European Baccalaureate Art cheat sheet

Art (visual arts option, European Baccalaureate)

• The EB visual arts option is assessed through an internal school-based mark (A mark, on the 0–10 scale) combined with the written/oral components where the school applies the European Schools' art syllabus; the A mark weights process work (sketchbook, research, experimentation) as heavily as the finished piece.

• The standard assessment strands are: practical production (a resolved work or series), preparatory/research work (sketchbook, studies, source gathering), and critical/contextual understanding (written or oral analysis of own work and of referenced artists or movements).

• A resolved project normally requires documented investigation: primary sources (own observation, photographs taken by the candidate) plus secondary sources (artists, movements, museum visits), with visible evidence of iterative trials before the final outcome.

• Annotation in the sketchbook must link intention, decision and evaluation: state the problem, the experiment, the result, and the next step - a chain the examiner can follow without oral explanation.

• Referencing artists is analytical, not decorative: name the artist and work, identify the specific formal device borrowed (e.g. complementary contrast, cropping, impasto), and state how it was adapted to the candidate's own subject.

• Formal analysis vocabulary expected at EB level: composition (rule of thirds, diagonal, focal point), colour theory (hue, value, saturation, complementary/split-complementary, warm–cool), tone (chiaroscuro, high/low key), texture, scale, and negative space.

• Assessment rewards risk and revision over safe repetition: a sketchbook showing rejected solutions with reasoned justification scores higher than a flawless copy of a familiar style.

• Time management rule: the practical outcome should occupy roughly the final third of the allocated project time; the first two thirds are research, studies and experimentation, all dated in the sketchbook.

• Presentation matters: work is exhibited (mounted, labelled, sequenced) and the candidate should be able to defend choices orally in the target language of the section, using correct art terminology.