Chithra Rachana (on-the-spot drawing) is a Kerala school kalolsavam staple with four separate medium sub-items — Pencil, Water Colour, Oil Colour and Jalachayam (watercolour-wash) — each judged on its own verified five-criterion, 100-mark scheme, not a single shared rubric. This guide gives the exact criteria for every medium, a printable judgement sheet, the category and time rules as published, and how to run all four as separate items on eTalenter.
What is Chithra Rachana?
Chithra Rachana is an Individual, On Stage on-the-spot drawing item, open to both genders, judged by medium rather than as one generic “painting/drawing” item. Every entry gets a 120-minute working window (warning bell at 119 minutes) and a maximum score of 100. The four media are spread across the age categories as published: Pencil runs in Category II, III and IV; Jalachayam runs only in Category II; Oil Colour and Water Colour run in Category III and IV.
The verified judging criteria (100 marks each)
All four schemes are cited directly from the festival’s own template data — nothing here is inferred or invented. Four of the five heads are identical across every medium; only the technique head changes to match what that medium actually tests:
| Criterion | Pencil | Water Colour | Oil Colour | Jalachayam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relevance to the given topic | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Composition | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Technique (medium-specific) | 20 – Technique (Prayoga samarthyam) | 20 – Watercolour technique | 20 – Oil colour technique | 20 – Watercolour technique |
| Style (Shaili) / Line work | 20 – Line work and light and shade | 20 – Style (Shaili) | 20 – Style (Shaili) | 20 – Style (Shaili) |
| Completeness (Poornatha) | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Pencil is the odd one out: instead of a separate “style” mark, it replaces the fourth head with line work and light and shade — the shading/tonal skill a monochrome medium actually tests, where the colour media instead score “style (Shaili)”.
How this differs from a generic painting/drawing rubric
A general-purpose painting or drawing article on this site uses a broader six-head rubric (technique & skill, theme relevance, composition, colour sense, creativity, neatness) meant to cover many different art-competition formats. Chithra Rachana’s own verified scheme is narrower and more specific: it has no separate “creativity” or “neatness” head at all, and instead names the exact technique being tested per medium (watercolour technique, oil colour technique, or line work and light and shade for pencil) as one of only five equal-weight heads. If your event is running Chithra Rachana specifically as a kalolsavam item, use this scheme rather than a generic painting rubric — the mark allocation and the heads themselves are different.
Printable judgement sheet
Hand judges a sheet with these five columns per medium, chest number down the left, and a totals row:
| Chest No. | Relevance /20 | Composition /20 | Technique /20 | Style/Line work /20 | Completeness /20 | Total /100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Category, gender and time rules
| Medium | Categories | Gender | Time limit | Max score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pencil | Category II, III, IV | Both (mixed) | 120 min (119 min warning) | 100 |
| Jalachayam (watercolour wash) | Category II only | Both (mixed) | 120 min (119 min warning) | 100 |
| Water Colour | Category III, IV | Both (mixed) | 120 min (119 min warning) | 100 |
| Oil Colour | Category III, IV | Both (mixed) | 120 min (119 min warning) | 100 |
Deductions typically apply for exceeding the 120-minute working window, drawing on an undeclared or oversized sheet, or leaving the drawing visibly unfinished at the bell — publish these rules alongside the criteria before entries open so every unit knows the standard in advance. Set up each medium as its own competition item rather than one combined “drawing” entry, since the category spread and the technique head genuinely differ by medium.
Running Chithra Rachana on eTalenter
Create one Individual competition item per medium — Chithra Rachana (Pencil), Chithra Rachana (Water Colour), Chithra Rachana (Oil Colour) and Chithra Rachana (Jalachayam) — assigned to the categories shown above, Both-gender participation, a 120-minute window with a 119-minute warning, and the five-criterion, 100-mark scheme entered once per item in the judging panel. Judges score each head independently on their own device at the end of the working window; eTalenter totals, ranks and publishes results the moment all judges submit, with the printable sheet above available as a backup for paper scoring. Open a live demo and log in as a judge to see the scoring screen, or as a coordinator to see how the four items, categories and criteria are configured.
FAQ
What are the judging criteria for Chithra Rachana?
Five criteria worth 20 marks each, totalling 100: relevance to the given topic, composition, a medium-specific technique mark (watercolour technique, oil colour technique, or line work and light and shade for pencil), style (Shaili) for the colour media, and completeness (Poornatha).
Is Chithra Rachana one item or several?
Four separate medium sub-items — Pencil, Water Colour, Oil Colour and Jalachayam — each with its own category spread and its own technique-specific mark, though all four share the same 100-mark, five-criterion structure.
Which categories compete in which medium?
Pencil runs in Category II, III and IV. Jalachayam runs only in Category II. Water Colour and Oil Colour both run in Category III and IV. All four are Both-gender (mixed) competitions.
What is the time limit?
120 minutes, with a warning bell at 119 minutes, in every medium and category.
How is this different from a generic painting competition rubric?
A generic painting/drawing rubric (technique, theme relevance, composition, colour sense, creativity, neatness) is built to cover many different art-competition formats loosely. Chithra Rachana’s verified scheme is narrower: five fixed heads with no separate creativity or neatness mark, and the exact technique being tested named explicitly per medium.
Running your school’s kalolsavam on eTalenter? Message us on WhatsApp or email support@etalenter.com for help with the software. We can’t help with individual entries or submissions to the official fair — for those, please contact your school or the fair’s organisers.
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