Educerie · IB Diploma · Visual Arts

Task 1 — Portfolio checklist

Run this at the end of each term. Every "no" is a fixable problem while there is still time, and an unfixable one at the end of the course.

The inquiry

• [ ] My inquiry is stated as a question, not a topic.
• [ ] The question names something I could be wrong about.
• [ ] It can be investigated by making, not only by reading.
• [ ] There is a dated entry where the inquiry changed, with the making that caused the change.
• [ ] The current version of the question is stated somewhere an assessor will find it.

Evidence of process

• [ ] Every entry is dated.
• [ ] Entries are spread across the whole course, not concentrated in one period.
• [ ] There is no gap longer than about three weeks.
• [ ] Work in progress is photographed, not only finished states.
• [ ] Dimensions or an object for scale are given for substantial pieces.

Experiments

• [ ] Each experiment states what was being tested.
• [ ] Each states what actually happened, described rather than judged.
• [ ] At least a quarter of documented experiments were unsuccessful.
• [ ] Each failure is followed by a stated next action.
• [ ] At least one experiment isolates a single variable, holding everything else constant.

Influences and research

• [ ] Influences are named works, not movements or bare artist names.
• [ ] For each, I state the one specific quality I was interested in.
• [ ] For each, I report what happened when I tested it on my own subject.
• [ ] At least one influence did not transfer, and I say why.
• [ ] Non-art sources are included where relevant.

Technical development

• [ ] The same technique appears early and late, so growth is visible.
• [ ] Technical problems are named specifically, not as "it went wrong".
• [ ] Solutions are recorded in enough detail to be repeatable.

Reflection

• [ ] Reflection was written at the time, not retrospectively.
• [ ] Every reflective entry ends in a decision.
• [ ] No entry consists only of evaluation ("I like this", "this is my best").
• [ ] At least one entry records an expectation that was defeated.

Connection to the resolved works

• [ ] For each resolved artwork, I can point to the portfolio pages it came from.
• [ ] There is at least one entry explicitly linking the inquiry's finding to a resolved piece.
• [ ] The resolved works read as a coherent body — connected by question, method or material.

Academic integrity

• [ ] All source images are acknowledged.
• [ ] Any appropriated imagery is transformed, and the transformation is discussed.
• [ ] Nothing is backdated.
• [ ] All work is my own, and collaborative work is identified as such.

If you can only fix one thing: find the last three weeks in which you made something and wrote nothing, and write those entries now — honestly, as reconstruction, dated today and labelled as such. Then start the fifteen-minutes-per-session habit. The habit is worth more than any single improvement you could make to the portfolio you already have.

Educerie · written from the published IB Diploma Programme structure for Visual Arts, Task 1, first assessment 2027. Original text. Last reviewed 5 September 2026.