UPMSP High School Painting cheat sheet

Seven elements of art: line, shape, form, space, texture, value, colour; principles of design organise these elements into a composition.

Line types and effect: vertical suggests stability and height, horizontal suggests calm and breadth, diagonal suggests motion and tension, curved suggests flow and softness.

Shape is two-dimensional (circle, square, triangle); form is three-dimensional (sphere, cube, pyramid) and shows volume through light and shade.

Value is the lightness or darkness of a tone independent of hue; a value scale of 10 steps from white to black is the standard reference.

Positive space is occupied by the subject; negative space is the surrounding emptiness - equal attention to both balances a composition.

Principles: balance (symmetrical, asymmetrical, radial), rhythm and repetition, emphasis (focal point), contrast, proportion, scale, movement, unity and variety.

Asymmetrical balance uses unequal visual weights - a large pale mass can be balanced by a small dark or textured mass placed further from the centre.

Texture may be actual (tactile surface of paint or paper) or simulated (illusion of roughness or smoothness created by mark-making).

Unity is achieved by repetition of colour, shape or direction; variety prevents monotony - the two must be held in tension, not maximised separately.

Gesture drawing: rapid 30-second to 2-minute studies capturing overall action and weight; line of action drawn first, details omitted.

Contour drawing: slow single continuous line describing edges and overlaps without lifting the pencil; blind contour means looking only at the subject.

Construction drawing builds form from simple solids - cylinder for limbs, sphere for head, box for torso - before any shading is applied.

Proportion check: hold pencil at arm's length, mark a unit (usually the head), then count units down the figure; adult figure is about 7.5 head-units.

Hatching uses parallel lines for value; cross-hatching overlays a second set at an angle; denser and more crossed lines give darker tone.

Perspective: one-point has a single vanishing point on the horizon; two-point has two on the horizon; three-point adds a vertical vanishing point for height or depth.

Ellipses in perspective become flatter (more closed) as they approach eye level and rounder as they move below it.

Foreshortening compresses receding limbs - draw the nearest form largest and overlap shapes to convey depth along the line of sight.

Pencil grades: H series hard and light, B series soft and dark, HB mid-range; 2H for construction lines, 2B–6B for shading and darks.

Pigment primaries: red, yellow, blue. Secondary colours: orange (red + yellow), green (yellow + blue), violet (blue + red).

Tertiary colours are made by mixing a primary with an adjacent secondary, e.g. red-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet.

Complementary pairs sit opposite on the colour wheel (red–green, yellow–violet, blue–orange); mixed together they neutralise toward grey-brown.

Hue is the colour name; value is its lightness or darkness; saturation (chroma) is its purity or intensity.

Tint = colour + white; shade = colour + black; tone = colour + grey or its complement, lowering intensity without changing hue much.

Warm colours (red, orange, yellow) appear to advance; cool colours (blue, green, violet) appear to recede - the basis of aerial perspective.

Simultaneous contrast: a colour looks lighter on a dark ground and darker on a light ground; grey looks warm beside blue and cool beside orange.

Optical mixing (pointillism) places small separate dabs that blend in the eye; physical mixing combines pigments on the palette before application.

Subtractive mixing applies to pigments and dyes (primaries cyan, magenta, yellow); additive mixing applies to light (primaries red, green, blue).

Prehistoric rock paintings at Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh) use red and white natural pigments depicting hunting and dancing figures.

Indus Valley seals and pottery show geometric and animal motifs; the bronze Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro is a key example of early modelling.

Ajanta caves (Maharashtra) hold Buddhist murals from roughly the 2nd century BCE to 6th century CE, painted with earth pigments in a fresco-secco-like technique.

Mughal miniature painting (Akbar, Jahangir era) is known for fine brushwork, flat perspective, court portraits, hunting scenes and border decoration.

Rajasthani schools include Mewar, Marwar and Kishangarh; subjects are Krishna legends, Ragamala and Baramasa sets in bold flat colour.

Pahari painting (Basohli, Kangra, Guler) uses delicate line, cool colours and lyrical Krishna themes; Basohli is noted for large expressive eyes.

Madhubani (Mithila, Bihar) uses double outlines, no empty space, and motifs of fish, lotus, bamboo and the sun; traditionally done by women on mud walls and paper.

Warli (Maharashtra) uses white rice paste on a red-brown ground, with geometric figures built from triangles and circles for bodies and heads.

Company painting and the Bengal School (Abindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose) mark the colonial encounter and the nationalist revival of wash technique and Indian themes.

Renaissance: linear perspective, anatomical study and chiaroscuro; Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo are the standard reference figures.

Baroque uses dramatic light and dark (tenebrism), diagonal composition and emotional intensity; Rembrandt and Caravaggio are typical examples.

Impressionism (from about 1870s France) paints outdoor light and atmosphere with broken brushstrokes and visible colour, avoiding black shadows.

Post-Impressionism extends the same period with structure and expression - Cézanne's planes, Van Gogh's directional strokes, Gauguin's flat colour areas.

Cubism (Picasso, Braque) breaks objects into multiple viewpoints and reassembles them on a flat plane; analytic phase is monochrome, synthetic phase uses collage.

Expressionism distorts colour and form for emotional effect; abstract art removes subject matter entirely (Kandinsky, Mondrian, Pollock).

Chinese landscape painting (shan shui) uses ink on silk or paper with empty space as mist; Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints influenced European Impressionists.

African sculpture, especially masks, influenced Cubism through simplified geometric planes and frontal abstraction.

Formal analysis order for any artwork: subject and content, formal elements, medium and technique, historical context, then interpretation.

Watercolour is transparent, diluted with water, dries lighter than it looks wet; white paper is reserved for highlights rather than adding white paint.

Watercolour techniques: wet-on-wet for soft bleeding edges, wet-on-dry for crisp edges, dry brush for texture, lifting for highlights, wash for flat areas.

Gouache is opaque watercolour with added chalk or white; it dries matte and slightly lighter, and can be layered light over dark.

Oil paint is slow-drying, blended on canvas, thinned with turpentine or solvent and thickened with linseed oil; supports must be primed to prevent absorption.

Acrylic dries fast to a plastic film, thins with water, and can imitate watercolour (thin) or oil (impasto); brushes must be cleaned before drying.

Poster colour is opaque, water-based, matte and inexpensive - standard for school and design work; it can crack if applied very thickly.

Soft hair brushes (sable, synthetic) suit watercolour washes; stiff bristle brushes suit oil and acrylic impasto; hake and flat brushes make broad washes.

Canvas, paper and board are prepared with gesso or primer; paper weight is given in gsm - 300 gsm watercolour paper resists buckling.

Palette knife mixes paint and applies impasto; a limited palette of primaries plus white saves cost and keeps colour harmony.

Rule of thirds: place the focal point near an intersection of lines dividing the frame into thirds rather than dead centre.

Golden ratio (about 1:1.618) is used to place horizon lines and divide space for pleasing proportion.

Visual path: the eye enters at high contrast or warm colour, follows leading lines, and should be directed toward the focal point, not out of the frame.

Rule of odds: an odd number of objects (three, five) generally reads as more natural and dynamic than an even number.

Horizon placement: a high horizon emphasises foreground and earth; a low horizon emphasises sky or distance - avoid cutting the frame exactly in half.

Overlapping, relative size, placement on the picture plane and atmospheric fading are the main cues for depth in a flat composition.

Simplify: limit the composition to a dominant idea, one focal point and a clear value structure (three values: light, mid, dark).

Isolation by empty space or contrast gives emphasis; too many equally strong elements destroy the focal point.

Thumbnail sketches (small, 5 × 7 cm) test composition cheaply before committing to a full-size painting.

Portfolio requirements typically include observational drawing, still life, figure or landscape study, colour work and a personal theme series.

Workflow for a painting: thumbnail, value sketch, colour study, transfer to support, block in large shapes, build mid-tones, refine darks and details last.

Keep a sketchbook with dated entries - process evidence (studies, corrections, notes) is assessed alongside finished work.

Fixative is sprayed on dry charcoal, pastel and graphite to prevent smudging; spray in thin coats at a distance, not heavily in one pass.

Drying order in oil painting is 'fat over lean' - later layers carry more oil than earlier ones to prevent cracking.

Mount and present work flat, trimmed, labelled with title, medium, size and date; photograph in even daylight without glare.

Time management in an exam: roughly 10% planning, 70% blocking and development, 20% refinement and finishing.

Self-evaluation criteria: accuracy of proportion, clarity of value structure, colour harmony, composition, and consistency of technique.