BECE Creative Arts and Design: Drawing and painting
Drawing records what you see with lines and tone. Painting adds colour. Both depend on looking, not on guessing the shape.
The idea
A still life is a group of objects that stay still, such as a bottle, a fruit and a cloth. A landscape is a view of land, sky and what stands on the land. A figure study is a person. Before the outlines, look at how big one part is next to another. That comparison is proportion. A bottle that is drawn wider than the bowl beside it, when the bowl is wider in life, has a proportion error. Light shading, not a hard outline alone, shows the roundness of a fruit. The side away from the light is darker. The side toward the light is lighter. A cast shadow sits on the table, away from the light.
Primary colours are red, yellow and blue. They are not mixed from other colours on the palette. Secondary colours are mixed from two primaries. Red and yellow make orange. Yellow and blue make green. Blue and red make violet. Adding white lightens a colour. Adding black darkens it, and too much black can turn the colour dull. Name the medium the question asks about. Pencil and charcoal are drawing media. Poster colour and watercolour are painting media. A mark scheme wants the medium and what it is good for, not a brand name.
The Creative Arts and Design tips guide sets out drawing, colour and the practical beside the rest of the paper. BECE Creative Arts and Design tips
What earns the marks
Proportion is a comparison of sizes, not a feeling that the drawing is pretty. Shading must follow the light: one side lighter, the other darker, and a shadow on the surface the object stands on. Primary and secondary colours are fixed pairs. Orange is not a primary. If you are asked to mix a secondary, name the two primaries. "Use bright colours" is not a method.
Practice questions
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
1Question 1
4 marks
(a) What is a still life? (2 marks)
(b) State two things an artist checks before finishing the outlines. (2 marks)
Model answer
(a) A still life is a drawing or painting of objects that do not move, arranged so the artist can study them.
(b) The artist checks the proportion of one object against another, and where the light is coming from.
Mark scheme
Objects that stay still, or objects arranged for study1 mark
They are drawn or painted from looking1 mark
Proportion, or the size of one part against another1 mark
The direction of the light, or the spaces between the objects1 mark
2Question 2
3 marks
Name the two primary colours that mix to make green, and state what happens when white is added to that green. (3 marks)
Model answer
Yellow and blue mix to make green. Adding white makes the green lighter.
Mark scheme
Yellow1 mark
Blue1 mark
White lightens the green1 mark
3Question 3
3 marks
A mango on a table is lit from the left. Describe how to shade the mango so it looks round. (3 marks)
Model answer
The left side is lighter because it faces the light. The right side is darker. A shadow falls on the table to the right of the mango.
Mark scheme
The side toward the light is lighter1 mark
The side away from the light is darker1 mark
A cast shadow on the table, on the side away from the light1 mark
Practise Creative Arts and Design with Kevin
More questions on this topic are inside glearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Red, yellow and blue. A secondary colour is mixed from two of them. Orange comes from red and yellow, green from yellow and blue, and violet from blue and red.
What is proportion in a drawing?+
Proportion is the size of one part compared with another. If a bottle is taller than a cup in front of you, the drawing should keep that comparison. Shading then shows which side faces the light. All BECE Creative Arts and Design past questions