COMPARATIVE STUDY - CHECKLIST

 

Part 2 (SL and HL): Process portfolio

External Assessment 40%

Why assess a process portfolio?

The process portfolio task authentically assesses the ways that students develop and work towards producing a body of work. It reflects the holistic nature of the course, addressing each of the assessment objectives. It places due emphasis on the process of selecting work to evidence students’ technical accomplishment during the visual arts course and their understanding of the use of materials, ideas and practices appropriate to visual communication. It also highlights the product and promotes an engagement with a broad range of media.

Core syllabus areas related to the task

The following core syllabus areas are addressed in the process portfolio assessment task.

Visual arts in context

• Investigating how processes in art have changed and how media or techniques have developed or technologically evolved over time
• Familiarization with various art genres, styles, regional schools and associations
• Workshops in and experience with a range of media, techniques and equipment available to students within the art department and elsewhere within the school
• Identification of expertise available to students, within the school and locally (such as local practising artists, the areas of special interest of art department staff and other relevant staff expertise in information and communication technology (ICT), design technology and so on)

Visual arts methods

• Art-making experiences to facilitate individual experiences in media and techniques (including two-dimensional, three-dimensional and lens-based, electronic and screen-based forms) with particular reference to the historical development of processes and techniques, and different cultural and traditional uses of these
• Investigating the art-making practices of other artists and allowing their techniques and practices to inform student art-making
• Considering and recording the potential of these experiences in the visual arts journal, reflecting on intentions and ideas
• Visual recordings of practical processes
• Exploring digital means of capturing art-making practice as it occurs and creating a record of experimentation and exploration with acquired skills

Communicating visual arts

• Reflecting upon their developing work with particular focus on how the intended meaning and purpose are communicated
• Identifying opportunities for further development in the work being undertaken
• Critiquing their successes and failures in relation to their intentions and consider how their developing work might impact on an audience if presented for public display

Engaging students in the use of diverse forms

The most straightforward way to foster an art-making practice that includes a diverse range of forms and media is to encourage students to mediate their imagery using different media and materials. This is best begun in the early stages of the course where students are introduced to techniques and media that may be unfamiliar to them. It is achieved by setting a prescriptive task in one form, and then when complete, having students redevelop the image so that it is suitable for a different form. When combined with reflective exercises in the visual arts journal, the approach can become a habit of working for students, which will not only allow them to satisfy the requirement to work in a variety of forms, but will also promote an art-making practice that will address the process portfolio marking criterion D: Reviewing, refining and reflecting.

Two examples of simple mediated form exercises:

Figure 10

Resources

Art-making needs to be conducted in a suitable space that facilitates the creative demands of the subject, while providing adequate safety. Non-slip flooring, adequate ventilation, appropriate lighting, access to running water and adequate storage for materials as well as completed works should be considered a minimum.

Visual arts faculties need to determine—based on the course they develop—what materials and equipment the faculty will provide for student use, and what materials and equipment students will be expected to provide, reflecting on the economical means of the school and the school community.

Students, for example, might be expected to assemble a basic art kit that includes any personal protective equipment required for the activities they will undertake, a visual arts journal, a basic set of brushes and drawing materials.

The school might then provide the bulkier materials and equipment. Stock the art studio with the highest quality materials that your budget can afford.

In addition to material resources, a range of technical manuals on various art-making techniques is an invaluable addition to any art studio.

A guide for students

Task summary

The process portfolio is an externally examined assessment task worth 40%.

To complete the task, you are required to present documentation of your experimentation, exploration, manipulation and refinement of a variety of visual arts activities during the development of your body of work over the two-year course. The documentation may include carefully chosen samples, which may be extracted from your visual arts journal and other sketchbooks, notebooks and portfolios, as well as preliminary and developmental artworks that have not been included in the exhibition task. The work is submitted as a series of screen-based slides.

Formal requirements

SL

• SL students submit 9–18 screens, which evidence their sustained experimentation, exploration, manipulation and refinement of a variety of art-making activities.
• The submitted work must be in at least two art-making forms, each from separate columns of the art-making forms table.
• The submitted screens must not include any resolved works submitted for part 3: exhibition internal assessment task.

HL

• HL students submit 13–25 screens, which evidence their sustained experimentation, exploration, manipulation and refinement of a variety of art-making activities.
• The submitted work must have been created in at least three art-making forms, selected from a minimum of two columns of the art-making forms table.
• The submitted screens must not include any resolved works submitted for part 3: exhibition internal assessment task.

Marking criteria summary

Marking criteria		Marks	What the examiner is looking for:	Possible evidence
A	Skills, techniques and processes	12	Sustained experimentation and manipulation of a range of skills, techniques and processes, showing the ability to select and use materials appropriate to your intentions when using the required number of art-making forms from the art-making forms table. At the highest level of achievement, the work demonstrates assured and sustained experimentation and manipulation of a range of skills, techniques and processes, and a highly appropriate selection of materials, consistent with intentions.	Drawings, sketches and designs Preliminary paintings and small studies Photographic contact sheets and test prints Computer screenshots Photographic record of sculptural processes
B	Critical investigation	6	critical investigation of artists, artworks and artistic genres, communicating your growing awareness of how this investigation influences and impacts upon your own developing art-making practices and intentions. At the highest level of achievement, the work shows in-depth critical investigation, clearly communicating a secure and insightful awareness of how this investigation has impacted upon your own developing practices and intentions.	Annotated images of other artists’ works Experiments with using the style or technique of an artist Producing copies of works “after” a particular artist Written reflections on the connections between an investigated artist and your own work
C	Communication of ideas and intentions (in both visual and written forms)	6	the ability to clearly articulate how your initial ideas and intentions have been formed and developed, and how you have assimilated technical skills, chosen media and ideas to develop your work further when using the required number of art-making forms from the art-making forms table. At the highest level of achievement, the work clearly articulates how initial ideas and intentions have been formed and developed. The work effectively communicates how technical skills, media and ideas have been assimilated to develop the work further.	Concept maps of ideas and themes Planning imagery with annotations considering how meaning might be conveyed through the work Reflections and evaluations made throughout the progress of a work, resulting in changes in direction or imagery or technique
D	Reviewing, refining and reflecting (in both visual and written forms)	6	the ability to review and refine selected ideas, skills, processes and techniques, and to reflect on the acquisition of skills and your development as a visual artist. At the highest level of achievement, the work demonstrates a highly effective and consistent process of reviewing and refining ideas, skills, processes and techniques. The work presents a meaningful and assured reflection upon the acquisition of skills and analysis of your development as an artist.	Various trials of compositional arrangements Reworking imagery employing different techniques or media Reflections and evaluations made throughout the progress of a work, resulting in changes in direction or imagery or technique Evaluations of completed work generating new ideas
E	Presentation and subject-specific language	4	information that is conveyed clearly and coherently in a visually appropriate and legible manner, supported by the consistent use of appropriate subject-specific language. At the highest level of achievement, the work clearly and coherently conveys information, which results in visually appropriate, legible and engaging work. Subject-specific language is used accurately and appropriately throughout.	Balance of text and visuals Writing is legible Layout is considered Language is appropriate. Appropriate terminology is used. Artists’ names and movements are spelled correctly.

Possible structure

Approaches to the process portfolio will be as varied as the art-making practices that different students undertake. What is essential is that your process portfolio articulates the artistic journey that you have undertaken over the two-year course while best representing your achievement against the marking criteria.

The submission may come from scanned pages from your visual arts journal, other notebooks or sketchbooks. It might come from photographs or digital files or a combination. The process portfolio screens may take a variety of forms, such as sketches, images, digital drawings, photographs or text.

The selected screens should evidence a sustained inquiry into the techniques that you have used for making art, the way in which you have experimented, explored, manipulated and refined materials, technologies and techniques and how you have applied these to your developing work. You should show where you have made independent decisions about the choices of media, form and purpose that are appropriate to your artistic intentions. The portfolio should communicate your investigation, your development of ideas and artworks and evidence the synthesis of ideas and media. Your process will have inevitably resulted in both resolved and unresolved artworks and you should consider your successes and failures as equally valuable learning experiences, worthy of including in your process portfolio.

You must not include work submitted as a part of the exhibition task in your process portfolio.

Further advice for students

• While there is no limit to the number of items you may wish to include on each screen, overcrowded or illegible materials may result in examiners being unable to interpret and understand your intentions.
• If scanning pages from your visual arts journal, other notebooks or sketchbooks for inclusion in your process portfolio, set the scanner to scan at a resolution of 72 pixels per inch in red, green, blue (RGB) colour mode. This matches the screens of most computers used by examiners to view works and will keep your submission to a manageable size.
• If using digital photographs or other digital images in your process portfolio, use image editing software to save the images in RGB colour mode at 72 pixels per inch (use the “save for web and devices” found on most digital image editing software) with a minimum width of 1,000 pixels to a maximum width of 1,500 pixels.
• Consider adopting a horizontal format for your screens, as this will best fit the screens used to examine the work and will minimize the need for scrolling to view each screen.
• If you compile your screens for the process portfolio using a slide presentation software such as Microsoft’s PowerPoint^®, Apple’s Keynote^® or Prezi Pro^™, avoid using animations within slides and animated transitions between slides that may be lost when the file is converted, or may be missed if a moderator advances through your presentation prematurely.
• Check your grammar and spelling, paying particular attention to the spelling of artists’ names and subject-specific terminology.