Balearic Islands PAU Artistic Drawing II common mistakes
Balearic Islands PAU Artistic Drawing II · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Spending the first 60–90 minutes perfecting an outline or grid and leaving under an hour to build value, so the final drawing is a clean contour with almost no tonal development.
Candidates treat the block-in as the finished product and are afraid to commit to darks because erasing feels risky on the exam paper; the result is a technically tidy but tonally empty sheet that loses marks in the light-and-value criteria.
What to do instead
Impose a time budget before starting: roughly 20% blocking, 50% value/colour development, 20% refinement, 10% checking. Set a phone or watch alarm for the end of the block-in and force yourself to move to massing tones even if proportions are imperfect. Practise three timed 30-minute studies per week where value must cover the full sheet by the halfway mark.
Drawing the subject from imagination or from a memorised template instead of observing the actual set-up, producing plausible-looking but structurally wrong proportions (heads too small, ellipses too flat, tables not receding).
Under exam pressure candidates default to symbols stored from practice rather than measuring the model in front of them, and many have never been trained to check angles and ratios against a fixed reference.
What to do instead
Use a consistent measuring routine every session: sight the vertical and horizontal axes, compare two or three key ratios with the pencil held at arm's length, and check every ellipse against its enclosing box. Do ten-minute 'measure only' exercises where you mark axis lines and ratio ticks without shading, then draw the same object from a different viewpoint to break the template habit.
Treating perspective as decoration: horizon line placed arbitrarily, vanishing points not shared between parallel edges, and objects in the same scene drawn with contradictory eye levels.
Candidates learn one-point perspective in isolation and never internalise that a single station point governs the whole composition; they also avoid construction lines because they fear leaving visible marks on the final sheet.
What to do instead
Before any detail, draw a faint horizon and mark the vanishing points, then test every receding edge by extending it to see whether it converges correctly. Establish eye level first and keep it fixed for the whole drawing; if the composition needs a different viewpoint, redraw rather than patch. Practise by constructing simple box clusters in two-point perspective until convergence errors become obvious at a glance.
Using colour as local colour only - filling each area with one flat hue taken from the object's name - with no shifts in temperature, saturation or value to describe light direction and reflected light.
Candidates equate colour with identification ('the cloth is red') and lack practice in mixing tints, shades and temperature shifts; limited palettes and drying time in the exam add pressure to keep areas flat.
What to do instead
Work value-first: establish a full greyscale thumbnail, then map colours onto that value structure, reserving the lightest lights and darkest darks. Mix at least three variants per hue (lit, mid, shadow) plus one reflected tone, and test them on a scrap of the same paper. In practice, paint the same simple still life three times with a restricted palette, changing only the light source, to build temperature intuition.
Composition decided at the last moment: subject centred with equal margins, tangent lines where edges just touch, and the whole mass sitting on the bottom edge of the sheet with empty space above.
Candidates start drawing the first object immediately without thumbnail sketches, and they fill the sheet from the top-left corner like writing rather than planning the whole rectangle.
What to do instead
Produce three small (postcard-size) thumbnails with different crops and viewpoints before touching the final paper, and choose one deliberately. Check the chosen layout for tangents, edge-crowding and a clear focal point, and confirm the main mass sits within the format with intentional negative space. Build the habit in weekly practice by drawing the same arrangement in horizontal, square and vertical formats.
Choosing an over-ambitious or over-familiar subject for the open brief - a full figure, a complex interior, or a clichéd still life of a skull and drapery - that cannot be resolved to a high standard in the time available.
Candidates believe a harder subject earns more credit, and they pick themes they have practised before without checking whether those themes actually suit the exam's stated focus or their current skill level.
What to do instead
Read the brief's emphasis carefully and select a subject you can carry from observation to a resolved finish within the time limit, prioritising quality of resolution over ambition. Rehearse two or three 'safe but personal' subject types in timed conditions beforehand and note which ones you finish comfortably. If you choose a complex subject, simplify it deliberately (crop, omit background clutter) rather than attempting everything.
Skipping the sketchbook/process evidence and presenting only a final drawing, so the development of the idea, alternative solutions and material tests are invisible.
Candidates assume only the final image is marked, or they run out of time and abandon preparatory work; some do not understand that the project criteria reward documented decision-making.
What to do instead
Treat the preparatory pages as a required deliverable: include annotated thumbnails, at least two rejected alternatives with a one-line reason, colour or material tests, and a short note on the final choice. Allocate a fixed slice of the exam time to assembling this evidence even if the final drawing is slightly less polished. In practice, keep a dated sketchbook where each project shows problem, options, tests and resolution.
Poor material control on the day: graphite smudging across the sheet, ink or wash bleeding because the paper was not sized or taped, or charcoal layered over an unfixed graphite underdrawing so the surface turns muddy grey.
Candidates rehearse with familiar materials but switch to unfamiliar ones in the exam, or they ignore drying times and paper handling under time pressure.
What to do instead
Decide your medium in advance and rehearse the exact combination on the same paper type, including taping, sizing and fixing steps. Keep a barrier sheet under the drawing hand, work from top to bottom and light to dark, and allow wash layers to dry fully before overdrawing. Bring only materials you have tested; do not experiment with a new medium for the first time in the exam.
Analysing a work in the visual-culture section with vague praise ('very expressive', 'great use of colour') instead of identifying concrete formal decisions and their effects.
Candidates lack a vocabulary for formal analysis and are unsure how to link description to meaning, so they fall back on impressionistic adjectives or retell the subject matter.
What to do instead
Use a fixed analytical scaffold: identify the work and context briefly, then describe composition, spatial construction, value structure, colour strategy, mark-making and medium, and finally connect those choices to an interpreted effect or intention. Quote specific evidence from the image in every claim. Practise by writing 150-word analyses of unfamiliar works using the same scaffold until it becomes automatic.
Leaving the drawing unresolved at the edges and in secondary areas - background scribbled in, shadows stopping abruptly, no clear hierarchy between focal point and periphery - so the sheet reads as unfinished.
Candidates run out of time on the focal area and rush the rest, or they give equal attention everywhere and lose the intended emphasis without noticing.
What to do instead
Plan a deliberate finish strategy: decide which areas get full resolution, which get simplified, and which are left as open ground, and state this in your thumbnails. Reserve the last 15 minutes for unifying passes - reinforcing the darkest darks, softening edges away from the focal point, and cleaning stray marks. In practice, finish studies completely, including backgrounds, so that 'resolved' becomes a habit rather than an afterthought.