Drawing and Painting Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

An individual school art item in which a student makes one drawing or painting on the year’s set theme within a two-hour sitting and is marked out of 100 on creative thinking, use of materials, clarity of idea and quality of the finished work.

Drawing and Painting is the flat-art item of a school art competition. One student makes one picture in the medium they choose, drawn or painted, on a theme the organiser announces for the year. It is an individual item: group work cannot enter, so every mark on the page has to be the entrant’s own idea and the entrant’s own hand.

On the template this page is written from, a school art competition in the United Arab Emirates, the item is run in four school-year groups: Year 5-6, Year 7-9, Year 10-11 and Year 12-13. They are school years, not ages, so a student enters the group that matches the year they are in. Boys and girls compete together and no language is set, because the work is a picture. The rules sheet allows paper from A3 to A2, and the two-hour limit applies to the school round, where the drawing or painting is made in a single sitting.

A round is a sitting followed by a judging. Students are given the theme and the time, work at their own desk with their own materials, and hand in the finished sheet, which is logged against the entrant’s number so the panel marks the picture, not the name. In the 2024-25 edition the theme was ‘Future Me’, which shows how open these themes are: the panel is not looking for one correct subject, it is looking for a clear and personal answer to the question the theme asks.

Marks are given out of 100 against four printed criteria worth 25 each: creative thinking, using materials in an efficient way, clarity of the idea in the completed work, and quality of the final work. Prizes are a winner and a runner-up in each year group, and every student who submits receives a certificate. The rules also ban AI-generated images and copying, which keeps the item about what the student can make, not what a tool or a reference image can produce.

Where Drawing and Painting is run

In eTalenter data Drawing and Painting appears on one template, a school art competition for member schools in the United Arab Emirates, so this page describes only what that template carries. Drawing and painting classes sit in the programme of school art festivals and inter-school fairs in many countries, but the themes, paper sizes, time limits and year groups are set by each event and differ from one rules sheet to the next.

• United Arab Emirates

Key facts

• Individual item: one student, one drawing or painting; group work cannot enter. Boys and girls compete together and no language is set.
• Four school-year groups on this template: Year 5-6, Year 7-9, Year 10-11 and Year 12-13. They follow school years, not ages.
• A yearly theme is announced by the organiser; the 2024-25 theme printed in the rules was ‘Future Me’.
• Two-hour limit for the school round, set on this item only; paper from A3 to A2 as printed in the rules.
• Marked out of 100 on four criteria of 25 each: creative thinking, using materials in an efficient way, clarity of idea in the completed work, quality of final work.
• Prizes are a winner and a runner-up per year group, with a certificate for every student who submits; no points for placings are printed.
• Idea starters, not rules: for a theme about the future, a self-portrait set in a place the student imagines living in; a single object that changes shape across the page; a drawing split in two halves, today and later.

On eTalenter, Drawing and Painting is filed under Art and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Drawing and Painting is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 120 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Drawing and Painting

What a Drawing and Painting panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Creative thinking (25): an idea that is the student’s own and goes beyond the first obvious subject the theme suggests, such as a literal robot for a theme about the future. A fresh angle on a familiar subject earns more than a polished copy of a common image.
• Using materials in an efficient way (25): the medium suits the idea and is handled with control. Marks are lost for heavy overworking, muddy colour from too many layers, a medium fighting the paper, or a plan that leaves half the sheet unfinished because the colours were chosen late.
• Clarity of idea in the completed work (25): a viewer who has not heard the student’s explanation can still see what the picture is about. A clear focal point, a readable subject and a visible link to the theme win here; a busy page full of unconnected objects loses marks.
• Quality of final work (25): finish and care across the whole sheet, including edges, background and the corners students often rush. A finished sheet that fills the paper and looks deliberate beats an ambitious one left half-done at the bell.
• Own work only: the rules ban copying and AI images. A picture that looks traced from a known illustration or generated by a tool is exposed on the creative thinking line first, since the panel can see no personal decision in it.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Drawing and Painting under Scoring Setup, or start from the full painting and drawing competition judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Drawing and Painting

How entrants and their teachers usually get Drawing and Painting right on the day:

• Read the theme as a question and write down three different answers before touching the paper. Pick the one that is least like what the rest of the room will draw but that you can still finish in the time.
• Practise full two-hour sittings at the right paper size, not only small sketches. Plan about fifteen minutes for a pencil layout, about an hour and fifteen minutes for the main work, and the last half hour for the background, edges and corrections.
• Choose one medium you are comfortable in and stay with it. A new material tried for the first time on the day is the most common way to lose points on the materials line.
• Pack a checklist the night before: the paper size named in the rules, pencils, eraser, sharpener, brushes or colours, water pots and cloths, and a spare of anything that can run out or break. Check what the organiser allows you to bring.
• Rehearse saying what the picture shows and how it answers the theme in two sentences. Even when the panel marks only the sheet, being able to say it helps you make a clearer picture.
• Keep the focal point simple: one main subject, one clear background decision and a limited set of colours is easier to finish well than a crowded scene.
• After a result, compare your sheet with the winning work of your year group if it is shown. Ask which of the four criteria cost you the most and spend the next practice block on that one line only.

Frequently asked questions

Is Drawing and Painting judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

Can I use both drawing and painting in the same picture?

The item is one category covering both, so a student chooses the medium or mix of media that serves the idea. On this template the criteria are the same either way, so what counts is how well the materials are used, not which one is chosen.

Is this judged individually or as a team?

Individually. The rules state that group work cannot enter, and each student competes within their own school-year group.

Does the picture have to match the theme?

Yes. The theme is announced each year and clarity of idea is one of the four criteria, so the panel looks for a visible link between the theme and the picture.

How long do I have to complete the picture?

On this template the school round has a two-hour limit, set on this item only. Practise a full sitting in advance so that the last half hour is for finishing, not for starting the background.

Are AI images or copied pictures allowed?

No. The rules this page draws on ban AI-generated images and copying, so every entry should come from the student’s own planning and hand.

Is Drawing and Painting the same as Digital Art?

No. They are separate items on the same template. Drawing and Painting is made by hand on paper in a timed sitting, while Digital Art is a submitted file with no time limit set on this template.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full painting and drawing competition judging criteria guide, or browse every art competition item.