• Presentation: Texture hunt.
• Presentation: Tone.
• A range of drawing materials, such as charcoal, white chalk, graphite sticks, soft pastels, colouring pencils, wax crayons and very thick coloured pencil crayons.
• Masking tape (see Teacher knowledge).
• Cartridge paper or children’s sketchbooks (see Teacher knowledge).
• Link: Museum of Modern Art - 'Small self-portrait' by Käthe Kollwitz.*
• Link: ARTCITI - Saeed Akhtar.*

* These are external websites and we do not have control over their content – please check before showing them to the children.

Subject knowledge

• Tone refers to how light or dark a colour or shade appears in a drawing or painting.
• Artists use tone to create depth, contrast and form, making objects look more three-dimensional.
• Tone can be adjusted when shading by changing the pressure used or by layering different materials.

Saeed Akhtar

Saeed Akhtar is a well-known Pakistani artist who is celebrated for his detailed portrait paintings and bold, realistic style. Born in 1938, he studied at the National College of Arts in Lahore and later taught there. His portraits often show important people from Pakistani history and culture. He is also known for designing the national logo for Pakistan’s Olympic team. His work shows great skill in capturing emotion and expression.

Misconceptions

The children may think that:

• ‘We only use shading when using pencils’ – shading is the process of adding light and dark areas (tone) to a picture to create a three-dimensional appearance. This can be achieved with a wide range of art materials.
• ‘Shading is always black, grey and white’ – creating and adding different tones of colours to artwork is a form of shading.

In preparation for the lesson:

• Stick down masking tape in random, overlapping lines on good quality A4 cartridge paper or on a page in the children’s sketchbooks, creating various shapes. Ensure the tape is securely pressed down.
• Prepare a piece of A4 paper with masking tape as a teacher copy for demonstration.