AP Studio Art 2008 Summer Assignments for AP Portfolio
Summer is almost here and you’ll be thinking thoughts of sunshine, travel, having fun with friends…….all those things we all look forward to! This notice is so that you’ll be not only thinking about these things, but about art too! As you know, when May of 2009 arrives, you’ll be sending 24 slides (and 5 original pieces) of art work to the AP board in to be evaluated. This is a difficult task, indeed, if you haven’t gotten a head start over the summer. With that in mind, I’m going to give you some summer assignments, which we will then look at in the fall when school begins. As with other AP classes, the assumption is that if you are serious about the AP program, you will accomplish these tasks in order to participate in the AP studio art program in the fall. This means if you do not have all 5 pieces finished with obvious time and effort in, you will not be in AP studio art next year (we can change you to painting/or Advanced Art).
The AP Studio Art Portfolio consists of 3 distinct sections: Quality (5 actual artworks), Concentration (Focus) and Breadth (Variety). For ALL of your work in AP, every piece must be completely original. This means you will not be able to look at photographs from magazines, photos taken by friends, images from television, logos, etc. You may work from photos ONLY if you were the photographer. For the most part, working from photos at all is discouraged.
The table below summarizes the section requirements for each of the three portfolios.
Drawing 2-D Design 3-D Design
Section I: Quality Five actual drawings; maximum Five actual works; maximum Five works; two slides of each size is 18" x 24" size is 18" x 24" one are submitted
Section II: 12 slides; some may be details 12 slides; some may be details 12 slides; some may be second Concentration views
Section III: Breadth 12 works; one slide of each is 12 works; one slide of each is Eight works; two slides of each submitted submitted are submitted
Description of the Sections: 1. For the Quality section, you will submit five actual, original pieces of work to send in. These should reflect your very best quality in composition, execution, style and concept. You should work on these in class next year.
2. For the Concentration Section, you will come up with a concept, or an idea which you can work with and grow with over 12 pieces of art CONCENTRATION: Where to come up with specific ideas for concentrations? Remember, everything you do must be 100% original. Set up objects/situations from real life!!! Take a camera and take your own pictures. Look at magazines and books, but use them to INSPIRE you, not to copy from. Go to the library or bookstore and browse in the art section. LOOK AROUND you, NOTICE EVERYTHING. Think about what excites you visually, as the artist you are and you are becoming. HAVE FUN with this! Use your sketchbook every day as both a sketch and notebook. Write about your visual experiences too! We’ll be keeping an art journal next year, so start it this summer and share your ideas about what you might want to do for a concentration on the day we get back in late August!
You should be thinking about and developing your concentration idea during the summer. Your concentration will be 12 pieces of related works of art, and will be the focus of the AP Studio Art class in the fall semester. We will be talking at length about the concentration at the beginning of the semester, but you should already have an idea of what yours will be before school starts. Some examples of a concentration are:
An exploration of pattern and design found in nature and/or culture A series of Expressive landscapes based upon your own person experience of a special place Abstractions developed from cells and other micro-organisms A series of self-portraits with a specific theme Interpretive self-portraiture and figure studies that emphasize exaggeration and distortion A personal or family history communicated through the content and style of still-life images A figurative project combining animal and human subjects—drawings, studies and completed works An interpretive study of literary characters in which mixed media, color and form are explored The use of multiple images to create compositions that reflect psychological or narrative events A series of paintings on a theme (such as trees) that begin with representational interpretations and evolve into abstraction Note: some of these are taken from AP Studio Art Website at www.collegeboard.org/ap
You will be asked to respond in writing to the following questions to explain your concentration portfolio: 1. Briefly define the nature of your concentration project. 2. Briefly describe the development of your concentration and the sources of your ideas. You may refer to specific slides as examples. 3. What medium or media did you use? For digital art in the 2D Design Portfolio, specify the program(s) and how you used it/them As you can see, the concentration section is very involved and needs to show originality, quality and growth. This, we will do during the 2008/09 school year, but you should definitely have a good idea about what you want to do when we start in the fall!
3. The Breadth area (Section III) requires you to show that you are accomplished in a variety of art forms and techniques using various media. It should show evidence of intellectual, perceptual and technical range. You need to show a variety of problem solving techniques in color, design, and drawing.
Work submitted in this section may be submitted for the Quality section, but may NOT be submitted for the Concentration section. Now, for your homework over the summer! See the next pages for the specific assignments for the Breadth section. Summer Assignments for AP Studio Art 2008-2009
ASSIGNMENT:
You will complete a minimum of 3 projects over the summer as your AP Studio Art class preparation. These assignments will be due the first day of class, August 25. You will receive a major grade for your summer work. It is your choice as to which assignments you complete from the list to follow. Pieces should be between 9x12” and 16x20” in size – the assignments are about quality, not quantity. Work with the size paper that is more comfortable to you. You may use any media or mixed media of your choice. I encourage you to explore media that you have not used at all, or to an extensive degree. These pieces are work for your “Breadth” section of the portfolio and the emphasis on this section of work is variety of media, styles, approaches and subject matter.
You can email me at [email protected] if you have any questions over the summer. PROJECTS: You may choose three of the following themes to complete A self-portrait that expresses a specific mood. Think about the effects of color and how its’ use can help to convey the individual mood. You may use any style (realism, cubism, expressionism, etc.). Do some research online or at the library about different artist’s self-portraits and the styles and techniques they used to create them.
Still life arrangement that consists of 2 or more reflective objects. Your goal is to convey a convincing representation.
A drawing of an unusual interior – for example, looking inside of a closet, cabinet, refrigerator, inside your car, etc.
A still-life arrangement of your family members’ shoes. You should include at least three shoes.
A close-up drawing of a bicycle from an unusual angle. Do not draw the bicycle from the side!
Buildings in a landscape: Do a drawing on location. Look for a building or spot in your neighborhood that is part of your neighborhood’s identity. It could be a fire house, restaurant park, church or any other building or place that you frequent or pass by often and would miss seeing if it were torn down. Use correct perspective techniques.
Expressive landscape: locate a landscape near your home or use a photograph you have taken of a landscape – you can also use multiple sketches or photos of different landscapes to create a unique one (it is best to work from an actual subject, so try to do this outdoors, looking at the actual landscape). Use expressive color to draw that landscape to express a mood or feeling. Think about which colors conjure which feelings for you and use those to “create” your place.
Create a self-portrait of yourself that is done by looking at your reflection in an unusual reflective surface – in other words, something other than a normal mirror. This could be a metal appliance (toaster, blender), a computer monitor, a broken or warped mirror, etc.
Pattern design: create a pattern or series of related pattern designs. Create an unusual and unique motif for your pattern, and then render the pattern in any one of the types of pattern design structures – grids, rows, alternating rows, random, etc. Look at patterns from different cultures and patterns that serve different functions to get ideas. Also create a color scheme for your pattern that is used throughout to create unity in your design.
Public sculpture: design 2D plans for a public artwork. You should have a specific location chosen for this sculpture and several drawings of different views of the sculpture. Why is this sculpture significant for the area that it is intended? Look at the work of Christo and Jean-Claude (The Gates), Andy Goldsworthy, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Smithson (Spiral Jetty) for ideas of sculpture and installation art in the environment. Your project should look similar to the sketches that Christo prepares for his large-scale environmental installations – his most recent project was “The Gates” in 2002 at Central Park, NYC.
Café drawing (or any other local hangout): go to a place where you can sit and sketch for a long period of time. In your drawing, capture the essence of this place (local eatery/café, bookstore, mall, etc.) by drawing the people and places you see.
Action portrait: have a friend or family member pose for you doing some sort of movement (jump roping, walking, riding a bike, walking down stairs, etc.). Capture the entire sequence of their action in one piece of artwork. How will you portray movement in your work? Look at “Nude Descending a Staircase” by Dada artists Marcel Duchamp to see an example of an action painting. Also see the work of Futurist artists Giacomo Balla or F.T. Marinetti for examples. GETTING REGISTERED AT THE COLLEGE BOARD WEBSITE:
Just as soon as possible, register at www.collegeboard.com!!! Here you will find information about AP Studio Art classes, the exam, scoring rubrics used, and examples of past student work in each of the portfolio areas.
From the www.collegeboard.com homepage, click on the “For Students” tab Under “My organizer” you can create a free user account – you can use this account to access information about any AP exams and classes Under the “College Board Tests” section, you can click on “AP” which will take you to the AP homepage Here is a direct link to the AP subjects homepage, where you will find links to all of the AP course descriptions:
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/subjects.html Here is a link to the Studio Art homepage: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_studioart.html?studioart
AP Studio Art is a lot of work, but by doing this you will develop a high quality portfolio that may earn you a great deal of scholarship possibilities as well as admission to competitive art programs. I hope you have a fun, safe, artistic and restful summer! If you need to call me over the summer, you can reach me at my e-mail address [email protected]
I’ll be checking e-mail most days in the summer, so feel free to e-mail me and tell me how you are doing!