Should I Submit Digital Art to Colleges for Art Portfolio

Applying to art school isn't just virtually putting your favorite paintings from high school into a leather tote pocketbook and sending information technology off. Preparing an application for art and blueprint programs is a meticulous and exhaustive process that takes months, even years, to get right.

When it comes to art schoolhouse, everything starts with creating an art portfolio.

What is an fine art portfolio?

An art school portfolio is a collection of work that represents your abilities, interests, creativity, and overall development as an artist. Whether you're a painter, illustrator, sculptor, photographer, videographer, graphic designer, or a bit of each, impressing your dream schools requires forethought, a disquisitional middle, and the willingness to share work that's personal.

Although near art and design institutions evaluate a range of materials—from personal statements, to written tests, to interviews—the portfolio is an indispensable window into your potential and intentions as a pupil and creative person.

"The nearly solid portfolios nosotros receive really show a personal, direct, and informed presentation of the applicant'due south piece of work, with full knowledge of the program and a passionate, focused reason for why they're applying to our program specifically," says comics artist Nathan Pull a fast one on, who is Chair of the Visual Narrative MFA program at New York's School of Visual Arts.

There are many crucial steps when deciding how to create an artist portfolio that is effective and impactful. It might seem overwhelming at first, but incorporating the following eleven principles into your procedure early can mean the departure betwixt an acceptable fine art school application and an outstanding one.

Fine art School Portfolio Training: 10 Principles

Start building your fine art portfolio early
Get familiar with the art school programs you're applying to
Create original work for your fine art portfolio
Experiment with your fine art portfolio
Include artwork that highlights your strengths
Consider works-in-progress to your art portfolio
Portfolio curation is everything for higher portfolios
Finer certificate your art portfolio work
Attend National Portfolio Solar day
Think about the big picture beyond your portfolio

1. Starting time building your art portfolio early

If you're considering applying to art school, it's essential to outset thinking about which media excite you, what your strengths as an artist are, and which programs you lot're interested in. Y'all should brainstorm preparing your application immediately, and the all-time way to start is to get in touch with previous fine art students and artists who've been through the program.

"Creating a portfolio should not be an effort that you accept to brand entirely on your own," writes Rhode Island School of Design professor Clara Lieu on her blog, Art Prof. "Visual arts is no different from any other field—you accept to get an outside opinion to improve. Take the initiative to become a thorough portfolio critique from an art teacher whose opinion you trust, a professional artist, or an art professor who has experience helping students get into undergraduate programs."

Getting feedback on your artwork from a diverseness of mentors is vital considering everybody has different ideas about what constitutes expert art and what volition impress fine art schools.

"Knowing what people's sympathies are and what kind of work they're used to looking at is of import for understanding the implications of their critiques," says Brandon Geib, a graphic designer who recently graduated from Virginia Commonwealth Academy. "When I was preparing my portfolio, my high school art teacher looked at one of my pieces and said, 'This is your best work. Yous should put it at the front.' Then an art schoolhouse representative looked at the aforementioned piece and said, 'You could take this out. It doesn't really matter.' I had the same experience vice versa with a different project. So at that place'southward a lot of ambiguity."

Asking several trusted mentors and peers for feedback will go a long fashion to edifice an creative person portfolio that best represents your piece of work. You lot'll want to do this well in accelerate of your submission borderline so you have time to consider changes.

2. Get familiar with the art school programs you're applying to

All art and blueprint programs are dissimilar, and the type of portfolio they want can vary widely. Reading and re-reading application guidelines throughout the process allows you to cater your portfolio to a specific audience and incorporate their private requirements as your ideas progress and your work develops.

"Don't exist afraid to reach out and enquire questions, copyedit your materials, and ask each program what they are looking for in an applicant," says Fox. "I can't tell you how many times I've talked to applicants who realized they could have asked simple questions beforehand that would have helped them in their conclusion making and how they practical."

As well equally contacting professors, explore the specific styles of fine art they teach and produce. "Looking at the work that graduates and kinesthesia are producing not only gives you a adept understanding of the type of piece of work a particular school fosters, it as well helps you figure out whether yous'd like their program," says Geib. "You could realize, 'Okay, this is a loftier-ranked school, only I'g not interested in the work they're doing.'"

This kind of familiarity also gives you lot a sense of the educational and creative community that yous're hoping to bring together. "When an bidder shows that they really researched what we do in our classroom space, our specific projects, and what our alumni are doing, it says that they've taken the time to understand us instead of just reaching for a proper name or a place," explains Erin Stine, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Parsons School of Blueprint.

3. Create original work for your art portfolio

When submitting an art portfolio for college application, schools don't want to see that you are really expert at copying other artists' work. They desire to see that you have your ain exciting ideas, and the ability to realize them. A good way to express your originality is to fill your art portfolio with pieces that are conspicuously unique, whether it's a work of direct ascertainment or a project that displays novel and inventive thinking.

Co-ordinate to Professor Lieu, when submitting a higher art portfolio virtually of the portfolios that high school students submit to RISD lack directly observational piece of work birthday. "This problem is and then prominent that drawing from straight observation is now the rare exception amongst loftier school fine art students. Just doing this 1 directive will distinguish your work from the oversupply, and put you light-years ahead of other students. That ways no fan art, no anime, no manga, no celebrity portraits."

Some other mode to showcase distinctive work is to create subjects that you lot find personal and engaging. "In the all-time-example scenario, a educatee'south portfolio will be a reflection of their personality, what they're excited most, and what they're interested in, and will experience like a visual representation of them," says Stine. "Of form, we want to see stiff technical abilities. Merely we really desire to come across what you lot're interested in making fine art and design about, what issues you're responding to, and how yous're using visual design to explore the globe. We're very open, so the possibilities of what you can submit are quite broad."

While assembling his awarding portfolio for art school, printmaker, illustrator, and installation artist Noah Lawrence never worried almost whether or not evaluators would like his work. "To me it was, 'I believe I tin can do fine art, which is why I'thou applying to this program—here'southward the art that I tin can do,'" says Lawrence, who studied fine arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. "That might have been a bit vain, looking back. I never did whatever enquiry into what portfolios were supposed to look like generally—I just read the program'due south criteria and idea, 'I can exercise this and more.'" Tailoring your college fine art portfolio to the specific criteria of the plan you're applying to can be a practiced fashion to narrow down the piece of work you include.

four. Experiment with your fine art portfolio

Every art and design institution will value detail elements of your portfolio over others. Only that doesn't mean they won't be impressed and excited past something unexpected or unorthodox.

"Within each broad category of art that I featured in my portfolio, like 'photography' or even 'street photography' or 'studio photography,' I tried to get fifty-fifty more specific by experimenting," says Geib. "For instance, I looked at different means of overlaying and developing moving picture in addition to playing with things like composition."

I of the benefits of refining your art portfolio over a long period of time is that you don't have to decide what to put in an fine art portfolio on your commencement attempt. Think, if you lot exit on a limb and don't like the concluding product, y'all can always redo that item projection. Sometimes the strongest pieces in a body of work are the ones with the near tumultuous evolution process, requiring many iterations to come up to fruition.

"It'due south exciting to come across that a pupil has stretched in society to experiment with a type of piece of work or a concept that I'd exist unsure almost if y'all described it to me, but that'southward actually constructive when I run into information technology fully realized," says Stine.

The bottom line: at that place'southward no 1 respond to the question of what an art portfolio looks similar. The contents and presentation will vary from creative person to artist.

5. Include artwork that highlights your strengths

Submitting a diverse fine art portfolio is a slap-up way to permit whoever evaluates your piece of work know how excited yous are about dissimilar types of fine art. By featuring a wide range of approaches, media, and content, you are showing schoolhouse admissions officers that you frequently explore a multifariousness of ideas and artistic practices.

School of Visual Fine art graduate Michelle Nahmad emphasizes that an art schoolhouse portfolio should act as a gallery and timeline of your abilities and ideas. "Choose pieces that stand equally unique beats in the story you're telling nigh your work, edifice on one another to give a sense of your range of abilities and interests," says the designer, illustrator, and narrative artist.

Lawrence congenital his art portfolio effectually the subjects he virtually wanted to engage with while studying at Emily Carr. "I tried to showcase the skill that I thought I had in each of the classes I wanted to take. I included drawings, paintings, photography, and I even showcased my editing tactics by submitting video montages of myself snowboarding."

But while a various portfolio is a expert thought, it isn't necessary to be an expert in every category before commencement your caste. A common fault made by hopeful art and design students is submitting substandard work but to appear multidisciplinary.

"I can't draw or illustrate well at all," Geib admits. "At that place are a number of schools that crave you to submit still lifes, so that was something that really worried me. At the time it felt risky, but I decided not to submit drawings to programs where that wasn't a specific requirement. I call up that was a expert decision. I ended up getting into most of the schools I applied to."

If you're applying to RISD, including stiff drawings in your application is a must. "Achieved drawings are the heart of a successful portfolio when applying at the undergraduate level," says Lieu. "Y'all might have xv digital paintings, simply none of that will matter if you accept poor drawings."

Institutions like Parsons, on the other hand, don't have mandatory portfolio checklists for detail kinds of classical media. They're more interested in whether students are experimenting with both 2D and 3D work, and if they've explored digital and video production. "We don't expect students to share technical work for the sake of technical work," says Stine. "I would encourage making strong editing choices and actually featuring your strengths."

Nigh applicants to Parsons select a major, but nigh ten percent of students enter the program undeclared. Even when portfolios are major-specific, they don't demand to revolve completely around that plan. "We have a common beginning year, and encourage students to explore," says Stine. "We anticipate that a lot of our students are going to alter their major once they get here."

6. Consider works-in-progress to your art portfolio

Deciding whether or non to include works-in-progress when creating an art portfolio depends a lot on which programs you are applying to. Sometimes admissions departments don't definitively indicate if unfinished work is appropriate, in which instance you lot are left to decide for yourself if calling attention to your conceptual explorations volition do good your awarding.

According to Professor Lieu, unless a program requests sketches, applicants can assume that their art portfolio should be largely made up of finished works, with one or 2 sketchbook pieces at about. "Be certain that everything else in your portfolio is a work that has been one hundred percent fully realized," she warns. "This ways no dirty fingerprints, no ripped edges, no half-finished figures. Many portfolio pieces I come across by high school students are only about fifty percent finished and have big problems similar glaringly empty backgrounds and lack of detail. The majority of students finish working on their projects prematurely, which leads to works that are unresolved."

Some institutions, on the other hand, welcome unfinished fine art. Parsons believes that merely every bit the strongest pieces are often those that took many attempts to develop, providing a window into your creative process can speak volumes about the kind of artist y'all are.

"Sometimes the final production isn't the best part of a work—it'south really about what they learned in the middle of information technology," says Stine. "We love information technology when students have these really elaborate sketchbooks with all of these pocket-size moments in them. In that location are ways to comprise that into a portfolio, and that can really support the pupil."

Including unfinished work in your portfolio tin can be benign if you believe that the work offers useful information about your creative procedure. Your all-time bet is to consider whether or not each item work-in-progress really adds something to your portfolio. Don't just include incomplete sketches for the sake of bulking upwards your submission. Information technology'south better to accept a smaller, more refined art portfolio than a larger i with lower-quality works.

7. Portfolio curation is everything for college portfolios

It's now fourth dimension to cull out the best and most various pieces from your personal collection to present in your final portfolio. For each project, select only the specific and unique things you tin bring to it. For case, if you have multiple projects each with the same approach, include simply the strongest one. An art portfolio is like an essay - presenting ideas must be comprehensible and succinct.

An art school portfolio is about pushing the limits of art and design throughout your work. 1 approach could be to select work that takes advantage of those mediums you've selected.It can look similar this: select photos that portray the world differently than paintings, or paintings that attain something drawings are incapable of, and and then on. This style of refining your collection guarantees that each piece is unique while too conveying your rationale for using each medium.

Professor Lieu says most applicants don't take full advantage of what drawing tin can offer in their portfolios for college. "The vast majority of high school students are creating tight, conservative, photorealistic pencil drawings drawn from photographs," she explains. "Drawing is not just well-nigh copying a photograph equally accurately as possible; we now have cameras that can do this instantly with incredible precision and quality. Ask yourself what you lot can limited with your drawing that a camera would non be capable of producing by itself."

Exhibiting the strengths and capabilities of particular styles of art also means experimenting with the different media that are bachelor. For example, instead of drawing with pencil, attempt doing that same study with crayons, pastels, charcoal, chalk, or ink.

"Charcoal, in particular, is a swell drawing cloth considering information technology motivates students to develop an arroyo to drawing that is bolder and more than physically engaging," says Lieu. "But using these cartoon materials will distinguish you lot from the other pupil portfolios, and volition inspire you to experiment with drawing in a bolder and looser manner."

8. Effectively certificate your art portfolio work

The way you certificate your art, whether it's with photographs, video, or scans, can brand or break your application. In many cases, this documentation will be the only account of your work that an admissions department is exposed to.

"Documenting your piece of work is a practice that volition exist continually emphasized as y'all move through schoolhouse and continue in your career," says Nahmad. "Information technology will hopefully become second nature and tailored to your process. Depending on your skillset and the kind of work you're aiming to record, your documentation might also crave that you seek outside assistance."

Although photography is the most traditional medium for capturing static fine art, don't be afraid to go the near suitable road you lot can remember of.

"Sometimes video can exist the virtually constructive way to capture something that you lot've made," says Stine. "For case, if yous take a 3D object or something that you accept to interact with, instead of taking a bunch of still images, take a quick 360-degree video of it. The same thing goes for books or zines—rather than stressing about taking up your whole portfolio with a series of images, why non make a 30-second iMovie that goes through the extent of what you did?"

Professional art photography is extremely expensive. Luckily, you tin can take more than adequate photos of your work with a little planning and modest equipment. If you lot're shooting your own art, the most of import elements to consider are even lighting, accurate colour replication, sharp focus, and capturing high-resolution images.

Photographing pure white in an artwork that too contains darker colors can be tricky. The key is using at least 250-watt lights, placed at even intervals surrounding the surface that you want to return.

"These lighting kits aren't super cheap, simply regular incandescent and fluorescent lighting is not sufficient to produce loftier-quality photographs," cautions Lieu. "Regular lights volition not produce the color accurately, and you volition not become skillful focus because the lights are not bright plenty."

You may be able to use equipment that is already at your school if y'all are currently in high school or higher. If you are not a student, you may want to rent or infringe photographic equipment for the day. Depending on what kind of work you make, scanning images may be more than appropriate than photographing.

For not-students, local print shops will have low-cost scanners available. if your portfolio contains drawings or collages, photos can bear witness the details better. If your portfolio contains analog photography, be sure that the prints or scans you include are high quality. When getting prints or scans done at a lab, ensure that the photos are the best representation of your piece of work.

ix. Attend National Portfolio Mean solar day

Juggling all of these tips might seem similar a difficult task on elevation of trying to consummate your loftier school education—or working, if you lot're a high school grad. National Portfolio Day was created to make it easier for prospective art students to get portfolio feedback. Information technology'southward an opportunity for students to discuss their art portfolios in person with representatives from schools all over North America.

A academy fair-style event, National Portfolio Day offers the chance for y'all to accept your portfolio critiqued by about every undergraduate art and design programme in the U.s. and Canada before you apply. Betwixt September 2022 and Jan 2018, NPD held events in forty-2 cities across the continent, plus an online session for those who couldn't brand it in person.

"I would definitely advise that everyone applying to art school go to National Portfolio Twenty-four hour period, especially anyone debating about whether or not they want to apply," recommends Geib. "It's easy to get trapped in what your two loftier school art teachers think. In that location's a lot more variety of opinion and insight out there. Some of the school reps at the upshot looked through my portfolio and basically said, 'Equally long as your GPA and basic college entrance requirements are met, your portfolio is good enough to go to our school.'''

However, be prepared for honest and fifty-fifty jarring critiques of your work too. "I definitely got some pretty harsh criticism every bit well," Geib says. "But you have to exist able to separate yourself from your work, otherwise you're going to go beat up emotionally when people are trying to aid you improve your work overall. You have to be able to say, 'This is something I created, not me every bit a person.'"

If you're going to attend an NPD consequence, make sure to make it early, as entrance lineups tin can become extremely long, and sometimes the organization turns people away birthday because of limited capacity.

"If you're really serious virtually being accustomed into a loftier quotient undergraduate art plan, this is the event to get to," says Lieu. "I recommend going in the fall of your junior year, just to get a feel for things, and then again in the fall of your senior twelvemonth."

10. Call back about the big picture across your portfolio

Meeting these criteria for a successful application portfolio will greatly increase your chances of getting accepted to the art or design school of your choosing. The concluding slice of the puzzle is asking yourself, "Does my art school portfolio truly represent why I want to make art?"

Yous may experience like you are making fine art to see admissions requirements for a professor or critics during this long process. Remember what drew you to fine art school, and recollect of how art schoolhouse will proceed to enrich that relationship.

"One of the most popular quotes about inventiveness is 'Good artists infringe; not bad artists steal.' There's a lot of fence about it, but I think substantially information technology means don't endeavor to fulfill other people'south expectations with your art," says Lawrence. "You have to ask yourself whether y'all're making art from yourself or for other people. When I made my portfolio, I started by immersing myself in other people's work and the prompts the schools gave. Only ultimately, I tried to forget about all of that and make art that excited me." Make sure you lot know why you want to study fine art at a post-secondary institution before clicking the "Submit". "Information technology'due south truly evident in their awarding materials if applicants aren't really enlightened of what they are applying for and why," says Professor Fox. "We invest in our students equally much every bit they do, and expect the aforementioned in render from all applicants."

In 2021, art school applications are at an all-time high. With online applications and global interconnectivity, it might seem like studying art is simpler than ever before. Notwithstanding, more than opportunities means more than competition.

Yet, having a good sense of why art matters to you really comes across in your portfolio. It says that you're ready to give it your all, and sets you apart from other prospective students.

Art Student Portfolio: How To Get Into Art School

Equally you lot can probably see from this list, getting into art school takes time, dedication, and patience. In item, creating an fine art portfolio that is well thought out and intentionally put together is one of the biggest factors influencing your acceptance into your school of option.

Equally mentioned, we recommend taking your time, existence intentional with what yous include in your portfolio, and being clear about the guidelines from the schools you are applying to.

While we understand that applying to fine art school can exist overwhelming, we promise this guide gives you the confidence you demand to put together an impactful portfolio that gets you started on your path to pursuing your passion.

Looking for more advice on curating your work? Read our ultimate guide to curating a photography portfolio.

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Source: https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/art/how-to-make-art-portfolio-college-university