GCSE-readyKS3 Art and Design: common mistakes
The wrong answers students pick most often in our Art and Design questions, and why they are wrong. Read these before a test, then open the lesson for anything that surprises you.
The formal elements
- Tone and shading
- Not “2H”. H pencils are hard and make light marks.
Colour theory
- Colour theory: the colour wheel
- Not “Black”. Adding black makes a shade.
Drawing and sketchbooks
- Observational drawing
- Not “Secondary source”. A secondary source would be a photo or picture of the plant.
Art history: ancient world to Post-Impressionism
- The Renaissance
- Not “Painting on wet plaster”. That is fresco.
- Not “Very soft, smoky blending”. That is sfumato.
- From Baroque to Romanticism (1600s to 1800s)
- Not “Painting with small dots of pure colour”. Small dots of pure colour is pointillism.
- Not “A painting of everyday life indoors”. Everyday scenes are genre paintings.
- Not “A royal princess with her maids of honour”. That is Las Meninas by Velázquez.
Art, craft and design around the world
- Art and craft traditions: Japan and China
- Not “The Edo period”. The Edo period was in Japan.
- Art and craft traditions: Africa and the Americas
- Not “The Republic of Benin”. The modern Republic of Benin is a different, neighbouring country.
Towards GCSE: developing a project
- Developing a project: from idea to final piece
- Not “40%”. 40% is the externally set assignment.