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Key Stage 1 art and design · Art and design techniques

KS1 art: line and shape for Years 1 and 2

Line and shape are the building blocks of nearly every drawing. At Key Stage 1, children are taught to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using line, shape, colour, pattern, texture, form and space, as part of becoming proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other techniques. In Years 1 and 2 this means making many kinds of lines on purpose and seeing that everyday objects are made from simple shapes.

Line and shape in art, explained

A line is the mark left by a pencil, crayon or brush as it moves. Children learn that lines have many different qualities: straight, curved, wavy, zigzag, spiral, dotted, broken, thick, thin, long and short. They practise making each one with control, often as a warm-up, and they learn that a line can do a job. Wavy lines suggest water or hair, zigzags suggest lightning or a sharp roof, thick dark lines look heavy and strong, and light thin lines look delicate. Lines can show movement, too, which is why a child’s drawing of a running dog often has lines streaming behind it.

Shapes are made when a line closes up, or when an area of colour has an edge. Children name and use geometric shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles and triangles, which they also meet in maths, and also freeform shapes with no name, like a puddle, a leaf or a cloud, which some schools call organic or irregular shapes. Teachers show that complicated things can be broken down into simple shapes: a house is a square with a triangle on top, a cat is a circle for the head, an oval for the body and triangles for ears. This “shapes first” habit makes drawing less daunting, because a child is never starting from nothing.

Lines and shapes work together. A line can be the outline around a shape, can fill a shape with hatching, or can add detail inside it. Children try drawing with an outline only, then with shapes cut from paper, and discover that a picture can be made without any outline at all by overlapping coloured shapes. They are also encouraged to use the whole page, which brings in space, and to look at how a shape can be made bigger or smaller to show what matters in the picture. Key Stage 1 children also learn about the work of a range of artists, and many schools choose artists who used line and shape boldly. Which artists is left to the school.

Teachers often use drawing games to build control, such as drawing without lifting the pencil, drawing to music, or drawing a shape in the air with a finger first. They also encourage children to look carefully at real things and say what shapes they can see. The teaching is not about drawing perfect circles or straight lines. It is about trying things, noticing the effect and choosing a line or a shape for a reason.

Words your child will hear

Line
A mark made by a pencil, crayon or brush as it moves.
Outline
A line drawn around the edge of a shape or object.
Zigzag
A line that goes sharply from side to side, like the letter Z.
Spiral
A line that curls round and round, getting closer to or further from the centre.
Geometric shape
A shape with a mathematical name, such as a circle, square, triangle or rectangle.
Freeform shape
An uneven shape with no name, often found in nature, like a cloud or a puddle.
Hatching
Lines drawn close together to fill in an area or show darker tone.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

  • Pupils should be taught to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
  • Aim: pupils become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: a rainy day picture from lines and shapes

Make a picture of a rainy day using only lines and shapes.

  1. List what is in a rainy scene: clouds, rain, puddles, a person with an umbrella and a house. Think about which line or shape matches each one.
  2. Draw the big shapes first. A rectangle for the house, a triangle on top for the roof, a half circle for the umbrella and a small circle with a rectangle underneath for the person.
  3. Add the clouds as soft, rounded, overlapping freeform shapes across the top of the page. Do not worry about making them neat.
  4. Add the lines. Use lots of short straight diagonal lines for the rain, and a few long wavy lines for the wind. Try thin lines for light rain and thick lines for a downpour.
  5. Add puddles as ovals on the ground, with a few small curved lines inside for the ripples. Then say what shapes and lines you used.

A good picture uses a variety of lines and shapes and each one has a purpose. A child might say, “The triangle is the roof, the diagonal lines are the rain, and I drew the puddles as ovals with little curved lines for ripples.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking that lines should always be straight and neat

Children see rulers and straight edges in other lessons and believe that tidy is better. Their shaky lines can seem like mistakes.

What helps: Ask what a wobbly line could be: a snake, a river, a piece of string. Show that line quality is part of the expression. Use a ruler only when a straight line is the aim.

Believing a shape needs to be a perfect circle or square to count

In maths, shapes have exact names and properties, so children expect a drawn circle to be perfect.

What helps: Explain that in art a hand-drawn shape is allowed to be wonky. Say, “That circle is a bit like a potato, and it makes a lovely head.”

Drawing the outline only and leaving the shapes empty

A strong outline feels like the finished picture, and filling a shape with lines, pattern or colour feels like extra work.

What helps: Offer a choice of fillers: colour, dots, hatching, or a pattern of lines inside. Ask, “Which shape could be more interesting?”

Trying to draw a whole object in one go, then giving up when it doesn’t look right

Children look at an object as one complicated thing, rather than a group of shapes.

What helps: Look together and say, “What simple shapes can you see?” Draw the biggest shape first and add others to it, as if building.

How to help at home

  • Line dance. Put on some music, give your child a pencil or crayon and large paper, and ask them to draw what the music sounds like. Fast music might give zigzags, slow music long curves.
  • Shape spotting. Pick a room and a shape, such as a rectangle, and find as many as you can. Then draw a favourite object in the room by breaking it down into the shapes you found.
  • Cut-out shapes. Cut simple shapes from coloured paper using child-safe scissors, or tear freeform ones, and arrange them on a sheet to make an animal or a vehicle before sticking them down.
  • One line challenge. Draw a picture without lifting the pencil from the paper. Ask what happens if the line gets thicker or looser, or if you draw with your other hand.
  • Chalk on the ground. On a patio or path at home, away from traffic, draw big spirals, zigzags and shapes with chalk and walk or hop along them. Doing it at a large scale builds control in the whole arm.

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