BSEH SS Fine Arts cheat sheet

Seven elements: line, shape, form, value, colour, texture, space; principles (balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, unity, proportion) organise them.

Colour theory: hue = name of colour; value = lightness/darkness; saturation (chroma) = purity. Primary pigments are red, yellow, blue; additive primaries are red, green, blue.

Complementary pairs sit opposite on the colour wheel and mix to neutral grey; analogous colours sit adjacent and share a hue family.

Value scale runs 0 (black) to 10 (white); a work with values confined to one narrow band is called low-key or high-key.

Balance types: symmetrical (mirror), asymmetrical (equal visual weight from unequal forms), and radial (elements radiate from a centre point).

Rhythm arises from repetition with variation; pattern is repetition without variation; motif is the repeated unit.

Proportion compares parts to each other or to the whole; scale compares an object to a known reference such as the human figure.

Positive space is occupied by the subject; negative space is the surrounding area and carries equal compositional weight in figure-ground reading.

Texture is actual (tactile surface) or implied (simulated by mark-making and value shifts).

Indus Valley: bronze Dancing Girl (Mohenjo-daro), steatite Priest-King, terracotta Mother Goddess, and the bronze bull figurines show lost-wax casting.

Maurya period: polished sandstone pillars with bell capitals and animal abaci; the Sarnath Lion Capital became the national emblem of India.

Shunga period: Bharhut railings and Sanchi Stupa gateways (toranas) carry jatakas in low relief with identifying inscriptions.

Amaravati school (Satavahana) is famous for white marble relief panels and a fluid, elongated figure style.

Mathura school uses spotted red sandstone, indigenous rounded forms, and early Buddha images with a shaved head and halo.

Gandhara school uses grey schist and stucco with Hellenistic drapery, wavy hair, and the uṣṇīṣa; it flourished under Kushan patronage.

Gupta period (5th century) marks the classical idiom: Sarnath Buddha with transparent drapery, Ajanta murals, and the Sultanganj bronze Buddha.

Ajanta caves I–XXIX hold fresco-secco-type murals (Bodhisattva Padmapani, Mahajanaka Jataka) executed on lime plaster with natural pigments.

Delhi Sultanate painting survives mainly in illustrated manuscripts such as the Ni'matnama and the Laur Chanda, using Persian-derived flat colour with Indian figure types.

Akbar's atelier produced the Hamzanama on cloth and pioneered the composite court scene; Basawan and Daswanth are key named artists.

Jahangir favoured naturalistic portraiture, allegorical portraits, and animal studies (Ustad Mansur's dodo and Siberian crane).

Mughal workshop method: paper was sized, design outlined in fine brush, colour laid in flat areas, then burnished from the reverse for a polished surface.

Rajasthani schools: Mewar (Udaipur), Marwar (Jodhpur, Bikaner), Hadoti (Kota, Bundi) and Dhundhar (Amber, Jaipur); subjects include Ragamala, Rasikapriya and Barahmasa sets.

Pahari schools (Basohli, Guler, Kangra) show a shift from bold flat Basohli colour with beetle-wing inlay to the lyrical Kangra naturalism of the late 18th century.

Mughal painting uses single-point aerial perspective and high horizon; Rajput painting favours flat ground, symbolic colour, and profile faces.

Ragamala paintings personify musical modes; each ragini has a fixed iconography, such as Todi with a vina and a fawn.

Bengal School: Abanindranath Tagore's Bharat Mata (1905) and wash technique revived Mughal and Ajanta idioms against colonial academic realism.

Santiniketan/Kala Bhavana under Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose emphasised contextual modernism, mural-scale work, and indigenous material.

Amrita Sher-Gil fused post-impressionist handling with Punjabi rural subjects (Hill Men, Village Scene); she died in 1941 aged 28.

Progressive Artists' Group (1947, Bombay): F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara, S. K. Bakre and H. A. Gade; dissolved 1956.

Husain's horses derive from folk toy forms; Raza built geometric 'Bindu' compositions from tantric motifs; Souza used distorted black line.

Calcutta Group (1943) and Delhi Silpi Chakra introduced expressionism and abstraction in the 1940s–50s.

Baroda school (N. S. Bendre, K. G. Subramanyan, Bhupen Khakhar) brought narrative figuration and pop-inflected social comment.

Contemporary practice includes installation, video, and conceptual work; the Kochi-Muziris Biennale began in 2012.

Prehistoric: Lascaux and Altamira cave paintings use mineral pigments and show overlapping animal figures without ground line.

Greek orders: Doric (no base, plain capital), Ionic (scrolled volute, base), Corinthian (acanthus capital); contrapposto shifts weight onto one leg.

Renaissance: linear perspective codified by Brunelleschi and Alberti; sfumato and chiaroscuro are Leonardo's and Caravaggio's signatures respectively.

Baroque favours diagonal composition, dramatic tenebrism, and theatrical light; Rococo uses pastel palette and asymmetrical ornament.

Neoclassicism (David, Ingres) returns to crisp contour and antique subject matter; Romanticism (Delacroix, Turner) privileges emotion, colour and sublime nature.

Impressionism (1874 first exhibition) breaks contour into broken colour and optical light; Post-Impressionism pushes structure (Cézanne), symbol (Gauguin) or expression (Van Gogh).

Cubism (Picasso, Braque, 1907–14) analyses form into facets; analytic phase is monochrome, synthetic phase adds collage and text.

Modern movements to know: Fauvism, Expressionism (Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter), Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism.

Graphite grades: H = hard and light, B = soft and dark; 9H is hardest, 9B softest, HB is the middle grade.

Sight-size and plumb-line methods check proportion by comparing angles and verticals against a held pencil at arm's length.

Gesture drawing captures action in under a minute; contour drawing follows the edge without looking at the paper.

Cross-hatching builds value with intersecting line sets; stippling builds value with dot density.

Watercolour: wet-on-wet gives soft bleeding edges; wet-on-dry gives hard edges; masking fluid preserves white paper; lifting removes pigment while damp.

Acrylic dries fast and can be thinned with water; oil paint has long open time and requires solvent and medium; fat-over-lean rule applies to oils.

Fresco buono applies pigment to wet lime plaster so the colour carbonates into the wall; secco is painting on dry plaster.

Tempera uses egg yolk binder and dries matte with quick, unblendable strokes; gouache is opaque watercolour with added white.

Underpainting (grisaille) establishes value structure before glazes of transparent colour are applied.

Gestalt principles: proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, and figure-ground govern how viewers group design elements.

Typography terms: typeface, font, x-height, ascender, descender, leading (line spacing), kerning (pair spacing), tracking (overall letter spacing).

Colour modes: RGB for screens (additive), CMYK for print (subtractive); spot colour is a pre-mixed ink, not a process build.

Print resolution rule: 300 ppi at final size for photographs; vector art scales without loss because it is defined by paths, not pixels.

Layout: grid systems (column, modular, baseline) organise hierarchy; the rule of thirds is a compositional shortcut, not a grid standard.

Logo design criteria: legibility at small size, works in one colour, reproducible in vector, distinct silhouette.

Indian crafts: Kalamkari (pen-drawn resist-dyed cotton, Andhra), Madhubani (Mithila wall and paper painting), Pattachitra (Odisha cloth scroll), Warli (Maharashtra white line on mud ground).

Other crafts to identify: Bandhani tie-dye, Ikat, Channapatna lacquerware, Bidri metal inlay, Meenakari enamel, Phulkari embroidery.

A portfolio typically needs 10–20 resolved works plus supporting sheets; judges look for range, sustained inquiry, and evidence of process.

Document process with dated thumbnails, colour studies, and reference photographs; sketchbook and final work must be internally consistent.

Standard sheet sizes: A1 594×841 mm, A2 420×594 mm, A3 297×420 mm, A4 210×297 mm; mount with a consistent margin, usually wider at the base.

Photograph flat work on a wall with even, raking-free light; keep the camera parallel to the work and correct perspective in post.

Health and safety: ensure ventilation for solvents, never store oily rags in closed bins (spontaneous combustion risk), and use dust masks when sanding.

Fixative on charcoal or pastel must be applied in thin coats at 30 cm distance to avoid darkening and blooming.

Canvas preparation: size with gesso, sand between coats; stretch canvas with the weave aligned and staple on the reverse of the stretcher.

Studio workflow: thumbnail, value study, colour study, final; keep a consistent light source and record pigment names in a log.