When looking for info on ranking up exploration mastery quickly I only found 2 tips:
1) stand somewhere and sketch something repeatedly
2) run around with awakening of light
Depending on awakening is just silly because of the long cooldown, you'll also be de-ranking it down to F if you go all the way.
Standing around and sketching, waiting for cooldown, is a waste of time.
So find a series of ruins you can go in circles around using l-rod, and sketch whenever possible. Went from rank F to 1 in an afternoon using this method and some pay2win (can be done easily without pay2win just takes longer).
I used this spot in maize prairie, might be other spots so find them yourself.
[video=youtube;Joc-sMfjF7M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joc-sMfjF7M[/video]
The concept is to find a spot with enough statues in a row that you can loop through them endlessly, and sketch when the cooldown is done.