Sustained Investigation

What this unit covers

The topics below follow the published Drawing course framework for Unit 1. This unit is worth 60% of the exam, so budget your time against that rather than against how long the unit takes to teach.

Lessons in this unit

• Building a Guiding Inquiry for Drawing13 min · 3 objectivesExplain the Sustained Investigation and how an inquiry drives a body of drawing · Distinguish a testable drawing inquiry from a broad theme or subject · Draft a guiding question rooted in a drawing problem of mark, line, light, or composition
• Practice, Experimentation & Revision with Mark, Line, Light and Composition14 min · 3 objectivesDefine practice, experimentation, and revision as distinct engines of investigation · Use mark-making, line quality, light/shadow, and composition as levers for experiments · Show revision as decisions driven by inquiry rather than fixing mistakes
• Documenting Process, the Written Evidence & Academic Integrity14 min · 3 objectivesAssemble the 15 SI images so they read as a developing investigation · Write the required written evidence to make the inquiry and process explicit · Cite sources correctly and avoid plagiarism and prohibited AI use
• Generating Ideas: Sketchbook Practice, Artist Research & Your Own Reference14 min · 3 objectivesUse daily observational sketchbook drawing to generate an inquiry rather than illustrate one · Research artists for transferable mechanisms of mark, value, and composition instead of imagery to copy · Build a personal drawing question from reference material you made yourself
• How a Drawing Inquiry Evolves: Series, Variables & Knowing When to Stop15 min · 3 objectivesStructure an investigation as deliberate series rather than isolated finished drawings · Predict what changing scale, medium, viewpoint or duration reveals about an inquiry · Record decision points and distinguish an exhausted direction from a difficult one
• Drawing Media & Mark-Making in Depth15 min · 3 objectivesDescribe what marks each major drawing medium can and cannot make · Use toned grounds, erasure, layering and fixative as deliberate drawing processes · Match medium, paper and mark to the intent of a drawing rather than to habit
• The Technical Core: Value, Light, Space & Composition15 min · 3 objectivesControl a full value range and group values into a light family and a shadow family · Describe form using core shadow, cast shadow, reflected light and edge quality · Build space with linear and atmospheric perspective and compose so structure carries meaning
• Reading the SI Rubric, Documenting Drawings & Managing the Year14 min · 3 objectivesIdentify what the Sustained Investigation focus areas ask for and what lifts a middling row to a high one · Photograph drawings so value, edge and surface survive into the submitted image · Plan a year that produces experimentation and revision rather than a late batch of finished work

Every term in Unit 1

All 12 terms we publish for Sustained Investigation, with definitions. Reading them through is the fastest way to find the ones you cannot define — then drill those in cram mode until you can produce them without the prompt.

Sustained Investigation

15 images showing practice, experimentation and revision driven by one inquiry, plus written responses. Two-thirds of the portfolio score.

Inquiry in drawing

A question the drawings investigate, not a subject. "Hands" is a subject; "how much can a hand be reduced before it stops reading as a hand?" is an inquiry.

What readers score in the written responses

Whether the writing identifies a real question and whether the images show it being tested and revised over time. Rendering skill alone is not the criterion.

The commonest written-response mistake

Describing the subject rather than the question. "I drew my street at night" earns nothing; "I tested whether removing all outline still let the space read as deep" does.

Evidence of revision

A drawing remade after learning something, with the change visible and explained. Fifteen unrelated strong drawings cannot show revision.

Practice, experimentation, revision

Practice builds skill, experimentation tries something that might fail, revision remakes with intent. Readers look for all three across the 15 images.

Documenting drawings

Flat, square to the camera, evenly lit, white-balanced against a white card, cropped to the paper edge. Graphite is reflective, so raking light causes glare.

Photographing on toned or textured paper

Set white balance to the paper, not to white, or the whole drawing shifts color and the values read wrong.

Scope of an inquiry

Narrow enough to test in 15 images, broad enough to sustain a year. If one drawing answers it completely, it is too narrow.

Process images in drawing

Underdrawings, stages of a build-up and abandoned starts are all legitimate images and often better evidence than another finished piece.

Materials, processes and ideas

The prompt asks about all three. Naming a material without saying what it let you do is a wasted sentence.

Writing about a drawing that failed

Strong evidence, provided the writing says what it taught you. Readers score investigation, not a perfect record.

What examiners penalize here

• Some of your 15 images should show **studies, experiments, and reworked drawings** — not just polished finals. Deliberately photograph preparatory sketches and before/after pairs so the *investigation* is visible. A portfolio of 15 finished, unrelated drawings reads as a sketchbook show, not an inquiry, and loses the investigation row.
• Treat the **written evidence** as scored real estate. State your inquiry as a question, connect specific **mark-making, media, and ideas** to it, and point at an experiment or revision. Writing that merely names a subject and states a goal ("make it realistic") throws away easy points on the investigation row.
• Sequence your submitted images so the chain is legible: put an experiment beside the result it produced, and a "before" beside its reworking. Readers should be able to follow the reasoning by looking, not by inferring. Unordered images make a developing investigation look like an assortment.
• Never build a submission from remembered specifications. Image counts, character limits, accepted file formats and deadlines are set by the College Board and can change year to year — confirm the **current** requirements on the official AP Drawing course page and with your teacher, and leave time to fix a mismatch.

Practice Drawing

Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.

Questions about this unit

All 2 units of AP Drawing

1. Unit 1 · Sustained Investigation
2. Unit 2 · Selected Works