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

Not owning a set of expensive professional-grade pencils and high-quality drawing paper

Drawing far too slowly, so the observed subject changes before the study can be completed

Using up too much paper on preliminary studies before committing to the final drawing itself

The brain supplying a simplified symbol instead of the observed shape

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

Closing one eye for a while in order to rest it part way through a long drawing

Choosing the best available lighting in the room before you begin the observed study

Sketching the whole subject very fast so that the first impression is captured quickly

It is a much faster way of working than drawing the positive shapes of the object directly

The brain has no stored symbol for an abstract gap, so you record its true shape

It uses noticeably less graphite, since the gaps are usually left blank rather than shaded

It makes the finished drawing look more abstract and modern, which examiners tend to reward

The price of the frame you will mount the finished drawing in

The number of separate colours you intend to use in the work

One consistent light source

The size and position of your signature in the corner

To save time overall, since building up many separate light layers is always far quicker than pressing down hard once

Pressing hard is formally against the rules of the assessment and is penalised by the examiner

Layering uses up far more paper, because each separate new layer has to be drawn on a fresh sheet

Layering keeps the gradation controlled and smooth; pressing hard gives blunt, uneven darks and skips the halftone

Blending

Coarse cross-hatching

Heavy scribble

A single ruled line

The top edge of the sheet of paper that the drawing is made on

The viewer's eye level, where vanishing points sit

The darkest band of tone running across the back of the scene

A line that always sits exactly across the middle of the page

When you are looking straight down a long corridor with one wall on each side of you

Only ever for drawing the human figure, never for buildings, rooms or any other objects

When you see an object from a corner, so two sets of edges recede to two points

Never when working indoors, since two-point perspective can only be used out of doors

Making a whole drawing physically shorter in order to save time; it should therefore always be drawn very quickly indeed

A particular type of cross-hatched shading; it is normally drawn with pen and ink rather than pencil

Drawing only the front-facing surface of an object and leaving the rest; it is drawn purely from memory

The compression of a form receding toward the viewer; it must be observed and measured, not reasoned from known length

Primary is first-hand material you gather yourself; secondary is made by others

Primary sources are always more expensive to obtain than secondary sources are to gather

Primary sources are always in full colour, whereas secondary sources are always black and white

There is no real difference between the two; the terms are simply used interchangeably in art

They are cheaper to gather than secondary sources, so a project using them costs the student less

AO3 rewards recording observations and insights, which require direct first-hand looking

They are far easier to find than secondary sources, so a project can be assembled more quickly

Secondary sources are banned outright by OCR, so a project may only ever use primary sources

Always, even a quick snapshot copied directly from someone else's image

Only when it is shot on film rather than taken on a digital camera or phone

When you control the viewpoint, lighting and framing

Never, because photography of any kind always counts as a secondary source