Art Portfolio Help

KniightDoktor 2017-08-04 04:51:02 UTC #1

It's kind of stupid I suppose that I'm I was an AP Studio Art Person that built a portfolio to send off for scoring but...

Does anyone know the best way to try and build an art portfolio?

I'm going for illustration mostly.
My strong points are mostly Watercolor, Ink, Pen,
Markers, and Mixed Media.

I'm looking in to go to college in maybe a few months
around Winter or Spring possibly and I feel like I've wasted time.
I've let myself make excuses and I'm not trying to delay anymore time.

If anyone could help with this, I could use the help.
Just anything for me to attempt and try to see if it works out.

Thank you again.

phen 2017-08-04 05:27:04 UTC #2

For illustration, as with most art portfolio submissions to colleges, you'll do great to show off your strongest bodies of work. Consistency is often far more valuable than variety -- you want to present a coherent display of your skills and your aptitude. It's awesome that you have quite a few traditional methods under your belt already. You'll want to impress with distinctive pieces in illustration. If you've completed a series of illustrations that connect to one another via common theme or study structure, definitely include them as a whole.

Pick pieces that individually best highlight how you understand ranges of value, space, and composition. You can support the meat of your portfolio review by including bold, strong "story" pieces such as those you might compose for a thinkpiece article or art challenge.

In my experience (I've submitted to 3 different colleges), portfolios are first scored based on voice and aptitude over technical expertise -- so don't get too hung up on including work that's technically sound. You're not trying to apply as an already tenured/seasoned illustrator (otherwise you wouldn't need to attend college), but you're trying to show that you have a unique vision and an interest in expressing and expanding upon that vision.

heterodont 2017-08-04 05:31:41 UTC #3

You should be able to build a portfolio in time for college applications, however there's no 'general' portfolio you can make that can apply to any college. Do you already have pieces that you're having trouble figuring out which are portfolio worthy or do you want to make new pieces?

A lot of them have specifications as to what they want to see in the portfolio, A college like Calarts are looking for different things in a portfolio than say, RISD. Mine wanted to see at least 25 drawings from life, 5 personal drawings, and so on. This is so the college knows what potential you have and whether or not you'd be a great fit for the program. That is to say, there are colleges that don't require a portfolio upon applying. Some only require it if you want to apply for scholarships.

Just figure out what colleges you want to try to apply to, look at the accepted portfolios, and if it's nearby - you you can ask to set up an appointment with a counselor so they can help you prepare a portfolio that can give you a great chance into getting into the school. There's also things like National Portfolio Day that you can bring your portfolio to representatives of the colleges themselves and they can tell you what you're missing, what to work on, and so on.

Kayke 2017-08-04 15:07:34 UTC #4

You should definitely look at the specific requirements for the schools you're looking into. I know when I was applying to SVA (this is a while ago so I hope they've given this up by now) but they wanted photographic slides of my portfolio... luckily my high school had a space set up to photograph art work and one of the teachers helped because I had never used a film camera before. Not to mention, I'm lucky we had a photo shop in town that could make the film into slides. Then I had to go into the city and hand deliver them... which was also a pain. So make sure the schools you want to go to aren't asking for really specific stuff like slides or a completed sketchbook or whatever!

Other than thaaat, I think it's good to show a range. I know I brought some of my traditional stuff (still lives, paintings, whatever) that I did for my AP art class and also some figure drawings from a summer program I took at SVA... but I think what really sealed the deal was my more original stuff. I was applying for the illustration major at Uarts and I remember we spent a lot of time focusing on the pieces I brought that showed more of my style and storytelling. I knew I wanted to do comics, so I had also brought some character design and sequential pieces with me.