portfolio - does size matter??...

[rex-craft7]

size, i mean, as in size of the drawings. currently, i think on average, my drawings are about 20 x 35 ish. but one of my past art teachers is telling me that larger the piece = more ambitious = makes you look like a better applicant. the problem is, im trying to make a portfolio in two months, and i dont have much time. is it really that much of a plus to make my drawings ridiculously large? (say, twice the size im doing right now?)

[Eerin]

Typically the larger the art piece the more sublime it feels ("awe" factor due to sheer size). But as far as I know, it's typical of a student to submit artwork relatively around the size of 18x24 inches. You should also check the portfolio requirements to the schools you're applying to. For example, RISD requires you to do three homework assignments with specified dimensions 16x20.

I recommend going no smaller than 11x14. For practical purposes of finishing a portfolio in the amount of time you have alloted, I think smaller pieces are better recommended.

Really, its all more about the quality and not so much the size (just don't make it microscopic). =)

[Maxine Schacker]

Different schools have different requirements. Contact the schools you are applying to and ask.

[thesinfulsaint]

When I submitted my portfolio to Ringling, it was all digital. I did my artwork traditionally, but I took high quality photographs and just sent a CD of my work. I included a word document explaining the size, medium, and title of each piece, but I somewhat doubt that it was looked at in detail. Some of my pieces were only 12x12, and I think the largest was only 18x24. As long as your work is strong, it shouldn't be an issue what size it is. Work at whatever scale you are comfortable. Even James Gurney thinks that 11x14 is a pretty large piece.

[Elwell]

You should work at whatever scale you are most comfortable with. You won't be showing originals anyway unless you have an in-person interview, so if we're talking about submitting slides or a digital portfolio it really doesn't matter. If you are going to be showing a portfolio of originals, then you have to take practicalities into consideration. How big a binder/case do you want to be dealing with? Anything too big becomes unwieldy and difficult to look through. I'd say 24"x36" in pretty much the upper limit, and smaller is probably better. Anything too big to fit in your portfolio is going to have to be photographed anyway.

[Storyboard Dave]

but one of my past art teachers is telling me that larger the piece = more ambitious = makes you look like a better applicant.


No offense to your old art teacher but that sort of thinking went out with the days of delivering original art off to prospective art schools for admission.

I know many admissions counselors nowadays hate handling original art from students. While it's always somewhat impressive to see original art (it's human nature), think about the risk they take in damaging your art, losing it, or having something happening to it in transit. And what happens if you do sculpture or something dimensional?

It's just not practical to send original art off to schools anymore for admissions. Back then, imagine if you wanted to apply to multiple schools- you'd have to wait for your portfolio to come back from School #1 (pray nothing got damaged) before you could send it off to School #2. And toss in shipping costs?? OUCH!

The modern practical way is to shoot top quality photographs of your images, touch them up in Photoshop, burn multiple copies onto CD/ DVD format (if you've got animations) and send them off to all the schools you're interested in.

Personally I prefer designing out a page and making a PDF of all of my images (that way you can still control the order to which the viewer sees your art AND you can write a small descriptive blurb underneath), but if a particular school wants them all JPEG, TIFF or whatever- I'd comply. And the Golden Rule of portfolios still applies- ONLY your best work goes in. Anything less should be disregarded in heartbeat; that one bad piece will bring down all of the other good ones.

Good luck.

[rex-craft7]

photoshop?? i considered using photoshop for simple touch ups like contrast/value changes, but i thought that was considered "cheating"?

[thesinfulsaint]

You shouldn't be going in with the paintbrush tool and fixing drawing issues like perspective etc., but playing with the levels and saturation is OK on digital photos. Even if you did do a few touch-ups, it's still your work. You would just have the label the piece as "mixed media" instead of only a traditional medium. For a college portfolio, however, I wouldn't recommend going farther than levels/saturation.

[Storyboard Dave]

photoshop?? i considered using photoshop for simple touch ups like contrast/value changes, but i thought that was considered "cheating"?

As long as you're the one doing the work, it shouldn't matter how you're touching them up. It still takes a somewhat skilled hand in knowing what to touch up. The people in Admissions are usually pretty savvy as to what medium it's done in so don't worry abut labeling it "mixed media" even if it was 98% pencil drawing with some 2% minor touch up in Photoshop.

[eromenos]

I know people have said this before but bigger is not better. Schools even limit the size. I know Art Center did when I looked at their portfolio requirements and regardless of the fact that originals are going "out of style" some schools still require you send it in like.. Art Center. They do not accept a portfolio based completely on a CD or slides same with RISD. My friend says it's because they want to analyzey the strokes or something like that +_+

[MCM]

Geez... most of my drawings are 2.5 by 3 inches hahaha.. thats' like 75 percent of my portfolio for grad school.