Lesson video

Hi, my name is Jordan Bickel, and this is lesson one of six of Vector Drawings.

In this lesson, you'll be introduced to vector drawings and we'll learn about some of the tools that you can use to start creating drawings.

You're going to need parent or carer permission to use a Google account to access Google Drawings, or you can use Microsoft PowerPoint or Publisher.

You're also going to need a pen and pencil and a piece of paper.

You'll also need a pair of scissors.

So now find a quiet place with limited distractions where you can get your best work done.

Pause the video here to get comfortable.

And then when you're ready, press play to continue In this lesson, you will learn that drawing tools can be used to produce different outcomes.

First, we're going to recognise that vector drawings are made using shapes.

Then we'll experiment with the shape and line tools.

And finally, we'll discuss how vector drawings are different from paper based drawings.

Pause the video here just for a second and have a look at some of these vector drawings.

what do all of them have in common? These are all examples of logos that were created with graphic drawing apps, such as Google Drawing.

They're a special type of computer graphic called vector.

You can find these images everywhere, they're used as the icons in the apps on your phones.

They're also printed on the side of vans or sometimes on a shop window.

So what is a vector drawing? A vector drawing is a drawing made on the computer.

Vector drawings are made only using lines and shapes.

Lines and shapes are put together to make a complete picture, like the example of the cat below.

Task 1.

Can you make a picture just using shapes? In this task, you'll try to create your own picture just using the shapes below.

You can either draw out the shapes on a piece of paper and cut them out, or print the page from the worksheet.

Draw and cut out each shape from the worksheet page for Task 1 or print and cut each shape.

Then create a picture just using the shapes.

Pause the video here to complete your task.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Here is an example solution of something you might have been able to create using the shapes provided.

I was able to make a simple house, but with a bit of imagination, I'm sure there are plenty of other things you could have come up with.

Task 2, draw a building.

In this task, we're going to start drawing.

To begin we're going to look at the following tools on Google Drawings.

We'll look at the shape tool, the undo, redo buttons, the select tool, and the line tool.

Website demonstration.

Introduction to Google Drawings tools.

To access Google Drawings, you'll need to type in docs.

google.

com/drawings.

Now looking at my new drawing sheet here, I can see my toolbar at the very top.

This is where you'll be able to access all the different tools we'll be looking at.

The first tool we're going to introduce is the shape tool.

It's indicated by a circle and a square, and then when you put your mouse over it, a little text box will pop up reminding you of which tool it is.

So when I click on that, a drop down menu appears that shows me all of the choices that I have available.

To begin we're going to use the rectangle shape.

So I've clicked on my rectangle and now to create the rectangle shape, I'm going to click my mouse down and hold it, and drag until I get a shape that's close to the size that I want.

So when I'm happy with the shape of my rectangle, I'm going to unclick my mouse, and then my rectangle is going to be created.

The second tool that we'll look at is the select tool.

And that's this arrow here.

Again when I hover over it, you can see the text box appear reminding me it's select.

So I click on this, and then I'm able to click and drag my rectangle to any spot I want on my page.

Trying to move it towards the centre here and just down a little, perfect.

That red line, that came across horizontally in the middle indicates that I'm right in the middle of the page horizontally.

And now the next tool I'll introduce to you is the line tool.

So that's up here.

It's starts out looking as a line 'cause that's the tool that's selected right now.

But if I click on the arrow, just on this dropdown menu here, it'll show me all the different types of lines that I can use.

So the first type of line tool that we'll use is called the polyline.

So be thinking your background knowledge that you have about prefixes, you might identify that this word, this prefix, poly means many.

So this is a tool that's going to allow us to create many different lines.

So I've selected that tool now, and I'm going to use it to create a triangle to fit on top of my rectangle.

This will kind of be the roof of my building.

So I'll click where I want to start my line and then drag across and then click again.

And this will create a point where I can start a new line.

So I've clicked there on the corner and I can continue to drag to create the second part of my line.

And then I'll click once more.

Then I can start the third part of my line.

And then when I close up the shape, it will stop creating a new line.

Now, I think my triangle here looks a bit wonky.

It's much larger than my rectangle.

I'm not quite happy with it.

So I'll introduce you to one more tool and that's going to be this undo button here in the top left hand corner.

And then right next to it is the redo button.

So just in case you accidentally undo something by accident, you're able to redo and put it back.

So right now I'm going to click undo, and now that's removed my triangle and I can have another go at making a smaller one.

So now go back and select the polyline tool.

And let's see if I can make a smaller triangle just on the top of my rectangle.

And every time I want to add a new point, I just click and then drag away from it.

And now I'll close up my triangle, I think that suits the rectangle much better.

Task 2, draw a building.

Now that you've been introduced to a few of the drawing tools, it's your turn to get drawing.

Using the tools that have been introduced, you're going to create your very own building.

The worksheet provided gives you a few steps to get started but you can design any building that you want.

Let your imagination run wild.

Pause the video here to complete your task, press play when you're ready to continue.

Here's an example of the building I drew using the tools on Google Drawings, Task 3, selecting shades and using colours.

Selecting shapes and using colours.

Now we will select different objects in your drawing and change the colours.

This will help bring your drawing to life.

Website demonstration, selecting shapes and using colours.

Here you can see my completed drawing using only shapes so far.

I've used a triangle for my roof, I've added two squares for windows, and a rectangle and a circle for the door.

So using the select tool again, I can choose different parts of my house to make changes to that one shape.

So right now, which shape do I have selected? You're right.

It's the triangle.

You can tell because a blue box has appeared around this shape.

How about, which shape do I have selected now? You're right, it's the circle that I've used for my door knob.

One last check, which shape is selected now? Yes, I've selected one of the squares as the window.

So once you're comfortable with selecting a shape, it'll make it much easier to use the fill tool, to change its colour.

Before doing that, I'm going to revisit the line tool here.

And this time I'm only going to be using just a normal line.

Not polyline, nothing else, just a normal line.

And I'm going to use this tool to add a bit of detail to my roof.

And there we go.

Now we'll been looking at the fill tool.

So I'm going to go back to my select tool, and first I need to choose the shape that I want to select first.

So I'm going to start with this rectangle that is the base of my house.

And now once I've selected that shape, I've got a few tools now that have come up.

And this is the fill tool.

It's a little paint bucket just to help you remember.

Then when I click on that, it'll show me the different choices of colours that I have.

So I'd like to have my house be, I'll go for maybe a purple.

So I've clicked that and you can see now it's filled in just that shape with purple.

And now I will select my door and go back to the fill tool.

This time I'll pick maybe a nice colour brown and I'll select my door handle and make that really bright yellow that will pop.

Just trying to click out of the circle to see what it looks like.

There I'm happy with that.

And now my roof, since I've added these lines, I need to be very careful that I select the actual triangle and I'm not selecting the lines.

So I'll click in this open space here and you can see my blue box is highlighted around the outside.

So I know I've got the entire triangle and not one of the individual lines.

I clicked just on a line, it would look like that.

So I'll select my triangle and again, I'm going to go back to my fill tool and this time I will make it maybe a contrasting darker purple there, a lighter purple.

Ooh, no, I don't like that.

Undo, go back to my fill tool.

Let's go for a light green.

Now I can add colour to my windows.

So I'll select the square, that's my window.

And back to the fill tool.

Now here's a little challenge if you're interested.

At the very top, you'll see here I've got solid options below.

If you want, you can also click here on gradient and this will give you an effect of going from the same colour from lighter to darker, or darker to lighter.

So I might choose one these grey effects since it's going through the inside of the house.

And there you can see on the outside, it starts dark and then fades into a lighter colour towards the centre.

Now, if I want something a bit more dramatic, that's quite light.

So I might kind of go, so this one here, I'm happy with that.

So I can click on this window here and select the same one to match, and now to kind of give it more of a window effect, I'm going to use the line tool again.

And, you can see these dots pop up here and they'll help you centre your line right in the middle of the square.

So I could draw from dot to dot.

And if you really want your window line to stand out, you can also change the thickness of the line.

So I'll go back to my select tool and select one of these lines.

And then up here, is my line colour.

So you could also change the line colour if you want.

In this case, I'm going to stay with black.

But then to the right hand side of it, it's the line weight.

And this is how thick the line appears.

So I could change that to maybe four, increase it slightly, and then you can see that that window line just kind of pops a bit more and it's easier to see.

And there you go.

We've used the select fill and line tools to add a bit more detail and colour to our drawing.

Task 3, selecting shapes and using colours.

Now that you've had a closer look at the select fill and line tools, you're going to use these to make the different parts of your building, different colours.

Be sure to use the select tool, to click on the shape that you want to add colour to.

Pause the video here to complete your task.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Here's an example of how I selected different shapes to add colour to my drawing.

Endless possibilities! There are so many possibilities when creating vector drawings.

Here are some examples of vector drawings of buildings.

What shapes can you identify in these buildings? How has colour been used to add a bit more detail or give a certain effect? After looking at these examples, are there any changes or any other details you'd like to add to your drawing you created today? You've reached the end of lesson one.

Well done with your hard work today.

I have two more things I'd like you to do.

The first is continue to experiment with Google Drawings.

What other creations can you make? The second is, if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging Oak National and #LearnwithOak.

I'll see you next time.