2.1 Portfolio Skills and Requirements

So, what do I do and how do I do it?

Skills That Should Be Used

AP Requirements

Sustained Investigation (SI)

• Sustained investigation through practice, experimentation, and revision—The visual evidence that you used to practice, experiment, and revise throughout the extended period of your SI.
• Sustained investigation of materials, processes, and ideas—Show the ways you explored different media or creative processes related to visually representing your idea. Make sure to also show how the idea evolved as you worked.
• Synthesis of materials, processes, and ideas—The ability of all of your techniques, material choices, and ideas to work well together and integrate cohesively to demonstrate your ideas effectively.
• 2D/3D/Drawing skills (depending on type of portfolio submitted)

• Identify the inquiry or question(s) that guided your sustained investigation—Your guiding question is an idea that you EXPLORED, EXPANDED, and REVISED over a year-long investigation (hence the name Sustained Investigation) 🙌🏽. While it does not have to be written as a question, that might help you to think of the resulting work as being a direct answer to a question being posed.
• Describe how your sustained investigation shows evidence of practice, experimentation, and revision guided by your inquiry or question(s) (1200 characters maximum, including spaces, for response to both prompts)—Here, you need to talk about your Guiding Question, what you did, how the work changed, and how it evolved over time.

• Materials used (100 characters maximum, including spaces)—What did you use to make the art? This doesn't just have to be things like "paint". You can also say things like: used my original photos, mixed glazes to achieve (whatever special effect), harvested tree limbs, wove a fabric, etc. You should highlight any additional steps you used to create the work. This will help support your process section—the active thinking, planning, and creation of your art-making.
• Processes used (100 characters maximum, including spaces)—This is more about your "what" and "how". Explanations can involve physical actions, such as "I painted", "I sketched", "I constructed". But they can also be thought-based, such as "I explored", "I mind-mapped", "I polled", "I examined", "I thought about", etc.
• Size (height x width x depth in inches)—For images that document processes or show detail, students should enter "N/A" for size. For digital and virtual work, students should enter the size of the intended visual display.

Selected Works

• 2D/3D/Drawing skills (depending on your portfolio)
• Synthesis of materials, processes, and ideas—The ability of all of your techniques, material choices, and ideas to work well together and integrate cohesively to demonstrate your ideas effectively.

• Idea(s) visually evident (100 characters maximum, including spaces)—What was your intent? What you are trying to communicate? What is it you want your viewer to take away from viewing your art? State that here.
• Materials used (100 characters maximum, including spaces)—What did you use to make the art? This doesn't just have to be things like "paint". You can also say things like: used my original photos, mixed glazes to achieve (whatever special effect), harvested tree limbs, wove a fabric, etc. You should highlight any additional steps you used to create the work. This will help support your process section—the active thinking, planning, and creation of your art-making.
• Processes used (100 characters maximum, including spaces)—This is more about your "what" and "how". Explanations can involve physical actions, such as "I painted", "I sketched", "I constructed". But they can also be thought-based, such as "I explored", "I mind-mapped", "I polled", "I examined", "I thought about", etc.