Students in AP Studio Art, 2D Design and AP Studio Art, 3D Design enjoy a rigorous art program that brings their personal expression into a series of three accomplished portfolios that are submitted to the AP CollegeBoard for review in May. Although rigorous, the class is informal and promotes team building among students.

These students are creating figure drawings from a model.

To see the 2D AP studio course syllabus click here. To get the 3D AP studio course syllabus click here. Both syllabi include a complete semester outline, with weekly projects, assessments and sketchbook checks.

Most students have built up a cornucopia of art supplies on their journey to this 2-D -3D design studio art course. Having a TOOL BOX to house them in may be the only valuable supply truly needed! However, students should review the following lists to make sure that they have the basics as well as provide any research materials that may be appropriate such as magazines. If a student took the painting course and does not have the exact brushes listed it isn't necessary to purchase more, just having a bank of personal brushes is the idea. 2D Design materials may be purchased individually or as a packet at Sarnoff Art Supply, 2505 N. Campbell Ave. 3D design materials may be purchased at Marjon Ceramics.

Although it is not assigned I highly encourage students to purchase the book: Art & Fear by Bayles & Orland. Used copies cost under 5.00 at Amazon.com. The modest-sized book has vital insights about the pitfalls and joys of artmaking. I will be referring to it throughout the AP studio course. The purchase is optional only.

Click this link for the 2D Design supply list.

Click this link for the 3D Design supply list

This welcoming parent letter provides parents with a brief outline of the course requirements and student expectations for the duration of the semester.

The pace of AP Studio Art is fast compared to other art courses, and students are expected to work outside of class in order to meet project deadlines. Time spent in the art studio after school is mandatory! A ratio of three hours for every one hour spent in class is typical in order to develop artwork to its full potential. Students are expected to utilize open studio a minimum of two-three hours per week.

Open Studio hours: room 428 - Monday and Friday 3:10-4:50pm.
room 413 - Tuesday, 3:10-4:50pm; Thursday 2:30 - 4pm .
Closed - Wednesday
Students must obtain teacher permission to be in the studio during unauthorized times and may be required to sign in and out accordingly.

Homework assignments consist of signed parent letters, research for projects, sketchbook assignments and written reflections that accompany final artworks. To see all assignment due dates at a glance click here. These assignments are also posted on the AP Studio Art calendar.

AP Studio Art                                                                                                                          Period 5
Name: ____________________________                                                                            Valandry

Homework assignment, Due:                                                                                               Point value = 30

The following questions are taken from the AP College board studio digital website: You are to write a statement based on where you are at in your concentration at this point in time. This is a rough draft that will help you consider your exploration and process at the present moment and how you want to finish up your portfolio. The examples below are taken from the AP College Board 2D studio art website. It would be helpful for you to go the website to see how students word their statements. Keep in mind that you only get a limited amount of words to express yourself. Brevity is the soul of wit. You must be clear, specific and precise about your concentration focus. For full credit, type your answers and turn them in on the due date.

1. What is the central idea of your concentration?

2. How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific slides as examples.

2D -  Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
My concentration explores the symbolism in flowers. For decades, many people have associated flowers with emotions, abstract ideas (innocence), and even religious figures. I have always been interested in the different symbols and associations carried with these delicate yet robust works of nature. Through this exploration, I hope to mature in my thinking process as well as my methods of creating these pieces, just as a little sprout goes through the metamorphosis of a bud to a blooming flower.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
In my pieces I chose to juxtapose different people with different flowers. Sometimes these human subjects elicit a certain emotion that corresponds with the symbolism carried with the flower (Image 6) while other times they have a gesture that may hint at what the flower symbolize. Image 5 is an example of the latter explanation. Forget-Me-Nots primarily symbolize eternal love, and I chose a "protective" stance of a young girl covering the flowers with both hands. However, she does not keep these flowers to herself, rather, she allows them to drop and grow on their own, preventing this to be a dangerous obsessive love. Image 9 is an example of how a flower, the white lily, can symbolize a religious figure, in this case the Virgin Mary. My pieces also begin to slightly change in media and style, although not so obvious, mimicking the growth of a flower. I think it was important to incorporate this aspect because it is not only relevant to my concentration's concept, but it also allows me to grow as an artist by exposing me to different ways of approaching my artwork.
 

2D - Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
By capturing the nature of Western Florida, various aspects can be seen such as purity, beauty, and tranquility. Through photographs of tall palm trees, shorelines of the Gulf of Mexico, and nautical landscapes reflect these qualities. As the images progress, the horizon line also evolves.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.

From photographs of the highest treetops to shorelines and the vast ocean, it is clear that the images evolve from being the highest point of Florida's nature to its lowest. Within this, it can be seen that the horizon line begins below the range of the photographs (images 1 and 2) and slowly progresses to being found below half-way on the photographs (images 3 and 4). The next two photographs (images 5 and 6) depict the horizon line being at the half-way mark. From there, the horizon line progresses to being above this half-way mark, where the actual line may or may not be visible but is still there (images 7, 8, 9, and 10). The horizon line is then not visible and above the range of the photographs (images 11 and 12). This evolution of the horizon line allows for all aspects of Florida's natural beauty to be seen while allowing each of the photographs to take on their own artistic appeal.

An artist who has inspired me personally and made me curious about the idea is Sean Dowie. His portrayals of Florida's nature, especially the landscapes, use the horizon line as key to reflect the beauty and tranquility of the scenery.

Scroll down for examples in the drawing and 3D portfolios

2D - Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
My 2-D design concentration began as a mini concentration about amusement parks. I wanted to talk about the interesting designs, lines, and patterns in the world of amusement parks. My realistic interpretations quickly turned into simplifying the lines, patterns, and colors I observed in the rides, lights and structures.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
The main concept of my concentration was exploring the many varying designs of amusement parks. My pieces were originally very realistic but they soon changed to my visual descriptions of the designs within the parks. Pieces (images 1, 3) began as a mini concentration, where I used a lot of line design concepts. My turning point from somewhat realistic designs to abstract designs was in slide three. This picture highlights the bright lights shown at an amusement park. I used repetition on this piece with shapes, lines, colors, and textures. This piece was the catalyst in creating the other smaller versions of different parts of the amusement park (images 4, 5, 6). I was also able to portray movement here with paint pens. The detail in image 7 was very interesting to me but moved away from the intricate abstract styling of the earlier pieces. I began deconstructing the rides, shapes and patterns to a more simplistic abstract design instead of the very precise design of slide 7. In my last pieces (image 10, 11, 12), I was able to abstract the rides using different shapes, colors and sizes. The deconstruction of the vast rides, lights and structures of the amusement parks, brings fourth my complete interpretation of the abstraction within amusement parks.

Drawing - Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
"Portraits: New Arrangements of the Contemporary Person" is my mixed-media based narrative in which I [attempt to] re-imagine and reconstruct the facial structure to create a portrait of the modern person.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
My portfolio begins with racially charged images, which stylistically combine both the subjects and the backgrounds into one whole design. In the latter half of the portfolio, the figures become the subjects, and the backgrounds are neutral. The faces of the characters I develop consist of fragmented body parts recycled from new and vintage magazines, newspapers, and advertisement catalogs.

Drawing - Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
My concentration is about the effect environment has on a person, done as a series of self-portraits.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
To what extent does our environment influence how we appear to others? Depending on what we associate the colors of a picture with, or the lighting or even simple objects with, what we see in a picture changes. In my concentration, I chose environments that I am in every day, such as a school hallway or a plain room in my house, to make sure the scene was commonplace. Then I adjusted the lighting to heighten the effects of the surroundings on my figure. I also made use of different viewpoints to produce the effect of viewing my figure from within the surroundings, such as in image 12 when the viewer is literally behind the soda can. When I did not put as much emphasis on the background, I zoomed in on faces to show the power of the frame of view. When you can only see part of someone, you tend to focus on this person, but when you see more than just the face, or the upper body, and can see a majority of the person's figure, the background takes on a greater meaning. Sometimes one's surroundings strongly influence how one appears to others, while other times the background pales in comparison, no matter how natural the scene is. My concentration is an exploration on the relationship between one person and her environment.

3D Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
I have concentrated on the female figure as a cultural symbol of fertility. I am interested in presenting that form not as an object rendered realistically but rather as a symbolic presence which in some instances is referred to by its absence (with the aid of a shroud) and in other instances by the visual metaphor of the "vessel" and the EGG, the container and the contained, the medium and symbol of life.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
The series begins with the female form as a draped object. Material enclosures ranging from insect screen to folded aluminum to fiberglass resin both define and isolate the female body within. That body is present in YOU CAN SEE ME BUT YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME (image 1) but is present by its absence in BODY ARMOR (image 2 and 3) BREAST PLATE (image 4) and BURKA (image 5 and 6). In Burka, I found irony in the cloak as a protective enclosure containing only internally illuminated eggs hanging in the approximate location of the uterus. These eggs dominated the next few pieces. EGG AND SPERM (image 7 and 8) is constructed of welded metal spoons and a polished stainless steel ball. The spoons are the product of the Wallingford Flatware Company, the successor firm to the Oneida Corporation which itself began as a utopian community dedicated to female independence. I again used the Wallingford Spoons in BINGO FOR LIFE (image 9 and 10) which suggests the unpredictability of reproduction. The NEST (image 11) presents the vital glow of the egg as a crucible of life. In EGG ON A STICK (image 11 and 12), an iconic egg shape is rendered in virgin pine and topped with a dove as a symbol of peace, inspiration and motherhood.

3D Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
The central idea of my concentration is to create an evolution of structure into abstraction. Constructed in superior positioning to the base, the elevated and emphasized top forms exhibit concepts of fluidity, openness, individuality, and nonconformity which contrast with the uniformity, repression, and constraint expressed by their structured and conventional bases. My concentration aims to create and/or evoke the evolution of the rational into an individual and irrational nature.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
I consider my exploration of this concentration to be the fusion of my mastery of three-dimensional design with my education outside of the studio. I developed my passion for ceramics 15 months ago and polished my skill through countless hours in the studio, however it was only when I began my Humanities course at my school that I thought anything of the meaning of art. The Romantic Age especially, with its emphasis on the individual, irrational, and imagination. The Romantics valued art and poetry in their quest to express their emotions in an everlasting form. In a notable poem of the Era, "Ode on a Grecian Urn", by John Keats, the narrator addresses an ancient Greek ceramic urn. Keats profoundly writes "heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter." The Romantics believed that art has the power to express and eternalize metaphysical concepts. This is what my concentration aims to do: create and/or evoke the evolution of the rational into an individual and irrational nature. My pieces show a growing of the irrational out of their structured bases, acknowledging the support that structure provides, yet emphasizing the individuality of the fluid tops. The irrational learns from and relies on the support of the rational, but eventually transcends its restraints to evolve into a distinct individual.

3D Student Commentary:
What is the central idea of your concentration?
The central idea of my concentration is of building structures that hold significant memories or experiences from my past. I wanted to show a narrative of these experiences in three-dimensions. I primarily worked in ceramic but also used found objects and a variety of fabrics and papers.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
To call attention to significant details of each narrative, I used a wide range of materials. Image 1 is modeled after a cafe that I use to work in. This cafe was the first place in which I ever worked, and that's why I chose to create it. I included the cafe's logo, (the sword through the heart) to describe the religious decor this cafe had. Image 10 is a model of a house I previously lived in. I had some of the best parties in this house. I wrote briefly about my experiences on one side of it. I used carpet, magazine cut-outs and wall paper in the interior of image 10, to capture a realistic sense of the house.

Click here to get sketchbook assignments for the first nine weeks of class. To get an idea about how to tackle sketchbook projects check out the rules for working in your sketchbook and ways to work in your sketchbook documents.

For the third and fourth set of sketchbook assignments click here

AP studio 2-D and 3D Design art projects for the first semester are assignments that address the breadth and quality portions of the AP portfolio. Students use a variety of media and subject matter.

Examples of student projects are:

1.  Lesson: "Boxed In"
Objectives,students will:
- make an observational drawing of a box using drawing techniquesthat show lightshadow in order make the box appear 3-Dimensional.         
- Use blending techniques as a method for developing the drawing
- Recognize and create figure-ground relationships in a drawing.
- Find and develop ideas for drawing.
 

2. Lesson: Light Versus Line, a portrait vignette
Objective:students will learn, plan and apply the drawing skill of vignette to create a portrait that emphasizes one aspect of the face or facial features.

 3. If that tool could talk…futurist-inspired drawing of mechanized tools, an engine or the inside of a mechanical object.
 Objective: Students will communicate ideas and emotions in drawings of mechanical objects or tools by constructing and rendering a personal still-life