Observational Drawing

What is Observational Drawing?

Observational drawing is simply drawing what you see. It is a great technique to practice to improve your concentration and drawing skills.

What Can I Draw?

Observational drawing allows you to choose your own subject to draw. This might be a favourite toy, a bowl of fruit, a vase of flowers or any object with an interesting shape or texture.

What Do I Need?

You will need a few materials to help you get started. Firstly, you need to choose an object that you would like to draw. Set your object up on a table in a position where you can see it clearly.

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You will also need something to draw with such as a pencil or texta. You may also like to colour your drawing in with some coloured pencils, crayons, textas or paint.

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Lastly, you’ll need some paper to draw on. You might like to get some scrap paper to practice on first!

How Do I Begin?

Start your observational drawing by looking simply at the shapes in your object. For example, if you are drawing a bowl of fruit, you might look at the shapes of the fruit first and draw the outlines. As you draw, your eyes should be looking at the object most of the time. You can glance at your paper, but try to focus mainly on capturing the simple shapes in your object.

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Add Colour and Texture

Once you have drawn your shapes, you can add colour and texture to make your drawing more realistic.

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Texture means showing the bumps, lines or surface of the object through your drawing and colouring. For example, if you are drawing a leaf, you would show the texture by adding the veins of the leaf.

Complete Your Drawing

Finish your drawing by adding background details such as a table or simply colour in the background, if you like. Hold your artwork up and ask yourself if you can add in anymore detail.

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Take a photo of your masterpiece and share it with me on Google Classroom!