Sketching and Coloring Questions for Design Entrance Exams

Want to get into a top design college? Mastering sketching and coloring questions could be your golden ticket. In this article, we will be sharing questions that are generally asked in the entrance exam. Read on to get detailed information.

Sketching & Coloring Questions

Sketching and coloring questions are one of the most common question types asked in the Design Entrance Exam. Almost all entrance exams, such as NIFT, NID, CEED, UCEED, and others, include this section to assess the candidate's ability, creativity, observation, composition, and storytelling skills.

Why are Sketching and Coloring Questions Important in Design Exams?

We cannot deny that design is a visual discipline. It is the ability that helps to communicate visually any idea through sketches, illustrations, doodling, storyboards, etc. The sketching and coloring section tests the following:

• Creative thinking
• Knowledge of proportion and perspective
• Ability to express emotions and ideas
• Knowledge of color theory and composition

Some of the topics on which sketching and coloring questions are based are daily life observation scenes, storyboarding, product design, scene transformation, etc.

How to Practice Sketching & Coloring Effectively?

The following tips will help you master sketching and coloring:

• Sketch every day: Practice sketching every day because practice makes a human perfect. Your practice should include a variety of objects around you and scenes in public places.

• Practice timed drawing: Allot time to yourself and try to finish your drawing in that time, as most exams are strict on time.

• Refer to past-year papers: Go through previous year question papers, sample papers to understand the type and pattern of questions. Many are available online.

• Take feedback: Get regular feedback from mentors, friends or online design communities.

• Explore different mediums: Always use different medium to practice your sketch and drawings, pencil, pen, color pencils, and markers.

Tips to Prepare for CAT 2027

Develop your drawing skills for the 2027 CAT by following the tips listed below.

1. Develop your observation skills  - Keenly observe the world around you and take mental notes of things. 
2. Learn the A-B-C of geometrical shapes - This skill will come with practice.
3. Conceptualization - Before you put a brush or pencil to paper, make sure you have a pretty solid conceptualization of the drawing or shape, or want to create. 
4. Learn product drawing - Product drawing is the process is pictorially representing 3D objects in 2D. The 3D object can be anything that you see around you - the water flask, the laptop, the mobile phone, bed, sofa, etc. 
5. Work on your line quality - Avoid jittery or multiple lines when drawing. To improve your line drawing skills, start with simple line drawings. With confident lines and basic shapes, progressing to complex shapes would be much easier. Also, practice drawing circles. Note- make sure that your pencil is well-sharpened; avoid a blunt pencil. 
6. Shading - At the outset, let me tell you that shading is not an important part of the design exam. That being said, here are some shading skills that can make your drawing stand out: reflected light, full light, case shadow, halftone, and shadow edge. 
7. Human figures - One easy way to learn the process of perfectly drawing human figures is to start with stick drawing. In the next progression, you can make block drawing. Once you have mastered stick drawing and block drawing, you can add clothes and other elements. In the final step, you can work on the face, eyes, fingers, etc. 
8. Learn the principles of composition - A drawing includes many small components, depending on the subject. For instance, if you draw a kitchen, it may include the stove, sink, water tap, fridge, kettle, jar, basket, table, etc. There are certain rules or principles for incorporating such elements in a drawing. These rules are called the principles of composition. While you can easily make an image without following these principles, the drawing in such cases may look incomplete or may not have elements that the examiners are looking for. Here are the key principles of composition: Alignment, Balance, Proportion and Emphasis.

Sketching Questions for Design Entrance Exam

Some of the sketching questions for B.Des are:

1. In the box given below, you have been given an object. Draw any ONE of the following options to complete the scene. a. Two human figures b. Two animal figures c. One animal and one human figure. Give a suitable title/ caption to the completed scene.

2. Draw a workstation of a tailor.

3. Design a comic strip (black and white) in the four given boxes on any ONE of the topics: a. My journey to Mars; b. Me as a fish c. My appointment with the dentist

4. Illustrate your morning routine as a comic strip.

5. Colour any ONE of the patterns given below, to design a fabric for any one of the following occasions/themes: a. Festival b.Meditation c.Travel. Explain the reasons for the choice of the colours for the specific theme in 60-80 words.

6. Design a new product for village.

7. Design a bird’s eye view of a park.

8. Design a mascot for any ONE of the following campaigns: India Against Corruption; Pulse Polio; Keep City Clean Narrate the concept briefly in the space provided. Write the option chosen in the space below, before attempting the question.

9. Attempt any ONE of the following:

• Portray in four pencil sketches the movement of an aircraft arriving to land at an airport. 
• Draw four landscapes for spring, summer, autumn and winter. Colour suitably. Write the option chosen in the space below, before attempting the question. 

10. Design a creative poster with an attractive tag line on any ONE of the following:

• Cyber Cafe
• Book Shop
• Cinema CD Shop
• Fruit Shop

Write the option chosen in the space below, before attempting the question.

11. Imagine yourself as a lizard on the wall of a room, and draw the view from that position in the box given below.

12. Visualize and illustrate any FIVE of the below given words in colour in the blank boxes. Sharpness, Speed, Passion, Storm, Happiness, Love, Hatred, Tsunami, Summer. Write the word chosen and express each of the visual composition/concept in the ruled boxes provided against each blank boх.

13. Draw and explain an interesting pattern using any THREE of the given motifs in the grid using colours. The concept is applied on the opposite page.

14. Your State Tourism Department would like to introduce a uniform for the licensed Tourist Guides. Design a uniform for male Tourist Guides considering the following: 1. Cultural Background. 2. Social Sensibilities. 3. Functional Utility.

15. Visualize pollution in a lake.

16. You have gone on a long trekking expedition. Picture your feelings, emotions and physical states from beginning to end of the expedition in the following four boxes.

17. Design a poster to enhance voter awareness in the box below. Explain the concept applied in the opposite page.

18. Sketch a person walking in snow/rain.

19. Sketch a classroom during exam time.

20. Sketch a concert/food festival.

21. Sketch the process: How to make tea?

22. If birds were frogs and frogs were birds. Draw how the frog and bird would look. Use dry colors.

23. Design a poster for social campaigns of the Government of India- Inclusion of LGBTQ - Communal Harmony. Use dry colors.

24. The United Nation member states have agreed upon the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Take any one goal agreed by them and prepare a poster to promote that goal. Use dry colors.

25. Express the four seasons with colours.

26. Design a Raskshabandhan-themed packaging Design./ Design a festival-themed packaging design.

27. Colour a marketplace during sunset.

28. Illustrate in colour a print on a T-shirt on any one of the following topics:

• Music is the soul of life
• Save future wild life
• Dignity is aged

29. Show the following procedure in four steps: a. Placing a bulb on a holder b. A paper folding into a boat.

30. Express the below-mentioned emotions through colors:

• Sorrow
• Happiness
• Rebellious
• Astonishment

Sketching & Coloring Questions for M.Des

Sketching Questions for M.Des are:

1. Using the given 4 boxes, sketch a day of your life, imagining yourself as any one of the following. You can write text by making dialogue bubbles/boxes. (Attempt any one).

• You have lost your way in a jungle and also find yourself shrunk to half your size. Sketch any one situation where you can use your reduced size to your advantage.
• You are a superhero traveling on very bumpy terrain. Design the dashboard of your futuristic car.
• You are invisible for a day. How will you use your invisibility to help someone?

2. Sketch and/or render any one of the following. (Attempt any one)

• In the recent floods in various parts of the country, it was reported that many pet dogs died because they became too heavy to lift and transfer into a rescue boat/chopper. Sketch a pet rescue device that can lift a dog to the surface of the water.
• Use combination of English and Hindi/regional language to create a tagline of any one of the following brands. • Kellogg's • Surf Excel • Mountain Dew
• The mandate of the government is to convert all vehicles using petrol into electric vehicles in the next decade. In this scenario, the present petrol stations are going to be replaced by public electric charging stations. Imagine and sketch one such charging station.

3. From a balcony of your fourth-floor apartment, you are looking at a small place of worship surrounded by a garden. Depict the scenario on a busy sunny day. Use an appropriate pencil as a medium.

4. Using desired numbers, the basic geometric shapes found in a bicycle make a visually appealing composition without overlapping the piece. Colour it by using three colours in a medium of your choice.

5. Sixteen wooden cubes in four different colours are available for you. Make a show pie by using of these cubes, which can be displayed in your drawing room.

6. Draw the scene of a man, who is sitting on an elephant in a large hall with one circular opening in the roof.

7. You have been provided pieces of coloured paper in the shape of red triangles, circles and blue yellow squares.

8. Make a composition in the given space by using a maximum five pieces.

9. Five bricks, four circular wooden logs and six balls are given to you. Make an interesting three dimensional stable composition a these elements and show the effect d and shadow on the composition.

10. Imagine that your size has been reduced significantly and you are standing in a pencil box that has three pencils, one sharpener, one compass, one small piece of paper, eraser and one fountain pen. Draw what you would see standing inside pencil box with the lid of the box open.

11. Draw a visually appealing composition using the five given shapes and colour it by a four colours. You can use any shape more than once. However, each shape has to be used at least once.

12. Make an interesting three-dimensional composition using three bottles, two balls! One lampshade in the space provided, show the effect of light and shadow on the composition.

13. Draw a logo for kabbadi game rectangles, circles and triangles. Use three colours.

Also Read:

• Color Theory for NIFT , NID, UCEED and CEED