Sixty Photographs, Four Traced Drawings
A candidate is developing a project on 'urban decay' for the drawing and recording component. They have 60 photographs on their phone, all taken at dusk on one street, four small pencil drawings traced from the screen, and no written notes. The drawings use only mid-grey and black; there is no range of tone, no detail of texture, and no sense of scale. The candidate says they cannot draw on location because the street feels unsafe and the weather is wet. A portfolio review is in three weeks. The assessment expects visual research from primary observation, varied recording methods, and evidence of selection. The candidate has access to a sheltered bus stop opposite a derelict cinema, a digital camera, a sketchbook, graphite, charcoal, ink and a 30 cm ruler. They have five hours of supervised art time each week and can arrange one off-site visit with a teacher.
1. Design a three-week plan that replaces overdependence on phone photographs with primary observation, while managing the safety and weather constraints.
Read the worked answer
The plan should use the one supervised off-site visit as the anchor and treat the phone photographs as secondary evidence, not the starting point.
Week 1: supervised site visit. With the teacher, work from the sheltered bus stop for two hours in daylight. Make six studies: three 5-minute thumbnail compositions, two 20-minute tonal studies of the cinema facade, and one 40-minute sustained drawing of a doorway or drain. Use graphite and charcoal. Record the date, weather, viewpoint and scale in the sketchbook.
Week 2: second-hand primary recording and material variation. Use the digital camera only to record details that cannot be drawn safely, such as high-up textures. Back in the studio, make two ink studies from the on-site drawings, not from the screen. Test dry-brush, wash and line to record texture. Add a measured drawing using the 30 cm ruler to establish scale.
Week 3: selection and development. Choose six to eight strongest studies, annotate why they were selected, and make one composite study that combines a wide view with a close detail. The phone photographs can be used to check a detail, but every major decision should trace back to an on-site note or drawing. Safety is managed by working only in the sheltered, supervised area, in daylight, and by telling the teacher the plan before the visit.
2. What recording methods should the candidate use to improve tone, texture and scale, and why are these more appropriate than tracing?
Read the worked answer
Tracing from a screen flattens decisions: the candidate copies an outline but does not learn how tone, texture or scale are constructed. Direct observation forces those decisions. For tone, the candidate should make a five-step tonal scale in the sketchbook and then use it to test three charcoal studies of the same surface: one high contrast, one mid-tone dominant, one with a strong light edge. This makes the range visible and avoids the current mid-grey-and-black habit.
For texture, the candidate should use varied marks rather than uniform shading: dry charcoal on rough paper for brick, ink wash for damp stains, dry-brush ink for peeling paint, and graphite for fine cracks. Each study should be annotated with the mark-making decision and what it communicates.
For scale, the candidate should include one measured drawing with the 30 cm ruler, noting a real dimension such as a door width or window height. A human figure or a familiar object can also establish scale. These methods produce evidence of selection because the candidate chooses which marks and measurements matter, rather than tracing every edge.
3. How should the candidate evidence selection in the portfolio review, and what should they do with the 60 phone photographs?
Read the worked answer
The candidate should not present all 60 photographs as research. They should make a contact sheet or a small set of thumbnails, mark perhaps six that contain useful detail, and write a note explaining that these are secondary references for texture or proportion. The primary evidence should be the on-site drawings, the measured study and the annotated tests.
Selection should be visible as a sequence: wide observational thumbnails, a sustained tonal study, a detail study, a material test, then a developed composition. Rejected studies should be kept but labelled with a reason, such as 'too dependent on outline' or 'no clear tonal structure'. This shows judgement rather than a tidy display.
In the review, the candidate should be able to point to three decisions: which motif was selected, which recording method revealed the most, and what will be developed next. The photographs can support those decisions, but they should not replace the primary observation. If the candidate cannot explain a decision without the screen, the research is still too secondary.