Observation drawing lesson; drawing skills, exercises, lines, mark making , to build confidence

This is a very successful drawing lesson to build confidence with drawing. It can be used at any level as skills are on invaluable. It can be stretched over two lessons.

I have a shoe box of little ornaments wrapped in fabric and tied up with tape that I use for this lesson and over the years this is one of my favourite lessons.

I finally tried to make a powerpoint and hope you enjoy !

There is a drawing starter exercise

Then the fun begins

Objectives
To explore observational drawing techniques: blind drawing and contour drawing
To investigate how to capture techniques (markmaking) when drawing
To build confidence in capturing a form with line by using different styles when drawing: gestural drawing and pattern drawing
To develop a design from observational details

There are 17 drawings to make … and each slide gives you the instruction and an example of drawing

Resources
A3 cartridge
sharp 2B pencil
small objects to draw wrapped to start
oil pastel each
Fine-liner each
ruler
pencil rayons
small bit of tracing paper cut in squares ( size of unit for repeat)

starting with the following

. TOUCH DRAWING

1. Draw through TOUCH ONLY

Feel the object under a cloth draw the object – and try to imagine the shape, texture, and form
Try to draw and outline only.

2 minutes

1. BLIND DRAWING

Draw with CONTINUOUS LINE and BLINDLY 3 min
Draw the object and draw blindly. DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR PAPER as you draw.

Instead imagine your pencil as a contour ( an ant crawling on the object) exploring all the edges, outlines, shapes, textures and details of the object.

2 minutes…

Follow the slides

There are pictures of student examples.

Success criteria
The line and markmaking quality is MORE important than accuracy

This gives students a realisation that drawing is about lines and marks.