Observational Drawing Worksheet

This observational drawing worksheet is a great tool to assess and develop your students’ drawing skills. It can be used as a one off lesson task, or for a series of lessons if you are aiming for a more polished outcome. The worksheet could even be used to set as homework. Depending on the ability of your students this worksheet is suitable for KS3 and KS4 (11-16 year olds).

As well as a main task, this worksheet includes two starter or “warm-up” activities as I like to call them.

Activity 1: Tonal Key - Ask students to demonstrate the range of tones they can create with a pencil. This will help later on when asking them to add a range of tones to their drawing. They can also use the key to identify areas of light and dark on the photo image.

Activity 2: Mark-making - In this box, students should use their pencil to try and create different textures, particularly those they see in the photo image. Encourage students to share their ideas of how to create different marks and use key language such as cross-hatching and stippling.

Main Task: Before asking students to start with the main task, take the time to discuss their ideas and tips for observational drawing. Suggest techniques such as creating guidelines, grids and drawing faint outlines.

This worksheet is part of a collection of similar ones. Check out my other resources if you find this one useful.