AP Studio Art: Writing About Your Work

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As you do your final preparations for submitting your portfolio to the college board, you’ll need to complete a section where you write about your work. Below, I’m going to walk you through the process and provide some tips along the way. There are 2 sections and each allows for 600 characters.  Identify the questions that guided your sustained investigation. You’ve been writing down your questions with each piece that you’ve submitted. A reminder that you have 600 characters in each section. Write what you want to write first, and then begin to edit. Get as close to 600 characters as you can, and if you’re stuck I can help.  Part 1: Insert the list of questions you’ve explored: (600 characters) Most of you started with an overarching question and then had many questions that spurred off of that. As you wrote about them, help the reader to understand how that guided experimentation and revision.  Example: My sustained investigation started by exploring how global warming impacts animals, which prompted me to create images 1,4,5. I then started to ask, what would it look like if we reversed global warming and that guided my experimentation in images 3,8,10. In image 4, as I inquired about melting ice caps, I used ice cubes and watercolor, allowing them to melt and create their own marks for the foundation of my work. 
  • Be specific
  • Include examples, where do we see evidence of your investigation in specific images
  • Include the terms, experimentation, revision, inquiry
  • How did your inquiry guide your material and process selection?
Part 2: Describe how your sustained investigation shows evidence of practice, experimentation, and revision guided by your question(s) or inquiry. (600 characters) Example: Image 1 my inquiry explored my relationship with my sisters by including each sister, revision and experimentation are demonstrated in images 3, 4,7,8, as I worked to adjust the composition and move from literally portraying each sister, to showing symbols that represent personalities and relationships. Image 5 I used experimentation with scale and color to further demonstrate how sisters impact personality. 
  • Be specific
  • Include examples 
  • Use key terms, like 2D or drawing skills
  • Use the terms, experimentation, practice, revision, and inquiry
This video below also walks you through the process.