Drawing (KS1 – KS2)
Drawing runs right through the art and design curriculum, and it’s the skill most other art techniques are built on. From observational drawing and shading in KS1 to perspective and figure drawing by Year 6, here’s what the curriculum expects and where to find lessons and resources to teach it.
What children learn about drawing at KS1 and KS2
What the national curriculum expects
Drawing is named directly in both key stages. At KS1, pupils should be taught to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination, and to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. At KS2, pupils should be taught to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas, and to improve their mastery of art and design techniques including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials. Both key stages also require pupils to learn about great artists, craft makers and designers.
Key knowledge and concepts
Within this topic, children build drawing skills that develop year on year:
Observational drawing
Drawing what's actually in front of you
Line
Continuous line drawing, and what different lines can do
Shading techniques
Creating depth, form and shadow
Sketchbooks
Recording observations, and revisiting ideas
Figure drawing and portraiture
Drawing people, faces and the human form
Perspective
Creating depth and distance on a flat surface
Landscapes
Drawing places, from urban scenes to open country
Significant artists
Studying artists such as LS Lowry, Picasso and Rembrandt
Where this topic sits within KS1 and KS2
Drawing isn’t a single unit taught once. It runs across every year group from Year 1 to Year 6, developing from mark-making and observation towards perspective, proportion and personal style. Sketchbooks become a statutory requirement at KS2.
How to access this topic
Drawing doesn’t sit on its own in the curriculum. The Cornerstones art and design curriculum is fully sequenced from EYFS through Year 1 to Year 6, so you can see what comes before, what follows and how the whole picture fits together. We’ve done the thinking, so your planning time goes into teaching, not sequencing.
Full curriculum
Subject curriculum
Quick Teach Individual lessons and resources for supplementing what you already teach.
Ready to bring the wider curriculum to life?
See how the full Cornerstones Art and Design Curriculum sequences topics like this one across every year group.