Basque PAU Graphic-Plastic Techniques cheat sheet

Line types: contour line defines outer edge; cross-contour line describes volume across a surface; hatching uses parallel lines, cross-hatching overlays them to build density and value.

Value scale: a 5- or 7-step greyscale is the standard control; graphite grades from 9H (hardest, lightest) through HB to 9B (softest, darkest).

Orthographic projection (European/Spanish system, first angle): front view, plan (top) below it, and side view drawn on the opposite side from which it is viewed.

Axonometric systems: isometric has three equal 120° axes; dimetric has two equal axes; trimetric has three unequal axes. Cabinet and cavalier are oblique, not axonometric.

Conic perspective: one-point uses a single vanishing point on the horizon; two-point uses two; three-point adds a vertical vanishing point for height. Horizon line equals the viewer's eye level.

Foreshortening: forms perpendicular to the picture plane compress toward vanishing points; circles in perspective become ellipses whose minor axis points to the vanishing point.

Proportion canon: the human figure is conventionally 7.5–8 heads tall; head-unit measurement is used to check all body landmarks.

Chiaroscuro builds volume with a light source, core shadow, cast shadow, reflected light, and highlight; tenebrism pushes the contrast to near-black backgrounds.

Subtractive (pigment) primaries: cyan, magenta, yellow; additive (light) primaries: red, green, blue. Mixing all subtractive primaries approaches black; mixing all additive primaries gives white.

Complementary pairs neutralize each other: red–green, blue–orange, yellow–violet. Mixing a colour with its complement lowers saturation and chroma.

Munsell system describes colour by hue, value (0–10), and chroma; it is the reference model for pigment-based colour specification.

HSB/HSV and HSL are device models for screen work; CIELAB is perceptually uniform and used for accurate colour difference measurement (ΔE).

Simultaneous contrast (Chevreul): a colour appears shifted toward the complement of its surrounding colour; grey on red reads greenish, grey on blue reads orange.

Warm colours (red, orange, yellow) advance optically; cool colours (blue, green) recede. Aerial perspective exploits this by cooling and lightening distant forms.

Colour schemes: monochromatic (one hue), analogous (adjacent hues), complementary (opposite hues), triadic (three evenly spaced hues), split-complementary.

Optical mixing (pointillism/divisionism) places small separate strokes so the eye blends them; it is additive in effect although the pigments are subtractive.

Oil paint: slow drying, allows wet-in-wet and glazing; fat-over-lean rule prevents cracking - later layers must contain more oil than earlier ones.

Acrylic: dries fast, water-soluble when wet, becomes water-resistant when dry; can be used impasto, glazed with medium, or as underpainting for oils.

Watercolour: transparent, white comes from the paper; wet-on-wet gives soft bleed, wet-on-dry gives hard edges; masking fluid reserves whites.

Gouache and tempera are opaque water media; gouache reactivates with water, tempera (egg emulsion) dries matte and fast.

Intaglio printmaking (etching, drypoint, aquatint): ink sits in incised grooves, damp paper is forced into them under high pressure. Relief (woodcut, linocut) inks the raised surface.

Lithography is planographic: grease-based drawing on stone or plate, water and ink repel; screenprinting is stencil-based, forcing ink through mesh.

Mixed media and collage combine wet and dry media; collage (papier collé) introduced by Braque and Picasso around 1912.

Support and ground: canvas, panel, or paper; gesso primes absorbent surfaces; fresco paints pigment into wet lime plaster (buon fresco).

Rule of thirds: divide the frame into a 3×3 grid; placing key elements on the intersections or lines produces dynamic balance.

Golden ratio ≈ 1.618; the golden rectangle's sides follow it and the golden spiral is built from nested squares.

Visual weight is affected by size, darkness, saturation, isolation, and position; large dark forms low in the frame feel heavier.

Balance types: symmetrical (mirror), asymmetrical (dynamic equilibrium of unequal masses), and radial (elements around a centre).

Gestalt laws: proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, figure-ground, and common fate govern how elements group perceptually.

Directional forces: diagonals imply movement and instability; horizontals rest; verticals assert. Leading lines and sight lines guide the eye to a focal point.

Negative space is the ground between and around forms; it carries equal compositional weight and defines silhouette readability.

Rhythm and repetition create pattern; variation prevents monotony; scale contrast establishes hierarchy within the frame.

Formal analysis order: describe (what is seen) → analyse (how elements are arranged) → interpret (meaning) → evaluate (judgement against context).

Iconography decodes symbols and attributes; iconology (Panofsky) relates them to cultural and historical context.

Key Spanish references: Altamira cave paintings (Upper Palaeolithic), El Greco's elongation, Velázquez's Las Meninas (1656) with its mirror and viewer ambiguity, Goya's Black Paintings, Picasso's Guernica (1937).

Avant-garde timeline: Impressionism (1870s), Post-Impressionism (1880s), Fauvism (1905), Cubism (1907–1914), Futurism (1909), Dada (1916), Surrealism (1924).

Cubism breaks single-viewpoint perspective; analytic Cubism (1909–12) fragments and monochromes form, synthetic Cubism (1912–14) reintroduces colour and collage.

Photographic and filmic codes: shot size (close-up, medium, wide), camera angle (low angle empowers, high angle diminishes), framing, and lighting direction.

Advertising image analysis: denotation (literal content) versus connotation (implied meaning); anchorage is text that fixes the image's reading.

Semiotics basics (Peirce): icon resembles its object, index has a causal link, symbol relies on convention.

Design process stages: brief → research → analysis → ideation (sketches, thumbnails) → development → final artwork → evaluation. Iteration loops back at any stage.

Typography: type size in points, leading is line spacing, kerning adjusts space between pairs, tracking adjusts overall letter spacing. Serif, sans-serif, slab, and script are the main families.

Grid systems (Müller-Brockmann) organise layout with columns, margins, and gutters; the modular grid suits complex editorial work.

Colour in design: limit palettes to about 3–5 colours; check contrast for legibility; RGB for screens, CMYK for process printing, Pantone for spot colour.

Product design: form follows function; ergonomics and anthropometric data drive dimensions; sketching, mock-ups, and CAD precede prototyping.

Spatial design: scale, circulation, light, and human proportion govern interior and exhibition layout; plans, sections, and elevations are the standard drawing set.

Gestalt and hierarchy in graphic design: contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity (CRAP) are the working layout principles.

Creative methods: brainstorming without judgement, mind maps, morphological analysis, SCAMPER (substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to other use, eliminate, reverse).