Experimental Puffer Fish Drawing Design

This resource is designed to teach students how to create an initial puffer fish drawing and then develop it into a design piece. The aim is to aid and explore experimental drawing and design skills, focusing on the Formal Elements LINE, TEXTURE, PATTERN, SPACE and COMPOSITION. It is mainly used for Key Stage 3 students. On the sheet there is the learning objective, a fact file about puffer fish, and the task instructions. There is an extension task instructing students to add colour to their design once it is drawn out. The main task has a puffer fish reference picture and various other aquatic images, textures and patterns to reference from, with a separate space to draw their design. This sheet is also designed to engage students in ‘looking and seeing’, exploring design work, and experimenting with the following Formal Elements of art:

• LINE
• TEXTURE
• PATTERN
• SPACE
• COMPOSITION

The resource is two PDF files; one with a ghost outline template of the puffer fish to support the less able/less confident students, and one without for the more able/gifted and talented students. It has been designed to be used within a scheme of work, but is also suitable for a one off couple of lessons, and/or cover session(s). It takes approximately two lessons to complete, if being produced to a high standard. I usually print this resource on A3 cartridge paper and my students work directly onto the sheet. Their sheets are then stored in an A3 portfolio with integrated clear wallets to record and store their project journey in a professional folder.

I have created other work which accompanies this as part of a scheme, such as aquatic and natural form lesson/activity sheets, and other drawing based resources of varying subject matter, which you may wish to look at in my shop.