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ARA613: AP Studio Art: Drawing (2012-2013)

CURRICULUM PROGRAM: Advanced Placement
COURSE TITLE: AP Studio Art: Drawing
CALENDAR YEAR: 2012-2013
GRADE LEVEL: 10-12
CODE: ARA613
TYPE: GF,AP
CREDITS:
COURSE LENGTH: 36 weeks

About the Program:
The AP Studio Art Drawing class is an intensive one-year course of college-level study that addresses broad issues of drawing and media. Some of these drawing issues include light and shade, line quality, rendering of form, composition, surface manipulation, and illusion of depth. Many works of painting, printmaking, and mixed media, as well as abstract, observational, and inventive works, may qualify. The range of marks used to make drawings, the arrangement of those marks, and the materials used to make the marks are endless. Students are expected to take the AP exam at the end of the course.

Major Concepts/Content: Students will explore the elements of art (color, value, line, shape, form, texture and space.) and the possibilities therein artists use to express themselves. The principles of design (balance, contrast, proportion, pattern, rhythm, emphasis, unity, and variety) help guide artists in making decisions about how to organize the elements on an image plane in order to communicate content.

Course Objectives:

• Students will explore formal and conceptual issues through creative and systematic investigations.
• Students will use informed and critical decision-making as an on going process for the creation of art.
• Students will develop technical skills and are familiarized with the functions of the visual elements.
• Students will engage in in-depth critiques, deliver presentations from their own portfolios, read critical and art historical selections and write reviews of student and master works.
• Students, who enroll in the AP Studio Art Drawing course, will be expected to produce a minimum of forty pieces of finished artwork in a variety of two-dimensional media, techniques, and subject matter.
• Students will emphasize work drawn from personal observation into which they embed various aspects of color theory, principles of design and the elements of art.
• Students will develop a body of work focused on a central theme.
• Students will recognize the importance of art history and culture as a lexicon from which they may develop their own visual ideas.

Course Philosophy: Students who enroll in AP Studio Art: Drawing will be expected to produce a minimum of forty pieces and therefore they should consistently be drawing from observation and developing a broad range of divergent products that apply color theory, design principles and emphasize specific elements of art. A portion of this work should be directed toward a student selected theme. It is important for the student to understand how masterworks and other artwork contribute to individual and personal ideas. With this understanding the student will create presentations in which they critique their own and other works of art.