Edexcel A-Level Art and Design drawing and recording skills overview quiz quiz

Drawing what you actually see, comparing relationships

Drawing what you know an object should look like from learned symbols

Working only from memory of the object after looking away from it

Copying online photographs carefully and tracing their main outlines

Closing one eye to relax the focus before starting any detailed mark making

Holding a pencil at arm's length to compare angles and proportions

Tracing the subject directly through paper held against the still life

Choosing a colour scheme that suits the mood of the finished composition

It is faster than measuring each separate positive shape with careful sighting

It uses less paper because only the background needs to be drawn in

The eye judges an unfamiliar gap more objectively than a familiar object

It avoids using tone, so the drawing can stay as a flat line outline

Only AO4

AO2 and AO4 only

None of them

AO1, AO2 and AO3

To make the thinking visible: explaining decisions, reflecting on outcomes and connecting pages

To decorate the pages with neat decorative handwriting so the whole sketchbook looks more polished overall

To fill empty space on a page once the drawings and studies have all been completed

To list the date and the materials used, without reflecting on the choices made

At the centre of the page, where a single shared vanishing point sits

At two vanishing points on the horizon line

At the bottom corners of the page, below the level of the horizon line

They never meet because parallel edges stay parallel in this projection

Making a drawing smaller so that the whole subject fits onto a single page

Using a short pencil to keep the marks tight and the hand close to the paper

The visual compression of a form that points towards or away from the viewer

Cropping the composition tightly so that only part of the subject is shown

A photograph found in a book, reproduced from someone else's original composition

Another established artist's painting that you study closely and copy into your own sketchbook

An online image saved from a search and printed out for your sketchbook pages

Something you observe and record directly, including your own drawings and photographs

It shows genuine observation and the skill of translating a real subject into marks

It is quicker than working from a photograph, so more pages can be filled in time

It uses more colour than copying a photograph would, which always reads as flat and grey

It avoids drawing the subject, relying on collage and printed reference instead

There is no risk, since AO3 rewards any recording whether first-hand or found online

Weak observation (capping AO3), generic results, and copyright problems

The work becomes too colourful because screen images are brighter than real subjects

It takes too long to download and print the images needed to fill the sketchbook

A sustained tonal study

A finished painting

A fast gesture drawing

A perspective grid

It contains only finished pieces, presenting resolved outcomes rather than any trials

It is very neat and tidy, with every page ruled and laid out to the same fixed layout

It has no annotation, leaving the images to speak entirely for themselves to the marker

Each page shows process and leads to the next, so the enquiry can be followed