OCR GCSE Art and Design visual language and formal elements overview quiz quiz

The set of rules controlling how long you may spend on each exam task

The four assessment objectives that examiners use to mark your whole portfolio fairly

Line, tone, colour, shape, form, texture and pattern, organised by composition

The two components, the portfolio and the externally set timed assignment

Outlines are always wrong and should never be used in any observational drawing at all

Solid-looking objects simply use more ink, and the amount of ink alone is what makes a drawing read as solid

Flat shapes are banned by the assessment objectives, so an even outline always loses marks

An outline states only where a shape ends; varied line and surface marks describe form and depth

Highlight, mid-tones, core shadow and reflected light, plus a cast shadow

Only pure black and pure white, with no mid-tones in between them anywhere

Just one flat grey spread evenly across the whole of the rounded surface

Only the single bright highlight, with the rest of the form left untouched

Mid-tones are forbidden by the formal elements, so any drawing using them must look flat

The eye reads contrast between light and dark as volume; a narrow tonal band gives no such contrast

Mid-tones are simply too dark, and any tone darker than a highlight always flattens a form

It uses the wrong type of paper, and only very smooth white paper can ever record a true sense of volume

Red, green and blue

Warm, cool and neutral

Hue, saturation and value

Primary, secondary and tertiary

They instantly cancel out to a dull flat grey wherever they sit beside each other

They blend optically into one single new colour halfway between the two on the wheel

Nothing happens at all, because colours placed side by side never affect one another

They intensify each other, creating strong contrast useful at a focal point

Warm colours advance and feel energetic; cool colours recede and feel calm, setting mood and depth

They have no effect at all on either the mood of a picture or the sense of depth within it

Warm colours are always brighter than cool colours, whatever their saturation or value happens to be

Cool colours can only ever be used to paint winter scenes and never appear in any other subject

They are exactly the same thing, and the two words can be swapped freely in any answer

Shape is two-dimensional (a flat area with an edge); form is three-dimensional (solid volume created with tone)

Shape is always geometric, while anything organic or irregular in outline must instead be called a form by an artist

Form is only ever used in photography, whereas drawing and painting can only show flat shape

There is no difference at all, because every texture in art is felt with the fingertips

Implied texture is always far rougher to the touch than real texture wherever the two happen to appear together

Real texture is physically felt (impasto, collage); implied texture is an illusion created with marks

Real texture only exists in photographs, and a drawing can never suggest a surface convincingly

It chooses the materials and media you will use, and nothing more than that

It marks the work against the assessment objectives once the piece is finished

It is only about keeping the page neat and tidy, with no effect on meaning at all

It arranges the formal elements within a format to direct the eye and communicate

Off-centre placement creates dynamic, asymmetric balance and gives the eye somewhere to travel

Placing the focal point dead centre is strictly against the assessment rules and always loses you marks

An off-centre focal point is simply quicker and easier to draw than one in the very middle

The centre of any picture is always slightly blurry, so the focal point must avoid it

It is simply wasted, empty space that should always be filled up with extra detail or busy pattern

It is part of the composition and can be used deliberately to give the subject room and breathe

It should always be removed by cropping in tightly so the subject fills the entire format

It is only ever relevant in sculpture and three-dimensional work, never in a flat drawing