Fundamentals of Drawing and Painting
Domain 1: Fundamentals of Drawing and Painting
This domain tests whether you can name, apply and justify the basic visual language of art - the elements that build an image and the principles that organise it - and whether you can choose materials and techniques appropriate to a stated task. PSEB questions often ask you to distinguish a medium's handling characteristics or to explain why a drawing looks unbalanced.
Elements and principles
The elements are line, shape, form, space, value, texture and colour. Shape is flat and enclosed; form is shape with volume and light. Value is the lightness or darkness of a tone, not the name of a colour. Texture may be actual or simulated. The principles include balance, contrast, emphasis, proportion, rhythm, pattern, movement, unity and variety. A useful test: elements are the ingredients, principles are the recipe.
Materials and techniques
Graphite pencils run from hard, light H grades to soft, dark B grades; HB is the middle. Charcoal gives velvety darks and erases easily; conte and pastel are pigment sticks; watercolour is transparent and relies on the white paper; poster colour is opaque; oil dries slowly and supports blending and glazing; acrylic dries fast. Hatching uses parallel lines, cross-hatching overlays them, stippling uses dots, scumbling drags a dry brush over texture, and impasto is thick paint.
Worked example
To draw a cube in two-point perspective, first draw the horizon at eye level, place two vanishing points, then draw the nearest vertical edge. Send the top and bottom edges to both vanishing points. Keep all verticals vertical. Decide the light direction and thicken the edges on the shadow side. Reasoning: the horizon controls every receding edge; line weight describes form before shading begins.
Traps
Do not call value 'colour brightness'; do not outline objects as a substitute for form; do not over-blend graphite until it shines; do not use the same mark-making for every texture.