Advanced Placement Studio Art Summer Assignment 2018 Welcome to AP Studio Art! This is a high-level course that will both hone your skills and allow you to display your talent. The course will also require you to reflect upon and write about your art. So that we can begin the year running, all AP Studio Art students must complete some summer work to keep their skills sharp and give them practice in talking about and reflecting on their art. Students must complete three drawing assignments and complete action sheets about those assignments. They are also asked to visit as many museums as they can, so they can view and reflect upon the art and upon their own reactions to it. Please read over the instructions below, and have a great summer. I am looking forward to a great year together! - Mrs. Fusco-Benoit General Summer Assignment Instructions 1. Choose three of the drawing assignments below and complete them with expression and detail. These assignments will be due on the first day of school. You will be graded on your summer work and it will be a major grade for first term. Pieces should be between 9 x12 and 16 x 22 in size. *Note: A fourth drawing is suggested but optional. 2. You may not use any published image or draw from a photograph that has not been taken by you. The College Board does not accept these things as your own work. 3. You are encouraged to explore media or techniques that are new to you. Use drawing or painting materials to complete the assignments. Set aside a few hours or more for each drawing. Challenge yourself to go beyond your expectations. Eventually, you will need 12 strong Breadth pieces in your portfolio. Consider taking a figure drawing or mixed media class to give your Breadth portfolio a unique look. 4. Fill out and attach the student action sheet that is at the bottom of this document for each of the three assignments you complete. 5. Visit one or more museums over the summer. (More on that below.) Drawing Assignment Choices Painting of a Seemingly Unimportant Object: Make a painting of an ordinary office tool like a black clamp, a pencil, a tape dispenser, a pencil sharpener or a light bulb. When painting your object make it look like the most beautiful and important office tool anyone has ever seen. Christmas Ornaments: Draw a box of Christmas ornaments: Use pencil or colored pencil to draw some beautiful ornaments in a box. This assignment is for the person who likes to draw detail. Eggs: Eggs make beautiful subject matter. They have brilliant colors and create bold shadows. You could draw them in the box, on a table or in a frying pan. Make a composition with a focal point and from that point, lead the viewer around the page. You could also zoom in on the still life making your composition a bit more abstract. Ellipse Drawing: Set up a still life of paper towels and/or toilet paper rolls. Drawing ellipses correctly challenges artists of any age. Put a light on your still life to create highlights and shadows. Paint or draw what you see. Remember that composition is important so plan it out before you draw it. Army Men and Matchbox Cars: Set up a still life of little green army men or Matchbox cars. Make a scene that intrigues the viewer s imagination. Create an
interesting way to show the viewer the scale of the objects. This is important if you want your imagery to be visually understandable. Make the image larger than life to create an impact. The Chair: Draw a picture of a chair in its environment. Make lighting and mood a major part of its appeal. Think about your point of view and how you want the viewer to perceive this setting. Focus on describing light and dark value and creating believable three -dimensional qualities. A Pet: Draw your pet. Try to capture the personality and attitude your animal shares with you. Record detail and possibly the environment or the activity your pet likes the most. Make sure to record light and dark value. Sleeping Person: Draw a family member or a friend sleeping. This is a great observational study assignment in drawing the figure. Most people when sleeping stay still for long periods of time. It gives the artist a good opportunity to draw the figure. Jars: Draw more than one transparent jar filled with something like pickles, olives or beans. Be sure to show light and dark value as well as reflection on the glass and within the jar. Take advantage of cast shadows to create depth. Make this a complete composition. Your Refrigerator: Open the refrigerator door or a cabinet door and draw what s inside. Make sure what you see is intriguing. Keeping the refrigerator door open might be difficult so snap a picture of what you see and work from a photo. A Bicycle: Draw a close up of a bicycle/tricycle from an unusual angle with strong light/shadow. Think about the point of you want to present to the viewer. Interior Space: Draw an inside interior space. Choose an interesting room with clever lighting and mood. Remember composition is important and will make or break this drawing. Something in the Garden: Do you have a garden at home? Draw a section of your garden or blow up something you see in the garden and draw it magnified. Sports Equipment: Do you or anyone in your family play a particular sport? Set out some equipment or draw it where someone left it. Design a composition around the equipment. Something Antique: Do you like old things? Maybe you have some old furniture or a trinket that was handed down from generations before. Old things make interesting drawing images. Make a still life of old objects. A Vehicle: Sports cars, dirt bikes and hot rods are great subject matter to draw. Plunk yourself down in front of one of these and draw away. Draw a pat of the vehicle or a section of it, anything with wheels will do. A room Interior: Using what you know about perspective, sighting as well as foreground, middle ground and background draw a large interior of a room. Create this drawing using line only. Make sure to add accent line or line that is heavier to bring attention to things in your picture. The larger you draw this drawing the more impressive it will be. An Expressive Landscape: Create an incredible landscape. This can be near your home, a place you visit on vacation or one you find on a drive. Make an effort to work plein air meaning drawing or painting outdoors. You will have better light and will be able to focus on the color you actually see. Have a focal point but don t forget to make the information interesting from front to back, leading the viewer throughout the page. Focus on mark making throughout the drawing or painting and how it might change from front to back.
A Still Life: Create a still life of interesting objects that go together. Do you have a collection that you can draw or perhaps you have some personal items on your bureau that say a little something about who you are? Choose things that are personal to you so that you will invest your time in making it look right. Put it in a place where it won t be disturbed. Shine a light on it to help see the light and dark value. Work with black and white or color but focus on composition and value. A Self Portrait: Draw yourself. Focus on form and plane change. Use soft natural lighting from a window. Think about adding your surroundings in your composition to make it more intriguing. Be expressive. A photograph can provide a source for drawing your portrait but try not to rely on just a photograph. Looking at yourself in a mirror will help to make your drawing look more three-dimensional. The Clouds: The clouds outside can make a beautiful painting or drawing. Focus on their movement across the sky. The shadows on a cloud are usually very clear making it easy to show dimension. Decide if your drawing or painting will include the horizon line. However you set up the composition make sure that the viewer will focus on the clouds. Fantasy: Create a wild composition from your imagination. Maybe you could focus on illustrating a dream. Maybe you have interest in mythical things like fairies and mermaids, dragons or ogres. Create this composition with the same things that make a good observational drawing. Show depth from front to back. Create strong light and dark value. Show understanding of the materials and techniques used. Lead the viewer around the page engaging them in every aspect of the drawing. Look at the work of Surrealist artists like Salvador Dali for inspiration. Draw one thing 12 different ways: Think about something that you would like to explore or draw for understanding. Draw it twelve different ways. You can put them all on the same page or make them separately and somehow put them together. Reflective Objects: Create a still life arrangement of 3 or more reflective objects. Convey a convincing representation. Draw something that reflects in its surface. If the surface bends like a spoon the image that is reflected may be distorted. Use the distorted image as a focus for the image. Sunglasses work well in this assignment. Café Drawing: Go to a coffee or frozen yogurt shop and sit and sketch. In your drawing capture the essence of the place by capturing the people that you see. This could be a sketchbook page but fill the page with images. Action Portrait: Have a friend or family member pose for you doing some kind of movement (jumping rope, riding a bike, walking down stairs, throwing a pitch, dancing, etc.) Capture the entire sequence of their action in one work of art or a series of images. You might have to photograph this image and work from a photograph. How will you portray movement in your work? Look at the painting Nude Descending a Staircase by Dada artist Marcel Duchamp to see an example of an action painting. Also see the work of Futurist artists Giacomo Balla and F.T.Marinetti. A Series (This is considered one drawing): Draw a mini series of 3 based on a theme. Make them observational studies of something you are interested in. Pick objects to draw that are unusual but somehow related to each other. Find things to represent your theme. Make a painting or drawing of what you have found. Things to remember 1. Call upon all the different skills you know and have been taught. 2. Most of these problems could be suitably solved using pencil however; you may use colored materials to complete these images. 3. Start out with sketches of your ideas before you start your final drawing. 4. Always keep your pencil sharp for clearly drawn information and definition in values.
5. Create a multitude of values in each drawing for greater depth, contrast and illusion. 6. Use good drawing paper for these assignments. The type of paper you use makes all the difference in the marks you are able to create. 7. Don t wait until the last minute. Put time and thought into your work. Create a composition that will keep your viewer interested. Lead the viewer around the page. Visit a Museum I can t encourage you enough to visit a museum over the summer break. Look at what makes good art. Be inspired by it. Look at color combinations, perspective, and expressive quality. Find a style that appeals to you and figure out why. Check Out the AP Studio Art website http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/7881.html You will find scoring rubrics as well as past student work and how they were scored. Familiarize yourself with this site and with the three sections of the portfolio: Quality, Concentration and Breadth. All three are required and carry equal weight. ***I found this cool website from Rochester High School. The have all past AP Studio Art Portfolios on line for people to view. Check it out and get ideas. https://www.rochester.k12.mi.us/rochester-high-school/pages/14610/ap-studio-art
AP Summer Homework Student Action Sheet Student Name: A separate Action Sheet must be completed for each of your three drawings. Please complete Items 1, 2, and 3 before you begin your drawing. Complete Item 4 after you have finished the drawing. 1. Title your drawing with the name of the assignment you have chosen: 2. Calculate the time you expect to spend on this drawing from ideation stage to completion. Please do this before you begin. Time Calculated: 3. Before you begin, describe how you plan to carry out this drawing? Will you focus on detail or expressive mark making? What medium will you use to complete this assignment? 4. After you finish, reflect on whether you completed this drawing the way you planned. If not, why? If you were to describe this piece using the Elements (shape, form, color, value, texture, space) and Principles (balance, unity, contrast, pattern, movement, emphasis, rhythm) of Design, what would you say?