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AP Studio Art : 2D Design & Drawing Portfolio Syllabus

Fall 2016-Spring 2017
Phone #

Mrs. Greene

greene.achsarts@gmail.com

Open Studio - _______ & _______ 3:30-5:30 pm

Course Description

The AP Studio Art: 2-D Design and Drawing portfolios require students to produce a minimum of 24 works of
art that reflect issues related to 2-D design. These works may include traditional as well as experimental
approaches to 2-D design. Drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and collage are all appropriate
means for expressing design principles. Students are required to investigate all three aspects of the portfolio,
which include Quality, Concentration, and Breadth.

During the first week of school, the course is outlined to the students. The individual sections of each
portfolioQuality, Concentration, and Breadthare discussed in detail. I show extensive slide examples from
both the College Board and past students work that correspond to each section of the portfolio, with special
emphasis on the distinctions between the Drawing Portfolio and the 2-D Design Portfolio. Additionally, the
students review the images and instructions from the AP Studio Art Poster- which is given to students and
posted on the classroom wall.

After class demonstrations, students choose what to work on and how they wish to work. Students need to
work on many diverse projects to encourage and ensure portfolio individuality. For example, in the Breadth
section, students explore a variety of concepts and approaches in order to demonstrate their abilities and
versatility with problem solving, ideation, and techniques. These experiences are also used to develop a plan
of action for their concentration. As students engage in a variety of art-making experiences in creating their
Breadth section, they begin to identify ideas and themes that have strong personal relevance. Students will
use their sketchbook to document these themes and ideas and, in preparation for work on their
Concentration section, start to record plans of investigation for the ideas that have the most potential for
development.

***Students are given homework assignments due each week, and we have class critiques on the due date of the
homework. Critiques are a required part of class participation. Students are expected to discuss their own work,
the work of their peers, and the work of master artists in written and verbal form. During these class critiques, the
vocabulary of art will be used to form decisions about the work being discussed, and the AP Studio Art scoring
guidelines will be used to evaluate work and develop ideas for future exploration. ***

Major Sections in Final Portfolio: Concentration, Breadth, and Quality

Concentration
In the Concentration section, students are expected to choose an idea, concept, or subject matter to
explore in depth. 12 images of at least eight works will be submitted. This investigation of one theme
should be something that is important to the student. During ongoing individual conferences/ meetings
with each student, the teacher will assist the student in choosing a concentration theme. Each student
will develop and present to the teacher for approval a specific plan of action for investigation, and an
outline for his or her chosen Concentration theme. This cohesive body of work will investigate a strong
underlying visual idea, using any single 2-D medium or a combination of media. If modifications to the
submitted plan of action for investigation become necessary, the student will get those approved by the
combined media, or process.

Breadth
In the Breadth section, students will experience a variety of concepts and approaches to demonstrate their
abilities and versatility of varied media, techniques, and subject matter. This will include 12 images of 12 different
works.
Suggested Breadth Projects:
- Abstractions from urban environment
- Design related to psychological, or narrative events
- Works showing color theory such as Fauvism, expressionism, or color-field painting
- Redesign an everyday object with
humor
-Self-portrait as a favorite industrial product
- Fabric design with symbolic imagery
-Redesign a current product image or logo
- Logo-symbol design based on radial balance / kaleidoscope effect
- Lettering and type design
- CD or album design
-Design a deck of cards
- Poster design with literary or conceptual associationstravel, national identity, sports, animals
- Seedpods and forms evolving from them
- Composition based on art historical research
- Graphic designs for school theater productions, yearbooks, and so on
- Story or poem illustration
- Game board and game pieces
- Fashion or costume design
- Digital altering or layering of
photographic images to present multiple perspectives of an image
- Exploration of line properties; for example, graffiti, Japanese calligraphy
- Come up with your own cool idea!

Quality
In the Quality section, (Original Works) five matted works are to be submitted. These should be the students most
successful work with respect to the Quality scoring guidelines and cannot be larger than 18 x 24.
As you assess your work, explain your thinking in a paragraph, considering the following:
1. Have you used the elements and principles of design in an effective or innovative way?
2. What are the dominant shapes, expressive forms, color schemes, and textures that carry significance in this
artwork?
3. Is the work ordered/balanced? Or chaotic/disturbing? What makes for the order or chaos? Would you use
words such as unity, variety, contrast, balance, movement, and rhythm to describe formal characteristics
of this work?
4. Describe the quality of execution and technique. What gives the work its uniqueness?

Summer Assignments
Instructions: You are to complete at least five of the following assignments over the summer for the AP 2-D
Design class; it is also required that you be working in a personal sketchbook / visual journal. These pieces will be
due at the beginning of the second week of school. Your outside work will constitute 50 percent of your grade
throughout the year in AP. Consequently, if you do not do this work, you will not pass the first six-week period. I
also want you to take time over the summer to think about ideas that you may want to pursue as a concentration.
Please return with a list of 20 potential ideas to be discussed with the class during the second week of school.

Each of the pieces needs to be larger than 12 x 14 inches. You may choose the type of surface to work on
paper, cardboard, canvas board, plywood, mat board, etc.

Please keep in mind that although drawing does involve design, the emphasis in this studio is on designthe
formal elements and principles (elements: line, color, texture, space, value, shape, and form; principles: unity,
balance, contrast, repetition, variety, dominance, etc.). Concept/idea, craftsmanship, and the creation of a
visually successful design will all be components of every grade.

Choose 5 from following:

Do a portrait, self-portrait, landscape, or still life in the style of another artist in which formal aspects of design
are emphasizedsuch as Monet/Impressionism, Matisse/Fauvism, Picasso/Cubism, Warhol/Pop, Dali/Surrealism,
Van Gogh/ Post-impressionism, and so on. You may have to do some research to understand the stylistic
tendencies of these artists/movements.
Do a self-portrait, or several different ones, that expresses a specific mood/ emotionfor example, anger/rage,
melancholy/loneliness, happiness/joy, etc. Manipulate light and color to enhance the psychological atmosphere.
Also, consider the development of the environment/setting.
Do some exploration with mixed media. Do a piece (portrait, self-portrait, landscape, or still life) in which you
use at least three different mediasuch as a wet medium, a dry medium, and some collage element.
Do a portrait, self-portrait, still life, or landscape using either a complementary, analogous, or splitcomplementary color scheme (you may use black and white as well as shades and tints of the chosen hues).
Do a drawing of a futuristic cityscapefor example, Dallas in the year 2050 (keep in mind rules of one-, two-,
and three-point perspective).
Divide a page, canvas, boardi.e., the working surfaceinto three equal inset spaces. Do three views of one
landscape. Limit yourself to a specific color scheme.
Do a graphite drawing of a still-life arrangement that consists of reflective objectsyour goal is to convey a
convincing representation with a full range of values. To add interest to the composition, you might also want to
render yourself being reflected in the objects.
Do a drawing of an unusual interiorfor instance, looking inside a closet, cabinet, refrigerator, your car. Use
your imagination!
Do a drawing of your worldly treasures arranged in an interesting still-life composition.
Do a drawing of your worldly treasures as they come to lifeanimate them.
Do a drawing of your hands arranged in a variety of poses. You must carefully plan your composition in order for
the separate units to work together visually.

Continued
Do a color rendering of a still-life arrangement consisting of your family members shoestry to convey some
sense of each of your individual family members distinct personalities in your piece.
Do a fully rendered drawing of one section of your closet. Either the top (hangers & top portion of clothes),
middle (just rows of clothing), or bottom (low hanging clothing, shoes, drawers).

ALSO - Keep a sketchbook & fill it up. You will use this every week during the course.
Rules for working in your sketchbook:
1. Do not make perfect drawings. Make imperfect drawings; make mistakes; make false starts. Let your hand
follow your feelings, not what your brain is telling you to do.
2. Always fill the page you are working on. Go off the edges whenever possible. Do not make dinky little drawings
in the center of the page. Make every square inch count for something.
3. Do not start something and abandon it. Go back later, change it, and make it into something else. Being able to
rescue bad beginnings is the sign of a truly creative mind.
4. Always finish what you start, no matter how much you dont like it.
5. Fill at least half your sketchbook before August 25. Put the date on every page you finish.
6. Not everything has to be drawn. Use other materials! Also, writing is GOOD. Take notes, write ideas.

*** Ways to work in your sketchbook: ***

Draw, draw, draw, draw, write, draw, paint, paint, paint, draw, paint, draw, collage, and so on.
Use pencils, pens, crayons, sticks, charcoal, burnt matches, pastel, watercolor, acrylic, pine straw, fingers
basically anything that will make a mark. You have the power to make a mark. Work on paper, canvas, sandpaper,
or the like. Use wet paper and dry paper to see how specific art mediums and techniques respond and/ or
interact.
Draw what you see in the world. No drawings from published images (plagiarism) or personal photographs. You
need to learn to draw without the crutch of someone elses composition or flattening of space.
Use gesture, line, and value in your drawings. Try to create a sense of light and depth in your images.
Use the principles of perspective to show depth in a drawing.
Glue stuff into your sketchbook, such as ticket stubs, gum wrappers, tin foil, lace, lists, receipts, sand, leaves,
twigs, pebbles, shells, earrings, shoelaces, whatever. Make a collage with the stuff. Add these things to pages that
you started but dont like. Let your imagination go wild.
Build the pages up by layering things; paint and mark on top of collage, newspaper, and drawing. Attach pieces
of fabric and photographs and paint over parts of them. What did you do? What are you trying to say? Express
yourself! Work to develop mastery in concept, composition, and execution of your ideas.
Make decisions about what you do based on how things look. Go for the tough look, not the easy solution. Do
not be trite; say something important about the world you live in.
Take a news story and interpret it visually; use abstraction to express an idea.
Play around with geometric and organic forms, interlocking and overlapping to create an interesting
composition. Use color to finish the work.
Create a self-portrait using distortion, or cubism, or impressionism, or minimalism, or pop.
Create a drawing of the interior of your room but add collage elements for the lamps and furniture. Glue sheer
fabric over the collage. Draw an image on the sheer fabric of yourself moving around the room.
Make at least 25 contour drawings from observation of anything around you. Remember to use the whole page.
Fill the space behind the objects you draw. Make it count for something.

Continued
Make at least 100 gesture drawings from observation of the figure. Use wet and dry paper. Try Cont crayons
and sticks, vine and pressed charcoal, and Prismacolor sticks and see how these respond and how they help you
convey gestures in your images of the figure. Change scale; work small and work large. Work with your opposite
hand. Tie your crayon or charcoal to a long stick and draw with that.
Make a simple contour drawing of an arrangement of objects. Repeat the drawing four times. Using transparent
watercolors, Prismacolors, and opaque watercolor, explore different color schemes in each of the four drawings.
Write about how the color changes the feeling in each image.
Write about your work. Write about what you like about a drawing, what you dont like about it. Write about
your hopes for your artwork. Write about why you like to make art.
Write about how your artwork could impact anothers thinking or feeling. Write about what you want to say
with your artwork, and what it means to you in the larger sense.

- Finished Sketchbooks

There will be prizes for:

- Most Pages Filled
- Best Cover Design

- Best Sketchbook Experience Story

Homework and Open Studio

As in any college-level course, it is expected that students will spend a considerable amount of time outside the
classroom working on completion of assignments during open studio after school and at home. Ideas for projects
or solutions to problems should be worked out in a sketchbook both in class and outside of class. The sketchbook
is an essential tool in recording ideas, capturing visual information, working on compositional issues, and just
fooling around.
*** Sketchbooks are checked frequently for progress.
One day a week students are expected to meet from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm for an open studio. A schedule of meeting
dates will be posted. Some of these meetings will be open for students to work on projects independently, and
some will be structured sessions with a specific project. It is important that students arrive on time and be
prepared to work during these meetings.
Students are required to complete assignments at home during the semester. I strongly suggest obtaining specific
art supplies for home use. Each student is required to continue their work in the spring semester. This means
coming in at least once a week after school to continue work on your portfolio during the spring semester.

Assignments & Evaluation

Assignments that are open ended in nature and that explore a variety of approaches to design are made
during the first semester. Assignments have end dates. Students should make every effort to complete work
by the end date; however, there may be circumstances that cause an assignment to be delayed.
You must have a discussion with me if work is going to be turned in late or if you will miss a group critique.
Work is evaluated in progress and in the finished state through group critiques with teacher and peers.
Ongoing one-on-one conferences, critiques, and discussions will take place between the teacher and each
individual student. The AP Studio Art: 2-D Design rubric and the AP Drawing rubric, which is distributed
separately, provides the grading criteria. Assessment of student work is based on original compositions and
artistic integrity.

Continued
All individual student work must be original in concept, composition, and execution. Throughout the course,
explicit and specific examples of ongoing activities will take place that will help students understand how
artistic integrity, plagiarism, and moving beyond duplication are incorporated into all aspects of the course.
Ongoing individual conferences and group critiques will aid student understanding. In addition to these
activities, the teacher will conduct discussions and assign readings that reflect what constitutes ethical
behavior in the making of art.
-- What is an original voice in a work? What does original voice mean to you?

*** Students are not to use someone elses designs and/or images from the Internet, books, published, or
unpublished sources as a basis for their individual creations. If a student uses another persons image or a
published image as a basis for his or her own piece, there must be significant alteration to the piece for it to be
considered original. Artistic integrity is essential to this course. Students are to work from direct observation,
dreams, fantasies, life experiences, and their own photographic compositions and designs.

SUGGESTED SUPPLIES
You may wish to stock-up on other materials to use at home or bring to class. Choose supplies according to your
selected work, but with a variety of mediums.
Paper: 18 x 24 newsprint, tracing paper, 18x 24 charcoal paper, Bristol board, bond paper, vellum paper, pastel
paper, illustration board, oriental paper, construction paper, fadeless paper, tissue paper, layout paper, graph
paper, foam core and printmaking paper, cardboard.
Adhesives: Glue sticks, rubber cement, water-based glue, glue guns and glue sticks.
Drawing Pencils: 2H, 2B, 6B, graphite, and a soft grade pencil. Pens: reed, quill, steel, felt-tipped, and nylon tipped.
Erasers: kneadable, rubber, retractable and vinyl.
Charcoal: compressed and vine charcoal in soft, medium and hard. Blending Tools and Stumps in all shapes and
sizes.
Soft Pastels: all colors and especially black and white.
Oil Pastels in all colors.
Inks: India, Sumi ink and Monoprinting Ink in a variety of colors.
Brushes: calligraphy, acrylic or oil (short natural hair filberts), watercolor (sable), and any other b rush that looks
fun to try.
Lettering Tools: brushes, calligraphy pens with a variety of nibs.
Colored Pencils: in all colors.
Canvas: Raw duck canvas, canvas stretchers, canvas already framed with gesso, canvas board.
Paint: tempera paint, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, water-based oils and gouache paints in all colors.
Gesso: Black and White.