探究：探问与艺术创作过程

Focus: Inquiry is the intentional process of questioning that guides exploration and discovery over time. (CED Big Idea 1)

• A workable inquiry is open, personal, and visual — answerable through drawing, not through a paragraph.
• 'How can line weight express my grandmother's hands aging?' beats 'I will draw hands.'
• Strong questions generate the next drawing: each work answers a little and asks a little more.
• Test a question by listing ten works it could produce — fewer than five means it is too narrow.
• Questions may evolve mid-investigation; document the turn in your journal and written evidence.
• The Sustained Investigation is scored on how clearly works relate to and develop the stated inquiry.

Focus: Artists' experiences — surroundings, memory, culture, research — inform why, how, and what they draw. (CED 1.A)

• Ideas come from direct observation, personal history, other disciplines, and other artists' work.
• Document experiences as they happen: photos, thumbnail sketches, notes, collected objects.
• Ordinary subjects carry authority — the kitchen table you know beats a fantasy castle you don't.
• Research feeds drawing: anatomy pages, historical costume, botanical structure all sharpen observation.
• Cultural sources (calligraphy, textiles, architecture) bring personal context into mark and composition choices.
• Keep a source wall or folder; when momentum dips, the collected material restarts it.

Focus: The CED's three working components: materials (substances), processes (actions), ideas (concepts) — drawings happen where they meet.

• Every work is a decision triangle: what it is made of, how it is made, why it is made.
• Let one corner lead: an idea can demand a material (rust drawings about decay) or a material can spark an idea.
• Change one component at a time to see its effect — the fair-test habit works in the studio too.
• Name all three in written evidence: scorers look for the connection explicitly.
• Charcoal-on-torn-paper and fineliner-on-mylar are different statements, not just different looks.
• This triad vocabulary comes straight from the CED glossary — use the exact words in your writing.

Focus: Drawings mean more when you know when, where, and why they were made — context is an investigation tool. (CED 1.C)

• Study master drawings as working documents: Leonardo's studies, Dürer's engravings, Rembrandt's ink landscapes.
• Every tradition has a drawing language — Chinese ink line, Persian miniature, Renaissance chiaroscuro, manga screen-tone.
• Ask of any drawing: what was it for — study, record, plan, or finished statement?
• Historical technique is free training: copying a hatching system teaches decisions no video can.
• Place your own work in context: which artists share your question, and how is your answer different?
• Contextual notes in the journal strengthen written evidence and show intellectual depth.

Focus: Critique — of your own and others' work — is how an investigation steers. (CED 1.D/1.E)

• Describe → analyse → interpret → judge: the four-step critique keeps opinions grounded in evidence.
• Use the AP language: point to visual evidence of skills, materials, processes, and ideas.
• Self-critique with distance: turn the drawing upside down, view it in a mirror, or photograph it small.
• Ask one focused question per critique ('does the focal point read?') instead of 'is it good?'
• Written reflections after critiques become drafts of your Sustained Investigation writing.
• Revision decisions born from critique are exactly the development the rubric wants to see.

Focus: Investigation must be visible: the process journal captures questions, tests, failures, and turns as they happen. (CED 1.B)

• Document with anything quick: phone photos, taped-in tests, dated notes, thumbnail storyboards.
• Record the why at decision points — two lines today saves reconstructing your thinking in April.
• Photograph work-in-progress stages; a before/after revision pair is gold for the portfolio.
• Keep material tests (paper swatches, media trials) physically in the journal with outcomes noted.
• Process images may be submitted among the 15 Sustained Investigation images — label them clearly.
• A true journal (not a decorated diary) is the difference between claiming inquiry and showing it.