To strengthen your ability to experiment, practice, and take risks with materials and techniques. This activity will help you generate new possibilities for your own portfolio by pushing beyond traditional artmaking. You will create 2 mini artworks that demonstrate your use of unfamiliar materials and your technique exploration.
Goal: Try something outside your comfort zone and see how it can be used in art.
Steps:
Choose Your Medium/Media (pick at least one):
Nontraditional materials (coffee, tea, tape, cardboard, fabric, ink on unconventional surfaces, recycled materials, natural pigments, etc.).
A traditional medium used in a new way (graphite powder, watercolor resist, oil pastels on glass, etc.).
A digital medium (layering photos, glitching images, experimental digital brushes).
Experiment
Test the material(s) in 6 different ways (e.g., layering, blending, combining with another medium, altering the surface).
Document your process through notes, reflections, and sketches.
Risk-Taking Challenge #1
Create one mini artwork that is atleast 8"x8" using something you discovered through your experimentation.
Reflect
Write a short response: What worked? What failed? What surprised you? How could this connect to your own artwork or Sustained Investigation?
Submit
Submit the link to your AP Process Portfolio in Canvas under Part 1: Medium Exploration
Goal: Practice and discover new ways of making through small-scale experiments.
Steps:
Prepare Your Surface
Prepare at least 12 mini-squares (3”x3”) in your sketchbook.
Choose Techniques
Each square should test one new technique. You must include:
4 Drawing/Painting Techniques: hatching, stippling, shading, ink washes, palette knife painting, dry brush.
4 Mixed Media's: collage layering, image transfer, resist techniques (wax, tape, glue), printmaking, alcohol ink.
4 Experimental Surfaces: drawing on cardboard, trash, acetate (clear plastic in rainbow drawers), fabric, leaves, etc.
4 Mark-Making Tools: using found tools/materials to create your own marking making tool to create texture, marks, drawings, or paintings (string, sponges, toothbrush, sticks, toy car, rocks, leaves, etc.).
Create & Document
Fill each square with an experiment. You can do this on separate paper and glue into sketchbook or work directly in your sketchbook. Don’t aim for perfection; focus on exploration.
Label each with the technique used and document your process through notes, reflections, and sketches.
Risk-Taking Challenge #2
Combine two or more techniques into one mini artwork that is atleast 8"x8".
Reflect
Write a short response: What worked? What failed? What surprised you? How could this connect to your own artwork or Sustained Investigation?
Submit
Submit the link to your AP Process Portfolio in Canvas under Part 2: Technique Experimentation