AP Drawing
Build a drawing portfolio — mark-making, line, tone and composition — through a sustained investigation.
How this exam works. There is no exam day. You submit a digital portfolio: a Sustained Investigation of 15 images with written responses about your inquiry, plus 5 Selected Works with written justifications.
The vocabulary of technique and, more usefully, the scoring criteria. Students routinely lose points on the written responses by describing what they made instead of what they were investigating, and that is a fixable, learnable thing.
The portfolio itself, which is a year of studio practice. No study tool substitutes for making work, documenting it well, and revising it.
What to do instead. Photograph work properly as you go, keep a process journal from day one, and write the inquiry question down early — the written responses are far easier when the thinking already exists on paper.
Sustained Investigation
- Building a Guiding Inquiry for Drawing13 min · 3 objectives
- Practice, Experimentation & Revision with Mark, Line, Light and Composition14 min · 3 objectives
- Documenting Process, the Written Evidence & Academic Integrity14 min · 3 objectives
- Generating Ideas: Sketchbook Practice, Artist Research & Your Own Reference14 min · 3 objectives
- How a Drawing Inquiry Evolves: Series, Variables & Knowing When to Stop15 min · 3 objectives
- Drawing Media & Mark-Making in Depth15 min · 3 objectives
- The Technical Core: Value, Light, Space & Composition15 min · 3 objectives
- Reading the SI Rubric, Documenting Drawings & Managing the Year14 min · 3 objectives
Selected Works
- Choosing 5 Works That Show Your Drawing Skills13 min · 3 objectives
- Materials, Processes, Ideas & Writing the Selected Works Responses14 min · 3 objectives
- What "Skill" Actually Means in Drawing14 min · 3 objectives
- Auditing and Sequencing the Five Works13 min · 3 objectives
- Writing the Responses & the Line Between Transformation and Appropriation14 min · 3 objectives