Form Drawing lessons are lessons typically found in a Waldorf school starting in Class 1 and going through Class 5. Form Drawing will continue to have an influence in later years as forms are integrated into the narrations or illustrations. Form Drawing was first introduced in Waldorf Schools in 1919 and is an essential prerequisite skill to writing and drawing and even more so, for coming into one’s own. As children are first finding their way in Year 1 of school, they may need time to adjust to their bodies, their class, their environment and to simply feel comfortable in their own skin. As adults, it’s something we may take for granted as we are deeply rooted in our bodies by the time we hit our stride as adults. But for children, they are still incarnating into their bodies and form drawing (and Eurythmy) can help with that process.

When Form Drawing, students first ‘draw’ the form with their bodies by walking the form or moving the form with their arms or nose or fingers. They may mold the form or practice on sand or dirt. They may draw with chalk on the ground or arrange sticks to make the form. And after their whole bodies have experienced the form, they are ready to take crayon or colored pencil to paper and finally draw the form in silence after they have observed the teacher.

Students may rush or be slow, may make mistakes or be eager to finish, and with each student, their form drawing technique will reveal an aspect of their temperament that may be worked on. Form Drawing may expose challenges like learning disabilities or delays. It’s the work of the adults in that child’s life to identify those challenges so solutions and support may be offered.

Teaching Tips for Form Drawing

I’m sharing tips and insights on how to teach form drawing. Form Drawing lessons are an essential part of the Waldorf curriculum that supports both artistic development and the foundational skills for handwriting and drawing starting in grade 1. In this video, I draw from several valuable sources, including Creative Form Drawing Workbook 1 by Angela Lord, the Waldorf curriculum we use in our homeschooling, my own experience with Waldorf teacher training, and the many years I’ve spent teaching form drawing to my own children so that I may share some teaching tips that may help you get started with form drawing.

I share practical advice for teaching form drawing in a homeschool setting, while also offering insights that apply to classroom environments. Getting your form drawing goals in mind is essential when working with 1, 10 or 30 students. But form drawing is the last activity. It comes after you have introduced form drawing through movement, observation, and imitation, starting with full-body motions and progressing to movement of the form with your arm, nose or pointer finger to drawing with stick crayons or colored pencils on large sheets of paper. You may also practice on sand or on soft clay. I also cover how to work with different learning styles and temperaments, how to gently correct mistakes, and how to help students stay focused and engaged throughout the process.

Form drawing supports hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness, as well as helps children find their place in a group setting by practicing balance and harmony within the form. Lesson 1 begins with drawing straight and curved lines, mirror images, and simple patterns. Guiding students through each step with patience and care takes time to master, and Creative Form Drawing by Angela Lord is a golden resource that’s easy to read and beautifully presented. While hands-on activities that can support this work, movement and rhythm in mastering form drawing is essential.

I hope this introduction to form drawing is helpful for you on your homeschooling journey. Don’t forget to check out the blog post that accompanies this video for more tutorials and links to all the resources I mention.

With minimal video edits, you get to see from start to finish how I teach a form drawing lesson. This lesson works with my 6-year-old’s skill set, but also works for my 11-year-old’s ocean studies unit. Plus form drawing is a relaxing meditative activity that has far reaching benefits.

Form drawing is calming, meditative and enjoyable. It’s deceptively easy. Form drawing requires concentration and practice, but the process works to help children (and adults) focus the mind on the task, perfect it through repeated tries, all while enjoying the artistic aspect of the lesson.

Quick! Guess if I like this book or not. Okay, nevermind, on a scale of 1-10, how much do I like it? I think within the first few minutes of this video the answer will be clear. Though this is still only my first impressions of the book, but I can already tell you I love it for us and I think it’s an excellent resource for teachers and homeschooling families.

One of the biggest perks of this book is that it is a stand alone book that can work with a Waldorf curriculum or with any curriculum for any family wishing to add form drawing to their studies. The instructions are clear and easy and the book itself is simply gorgeous.

Check out the book haul in which I talk about Creative Form Drawing by Angela Lorde and other books.

Check out the complete playlist of all the form drawing lessons and tutorials we’ve done so far.

Find me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

With minimal video edits, you get to see from start to finish how I teach a form drawing lesson. This is a real time lesson, so it’s naturally long and there a many moments of quiet as is the natural tendency with lessons like this. This lesson was with my 6-year-old who hasn’t started any formal education yet.

A note on these lessons: Filming while doing a lesson is an unusually thing for us, and trying to orient all our main lesson books for the camera is unnatural. It’s harder to write this way, and it’s definitely not remotely ideal for my 6-year-old daughter who needs to do these lesson not just for the artistry, but for the hand mechanics of learning drawing and pre-writing skills. Also, I show the book and it is present for your benefit, but I would prefer to have the book away and for us to create the forms after I have familiarized myself with the forms.

Though we did the suggested pre-lesson activities, it was hard to film all of those and explain how they complement the lesson and how to actually do those activities.

One thing we haven’t yet done, but intend to do with the lessons is tell a story that represents the forms.

Lesson one was the introduction of the straight and curved line. Lesson two is patterns with straight lines. In lesson 2, we worked with long and short lines, and later we did patterns with increasing and decreasing lengths and lines going in horizontal and vertical orientations. We also introduced varying colors.

We use Stockmar stick and block crayons on a 9×12 inch main lesson book with blank pages.

Check out the complete playlist of all the form drawing lessons and tutorials we’ve done so far.

Check out the book haul in which I talk about this and other books.

You can find this book at Amazon and A Child’s Dream.

Find me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

Lesson 2

Lesson one was the introduction of the straight and curved line. Lesson two is patterns with straight lines. In today’s lesson, we worked with long and short lines, and later we did patterns with increasing and decreasing lengths and lines going in horizontal and vertical orientations. We also introduced varying colors.

Lesson 3

Lesson three focused on straight lines of varying lengths. We chose to do some embroidery as well as another representation of the form we drew. We used embroidery hoops, spare cloth and embroidery thread.

Sensory Form Drawing

Here’s a tutorial for a tactile pre-lesson activity we did for our Form Drawing main lesson block. This activity was easy to do, but it did take about 30 minutes to prepare. You can do this project independently of the form drawing lesson or along with it and have the children help make these tactile projects.

Lesson 4

Lesson four introduced nesting half circles similar to a rainbow. This would be an ideal opportunity to share a story about the rain, sunshine and rainbows. We alternated colors, made rainbows, and worked on small semi-circular shapes.

Lesson 5

Lesson 5 continues the the semi-circular shape from lesson four. We continued to use our pre-lesson hand-on material we created in our previous lesson.

Lesson 6

Lesson 6 focuses on half circles that nest and radiate out from the center of the page to fill the whole paper.

Lesson 7

Lesson 7 continues the curved line with variations on the rainbow shape and curved lines that look like hills.

Lesson 8

Lesson 8 introduces loops of various sizes that are all connected of various heights and widths.

Lesson 9

This is officially lesson 9 for this main lesson block. To see lesson 1, click here.

You can see the other lessons for this Form Drawing Main Lesson Block.

Here are other videos related to First Grade.

Lesson one was the introduction of the straight and curved line. Lesson two is patterns with straight lines. In today’s lesson, we worked with long and short lines, and later we did patterns with increasing and decreasing lengths and lines going in horizontal and vertical orientations. We also introduced varying colors.

We use Stockmar stick and block crayons on a 9×12 inch main lesson book with blank pages.

To see the form drawing playlist, click here:

Form drawing is calming, meditative and enjoyable. It’s deceptively easy. Form drawing requires concentration and practice, but the process works to help children (and adults) focus the mind on the task, perfect it through repeated tries, all while enjoying the artistic aspect of the lesson.

Check out the book haul in which I talk about this and other books.

You can find this book at Amazon and A Child’s Dream.

Find me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

Check out the complete playlist of all the form drawing lessons and tutorials we’ve done so far.

Lesson 10

After taking a long break, we are back at doing our Live Form Drawing Tutorials. We picked up where we left off which might not have been ideal. After taking so much time off, my now 8-year-old daughter was hastey and out of practice. I decided to dive into the lesson without doing any preliminary warm up activities and that was a mistake. She also really didn’t like the story I told. Next time, I’ll keep the story fictional. She also didn’t like my story voice which admittedly sounded very unnatural. That combined with her displeasure at her work made for a poor first experience back into form drawing.

Form drawing is calming, meditative and enjoyable. It’s deceptively easy. Form drawing requires concentration and practice, but the process works to help children (and adults) focus the mind on the task, perfect it through repeated tries, all while enjoying the artistic aspect of the lesson.

Check out the book haul in which I talk about Creative Form Drawing by Angela Lorde and other books.

Check out the complete playlist of all the form drawing lessons and tutorials we’ve done so far.

Find me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

Lesson 11

Lesson 11 focuses on undulating waves.

Movement Drawing | Form Drawing for Adults

Have you tried form drawing as an adult? If not, I recommend trying it out and using the book Movement Drawing Workbook by Lee Sturgeon-Day. This book explains why it’s called movement drawing rather than form drawing. It provides tips on how to get started and walks you through several forms.

I bought this workbook after reading this sentence: ” In life, we are either knotted with tension or strung out to the breaking point.” If form drawing is one more tool I can use to find peace, balance and harmony, I will take it!

Form Drawing, or Movement Drawing as Lee Sturgeon-Day called it, can be a meditative process that can help smooth out the tension in life. And as with other meditative processes, we must remember a few things: Keep breathing! It sounds silly to be reminded that we must keep breathing, but Lee reminds us in her tips that we may tend to hold our breath when focusing on our forms. We also want to find a comfortable place to work and lastly, we want to free our mind of distractions.

Often when I slow down to do a task like this, I am flooded with thoughts that needed my attention like a shopping list I need to make or an appointment I need to schedule. Often, I try to take care of these things ahead of time, even if it means I start the project only to immediately pause it so I can deal with the distractions first so I can re-approach my project with a clear mind.

Form Drawing For The Four Temperaments

Did you know that form drawing can help being harmony to your temperament? In the book Creative Form Drawing for the Four Temperaments with Children aged 6-12: Workbook 3 by Angela Lord, the author explains the four temperaments and the types of form drawing exercises that can help balance the temperaments. The book details the aims of what the forms should achieve for the benefit of each temperament. The book suggests how to teach form drawing for the temperaments in a classroom setting and gives several detailed examples for students in class 1-4 for each temperament.