Portfolio Review Questions

[rabidbaboy]

I know at least some of you guys have attended art school, and I know you probably had to go through a portfolio review (and then a talent test) to be accepted.

I have a portfolio review in a few days, and here are a few questions:

1) Should I put my best work in the front pages, or should I put the "doodles" in front, and build up to the good pin-ups?
2) Should I put the sequential art, doodles, and pin-ups together, or is it best to alternate? How about putting same quality work together? Or by chronological order?
3)Should I talk only when asked a question? Are statements like "Oh, I think that's one of my best" or "That's one of the worse ones" pretty taboo?

More when I think them up.

[ptoing]

One thing I can say you is to not have any doodles in your portfolio. Only have stuff you consider good in there. Mindless doodles wont do you any good.

[Helm]

No bad stuff no doodles, only finished work, a good selection shouldn't be too much art, don't stretch it, but show variation if you can. There's no reason to be all DVD commentary while someone looks at your art.

[rabidbaboy]

No doodles then.

To be clear, not even WIPs?

Also, Helm, what do you mean by "a good selection shouldn't be too much art"?

[Terley]

I suppose you want a few things that show some flexibility, it'd be useless having loads of work to show if it's all basically the same stuff. People looking for pixel artists want someone who's capable of living up to anything what they want, so you'll have a better chance getting hired if you've got a wider variation of work to show.

I do agree that you shouldn't put up anything that doesn't show the best of your skills, you may of liked how it came out but if it has obvious mistakes or you know it's not a true reflexion of what you're capable of i'd just consider it to be a good learning experience, not something to put in a portfolio.

[ptoing]

Wips and sketches only if they show progression towards a finished image you have in there as well. Shows that you can stick with something and think it through.

[Helm]

Look I don't think getting in art school is going to be as severe a process as it will be to get hired by someone with high standards so you shouldn't sweat it too much. If it shows you're artistic and have the patience to finish art (this is a big thing) they'll take your money to teach you 30 things that you wouldn't be able to learn anywhere else, and 30000 things you can learn on your own or if you show your art at randomers and pay close attention to how they respond.

by 'a good selection shouldn't be too much art' I mean it's an asset to the artist to have the confidence to select just the cream of the crop from his stuff and show that, instead of just putting everything in there in the folder.

[ndchristie]

All this based on a fine or communicative arts goal (not photo, fashion, ID, architecture, design management, etc):

A good portfolio would be between a dozen and 16 pieces, no sketches, no wips.  More than 20 would just be tedious.  You can tailor the content to their specificities, but it's not necessary - good work speaks for itself.  Try to show breadth if you can, and the ability to observe directly - most schools are looking for somebody who can see in order to be taught, not who can be taught in order to see.

you won't get into any school without figure drawing, landscape/still life, perspective, and wet media (or at least some of these).
you won't get into any good school without the ability to create space.
you won't get into any great school without the ability (or potential ability) to create meaning.

"master copies" are "old fashioned", but "appropriation" is "hip." - this one i wish was not so true.

If a school cares about sketches they will ask for a separate book of sketches that will be given in addition to your portfolio - do not include them otherwise.  Note though, a finished piece done quickly may be an asset.

"Severity" of process is very hard to measure because there's no such thing as a hard application or even a hard interview (if you're honest and attentive), it's all based on whether your competition is good.  You'll be ranked and measured and assigned all sorta of qualities (accurate or otherwise) but at the end of the day, it comes down to the same stuff as most things : perseverance, honesty, confidence, and luck/talent.

You get out of art school exactly what effort you put into it.  If you go in with the "I can learn everything on my own" attitude, you'll never learn anything from anyone.

[Helm]

You get out of art school exactly what effort you put into it.  If you go in with the "I can learn everything on my own" attitude, you'll never learn anything from anyone.

Attitude is one thing. A backed opinion is another. When you're done with art school you can discuss opinions with me.

I went into art school hoping for the best. I left having been taught more by my fellow students and myself (the all-familiar critique process we know from here) than all these people that were getting paid to channel artistry. I'm not saying every art school is the same, but if someone is really serious about art (and by that I don't mean just to make a living from it) he's better off not paying anyone to be an authority over them. If someone just wants to guilt themselves into becoming great craftsmen, yes, submitting to the process of 'I pay you to take me seriously, have expectations of me regarding regularity of art-making and quality' might help. But it's still pretty funny a process if you think about it.

You can go to art school and rub shoulders with artists and craftsmen, it's really fun. Or you could just go out there and draw 10 studies a day of all sorts of things, in all sorts of mediums and with a couple of art books, you'll probably end up where the art school boy ended up, if not better than him, without the financial hit. It's all about how much willpower you have to sit your ass down. I personally, didn't have it, so art school with all its failings helped me a lot even if it meant that I just drew every day, committed to meaning and not just rendering for 3 years. I'm just saying, the final matter is just how much you DRAW and how much you THINK about what you drew. If you do enough of both, you'll achieve your full range eventually.

[junkboy]

3)Should I talk only when asked a question? Are statements like "Oh, I think that's one of my best" or "That's one of the worse ones" pretty taboo?

Now granted, I haven't had the best success with being accepted into art schools, but I think, like someone else said somewhere, that you should generally avoid doing the whole DVD commentary-thing. Sit back, relax and let them look at it in peace. Don't be defensive about your own work, but don't put it down either. If you are particularly proud of a piece it's alright to say it, but be prepared to explain why.