​This week, you have a choice for your homework: 

A. Concentration Try-Out #2 

Over the next several weeks, some of your homework assignments will be to try out different ideas from your list of ideas for your upcoming Sustained Investigation. 

Each artwork is to be a FINISHED, REFINED, PORTFOLIO-QUALITY artwork. Refer to the College Board's Student Samples for expectations on QUALITY. 

Here are samples of student work from AP portfolios. The scores of 4 and 5 show the quality to shoot for in your own Sustained Investigation Try-Outs as as well as all your other work.

• AP Drawing Samples 2020
• AP Drawing Samples Archive
• AP 2D Design Samples 2020
• AP 2D Design Samples Archive
• AP 3D Design Samples 2020
• AP 3D Design Samples Archive
• AP Art & Design 2020 Digital Exhibit

More AP Portfolio Samples from BHS Students
​
Drawing
This portfolio is designated for work that focuses on the use of mark-making, line, surface, space, light and shade, and composition. Students should consider marks that can be used to make drawings, the arrangement of marks, the materials and processes used to make marks, and relationships of marks and ideas. Students can work with any materials, processes, and ideas. Drawing (analog and digital), painting, printmaking, and mixed media work are among the possibilities for submission.

• Kevin Buxton - AP Art Show (2020)
• Nicole Benjamin - AP Art Show (2020)
• Sarah Schissler - AP Art Show (2020)
• Martello Cesar - AP portfolio exam (2019)
• Marley Gainley - AP exam (2017)
• Anne Zhang - sustained investigation
• Irina Grigoryeva - sustained investigation
• Pablo Aguilar - AP exam
• Jake Ursino - Sustained Investigation

​
2D Art & Design
This portfolio is designated for work that focuses on the use of two-dimensional (2-D) elements and principles of art and design, including point, line, shape, plane, layer, form, space, texture, color, value, opacity, transparency, time, unity, variety, rhythm, movement, proportion, scale, balance, emphasis, contrast, repetition, figure/ ground relationship, connection, juxtaposition, and hierarchy. Students should consider how materials, processes, and ideas can be used to make work that exists on a flat surface. Students can work with any materials, processes, and ideas. Graphic design, digital imaging, photography, collage, fabric design, weaving, fashion design, fashion illustration, painting, and printmaking are among the possibilities for submission.

•     Danielle Spinosa - AP exam

​
3D Art & Design
This portfolio is designated for work that focuses on the use of three-dimensional (3-D) elements and principles of art and design, including point, line, shape, plane, layer, form, volume, mass, occupied/unoccupied space, texture, color, value, opacity, transparency, time, unity, variety, rhythm, movement, proportion, scale, balance, emphasis, contrast, repetition, connection, juxtaposition, and hierarchy. Students should consider how materials, processes, and ideas can be used to make work that involves space and form. Students can work with any materials, processes, and ideas. Figurative or non-figurative sculpture, architectural models, metal work, ceramics, glasswork, installation, performance, assemblage, and 3-D fabric/fiber arts are among the possibilities for submission.

• A Pinterest collection
• Example AP 3D Design portfolio with fashion emphasis - score 5
• Youtube introduction from an AP 3D class

Make each drawing, design, or sculpture portfolio-worthy. Concentrate on design principles and good composition, mark-making, technique, and expression. 

As is always expected, spend AT LEAST 3 - 5 hours on your project each week.

​
OR 

B. Cereal Boxes "Painting"

Project:
Using oil pastels, "paint" a still life comprised of two cereal boxes or other packages. Include the table surface, wall, and cast shadows in your drawing.

Set up a cereal boxes on a table top. Light the set up with a single light source, so that there are clear changes in darkness on each of the sides of the box.

This is to be done from direct observation, not from a photograph.


Objectives:

• Improve observational accuracy
• Build a strong composition
• Mix specific colors with accuracy - Blend oil pastel colors
• Establish 3D form through chiaroscuro and color changes
• Improve your ability to create a rich range of tonal value
• Become skillful with the oil pastel "painting"

Materials:

• Boxes (two package designs)
• Sketchbook
• Pencil
• Oil pastels

Grading Criteria:

• Composition
• Accuracy of line, shape, and color
• Three-Dimensional Form through Chiaroscuro - Shifts of tonal value and color
• "Completeness" - Craftsmanship

Below are some contemporary painters to look and to learn from. Remember to concentrate on the changes in color even within the same surfaces/planes. Also remember that every change in direction (every plane) will have a shift in value and in color temperature. Typically, shadows will be cooler in color (bluer) and where the light hits will be warmer (more yellow, orange, or red), but not always.

• Dik Liu
  • https://www.dikliu.com/food
  • https://www.dikliu.com/trolls 
• Wayne Thibaud

To Start:

1. Set up your cereal boxes on a table top. Light the still life with a single light source, so that there are clear changes in darkness on each of the sides of the box.
2. Draw thumbnails and/or rough drafts of the composition, in pencil, blocking out the basic arrangement of lights and darks.
3. On a piece of sketchbook paper, use pencil to lightly draft the outlines of your major shapes.
4. "Paint" with oil pastels.

Due:
2 - 3 weeks


Project:
Using pencil and various other drawing media, create a series of observational figure drawings.

We will start with quick gesture drawings of one or two minutes each, focusing on the action lines and the energy of the pose. With gradually longer poses, we will learn to block in the basic shapes of the complex form that is the human body, focusing on accurate placement and proportion and noticing the relationships of parts. In the final drawing(s), we will refine the contours and include the details of the observed figure, add a range of tonal value, and suggest the figure's relationship to its environment.

Objectives:

• Improve observational accuracy
• Establish accurate gesture, proportion and tonal value
• See the figure as a unified whole, and not separate parts
• Establish figure/ground relationship

Terms / Concepts:

• Gesture
• Action Line
• Blocking in ("The Envelope")
• Foreshortening
• Proportion
• Contour

Materials:

• Model
• Drawing board
• Drawing paper (sketchbook size to 18 x 24")
• Variety of drawing media

Grading Criteria:

• Accuracy of gesture
• Accuracy of proportion
• Quality of line
• (In some) Sense of form through value
• (In some) Composition using figure/ground relationship; sense of space

Due: One week

Context:
Artists often use their art to express their thoughts and feelings. We have just been through a long, divisive election season (In fact, we're still in it!), and emotions are high. Yours might be too right now. 

Project:
Create an artwork that expresses your ideas and feelings about the election. You can approach this as a personally expressive art statement or as an editorial illustration.

Medium: Collage (Color clippings from magazines)
Size: 11 x 14" or larger

Objectives:

• Expressiveness
• Strong Composition
• Experimentation with and Refinement of Media (Materials and Techniques)

Things to Think About:

• This is a collage, but it can include other media as well.
• Be as expressive as you can. Say something!
• Consider using visual metaphor rather than being literal.
• It should have a strong composition. Apply what you know about the Principles of Design: Contrast, Balance, Emphasis, Repetition, Movement, Variety and HARMONY.
• You should develop the composition through thumbnail sketches.
• It can't have any words. Show, don't tell.

Steps:
1. RESEARCH/LOOK - Before settling on your technique, study the mixed media collages of Romare Bearden, the photomontages of David Hockney, and the photomanipulations of Yasumasa Morimura. (Look them up online.). View the magazine covers of The New Yorker from recent weeks. View the social/political paintings of Jack Levine and George Grosz. Look at other political art.

2. WRITE - In your sketchbook/journal or in a Google Doc, write a paragraph or two about either the election, about the media, about where we are as a country right now, or about the future of the country (You will turn this in with your artwork.). Spend some time on this. Dig deep. How do you REALLY feel? There is no right or wrong answer.
Some possibilities for content:

• How might you describe your experience of the political process over the past year? 
• How might you describe media coverage over the past few months?
• How do you feel at this moment? 
• What are your hopes and dreams for the future of the country?
• How do we come together as a country?
• What are different ways we might relate to one another? What do you feel are some important Ways of Being?
• What do YOU need?

3. PLAN your art -- Use that written reflection in developing an artwork that expresses those ideas and emotions. Visually brainstorm in your sketchbook, then draft your composition by drawing a series of thumbnail sketches. Develop further your best sketch. (Turn in your sketches.)

4. COLLECT MATERIALS - Collect color from magazines. You will "paint" your image by using a color collage technique. Collect variations of all the colors you'll need, but keep them organized (Use envelopes to collect them by color.)

5. MIXED MEDIA - Complete a mixed media artwork (cut-paper collage; See student examples of technique) based on your best thumbnail sketch that expresses some of the ideas/feelings you wrote about. 

TURN IN YOUR WRITING, SKETCHES, and A REFINED, "PORTFOLIO-WORTHY" FINISHED COLLAGE via Google Classroom.

Grading Criteria:
Studio Habits of Mind

​
References:

For technique, look to the approach of Romare Bearden (1911 - 1988), a Social Realist of the Harlem Renaissance.

For an editorial illustration approach, here are recent covers of The New Yorker, a weekly politics and culture magazine.:

For style and composition, look at the work of the Italian Futurists (early 20th Century) as one approach:

​Or, for a darker view, the social/political paintings of Georges Grosz (German) and Jack Levine (American) from the first half of the 20th Century: