IB Visual Arts Tutoring, SL and HL
IB Visual Arts has no written exam, but that does not make it lighter: every task is a curated digital submission in which the student must show, through images and precise writing, how their art-making developed as inquiry. Under the guide first assessed in 2027, students must also situate their own work in context and in dialogue with other artists.
Short answer
IB Visual Arts is offered online, one-to-one.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 95 per lesson; lessons are booked singly or in packages.
IB group classes are private groups of three or more friends, who agree the start date with us.
From USD 95 per lesson
- SL and HL assessment from the IB’s own subject brief
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 95 per lesson
How IB Visual Arts is assessed
External papers set and marked by the IB, and an internal assessment marked by your teacher and moderated by the IB. Standard Level and Higher Level differ in length, weighting and, at HL, in the extra paper or component. Figures are from the IB’s own subject brief, linked below.
International Baccalaureate
IB Diploma Programme · Visual Arts · subject brief, first assessment 2027
| Component | SL: weight and length | HL: weight and length | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art-making inquiries portfolio | 40% | 30% | Curated visual evidence and critical reflection on the student’s art-making as inquiry: up to 15 screens, at most 3,000 words. |
| Connections study (SL only) | 20% | SL only | Situating one of the student’s resolved artworks in context. |
| Artist project (HL only) | HL only | 30% | A stand-alone project in which the student creates and contextualises an artwork, informed by at least two artworks by other artists. |
| Internal assessment | 40% | 40% | A coherent body of work: five resolved artworks, with requirements that differ between SL and HL. |
Checked on 24 September 2026
Paper names are the IB’s own. Internal assessment time is the teaching time the IB allocates to it, not an exam.
The IB Visual Arts syllabus
Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper and in the mark scheme.
The three strands
Create · Connect · Communicate
Practice
Art-making forms and creative strategies · Lines of inquiry · Critical reflection
Where IB Visual Arts marks are usually lost
Process recorded too late to curate
The portfolio asks for curated visual evidence of the student’s investigations, discoveries and creations, supported by critical reflection. Students who make strong work but document little end up reconstructing their process in the final weeks, with gaps that show. Photographing work at each stage, keeping the visual arts journal active and noting why each change was made gives the student real material to select from when deadlines arrive.
Artist research that never reaches the work
Students often include pages on artists they admire, with biographies and images, but no visible effect on their own art-making. The course asks students to connect with other artists’ work and to consider context and cultural significance. The useful question is what a particular artwork does that the student can test, adapt or argue against, and where that shows in the student’s own pieces.
Best pieces that share no thread
The internal assessment asks for a coherent body of resolved artworks, supported by a rationale explaining the student’s intentions and choices. A set of individually strong pieces in unrelated styles and themes struggles to show that coherence. Students need a line of inquiry that develops across the works, so the selection reads as one practice, and a rationale that explains how concept and form come together.
The IB Visual Arts internal assessment
The internal assessment asks for a coherent body of resolved artworks, with a rationale explaining the student’s artistic intentions and the choices behind the work. It is marked by the teacher and moderated by the IB at the end of the course. At HL, the student also explains how the final works were selected from a wider production and writes short texts placing each one in a wider artistic context. A tutor helps the student reflect on coherence, plan the selection, and write a rationale and texts that stay clear and specific about the work itself.
A tutor can explain the criteria, question a draft and point to what is weak. The research, the writing and every decision in it stay the student’s own, as the awarding body’s rules require.
How we teach IB Visual Arts
A tutor works alongside the student’s studio practice and does not replace the art teacher. Sessions start from recent work and journal pages: what the student intended, what the piece actually does and what to try next, so that critical reflection becomes a habit rather than a final task. The tutor helps frame inquiry questions or generative statements, find artists from different times and contexts — African artists among them — whose work connects with the student’s concerns, and analyse those works precisely. Later sessions turn to curation: choosing the strongest evidence, sequencing screens and writing concise commentary in the vocabulary the criteria use. Deadlines are mapped early, because every task is submitted digitally at the end of the course.
There is no separate diagnostic, because there is no single test that stands in for two years of a school syllabus. The first lesson is the assessment: the tutor works through your recent marked work, past-paper questions from your own specification, and the units your school has already covered, and reads current level, gaps, exam technique and where school work stands. It is a normal paid lesson and it teaches as it assesses.
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IB prices
IB tutoring from USD 95 per 90-minute lesson. Compare lesson packages and included materials.
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