Drawing and Painting Techniques
Scope
Drawing and painting techniques tests materials, processes and the practical reasoning behind mark-making, composition and colour.
Core rules
- Drawing: gesture, contour, construction, proportion, foreshortening, hatching and cross-hatching, tonal value.
- Perspective: horizon line, vanishing point, one-point and two-point perspective, aerial perspective.
- Painting media: watercolour (transparent washes, wet-in-wet), gouache (opaque), acrylic (fast-drying, plastic), oil (slow-drying, blendable), tempera (egg binder), fresco (pigment on wet plaster).
- Colour: hue, value and chroma; complementary mixing dulls; tint and shade; limited palette.
- Composition: rule of thirds, focal point, visual path, notan.
Worked example
Draw a box in two-point perspective. Reasoning: place the horizon line at eye level; place two vanishing points on it; draw the nearest vertical edge; recede the top and bottom edges to the correct vanishing points; keep verticals vertical. Errors are diagnosed by checking whether each receding edge points to the right vanishing point.
Traps
Do not use black to darken watercolour; it deadens the mixture. Do not place a vanishing point above the horizon unless intended. Do not confuse tint (plus white) with shade (plus black). Do not overwork acrylic as if it were oil.