AP 2-D Art and Design — Cheatsheet
Formulas, exam-day tips, and key terms on one page.
How to get a 5
- Document your process! Take photos of your work at various stages, as well as your sketchbook pages, to show experimentation.
- Ensure your written statements directly address the prompts and clearly explain the connection between your materials, processes, and ideas.
- Quality over quantity: it's better to submit fewer, highly resolved pieces for your Selected Works than to fill every slot with mediocre work.
- Show evidence of risk-taking and moving beyond your comfort zone in your Sustained Investigation.
Key terms
Elements of Art — Line, shape, form, space, color, value, texture.
Principles of Design — Balance, emphasis, movement, pattern, repetition, proportion, rhythm, variety, unity.
Sustained Investigation — A body of related works that demonstrate an inquiry-based, in-depth investigation of materials, processes, and ideas.
Selected Works — The section of the portfolio showcasing your best, most resolved pieces demonstrating synthesis of materials, processes, and ideas.
Figure/Ground Relationship — The visual relationship between a foreground object (figure) and its background (ground).
Rule of Thirds — A compositional guideline that places the subject off-center, intersecting at the thirds of the image.
Value Scale — A system of organizing values from light to dark.
Color Theory — The study of color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations.
Complementary Colors — Colors opposite each other on the color wheel (e.g., red/green, blue/orange) that create high contrast.
Monochromatic — A color scheme using only variations in lightness and darkness of a single hue.
Focal Point — The area of an artwork to which the viewer's eye is naturally drawn.
Critique — An evaluation of a work of art, essential for the process of revision.