Graphic-plastic techniques and procedures: dry media, wet media, mixed media and supports
The paper offers a choice of technique, and marks are lost when the medium is fought rather than used. You must know each medium's behaviour - drying, layering, erasure, value range - and pair it with a support that suits it. Questions in this domain also test vocabulary: aguada, empaste, difuminado, reserva, grano.
Dry media
- Graphite: H grades are hard, light and shiny; B grades are soft, dark and greasy. Build tone with overlapping hatching; graphite smears, so keep the hand off the sheet.
- Charcoal: vine or willow is light, dusty and easily erased, good for mass; compressed charcoal gives dense blacks that are hard to remove.
- Sanguine, sepia, conté and pastel are chalk-based and work best on toned or toothed paper.
- Erasers are drawing tools: kneaded for lifting without damaging, plastic for hard edges. A torchon or stump blends.
Wet media
- Ink: nib, brush and wash; dilution in water yields a value scale; let each layer dry or the lower one lifts.
- Watercolour is transparent: work light to dark, reserve whites with bare paper or masking fluid, and never substitute white paint for paper white.
- Gouache and acrylic are opaque: work dark to light. Acrylic dries fast and cannot be re-wetted.
- Alcohol markers blend wet-into-wet and streak on smooth paper; plan a value sequence before starting.
Supports and mixed media
- Paper weight matters: roughly 120-200 g/m² for dry media, 300 g/m² for wet washing. Rough grain suits charcoal and pastel; hot-press suits pen and ink.
- Toned paper supplies a free mid-value, so you must work in both directions, dark and light.
- Layering order: dry resist then wet; water-resist then ink wash; collage last.
Worked example
A portrait on grey toned paper. Reasoning: vine charcoal lays the general mass and shadow shapes; a kneaded eraser pulls highlights back out of the tone; compressed charcoal is kept strictly for the deepest accents (pupils, nostrils, under the jaw); white chalk marks only the lightest planes. On toned paper, working only in one direction greys the drawing out and destroys the value range.
Traps
- Over-blending with fingers, which kills the tooth and produces mud.
- Charcoal on glossy or smooth paper.
- Fixative sprayed too close, causing drips, or applied too late.
- Scrubbing watercolour after it has dried.
- Mixing incompatible media with no test strip.