Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Art & Design
Art & DesignMedia, materials and research25 min★★ difficulty

Recording with control: line, tone and proportion

A good observational drawing is not about being 'artistic' — it is about looking harder than everyone else and recording exactly what you see.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Practical skills: Use drawing to record ideas and observations with control of line, tone, texture, shape and proportion

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Use drawing to record ideas and observations with control of line, tone, texture, shape and proportion

Key learning points

  • • Line quality
  • • Tone and light
  • • Proportion checks

This lesson at a glance

  • 25 minutes
  • 14 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

drawingrecordobservationscontroltexture

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 14 · Discover7%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 14

Watch first

Recording with control: line, tone and proportion

An English teaching video on this topic from Jescia Hopper. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Use drawing to record ideas and observations with control of line, tone, texture, shape and proportion

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 14

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Line quality

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 14

Learn

Line quality

Vary the pressure and speed of your pencil. A slow, continuous line captures a smooth contour; a broken, searching line suggests texture or uncertainty at an edge. Avoid a single, flat outline everywhere — it flattens the drawing.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 14

Learn

Tone and light

Tone shows where light falls. Squint at your subject to simplify what you see into a few tonal blocks: lightest highlight, mid-tone, core shadow and reflected light. Build tone gradually with layers of hatching rather than one heavy scribble.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 14

Quick check

What does squinting at a subject help an artist do?

6

Reset break

Part 6 of 14

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
7

Quick check

Part 7 of 14

Quick check

Why vary line pressure in a drawing?

8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 14

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Proportion checks

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 14

Learn

Proportion checks

Hold a pencil at arm's length to measure one part of your subject against another, such as head height against body height. Constantly re-check proportions as you draw rather than only at the start — this is how errors creep in.

10

Quick check

Part 10 of 14

Quick check

How can you check proportions while drawing?

11

Challenge round

Part 11 of 14

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

12

Challenge round

Part 12 of 14

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

A slow, continuous line captures a smooth contour; a broken, searching line suggests ____ or uncertainty at an edge.

Avoid a single, flat outline everywhere — it flattens the ____.

13

Mastery quiz

Part 13 of 14

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Recording with control: line, tone and proportion

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. What does hatching do in an observational drawing?

  2. 2. What does squinting at a subject help an artist do?

  3. 3. Why vary line pressure in a drawing?

  4. 4. How can you check proportions while drawing?

14

Lesson round-up

Part 14 of 14

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

Reading a portrait

Artists make choices before they make marks. A sitter placed high in the frame looks powerful; the same sitter low in the frame looks small. Light falling from one side sculpts a face into shadow and bone; flat light makes it open and plain.

Objects do work too. A book says learning, a dog says loyalty, a wilting flower says time passing. Viewers in the past read these signs as easily as we read a logo.

When you look at a portrait, ask three questions: where is the light coming from, what has the artist put in the sitter's hands, and where am I standing — above, below, or level with them?

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Choose a portrait and answer the article's three questions about it.
  2. Explain how you would light a portrait to make someone look kind.
  3. Plan your own portrait, listing two objects you would include and what each one says.

  • Sketchbook page

    Diagram

    Make your own piece, then photograph it for your sketchbook page.

    1 finished piece

  • Annotation

    Writing

    Write around your work: what you tried, what worked, what you would change.

    6 sentences

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 14 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Use drawing to record ideas and observations with control of line, tone, texture, shape and proportion

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