Key Stage 2 art and design · Techniques and materials

KS2 art: drawing with pencil and charcoal, a guide for parents

In Key Stage 2 children are expected to improve their mastery of drawing, painting and sculpture. For drawing, the curriculum gives pencil and charcoal as examples of materials, and these are the ones many schools use. Children move from outlines towards showing light and dark, texture and form, and they learn that different materials make very different marks.

Pencil and charcoal drawing, explained

The curriculum asks children to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials, and lists pencil, charcoal, paint and clay as examples. The list is not a requirement: schools choose their materials, and may add pen, chalk, pastel or others. Mastery here means growing control and a wider range of marks, not natural talent. A child who learns how to vary pressure and choose the right tool has real skills to build on.

Pencils are graded by how hard or soft the lead is. H pencils are hard and make pale, thin lines. B pencils are soft and make darker, thicker lines, and the higher the number, the softer the pencil, so a 4B is darker than a 2B. HB sits in the middle and is the usual school pencil. Children learn a range of marks: hatching (parallel lines), cross-hatching (lines crossing), stippling (dots), scribbling and smooth blended shading. Teachers often start with a tonal scale, a row of boxes shaded from the lightest tone to the darkest, to show how much range one pencil can achieve.

Charcoal is made from burnt wood, usually willow or vine in sticks, and it is soft, black and crumbly. It is excellent for big, bold drawings and for smooth tones, because it blends easily with a finger or tissue. Compressed charcoal, in blocks or pencils, is denser and darker, and harder to rub out. A putty rubber, a soft eraser that can be moulded, lifts charcoal away to leave highlights, which means children can draw by taking away as well as adding. Charcoal is messy and smudges easily, so teachers use aprons, and some use a fixative spray to stop finished drawings smudging. That is a job for an adult, in a well-ventilated space.

Progress across Years 3 to 6 is typically from controlling a line and a simple light-to-dark gradient, to shading rounded forms so they look solid, to showing texture, proportion and the direction of light. Pupils are also encouraged to look at how other artists use the materials and to experiment with combining them. Drawing connects to sketchbook work, where much of this practice happens.

Words your child will hear

Tone: How light or dark something is, from the palest grey to the darkest black.
Grade: How hard or soft a pencil is, such as HB, 2B or 4B. Higher B numbers are softer and darker.
Hatching: Shading made with lines drawn close together in one direction.
Cross-hatching: Shading made by layering lines that cross each other, for darker tone.
Blending: Smoothing marks into one another so the tone changes gradually.
Highlight: The lightest part of a drawing, where the light hits most strongly.
Putty rubber: A soft eraser you can mould, used to lift off charcoal or pencil and make highlights.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 2, pupils should be taught to:

Improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
Develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

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

Try it: shading a ball so it looks round

Use a pencil to draw a ball, such as a tennis ball or an orange, so that it looks solid and not flat.

Set up. Put the ball on a sheet of plain paper with light coming from one side only, such as a window or a torch. Notice which side is brightest, which is darkest and where the shadow falls on the table.
Draw lightly. Sketch a circle with light pencil lines, then a rough oval for the shadow on the table, pointing away from the light. Don’t press hard yet.
Mark the highlight and find the tones. Leave a small patch near the lit side as bare paper. The darkest area is on the side away from the light. Older children may notice that the darkest band sits just in from the edge, because a little light bounces back up from the table onto the very edge.
Shade with the curve. Use hatching with curved strokes that follow the roundness of the ball. Start light, then go over the darker areas again with more pressure or a softer pencil such as a 2B, building up in layers.
Blend and add the shadow. Smooth the tones with a tissue or a clean finger if you want a soft effect. Make the cast shadow darkest right next to the ball and lighter further away. Lift out a final highlight with a putty rubber.

A successful drawing has a pale highlight, a smooth change of tone to a dark side and a cast shadow that touches the ball. An older child might also show a slightly lighter edge on the dark side. The result looks round because tone changes gradually, not because the outline is dark.

Common mistakes and how to help

Pressing very hard to get dark tones

It seems the obvious way to make a pencil darker, and it feels more decisive.

What helps: Build darkness in layers with light pressure, or move to a softer pencil. Hard pressing dents the paper, leaves a shiny surface and is very hard to rub out.

Drawing a thick outline around everything

An outline is the first thing children learn to draw and it feels safe, but it makes objects look like cut-outs.

What helps: Ask where one tone meets another and shade up to the edge. Try drawing an object with no outline at all, using only light and dark.

Shading everything the same grey

Children often shade evenly and fill in, because the aim seems to be covering the object, and they don’t notice that light changes from place to place.

What helps: Make a tonal scale, then ask, “Which parts are the lightest and darkest?” Leaving the paper white for highlights is a decision, not a gap.

Being upset by smudging, particularly with charcoal

Smudges look like mistakes in a neat pencil drawing, so children try to avoid touching the page.

What helps: Explain that blending is a technique. Rest the hand on a spare sheet of paper to protect the drawing, and use a tissue or finger on purpose to create soft tones.

How to help at home

Make a tonal scale. Draw a row of five or six boxes. Shade the first nearly white, the last as dark as you can, and the rest in even steps between. Try with a pencil, then with whatever soft pencil or charcoal you have.
Shade an egg, an apple or a ball. Place it near a window or in torchlight against a plain background. Look for the lightest and darkest areas first. Ten minutes of careful looking gives plenty of drawing practice.
Collect marks. Fill a page with different marks: hatching, cross-hatching, dots, scribbles, wavy lines. Then use them to draw textures, such as bark, wool, a pebble or a feather.
Try charcoal outdoors or on a covered table. A few sticks of willow charcoal are inexpensive. Cover the table, wear old clothes, and wash hands afterwards. Draw a tree or a plant and use a tissue to smudge the sky.
Draw with a lifted highlight. Cover a page with a light grey layer of charcoal or soft pencil, then use a putty rubber or a clean eraser to draw the lightest parts by taking away. Many children find this one fun.

Builds on

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Painting techniques and media
Key Stage 3: Print, collage and mixed media
Key Stage 3: Handling different materials