How to Write About Your Art Work

Posted in Homeschool students, how to be more creative

If you’re taking an advanced placement art class, you know that you need to write about your work, but you need clarification on what to say and are even more confused about how to say it in 100 characters.

Writing Sections:

You’ll start by adding writing to each of your digital images. A reminder that you submit 15 digital images. 

Size: Share the size of your work

  • You must enter the height and width of your work. You can also write the depth if applicable.
  • Include the depth if your work has additional layers of texture, making it a relief.
  • If your work has no physical depth, leave that section empty.
  • If you’re doing digital pieces, enter the size that you would print the piece, keeping in mind that the size of a work impacts the meaning. 

Materials [100 Characters]
What materials did you use to create the piece?

Examples of materials are graphite pencils, acrylic paint, and found objects.

Remember that you’re using the writing sections to help the viewer better understand your ideas and choices. Your goal is to help the viewer understand how the materials that you choose support your ideas. So you might write, pencil=impermanence, acrylic paint=man made. You don’t have to list EVERY material you used in the piece; highlight the materials that most directly demonstrate a connection to your idea. You do not need to write in complete sentences.

Processes [100 Characters]
What processes did you use to create your work? Processes are how you used the materials above. If you used acrylic paint, did you pour, drip, or throw the paint? How do the processes you choose to use connect to your ideas? Did you use the process of wet on wet to demonstrate a lack of control? Did you use the collage process to illustrate the passage of time? When writing about processes, you don’t need to list every process you used; highlight the processes that help the viewer better understand your ideas. You can also use this to highlight how you used 2D or drawing skills. You could say that you painted contrasting colors = emphasis. You do not need to write in complete sentences.

For more inspiration about materials and processes, check out the book: Experiments with Marks, Materials and Meaning

Citations [100 Characters]

Citations are not required but are recommended. Use citations to highlight when referencing images or other sources in your work. Other than the 100-character limit, there are no formatting rules for how you present your citations. Do your best to get to the original source when sharing links. For example, if you first discover an image on Pinterest, don’t use Pinterest as the source; continue to click through to see if you can get to the original website. 

Examples of Citations:

In each example, you’ll see that we’re first saying what you used the image for and then where the image is from. 

If you used an image for inspiration

Inspiration: Last name of artists, title of work, year [link to website of image]

If you collected images for collage or reference from books and magazine

Images, text, from multiple sources; [ list some sources]

If you used a reference image from a website or book

Reference image from [ link to the website OR if from a physical book or magazine, name the source]

If you used free or open source images in your work

Free use images from [ name of source]

Inquiry and Decision Making

After adding your writing to each digital image, you will also write about your work and approach to your work as a whole. Share more about your ideas, processes, materials, and use of 2D or drawing skills in the 2 sections, allowing 600 characters each.

Section 1:

Identify the questions or inquiry that guided your sustained investigation. [600 characters] You’ve been writing down your questions with each piece as you’ve created them, or at least, I hoe you have. You should write what you want first, then begin to edit. Get as close to using all 600 characters as possible. Review section A of the rubric to understand how your writing impacts your score. [ Review examples on the college board website]

 Part 1: Insert the questions you’ve explored (600 characters). Most of you started with an overarching question and then had many that spurred off of that. As you write, 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 asked what it would look like if we reversed global warming, and that guided my experimentation in images 3, 8, and 10. In image 4, as I inquired about melting ice caps, I used ice cubes and watercolor, allowing them to melt and create their 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?

Section 2: 

Describe how your sustained investigation shows evidence of practice, experimentation, and revision guided by your question(s) or inquiry. (600 characters)

Part 2: As you write this section, the goal is to make it evident to the reader that you practiced, experimented, and revised while creating your work. Example: 1, my inquiry explored my relationship with my sisters by including each sister; revision and experimentation are demonstrated in images 3 and 4,7,8, as I worked to adjust the composition and move from portraying each sister literally to showing symbols representing personalities and relationships. 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

What if you’re over the character limits?

  • Use numbers instead of writing out the number 2 instead of two
  • Practice using the 6-word story method to write about your work
  • Are there any words that you can abbreviate? Don’t makeup abbreviations; only use those that are commonly understood
  • You don’t have to mention EVERY piece, instead making sure that you’re highlighting critical decisions
  • Remove repetitive or overly descriptive words
  • If you’ve written image 5, remove the phrase image
  • Ask someone else to review you’re writing. If you’re interested in having me review your writing, email unstandardizedstandard@gmail.com subject line: Writing help