PAU Artistic Drawing II (Madrid) common mistakes
PAU Artistic Drawing II (Madrid) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Starting to shade or texture the drawing within the first minutes, before the overall silhouette and the main proportional relationships of the model are settled, so that later corrections force erasing and re-drawing over tonal work.
Candidates arrive from practice focused on finish and detail, and under exam time pressure they rush to produce something that looks 'complete'. Shading feels productive and gives immediate visual reward, while measuring proportions feels slow and uncertain.
What to do instead
Impose a fixed timing structure: the first 15–20 minutes are line-only encaje with no tonal marks allowed. Use a light 2H or HB for this stage and check the block-in against plumb lines, horizontal references and negative shapes before any shading begins. Only move to values once the silhouette and internal landmarks hold together when the drawing is viewed from a distance.
Drawing the model from memory or from an idealized mental schema (standard head, standard hand, standard eye) instead of measuring the specific model in front of them, producing a generic figure with wrong proportions.
The brain substitutes known symbols for observed form; this is the classic perceptual habit that drawing training must break. Under stress the tendency intensifies because memory is faster than observation.
What to do instead
Train comparison-based seeing: measure angles with the pencil held at arm's length, compare widths against heights, and check key alignments (ear to shoulder, elbow to waist, knee to ankle). For each part, ask 'how does this specific shape differ from what I expect?' and record the difference explicitly before drawing it.
Composing the figure or still life so that it is cropped awkwardly, floating in the middle of the sheet, or tangent to the paper edge, without planning the placement of the whole before starting.
Candidates start at the top-left corner and work outward, so the composition is a by-product of drawing order rather than a decision. They also underestimate how much space the full model plus cast shadow will occupy.
What to do instead
Before drawing, make two or three thumbnail sketches (5 cm) on a corner of the sheet or a separate scrap, deciding the placement, the negative space around the subject and the direction of the main axis. Transfer the chosen thumbnail to the final sheet by marking the extreme points (top, bottom, left, right) first and checking they leave a comfortable margin.
Producing flat, uniform shading with a single mid-tone across the whole form, so that the drawing reads as a silhouette rather than a three-dimensional volume.
Candidates confuse 'shading' with 'darkening'. They apply graphite evenly because they are not identifying the light source, the terminator or the core shadow, and they fear making the darks too dark.
What to do instead
Establish the light direction explicitly at the start and identify four zones on the model: lit side, core shadow, reflected light and cast shadow. Block these in as distinct flat values first, then blend only at the transitions. Squint at both model and drawing to compare value groupings, and reserve the darkest darks and lightest lights for the final pass.
Leaving the drawing in a low-contrast grey range, with no true blacks or clean lights, so the work looks weak and undifferentiated on the wall.
Fear of ruining a drawing that is 'going well', combined with using only soft pencils (2B–4B) that cannot reach a deep value, and with viewing the sheet too close under flat light.
What to do instead
Carry the value scale deliberately: keep a 6B or charcoal for the darkest accents and use the white of the paper or a kneaded eraser for the highest lights. Periodically step back two metres and compare the overall value range with the model. Commit to at least one clear dark accent and one clear light area in every major form.
Choosing an inappropriate technique or support for the time available - for example starting a highly detailed pen-and-ink or watercolour wash piece in a 3-hour exam, or mixing incompatible media without testing.
Candidates want to show technical ambition and pick the medium they enjoy rather than the one that suits the time, scale and subject. They also have not rehearsed the medium under timed conditions.
What to do instead
Match medium to task: graphite or charcoal for tonal studies, conté or soft pencil for fast large-scale work, ink only for short linear studies. In preparation, time yourself on full pieces with each candidate medium and choose the one that reliably reaches a resolved state in the exam duration. Never introduce a medium in the exam that you have not completed a timed piece with.
Overworking the drawing - endless erasing, re-drawing and blending until the paper is grey, burnished and cannot take further marks.
Anxiety about quality leads to repeated small corrections without a clear diagnosis of what is wrong; each correction damages the surface and lowers contrast, prompting more correction.
What to do instead
Diagnose before touching the paper: state in words what is wrong (e.g. 'the head is too large relative to the shoulders') and correct the underlying structure, not the symptom. Limit erasing to structural errors, use a kneaded eraser for lifting rather than scrubbing, and work from soft to firm pressure. If the paper is loading up, stop and move to a fresh area or a fresh sheet rather than continuing to grind.
Treating the exam as a copying exercise: reproducing the model literally with no selection, emphasis or compositional interpretation, producing a timid, undifferentiated study.
Candidates believe 'correct' equals 'safe'. They fear that interpretation will be read as error, and they have not practised making deliberate choices about focal point, cropping or simplification.
What to do instead
Before drawing, decide and note one or two intentional choices: the focal point that gets the sharpest detail and highest contrast, the areas that will be simplified or left as broad tone, and the crop or viewpoint. Keep these decisions consistent through the drawing so the work shows a clear hierarchy rather than uniform attention.
Ignoring foreshortening and perspective on receding forms - limbs pointing towards the viewer, ellipses on cylindrical objects drawn as flat ovals, table edges that do not converge.
Candidates draw the 'true' length or shape they know the object has rather than the compressed shape it projects on the picture plane, and they have not practised constructing ellipses and checking convergence.
What to do instead
Measure the projected length and width of foreshortened forms directly on the picture plane with the pencil, and trust the measurement over knowledge of the object. For cylinders, construct ellipses from the minor axis and check that the minor axis points to the vanishing point. Check all receding parallel edges against a common vanishing point before committing to line.
Poor time management: spending most of the session on the head or the central object and leaving the hands, feet, background or the whole lower half of the figure unresolved or blank.
Candidates work sequentially and in detail, and difficult passages (hands, feet, faces) absorb disproportionate time. There is no plan for a second pass, so the drawing is never brought to a unified level of finish.
What to do instead
Plan the session in blocks: block-in, then a full-figure tonal pass at low resolution, then detail. Bring the whole drawing to the same level of finish at each pass before increasing detail anywhere. Deliberately allocate a final 20–30 minutes to unifying the whole image rather than perfecting one part.