DRAWING (Pre-technical)

Subtopic: Drawings — Notes for age 12 (Kenya)

Tools and Materials

• Pencils: HB for general drawing, 2B for darker lines, or just one good HB pencil.
• Ruler (30 cm), set-square or triangle for straight and angled lines.
• Eraser, sharpener, plain or squared paper.
• Compasses (or trace a cup) for circles, coloured pencils for shading.

Why learn drawing?

• Helps to show ideas clearly (for school projects or small house plans).
• Useful for future technical subjects (building, engineering, design).
• Improves measuring, neatness and attention to detail.

Types of drawings (simple)

• Freehand sketch — quick drawing without tools.
• Working/technical drawing — neat, measured, and labelled.
• Pictorial (isometric) — shows a 3D look (like a small box at an angle).
• Orthographic views — front, top (plan) and side views.

Lines and their meanings (small drawing)

Basic shapes (practice)

Draw these with ruler or compass. Keep lines neat and label sizes.

Simple orthographic view example (box)

Front view and top (plan) of a small rectangular box. Label sizes in cm.

Isometric (simple 3D) — quick sketch

Isometric shows three faces at once. Use 30° guidelines (you may use set-square) or draw freehand for practise.

Dimensioning rules (simple)

• Write sizes in clear numbers (cm or mm). Example: 120 mm or 12 cm.
• Place dimension lines outside the drawing with short extension lines.
• Give overall sizes first, then smaller ones.

Shading and hatching

Use light pencil strokes for shading. Hatching (parallel lines) shows surfaces. Cross-hatching (two sets of lines) darkens a surface.

Title block (simple)

Practice exercises (do at school or home)

1. Freehand: Make 6 quick sketches of things in your home (cup, chair, school desk) — 2 minutes each.
2. Measure and draw: Measure a small table in your home (length, width, height). Draw front and top views to scale 1:10 (if table is 100 cm long, on paper draw 10 cm).
3. Isometric box: Draw an isometric box and shade one face using hatching.
4. Dimensioning: Draw a rectangle 8 cm × 5 cm on paper; add extension and dimension lines with labels.
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5. Title block: Make a clean title block and write your name and date.

Tips for better drawings

• Keep your pencil sharp for neat lines.
• Draw light guide lines first, then darken final outlines.
• Use a ruler for straight edges and to measure correctly.
• Practice a little every day — quick 5-minute sketches help a lot.

Glossary (easy)

• Scale — the ratio between drawing size and real size (e.g. 1:100).
• Elevation — front view of an object or building.
• Plan — top view (like a map from above).
• Hatching — parallel lines used to show shading.

Good luck — practice a little each day. When you get better, you can learn more technical drawing rules for buildings and machines!