AP Studio Art: Drawing
AP Studio Art: Drawing Course Overview
The AP Program offers three studio art courses and portfolios: 2-Dimensional Design, 3-Dimensional Design, and Drawing. The AP Studio Art portfolios are designed for students who are seriously interested in the practical experience of art. Students submit portfolios for evaluation at the end of the school year. The three portfolios correspond to the most common college foundation courses. Students may choose to submit any or all of the Drawing, 2-Dimensional Design, or 3-Dimensional design portfolios. Students create a portfolio of work to demonstrate the artistic skills and ideas they have developed, refined, and applied over the course of the year to produce visual compositions.
AP Studio Art Course Content
AP Studio Art students work with diverse media, styles, subjects, and content. Each of the three portfolios consists of three sections:
• The Range of Approaches (Breadth) section illustrates a range of ideas and approaches to art making.
• The Sustained Investigation (Concentration) section shows sustained, deep, and multiperspective investigation of a student-selected topic.
• The Selected Works (Quality) section represents the student’s most successful works with respect to form and content.
Students’ work is informed and guided by observation, research, experimentation, discussion, critical analysis, and reflection, relating individual practices to the art world. Students are asked to document their artistic ideas and practices to demonstrate conceptual and technical development over time. The AP Studio Art Program supports students in becoming inventive artistic scholars who contribute to visual culture through art making.
Disciplinary Practices and Habits of Mind
Each AP Studio Art course and portfolio assessment focuses on students developing these practices and habits of mind through work with 2-dimensional design, 3-dimensional design, and drawing media and approaches, including the following:
• Critical analysis
• Evidence-based decision-making
• Innovative thinking
• Articulation of design elements and principles
• Systematic investigation of formal and conceptual aspects of art making
• Technical competence with materials and processes to communicate ideas
• Incorporation of expressive qualities in art making
• Demonstration of artistic intention
• Creation of a body of work unified by a visual or conceptual theme
AP Studio Art Exam Structure
Assessment Overview
In early May, students submit actual works and digital images of works for 2-D Design, 3-D Design, and Drawing Portfolios; for 3-D Design, only digital images are submitted. These works should demonstrate artistic growth and development. Students also submit an artist statement in which they describe ideas investigated and explain how the ideas evolved as they created their body of work.
All portfolios are assessed by at least seven highly experienced studio art educators (AP Studio Art teachers or college faculty) who apply standard scoring criteria.
Format of Assessment
Section I: Selected Works (Quality) | 5 actual works for 2-D and Drawing, 12 digital images for 3-D | 33% of Portfolio Score
• Demonstrate mastery of design in concept, composition, and execution
Section II: Sustained Investigation (Concentration) | 12 digital images | 33% of Portfolio Score
• Describe an in-depth explanation of a particular design concern
Section III: Range of Approaches (Breadth) | 12 digital images for 2-D and Drawing, 16 digital images for 3-D | 33% of Portfolio Score
• Demonstrate understanding of design issues