AP Art
Build a cohesive AP Art portfolio with the techniques, concepts and critique practice needed to score high and stand out.
Three AP Art & Design courses
The College Board offers three separate AP Art & Design portfolio courses. Choose the one that fits your work — we coach you to a high score.
AP 2-D Art & Design
Two-dimensional design — graphic design, digital, photo, printmaking, illustration.
- Sustained Investigation: 15 images — works, process, experimentation and revision
- Selected Works: 5 works shown in 5 images
AP Drawing
Drawing as a discipline — mark-making, line, surface, space, light and shade.
- Sustained Investigation: 15 images — works, process, experimentation and revision
- Selected Works: 5 works shown in 5 images
AP 3-D Art & Design
Three-dimensional design — sculpture, ceramics, models, fibre, installation.
- Sustained Investigation: 15 images — works, process, experimentation and revision
- Selected Works: 5 works shown in 10 images (2 views of each)
One year is the recommended timeline
An AP portfolio rewards sustained work. The 15 Sustained Investigation images must genuinely show a year of practice, experimentation and revision — so we plan the full year around it.
Optional: the credited path
If you want it, you can take this as the credited path — the AP course counts as a high-school course taken with us at NPC, rather than just after-school portfolio coaching. Ask about it when you enquire.
What we teach: a high score
We teach directly against the College Board rubric — skills, inquiry, process documentation, the required written responses and submission standards — with mock scoring before you submit.
AP Art & Design has no written exam — the score (1–5) comes entirely from the digitally submitted portfolio. Enrolment starts with a portfolio assessment and is by enquiry only.
Why students choose NPC
Portfolio prep is crowded. What is rare is a twenty-year record of actual offers, and mentors who have done the job.
20+ years and 3000+ graduates
Offers from Sheridan, CalArts, RISD, Cornell, Parsons, ArtCenter and 30+ partner schools — with $50M+ in scholarships awarded.
Mentors from the industry
Taught by artists with experience at Disney, Netflix, Pixar and Apple — people who know what a portfolio has to survive.
Fundamentals first, always
Admissions committees reject weak drawing before they ever reach your concept. We build observation, perspective, value and colour before specializing.
Built to each school’s requirements
CSM, Parsons, RISD and Sheridan all ask for different things. We build to the schools you are actually applying to — not a generic portfolio.