Drawing warm ups

Timed sketches, line exercises, a tone scale and a shaded sphere, and six shapes to turn into something. Ten minutes at the start of any art lesson.

Free sample
7 pages
about 30 minutes
You need: a 2b or softer pencil for each student, one object per table to draw: a shoe, a mug, a piece of fruit

Australian Curriculum:AC9AVA4D01 AC9AVA4C01

Teacher
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Pages 4 to 7 open when you can download. These are pictures of the real PDF. What you see is what prints.

Why use this

Students who fear the blank page draw small and rub out. A warm up with a timer takes away the fear: nobody finishes a 30 second drawing, so nobody fails one.

Looking is the skill. Blind contour and the other hand exercises stop the student drawing what they think a shoe looks like and make them draw the shoe in front of them.

How to run it

1.Put one object on each table. No rubbers on the desk today.2 min
2.Sheet A: 30 seconds, then one minute, then two minutes on the same object. Call the time.5 min
3.Turn the sheets over. Ask: what did the extra time buy you?2 min
4.Another day: Sheet B, C or D the same way. One sheet per lesson.10 min

Curriculum link

AC9AVA4D01

AC9AVA4C01

Australian Curriculum v9.0 © ACARA. Licensed CC BY 4.0. The full attribution is printed in the PDF.

Free sample. No account needed.

Your name is printed small in the footer of your copy.

What is inside

Teacher page with the curriculum link, how to run a ten minute warm up and what to look for
Sheet A: timed sketches of one object, 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes
Sheet B: line exercises. Continuous line, blind contour, other hand
Sheet C: tone. A five step scale, three ways to shade, a sphere with a light source
Sheet D: shape to thing. Six printed shapes to finish
Make your own: set a warm up for a partner
Teacher notes on what improves and what to say

What you need

A 2B or softer pencil for each student
One object per table to draw: a shoe, a mug, a piece of fruit
A timer everyone can hear

Support and extension

Let the student choose the object and hold it. Start with the shape sheet, which has a starting line already drawn.

Repeat Sheet A with a hard object, such as a bike helmet or a hand, and shade the two minute drawing.

Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.

Play it online at antnest.au

Thea and Faye's games on antnest.au practise the same curriculum codes. Print the sheet for the lesson, then set the game for practice at school or at home. Each opens in a new tab.

Every game for a code: AC9AVA4D01, AC9AVA4C01