As art teachers, we are often asked if drawing can be taught. The answer is… yes it can of course! Just like any technical activity, once you learn the correct application of techniques, you can practice until your skill level improves. At Eastbrook School, we teach technical and analytical drawing using the formal elements of art from Year 7. We strongly believe that drawing is the foundation of all art forms and, as with all the great artists over millennia, practice makes permanent. Here are the stages of observational drawing we guide students through:

1.     OBSERVE the STRUCTURE, SHAPES and DETAIL. MEASURE to ensure correct SCALE and PROPORTION.

2.     Use soft LINE to SKETCH the OUTLINE of the BASIC SHAPES. Use GUIDELINES.

3.     REFINE and DEVELOP your drawing, adding firmer outlines, TONE, DETAIL, TEXTURE and PATTERN using MARK MAKING.

4.     Ensure that a RANGE of TONE is added using SMOOTH BLENDED SHADING to show FORM and VOLUME.

Students are given secondary source images and guided through the stages of drawing, as above, with the freedom to add their own creativity to the work. More able students are challenged to draw from primary sources (real life objects) and here you can see how students from Years 7 to 9 approach these tasks. We use the GCSE Art & Design marking criteria from early on, so that students are used to the way art is assessed. Well done to all our budding artists – we are PROUD!