Preparing your Art Portfolio

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Are you thinking about studying art or art education in college? Have you started to think about what it looks like to put together a portfolio that represents you and your work?

While this does vary some from college to college the checklist below will help you start the process.

Art Portfolio Basics

Your portfolio should consist of 10-15 recent ( hopefully within the last year or two), original artworks that demonstrate your interests and abilities over a range of media and subject matter. ( Original means that the work shouldn’t be copied, and of course, it should be created by you and you alone)

You should have at least 3 drawings that you completed from observation. Some colleges will require these and others won’t, so it’s good to have them to add in as needed.

What is Direct Observation?

Direct observation means that you sat down, looked directly at the real object, and drew it.

What does it mean to explore media in art?

When you’re exploring media, you want to demonstrate that you know how to use more than one material. This is also a place to highlight how you’re able to create connections between the materials that you select and the message that you hope to convey.

  • Below is a list of media to help give you some ideas.
  • gouache
  • colored pencil
  • mixed media
  • pen and ink
  • watercolor
  • crayon
  • marker
  • pen
  • pencil
  • acrylic paint
  • oil paint

Composition

You’ll want to demonstrate a range in the type of compositions that you include in your portfolio. The composition refers to how you choose to organize each element that you put into a finished work of art. Review your work and look for the following indicators that you may need to create a few new pieces with different compositions.

  1. Do you always have the subject in the center of the page or near the center of the page? If yes, challenge yourself to create a few pieces where you decentralize the subject.
  2. Do you always create compositions that appear flat? If yes, challenge yourself to create a few works that imply depth. You can imply depth by doing things like using perspecitve and overlap.
  3. Do your compositions always only have 1 figure ( by figure it could be a person, animal, ect). If yes, challenge yourself to create a group of figures that interact.

Organize

Now it’s time to organize your work. You can place the pieces in the order that they were created, but you don’t have to, and that’s not always the best choice.

  1. Consider organizing your work in the way that best demonstrates growth over time.
  2. Consider organizing your work in a way that tells an interesting story.

If you’re still feeling unsure about your portfolio, ask others for feedback.