past Clara Lieu, Adjunct Professor at RISD & Partner at Artprof.org

Preparing a portfolio for college admission is not a casual undertaking, information technology's very common for high school students to underestimate how much time and labor is involved.  For most students it takes several months, even up to a year to create a body of work that is rigorous enough for the competitive art school and higher admissions process.

If yous can maintain a prodigious level of production, the quality of your piece of work will progress tremendously and yous'll have many more pieces to choose from. Even of the portfolio requirements state that you simply need xv pieces, this ways you lot should aim to create betwixt 20-30 pieces. Not just will your piece of work improve from more experience, only you lot'll be able to weed out the weaker pieces and emphasize only your best work.

2020 update
Artprof.org has a complimentary Complete Art School Portfolios Guide, which is a greatly expanded version of this article. Watch videos of art school students giving tips, see examples of student portfolios, and much more!

Every school is going to have their ain unique set of requirements, and then be certain that you check each schoolhouse's guidelines offset. I recommend re-reading the guidelines multiple times as y'all're working on your portfolio to be certain at every stage that you are post-obit their precise requirements.

On summit of that, remember that several fine art schools and college also require that students create a few artworks specifically for their application on meridian of the portfolio. You lot'll need to set bated fourth dimension to work on these specific assignments in addition to creating the entire portfolio. The tips I offer below are basic essentials that should utilize to most schools.

1) Create original piece of work from directly ascertainment.

This is easily down the number one, absolutely essential thing to do that essentially all high school students fail to practice. This problem is so prominent, that drawing from direct observation is now the rare exception amongst high schoolhouse art students. Only doing this i directive will distinguish your piece of work from the crowd, and put you low-cal years ahead of other students.

It is easy to come across why students have only learned to draw from photographs: photographs are much more convenient, and y'all don't take to work equally hard to get half decent results. Nevertheless, cartoon is non about turning yourself into a human being xerox auto and trying to create a perfect replication of a photograph.

There is nothing artistic or creative about copying a photograph, it's only a sterile, mechanical process that is tedious and boring to look at. On top of that, nigh students will download a poor photograph off the Internet, so the photograph isn't even ane that they shot themselves.

In addition to making poor portfolio pieces, drawing from photographs causes students to develop terrible drawing habits that will be difficult to go rid of later.  The higher freshmen I teach at RISD who haven't drawn from life before take a very tough fourth dimension making the transition in higher because their cartoon habits are and so bad.

Read this commodity I wrote about the importance of drawing from straight observation, and about the bad drawing habits that develop as a result of drawing exclusively from photographs.

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Many students complain that if they don't describe from photographs, "at that place's nil to draw," which I observe impossible to believe.  Self-Portraits drawn from a mirror are a good option if you want to depict faces, you tin can ready a even so life of objects easily, and interior spaces and landscapes are everywhere.

Drawing from lifeis merely tedious if y'all decide it'south going to be boring, there'south an entire world of exciting subjects to observe.  The French Impressionist painter Claude Monet fabricated hay stacks exciting to pigment. Personally, I tin can't retrieve of a subject that sounds more than wearisome to pigment, and yet he saw cute light and color in those hay stacks and created extraordinary paintings.

Be the exception and do non copy your work from photographs or other sources. This ways no fan art, no anime, no manga, no glory portraits, nothing from another creative person'due south piece of work.

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The student did this charcoal drawing above, completed the drawing by setting upward a chair in a dynamic position then bundled shoes throughout the scene to create a lively composition. He took the self-initiative to construct a set up that would be visually exciting to describe from. Accept the time to create subjects that you lot're engaged in, you won't always stumble on an interesting scene to draw, sometimes y'all have to accept the initiative to create information technology yourself.

Beneath is a drawing in color video tutorial that demonstrates from beginning to cease, how to draw a still life from straight observation using Caran d'Ache crayons.

2) Have a variety of subject matter.

This demonstrates your willingness and interest to work with different bailiwick matter. Figures, cocky-portraits, even so lifes, landscapes, interiors, are all excellent subjects to address in your portfolio.  Admissions officers don't want to run into a portfolio of twenty cocky-portraits.  A portfolio with only i topic comes beyond as narrow minded and limited.

Students are always request me how much they are expected to show works that are related to their intended major. Nearly art schools will not expect yous to already have expertise in the field you are planning on majoring in during higher.

For example, if you desire to major in Graphic Design, your portfolio should not be 20 graphic design pieces. You can certainly include perhaps 1-2 graphic design pieces if you take them, but overall you should focus on showing that you have a wide, well rounded skill set.

Self-Portrait from Life, video class on Artprof.org

3) Demonstrate brainstorming, thinking, & ideas.

Keep in mind that Admissions officers are looking to see much more in your portfolio than several classroom exercises; they desire to run into that yous are able to limited an opinion, a narrative, a mood, an emotion, maybe a political argument even, etc.-whatever information technology is that you want your artwork to communicate.

Prove in your pieces that you lot are engaging with your subject field matter beyond just beingness visual eye candy. Create several pieces for your portfolio that testify that y'all are thinking most your discipline matter, and brainstorming ideas for your pieces.

If you're looking for ideas for subject area affair, check out our Monthly Fine art Dares, (watch video above) where every month we offer a new fine art challenge for you to create. You can win tons of fine art supplies too as prizes!

2020 update
Artprof.org has a gratis Complete Art School Portfolios Guide, which is a greatly expanded version of this article. Watch videos of art school students giving tips, run across examples of student portfolios, and much more!

This video tutorial on Digital Analogy below demonstrates how to find an idea, develop it, shoot your own reference photos, and and then to finally transition into the final piece.

Below is a video tutorial that demonstrate the brainstorming procedure footstep by step, working with the prompt  "Your Future Self."

This video tutorial beneath shows the techniques for creating multi-colour linoleum block prints, and shows how to brainstorm to create an editorial illustration based on a newspaper article.

4) The vast majority of your portfolio should be finished artworks that are neatly presented.

Unless the school specifically requests to come across images from a sketchbook, presume that they want to see finished artworks. It would exist find to include ane epitome or 2 of a sketchbook that demonstrates your thinking, sketching, and brainstorming procedure, simply probably no more than that. Be certain that everything else in your portfolio is a work that has been 100% fully realized.

This means no white backgrounds, no dirty fingerprints, no random sketchbook drawings, no ripped edges, no half finished figures, etc. This charcoal cartoon beneath by i of my students has some good qualities, but the student completely neglected to extend the drawing to the edge of the paper, making for a sloppy and unfinished presentation.

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The quintessential problem I see in artwork by high school students is non bringing a piece of a full finish.  Many portfolio pieces I see past high school students are only about fifty% finished, and have big problems like glaringly empty backgrounds and lack detail.

The majority of students cease working on their projects prematurely, which leads to works that are unresolved.  Read this article for more than on how to bring your artwork to completion, and watch this video for techniques to determine when an artwork is finished.

v) Demonstrate versatility in a range of different media.

This exhibits that you lot have taken the initiative to learn and strop skills in contrasting media.  Information technology shows that you accept more one skill set up, and can movement fluidly from 1 media into the side by side. Include drawings, paintings, sculptures, mixed media, digital media, printmaking, or anything else that you've had experience with.

Make sure that you have both blackness and white pieces also equally works that display a full range of color. The color pieces you lot show in a portfolio should demonstrate that you can utilize colour in different capacities.  Y'all tin can include some monochromatic pieces, some pieces that take a more than subdued color palette, or a pieces that use highly intense, saturated colors.

Artworks in 3D media tin really make your portfolio stand out.  Most students have very niggling (if any) feel with 3D media and so make an effort to do so if it'south within your ways. Below is a simple portrait sculpting video tutorial using air dry dirt.

If you're looking for a manner to include color in your portfolio, only don't have the resource or experience to exercise acrylic or oil painting, (acrylic and oil painting can get plush, and if y'all don't take the proper training, both mediums can be excessively difficult to learn on your own)

I recommend doing drawings in soft pastel or Caran d'Ache crayons. The best brand of soft pastels is Rembrandt, but be aware that this brand is expensive. A more affordable brand that has decent quality for chalk pastels is NuPastel. Personally, I'1000 not a fan of Alphacolor'due south soft pastels, they are too powdery and tough to layer.

Make sure with soft pastel drawings that you're using a neutral colored pastel/charcoal paper, white paper is nightmare to draw on for soft pastels. For Caran d'Anguish crayons, I recommend drawing on black or neutral colored mat lath.

6) Potent drawings are critical.

Accomplished drawings are the heart of a successful portfolio when applying at the undergraduate level. You lot might accept 15 digital paintings, but none of that will thing if yous have poor drawings.  In terms of drawing media, the vast majority of loftier schoolhouse students are creating tight, conservative, photograph realistic pencil drawings fatigued from photographs.

Drawing is not about simply copying a photograph as accurately as possible; nosotros at present accept cameras that tin can exercise this instantly with incredibly precision and quality. Ask yourself what you tin can express with your drawing that a camera would not exist capable of producing past itself.

This charcoal drawing tutorial I did shows the unabridged process of creating a portrait cartoon in charcoal from start to finish.

Charcoal Drawing & Cross-Hatching, video tutorial

Instead of limiting yourself to merely cartoon with pencil, experiment with other drawing materials such as charcoal,conte crayon, soft pastels, Caran d'Ache crayons, india ink, oil pastels, markers, etc.

Charcoal in particular is a great cartoon material because it motivates students to develop an arroyo to cartoon that is bolder and more physically engaging. Merely using these drawing materials volition distinguish you from the other student portfolios, and will inspire you lot to experiment with drawing in a bolder and looser mode.

This student charcoal drawing below was fatigued past straight observing an artichoke, and and so repeating the artichoke multiple times throughout the composition by drawing it from different points of view.

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Read this article I wrote for how to practice cartoon, and this other article I wrote for how what kind of mindset and approach is necessary for drawing. If you don't have access to rigorous art classes at your school, a adept option would be to watch our free video tutorials on artprof.org.

2020 update
Artprof.org has a free Complete Art School Portfolios Guide, which is a greatly expanded version of this article. Watch videos of art school students giving tips, see examples of student portfolios, and much more!

7) Have first-class photographs of your artwork.

Ane of my colleagues once said to me "Equally artists, we live and dice past our photographs."  In a portfolio state of affairs, this could not exist more than truthful. A poor photograph of your artwork is hugely distracting and tin can actually make or break an admission officeholder'southward initial reaction to the piece of work.

A quality photograph of your artwork will have 1) fifty-fifty lighting, 2) exist neatly cropped in Photoshop, 3) be appropriately color counterbalanced, 4) be in focus, 5) taken on a DSLR digital photographic camera. Smart phones today have fantabulous quality cameras that are probably acceptable, but nothing beats the quality of a DSLR camera.

The student collage seen beneath has all of the requirements for an excellent photograph.

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Ideally, it'due south best to hire a professional lensman to shoot your photographs, but that is astronomically expensive.  You tin can do it yourself by investing some standard photography equipment. Purchase a kit with 2 stand lights with umbrellas, with photograph flood bulbs that are 250 watts to 500 watts each.

These lighting kits aren't super cheap, but regular incandescent and florescent lighting is not sufficient to produce high quality photographs. Regular lights will not produce the color accurately, and you will not become good focus because the lights are not brilliant enough.

Set up the two stand lights so that there is ane on the left, and one of the right, with your artwork on the wall in between the lights.  Having the lights directed from the left and correct of the artwork creates lighting that will move evenly across the artwork.

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Three-dimensional artwork is peculiarly difficult to photograph well, and are the nigh problematic photographs for most students.  First, get a wide roll of newspaper that is a neutral color.  (don't use fabric, fabric wrinkles too easily and therefore your background won't be smooth and clean)

Depending on the colors in your sculpture, choose either white, grey, brown, or black to create dissimilarity and so that the sculpture is visible confronting the dorsum drib.  In the case of the student sculpture below, the white background is a poor option considering the sculpture is besides white.  Therefore, the photograph lacks contrast and the sculpture is hard to see.

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In this photograph below, the grey background allows the white sculpture to be much more visible.  Additionally, the shadows are much darker and the contrast of the overall photograph is much crisper and stronger.

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Tape the top of the paper roll to a board behind the artwork, so gently pull down the paper scroll so that information technology falls on the surface of the table.  Tape the paper to the table so that information technology is secure as you photograph.

The roll of newspaper provides a smooth, clean, peachy groundwork for the sculpture to sit on. Too ofttimes students shoot photographs of 3-D piece of work with distracting backgrounds.  A chronic problem is placing the sculpture on a table against a wall, creating an ugly horizon line betwixt the table and the wall which looks terrible.

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Employ natural light from a window if yous can to light the sculpture, this will create soft shadows to articulate your piece well. If you don't accept a window bachelor, use one of the stand lights from the lighting kit with a lighting umbrella to create a shadows that are more diffused and soft.  When the shadows are likewise harsh, they can make your sculpture look flat and they will lose their sense of volume in the photograph.

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Avoid these problems: 1) uneven lighting where cast shadows visible, ii) glare on oil paintings, 3) have distracting background behind the artwork, 4) have inaccurate color, five) be out of focus, 6) taken on a smart phone.

Get aid from an art instructor

Creating a portfolio should non exist an attempt that y'all have to do entirely on your ain. Think near it this style, would an aspiring concert pianist who is trying to get into Julliard try to figure out how to play a Rachmaninoff piano concerto on their own with no piano instructor?

Visual arts is no different from whatever other field, you lot take to get an exterior opinion to improve.  Take the initiative to get a critique to an art instructor whose opinion you trust to become a thorough portfolio critique.

Or even ameliorate, ask a professional artist, or a an art professor who has experience helping students become into an undergraduate programme. Picket the video below to become a sense of what a professional art critique involves, and what to expect.

An art teacher can assist you in weeding out the weaker works, and provide invaluable communication about what direction to head in. Don't rely simply on yourself (or family unit members) to make decisions almost what works go into your portfolio. In that location are techniques you can utilise to self-critique, merely that will only accept you so far and is very limited in effectiveness.

All fine art students and professional artists go stuck in their heads when looking at their ain artwork, and oft they aren't able to make audio decisions. Another eye will provide a fresh perspective and objectivity to the evaluation process.

Purchase a portfolio critique on Artprof.org

If you don't take an art instructor who tin can aid you lot with your portfolio, you might consider purchasing a 30 min. portfolio critique from Artprof.org.

Another option is to take a weekend or night class at a local fine art school, museum, or art center. The instructor at i of those classes might exist able to aid you with your portfolio.

Unfortunately, course offerings for high schoolhouse students in the visual arts are terribly meager, then y'all might actually do better and have many more than options looking at adult continuing education courses aimed at a specific medium y'all're looking to improve in, such as drawing.

Beneath are 2 video critiques I did featuring art schoolhouse portfolios by high school students Andy Wei and Becca Krauss, you can watch many more than portfolio critiques here in our Consummate Art School Portfolios Guide.

Many art schools and colleges too offer summer courses at the college level, and yous might consider attention a residential pre-college program at an art school like the 6 week RISD Pre-College program.

You tin read about my ain experience teaching at and attending RISD Pre-College back in 1993 hither. For every high schoolhouse student, trying to practice prepare a portfolio entirely on their own is daunting, and having the structure of  a class or summer program tin can exist enormously useful to stay on track.

National Portfolio Day

Finally, the real test of the strength of your portfolio is attending a local National Portfolio Day event, where representatives from art schools and colleges with solid fine art programs across the country are bachelor to critique your portfolio in person.

Hear about the ups and downs of attending National Portfolio day from the Art Prof staff below, and read much more virtually the experience in our Complete Art School Portfolios Guide.

If you're really serious about being accepted into a high caliber undergraduate art program, this is the result to go to. I recommend going in the fall of your inferior year, simply to get a experience for things, and and then once more in the fall of your senior twelvemonth. Watch the video beneath for what an art critique can be like:

Be prepare for very long lines and huge crowds, especially at the big proper noun schools like RISD. The get-go year that I went as a inferior in high school, despite having waited 2 hours in line, I didn't even get a review from RISD because the line was then obscenely long that at a certain point they simply turned people away.

The 2d year I went, having learned my lesson the year before, I went to wait in line for the doors to open two hours in advance. I was the first person in when the doors opened, and raced immediately to the RISD tabular array.

At this event, brace yourself for harsh words.  It'due south not uncommon for students to be told at National Portfolio Day that they essentially have to start over from scratch because their portfolio is headed in the wrong management.

Reviewers volition exist candid and direct well-nigh the quality and type of work that their school is looking for, so don't be discouraged if you lot go a tough critique. Rather, be glad that you lot got the feedback you needed to get yourself headed in the right direction.

Be prepared for a broad range of dissimilar opinions, and critiquing styles.  Some reviewers are physical and helpful, while others can be less and then. This post I wrote talks nearly tips for how to present your portfolio, and how to collaborate with admissions officers at the event.

Many students don't know how to present/prepare their artwork in a way that is practical at an issue similar this, and surprisingly, some students can be rude to the admissions officers who are reviewing their portfolios which never serves yous well.

Keep in heed that a portfolio review from whatever school is valuable, specially the ones that are critical and offer feedback and how to improve. Information technology'south not always fun to hear your artwork criticized, but remember that you're not at National Portfolio Day to have your ego massaged.

You're there to figure out what yous tin practise to improve portfolio, and run across how your portfolio will hold upwardly in the competitive higher admissions process.

2020 update
Artprof.org has a free Complete Fine art School Portfolios Guide, which is a greatly expanded version of this article. Watch videos of art school students giving tips, see examples of educatee portfolios, and much more!

Need more than aid? Take more than questions?  Contact us at Artprof.org, nosotros are happy to help!

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