Practice, Experimentation & Revision with 2-D Elements and Principles
- Define practice, experimentation, and revision as distinct engines of investigation
- Use the 2-D elements and principles of design as levers to run experiments
- Show revision as decisions driven by inquiry rather than fixing mistakes
Three engines: practice, experimentation, revision
The investigation row of the rubric names three things a reader must see happening across your 15 images. Practice is repeated, deliberate work that builds skill and control — drawing the same edge until it behaves. Experimentation is trying genuinely different approaches to your inquiry — a new material, palette, composition, or process — to see what it reveals. Revision is returning to an idea or image and changing it on purpose based on what you learned. A strong SI shows all three; a weak one shows only 15 finished, unrelated pieces with none of the visible testing between them.
The 2-D elements and principles are your controls
Experiments need variables, and in 2-D art those variables are the elements — line, shape, color, value, texture, space — and the principles that organize them — unity, balance, contrast, emphasis, rhythm, movement, proportion. To experiment is to hold your inquiry steady and deliberately change one lever: What if I push value contrast to the extreme? What if balance goes from symmetrical to radial? What if I flatten space? Naming the element or principle you are testing turns a vague "try something new" into a real experiment a reader can recognize.
Revision is a decision, not a repair
Beginning students think revision means fixing what looks wrong. In an SI, revision is choosing to change a work because your inquiry demanded it — cropping a composition to force emphasis onto one figure, re-doing a piece in a limited palette to test whether color was carrying too much of the meaning. The most convincing revisions are visible as pairs or sequences: an earlier attempt and its reworking, so a reader can read the decision between them. Document both; the "before" is evidence, not a failure to hide.
A student’s inquiry is "How can crowded, repeating shapes create a feeling of anxiety?" Their first three pieces all feel calm and decorative instead of anxious. Design an experiment-and-revision step that uses the elements and principles.
- 1.Diagnose which element or principle is fighting the inquiry: the repetition reads as pleasant rhythm, and the balanced, evenly spaced shapes create unity — both calming, the opposite of anxiety.
- 2.Choose a lever to change deliberately: break the even rhythm and reduce the comfortable balance, and raise contrast and emphasis so the eye cannot rest.
- 3.Run the experiment: remake the composition with shapes crowding toward one corner, wildly uneven spacing, and a jarring value clash — an intentional test, not a redo.
- 4.Compare the pair and record the decision: does the reworked piece feel more anxious? What did changing rhythm and balance actually do? That comparison is the revision evidence.
When you photograph work for the SI, deliberately include evidence of process and revision — studies, alternate versions, in-progress shots — not only polished finals. Some of your 15 images should show the investigation itself. A portfolio of 15 finished, unrelated pieces reads as a gallery, not an inquiry, and loses the investigation row.
A student wants to "experiment" in their Sustained Investigation. Which action best qualifies as experimentation in the AP sense?
Keep a running list of the six 2-D elements and seven principles taped near your workspace. When stuck, ask "which one have I not tested against my inquiry yet?" That single prompt generates most experimentation and keeps your 15 works from repeating the same solution.
Which pair of images gives the clearest evidence of revision for the Sustained Investigation?
Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.
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