TIPS

PERSONAL TIPS TO BUILDING A COLOURFUL AND FUN PORTFOLIO!

Listen, in no way am I a professional in this field, however I would love to give my opinion and advice through my experience while building this portfolio. I have made so many friends in the program and in different programs, so many people who are driven by art and who have their own advice to give. I just want to help and give as much advice to everyone as I can because it's important to me that everyone does well and learns so much!

The advice I want to give future applicants, if you even come across this page, is:

-Draw every day, draw constantly in your sketchbook.

sketchbook tips

-Get a decently small or medium sized sketchbook, if youre just starting out. They are so much easier to fill out and stuff rabidly (as you can see from my sketchbook hehe) and much more portable.

-Experiment with a million mediums and paper types in your sketchbook. Throw some watercolour, gouache, acrylic, pastels, graphite, ink, alcohol markers, coloured pencil. Anything. Stick random pages in it. Don't be worried if the paper wont support it, just do it. Itll make for a very interesting sketchbook!

-Draw from LIFE. Drawing from photography isn't totally wrong, but it's much easier to understand how humans and objects and environments work when you're sitting there looking at it. This will help you so much with your portfolio and improvement. At least, it did for me. 100%

-Don't be scared to make mistakes. Making mistakes is part of being an artist! (in the words of my life drawing professor "make 300 more mistakes")

general portfolio tips

-I would recommend getting a decently large portfolio case just to be able to hold the biggest piece that you have (unless its a huge painting that you're bringing in. Mine was 17x22 and I wouldn't go any bigger than that imo)

-Make a range of content for your portfolio, not just in your sketchbook! Show them what you can do, what you're all about! Who you are! This was something relayed to me by my tutor, and I constantly think of it. Show people who you are as an artist, even if you don't fully know yet. Just do it, jump into it.

-Make a self portrait, preferably in paint, but if you have a medium that you are very confident with, do it that way. They want to see who you are! It's important to have your face in there!

-I was told to feature my best life drawings/studies in a few pages of my portfolio and shove a bunch more at the back, or somewhere else that they can sift through them. This way you can show off what you can do, and a bunch more.

-Make sure to include a decent amount of acrylic and watercolor painting since a lot of first year projects are working with those mediums! Show them you can paint still lives, environments, people, nude models, portraits, whatever you can!

-Make illustrations, since youre uh...... Applying to do just that! Do them in what ever medium you want, and have fun! Remember, you're telling a story through images! Narratives are important!

-PROCESS WORK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!!!! MAKE SURE TO HAVE A FAIR AMOUNT OF PROCESS WORK!

-You will be told a million things from a million people who will review your portfolio and art. They will also give you tips, some that you will value and others that will make you raise an eyebrow. Take all of them with a grain of salt, consider them all but don't live by them as your bible. Including my advice. Consider them all, but lead your own path!

-Don't be scared to ask for guidance, for profs to review your portfolio and work. Reach out to people. Go to the tutoring center and get yourself a tutor. They help so much, just for the littlest things if you're willing to work your ass off!

life drawing tips

-Go to extra life drawing, if you can. I pushed myself to go almost every night for an entire semester, and my life drawings became so, so, so much better.

-Experiment with style (filling in the entire figure, focusing on the internal shading and form, focusing on the lines, gesture, etc.)

-Draw a range of life drawings (equal balance with reclining poses, standing, sitting, action)

-I was told not to include the times on the drawings but I guess that's completely subjective. But it probably is for the best that they don't see that you took 20 minutes to draw something that looks like it could be a 5 minute drawing (*coughs @ myself*)

-You can condense some of the same types of your favorite/best life drawings on a digital page and print it (just scan or take a high quality picture of the life drawings you want and Voila! Condensation)

-You can cut your life drawings to size to be able to fit in your portfolio. Just make sure you don't fuck up the composition. You can also scan them if you're scared to cut them.

-Draw on different paper with different mediums. Do Conte/Charcoal, but also do other things, different coloured conte, grease pencil, sketchbook life drawings, etc!