This Art and Design scheme of work video introduces the concept of depth in art, helping children understand how to create a sense of space in their drawings.

In art, depth is about making a flat picture look like it has space you could walk through. Artists use overlapping, size, detail and colour to create depth. In the foreground, objects appear closer—bolder, bigger and more detailed. The middle ground adds context and supports the story. The background is furthest away and often has less detail and softer colours to help it fade into the distance.

One common misconception is that pupils might shrink every background object—even large ones. Encourage thinking about relative size instead. Another mistake is using the same detail across all areas, which flattens the image. Or treating each zone like a separate layer—so suggest ways to blend and overlap to keep things connected.

This video is part of the Year 5 Drawing: Depth, emotion and movement unit.

See more of our Year 5 Art and Design scheme of work.

Art and Design, Year 5, *Updated* Drawing: Depth, emotion and movement, Lesson 3: Showing depth through mark making.