24th October - Observational Drawing

This week in Year 4, we have been practising our observational drawing skills. We began by looking at information about portrait artist Saeed Akhtar, whose detailed and realistic portraits inspired us to look closely at the light and shading techniques.

After exploring Akhtar’s work, we moved on to practicing a range of shading techniques. These included stippling (using small dots to create tone), cross-hatching (building layers of intersecting lines), and ink wash (using diluted ink to create smooth gradients). Each method gave us a different way to show light and shadow, and we experimented with combining them to create depth and contrast.

Finally, we applied these skills to study light direction and shading in our own drawings. By observing how light fell across different objects we learned how to create more realistic three-dimensional effects. It was exciting to see how much difference the placement of highlights and shadows could make!