The Sustained Investigation is the heart of the AP 2-D Art and Design portfolio. It documents your inquiry-guided exploration of a question, theme, or idea through a body of related work developed across the school year.

What you submit:

Images (15 digital images): Fifteen images that can include any combination of:

• Finished artworks created as part of your investigation

• Process documentation — works in progress, sketches, preliminary studies, material experiments

• Detail shots that highlight specific design decisions, techniques, or materials

• Documentation of failed experiments that led to revision and learning

The 15 images must collectively demonstrate practice (regular, sustained making), experimentation (trying new materials, approaches, or ideas), and revision (returning to work and improving it based on reflection). A portfolio that shows only polished finished pieces — with no process evidence — cannot score a 5 on this section.

Written Evidence (typed responses to prompts): Three written responses addressing:

1. The inquiry — What question, theme, or problem is guiding your investigation? Why is it significant to you and to design?

2. Practice and experimentation — How did you explore and develop your inquiry through sustained making? What approaches did you try, and what did you discover?

3. Revision — How did you revise your work in response to what you learned? What changed, and why?

Scoring criteria for the SI section: Reviewers evaluate whether the inquiry is clearly articulated and meaningfully explored; whether the images provide strong visual evidence of practice, experimentation, and revision; and whether the written evidence accurately and specifically documents those processes. Generic, vague, or disconnected written evidence consistently lowers SI scores regardless of image quality.

The Selected Works section demonstrates the quality of your finished 2-D design work at its strongest. This is where technical skill, design sophistication, and conceptual strength are evaluated directly.

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What you submit:

5 digital images of finished works, each with written commentary: Five individual artworks (each represented by one or more digital images) that collectively demonstrate skillful synthesis of materials, processes, and ideas in 2-D design. For each work, you provide brief written commentary identifying the specific materials and processes used and the ideas the work addresses.

These five works may come from your Sustained Investigation, but they are not required to — you may include works developed separately. What matters is that each work represents your strongest 2-D design ability at the time of submission.

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Scoring criteria for the Selected Works section: Reviewers evaluate quality of design — how effectively you apply 2-D design principles (unity, balance, emphasis, contrast, rhythm, scale, figure-ground), the sophistication of your material and process choices, and the conceptual depth of the work. Each of the five works is evaluated individually, and the section score reflects the overall level of design quality demonstrated.

Unity and Variety

How the visual elements of a design work together as a coherent whole (unity) while maintaining visual interest through difference (variety). A portfolio that looks monotonous lacks variety; a portfolio that looks chaotic lacks unity. The best AP 2-D portfolios find a distinctive equilibrium between the two.

The distribution of visual weight across a composition — symmetrical (formal), asymmetrical (dynamic), or radial. Balance does not require symmetry; it requires that the viewer's eye feels the composition is resolved rather than tipping.

How a design draws the viewer's attention to particular elements through contrast, placement, size, colour, or texture. Strong AP 2-D work has intentional focal points — the viewer's eye knows where to go and why.

The degree of difference between visual elements — light and dark, rough and smooth, large and small, complementary colours. Contrast creates visual energy and prevents monotony; it is one of the most powerful tools in 2-D design.

The repetition of visual elements in a way that creates movement, flow, or a sense of organised beat across the composition. Rhythm can be regular (predictable repetition), alternating (ABABAB), or progressive (gradually changing).

The relative size relationships between elements within a composition and between the composition and the viewer. Unexpected scale relationships — making something enormous that is usually tiny, or tiny that is usually enormous — are a powerful design strategy.

The relationship between a shape (figure) and the space surrounding it (ground). Skilled 2-D designers manipulate figure-ground to create ambiguity, depth, tension, or visual play — not just treat the background as empty space.

Hue, value, saturation; complementary, analogous, triadic, and split-complementary colour relationships; warm and cool colour dynamics; colour as mood, symbol, and cultural signifier. Colour decisions in AP 2-D portfolios should always be intentional and explainable in written evidence.

• Graphic design — typography, layout, visual communication, poster design, branding

• Photography — documentary, conceptual, manipulated, analogue or digital

• Illustration — pen and ink, watercolour, acrylic, digital illustration

• Printmaking — screen printing, woodblock, linocut, monoprint

• Collage — mixed media, found material, paper cut

• Textile and fibre arts — weaving, embroidery, fabric design (2-D applications)

• Digital art — original digital painting, vector design, photo composition

• Painting — acrylic, watercolour, gouache, oil on flat surface

• Drawing — observational, expressive, conceptual (note: AP Drawing is the separate portfolio course)

Mixed-media approaches — combining photography with illustration, or digital processes with traditional printmaking — can be highly effective in demonstrating experimentation and process.