Teacher video: Developing lines and shapes into portraits

This Art and design video supports teachers in delivering a lesson that combines the formal elements of line and shape by creating abstract portraits. Inspired by Paul Klee’s artwork Senecio, learners are encouraged to identify and use simple shapes to represent facial features, helping them develop a foundational drawing technique. The video guides teachers in helping learners work directly onto printed images of faces, making creative decisions about how to represent each part using geometric forms.

This video is part of Kapow’s Art and design resources, which support the Cambridge Primary Art & Design Curriculum Framework (0067). As part of the Drawing: Make your mark unit, this lesson helps teachers feel confident leading imaginative drawing activities that introduce learners to abstract art and new visual vocabulary. By exploring how shapes can map out the basic structure of a subject, learners begin to build important observational and representation skills in a playful and accessible way.

Art and design, Stage 1, Unit 1: Drawing: Make your mark,  Lesson 4: Shape in art