one of his close friends was reported by a scultor, Benevenuto Cellini saying: "There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculptures and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher."

    Among of all his works, Mona Lisa or "la Gioconda" was the most famous paintings and also the laughing one, believe it or not. The picture of Mona Lisa was so detailed and the smile on her face was one of the things that made the painting very famous in the present era. During his years of life, he made a lot of paintings inspired by the people around him and the environment around him. He even kept a journal with him along the way. He's like a legend. Oh wait, he is a legend. His paintings are just so great and everyone knows that and that's why he's one of the most famous painters of all time.

source: wikipedia

Threats for Reproduction in Taiga

A number of wildlife species threatened or endangered with extinction can be found in the Canadian Boreal forest, including woodland caribou, American black bear, grizzly bear and wolverine. Habitat loss, mainly due to logging, is the primary cause of decline for these species.


Due to climate, carnivorous diets are inefficient means of obtaining energy; energy is limited, and most energy is lost between trophic levels. Predatory birds (owls and eagles) and other smaller carnivores, including foxes and weasels, feed on the rodents. Larger carnivores, such as lynx and wolves, prey on the larger animals. Omnivores, such as bears and raccoons are fairly common, sometimes picking through human garbage.

Interdependence of Organisms in Taiga

The boreal forest, or taiga, supports a large range of animals. Canada’s boreal forest includes 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish, and an estimated 32’000 species of insects. Insects play a critical role as pollinators, decomposers and as part of the food chain; many nesting birds rely on them for food.


The cold winter and short summers make the taiga a challenging biome for reptiles and amphibians, which depend on environmental conditions to regulate their body temperatures, and there are only a few species in the boreal forest. Some hibernate underground in winter.

Survival of Life Forms in Taiga

The taiga is a home to a number of large herbivorous mammals, such as moose and reindeer/caribou. There is also a range of rodent species, including beaver, squirrel, mountain hare, snowshoe hare and vole. Some of the larger mammals, such as bears, eat heartily during the summer in order to gain weight, and then go into hibernation during the winter. Other animals have adapted layers of fur or feathers to insulate them from the cold.


More than 300 species of birds have their nesting grounds in the taiga. This includes Siberian Thrush, White-throated Sparrow and Black-throated Green Warbler; migrate to this habitat to take advantage of the long summer days and abundance of insects found around the numerous bogs and lakes. Of the 300 species of birds that summer in taiga, only 30 stay for the winter. These are either carrion-feeding or large raptors that can take live mammal prey, including Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Buzzard, and Raven, or else seed eating birds, including several species of grouse and crossbills.

1. Flora

Due to the harsh environmental conditions, not many plants can survive in the taiga biome. The common plants found in taiga are coniferous trees or evergreen with long, thin and waxy leaves. The needle-shaped leaves reduce water loss and protect from weighing down by snow. These plants grow very close to each other, as an adaptation to protect from the cold snow and wind. Other than these plants, lichens and mosses are also found in the taiga biome.

•  Balsam fir

It is a medium-sized conifer that grows up to the height of 80 feet. The leaves are dark green above and white below, short, flat with a distinct curve and rounded at the tip. The barks of balsam tree are smooth and gray in color and source of food for deer, moose and squirrels.

• Jack pine

The jack pine tree grows to about 27 meters tall and the base almost similar to the height. Young jack pine has reddish colored barks, whereas an older tree has gray barks, branches are long, slender that bears needle leaves. Leaves and pinecones of jack pine are a source of food for the rodent.

The leaves are sharp, bark is rough, thick and gray-brown in color and pinecones are major source of food.

In addition, other deciduous trees found in the taiga biome include birch, alder and aspen. Majority of taiga plants are adapted with thick barks.

   2. Fauna

Similar to the plants, the animals that can adapt to long winter and moderate simmer seasons are found in the taiga biome. Taiga animals have thick furs and other special adaptations. Most of them migrate to nearby areas during the snowfalls and food scarcity. Following are some common animals found in the taiga biome.

•  Long-eared owl

Long-eared owl is medium-sized and measures to about 35 cm in length. Interestingly, one ear is about half times bigger than the other. This is an adaptation to hunt better in the dark conditions. Despite the name, this owl does not have long ears; rather it has long feathers in the head portion that appears like ears.

• Snowshoe rabbit

Snowshoe rabbit is named so, as the toes can spread out resembling like a snowshoe. The coat color is grayish brown in summer that turns into snow white during the winter, which helps them to protect from the predators such as wolf and lynx.

•  Gray wolf

It is the biggest canine. Gray wolf has rough and woolly fur coat that may be white, gray, brown or black in color that provides insulation during the cold winter seasons. The long legs and large paws help them to travel in the areas covered with thick snow and a sharp hearing and smelling sense with reflective retina. They hunt in groups and feed on moose, deer, caribou and other weak animals.

General Condition of Taiga

There are four seasons in the taiga. The winters are long, cold, and dry, and there is very little sunlight. Precipitation falls as rain during summer and as snow during winter.

In the winter the taiga is covered in a heavy blanket of snow with frozen lakes and subzero temperatures for 6-7 months. In winter the taiga is tilted away from the sun. There are a few hours of sun in the middle of the day, but it is mostly dark.

                                                                    Winter in Taiga

In the spring the geese and water flow start to return, animals go to the marshes and lakes, and ice starts to return, animals go to the marshes and lakes, and ice starts to melt. Summer is a heat wave that lasts 3-4 months.

                                                                     Spring in Taiga
In fall water, spongy moss, and oozing mud turns to ice hardened ground. The sunlight has a great effect on the taiga. In the summer the light is more direct. The northern hemisphere tilts toward the sun during the summer. In these warm months the taiga can have sunlight for up to 24 hours per day.

Amount of Rainfall receives in a year

It can vary from 12-13 inches per year.

Amount of Sunlight receives in a year

Its amount of sunlight is roughly about 3 months. It gives the plants more heat and melted snow to make them grow.
 

The Geographical Location of Taiga
Taiga is located between 50 degrees latitude north and the Arctic Circle.

Info about Taiga

Taiga, also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.

Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome and covers: in North America most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States (especially northern Minnesota, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin, Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine); and in Eurasia most of Sweden, Finland, inland Norway, much of Russia (especially Siberia), northern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia, and northern Japan (on the island of Hokkaidō).

The term boreal forest is sometimes, particularly in Canada, used to refer to the more southerly part of the biome, while the term taiga is then often used to describe only the more barren areas of the northernmost part of the taiga approaching the tree line.

Hey Everyone! :)

When you see someone, you'll always greet 'hello' or 'hey' or 'hi' or 'what's up' or all those greetings right? Well, you got that right.. So, HEY EVERYONE!!!!! (wow, that's loud) hahaha... :D I'm weird... LOL... Anyway, if you're wondering who am I, I'm just an ordinary girl who's trying to survive my damn life with all the conflicts of the IDPs... Bet you're wondering what the hell is IDP right? haha.. Thought so.. IDP is Inter-disciplinary Project which me and my classmates are busy doing right now, bursting our heads with all of the things we need to do, and bring and do and... well, you got me.. :D Whoa, with all the talking up there, I haven't even introduce myself yet. Oooopsie.. My name is Ainin Sofiya and I'm an ordinary girl who's studying in Singapore International School, Bona Vista in Jakarta, Indonesia. People sometimes call me Nin, some of them even call me Sofiya, but mostly, in general, they call me Ainin...

Must be wondering why I'm here right? Well, I'm here to talk about my IDP.. Yeah, I know, weird right? I mean, who would even talk about their projects in their blogpage? Isn't blogpage suppose to be somekind of place where you tell about your feelings and your life, you know.. Like a diary except we don't write it on a book but we type it in the computer? hahaha... I mean, who even do that? Write about your projects in your blogpage? Ohhh, I know, weird people, like us!

So let's talk about my IDP now.. This semester's IDP consist of 4 different subjects with 1 specific topic or theme and the 4 subjects are:

• Arts & Design
• English
• Computer / IT
• Science

The main title for this project is 'The Art of Science, man's response to nature's call'.. We have to make a blogpage out of it, which I'm doing right now, and we have to report everything we do for each subject in this blogpage, so as you guys (whoever's reading this) go through this blogpage, all you guys will find is, well, about projects.. So, do enjoy! (good luck with that)... :D

For Arts & Design, I have to make a lettering design of my name for my blogpage in my own creative ways. I had to do some research and investigation and I have to keep records of what I do about my arts in my art journal.

English? What do I have to do for English agian? Oh yeah, I have to do this.. Write in my blogpage about my project..

As for my Science, I'm grouped with Jackyn & Angela and we were assigned to search about a rainforest named 'Taiga' which is somewhere in Canada.. We also had to a 3d model of it.. For the past few weeks, Angela was absent because she went to Shanghai so Jacklyn & I had to do our projects ( 80% of our projects) alone, with only two people in the group, it was quite hard to keep up, but we managed.. :)

For Computer, it's kinda the same like English, I have to make my blogpage, upload images and my lettering design, and find templates for my blogpage to  make it more attractive.. hahaha...

So, that's it for now but there will still be more, like alot more coming but let's give it a rest first.. haha... :) bye!