Drawing and Sketching Techniques
This domain tests whether you can build a drawing that sits convincingly in space. Questions come as definitions (contour, vanishing point, core shadow), as diagrams where you mark the horizon line or the light source, and as short explanations of method.
The drawing sequence
- See first - use a viewfinder or hold your pencil at arm's length to compare heights and angles.
- Block in - very light straight lines for the total shape and its centre.
- Check - a plumb line for verticals, negative spaces for awkward gaps.
- Model - shade in the order: cast shadow, core shadow, half-tone, highlight.
Key terms
- Contour - the edge line of a form; blind contour - drawing without looking at the paper.
- Gesture - a fast line capturing action.
- Hatching, cross-hatching, stippling - value built with parallel lines, crossed lines, dots.
- One-point perspective - one vanishing point on the horizon; two-point uses two; circles in perspective become ellipses.
Worked example
You are asked why the rim of a cup drawn from eye level looks like a flattened ellipse, and why the top ellipse is thinner than the base ellipse. Reasoning: a circle seen at an angle projects as an ellipse; the further the circle is from your eye level, the more open, rounder it appears. The base sits lower, further from the horizon line, so it opens more than the rim. Both ellipses must be symmetrical and never pointed - pointed ends are the classic error.
Traps
- Changing the light direction halfway through.
- Outlining every edge at the end, which flattens the form.
- Leaving out the cast shadow, so objects float.
- Ignoring the horizon line, so the table edge and the objects disagree.