New
New
Year 2

Drawing buildings using charcoal

I can create a charcoal drawing of a building.

New
New
Year 2

Drawing buildings using charcoal

I can create a charcoal drawing of a building.

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These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Different charcoal techniques can be used to add value and texture to drawings.
  2. Buildings are made up of multiple simple shapes combined together to create a complex form.
  3. Artists use different techniques like blending and erasing when drawing with charcoal.

Keywords

  • Charcoal - a black material made by burning wood

  • Blending - mixing colours or shades together smoothly

  • Value - how light or dark a shade is including black, white and greys

  • Complex forms - shapes that have lots of parts or details

Common misconception

You need to press down hard when using charcoal.

Pressing down too hard will break the charcoal. You need to be much more gentle.


To help you plan your year 2 art and design lesson on: Drawing buildings using charcoal, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

When smudging pupils should be encouraged to keep one had clean and only blend using their little finger or a blending stump to avoid over blending.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Images of buildings (these could be personalised by using buildings from your local area), paper and charcoal.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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4 Questions

Q1.
Where might the architect have taken ideas from when designing this building?
An image in a quiz
insects
cakes
Correct answer: flowers
Q2.
Which has been created using imagination?
Correct Answer: An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
Q3.
Which shows a sketch?
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
Q4.
Sgraffito is a technique where you ...
Correct answer: scratch into a surface such as paint to show another colour underneath.
paint thickly.
create a gradient from light to dark.

4 Questions

Q1.
Which technique has the artist used on the roof?
An image in a quiz
scumbling
Correct answer: hatching and cross-hatching
colour mixing
Q2.
Which technique has the artist used for the shrubs?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: scumbling
hatching and cross-hatching
colour mixing
Q3.
With less pressure my charcoal lines will be ...
Correct answer: lighter.
darker.
blended.
Q4.
Simple shapes can be combined to make a ...
simple form.
basic form.
Correct answer: complex form.