Portfolio Emergency...

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[ScatteredLogical]

If you lack a personal portfolio of work collected over the years, some schools like Ringling for example set guidelines to follow located in their catalog. University of the Arts in Philly does it to, theirs are even on their site. You don't have to go to those schools, I just mean in terms of good ideas that illustrate what they want to see in your abilities... Is that kind of what you're looking for?

[sula_nebouxi]

Sure...post up some stuff so we can get an idea of where you are right now. Many schools have different things that they look for. Some schools will want nothing but abstract contemporary stuff(Mason Gross at Rutgers), while others want unfinished gestural figure drawings(CalArts), while some want mostly observational, academically polished stuff(Ringling). While some colleges are lenient with what they want to see, some are very strict in what they want to see since the student work has to reflect their ideals. I'm not sure if there's any 'one' thing that all schools look for. Could you tell us which you're applying to? It might help us to know.

[Elwell]

Quality over quantity. Five really good pieces will serve you much better than twenty mediocre ones.
Play to your strengths. Obviously, you don't want every piece you show to be identical, but don't put in weak pieces just for diversity's sake.

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[Storyboard Dave]

Probably the most important thing that ANY art school wants to see is that you can draw from observation. Almost anyone can trace but the ability to look at an object and transfer it to paper with your own interpretation is huge. Knowledge of the human figure is also ideal but that also includes hands, faces, feet and the figure in motion- and this knowledge should also be pulled from observation.

We don't expect you to know it all. We just want to know that you come into a program with some basic rudimentary skills. That's why you're entering art school- so you can learn the harder applied crafts.

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[Storyboard Dave]

thanks :)

so would you suggest more *finished* pieces, done through observation, with varied medium?

The only person that could consider it a "finished" piece is you. You could always say that was about as far as you wanted to take it... on the flipside you could work on a piece forever!

As far as mediums go, keep it simple. Whatever you feel comfortable doing is fine. No college is going to expect you to be doing things in more complex mediums other than charcoal, pencil or simple paints. If you can and want to, then by all means.

Do stuff you feel 110% comfortable with still as opposed to doing a medium you think that they'd like and yet you hate working in.

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[Storyboard Dave]

alright, thats a definite help. time to bust out the charcoal and ink. thanks a lot dave.

Sounds as though you've got your mediums down pat now. So now go kick out some stellar pieces. Nothing like a wee bit of pressure on you to motivate you to work.

Who knows? You could kick out some stellar pieces because you won't have any time to second guess yourself and go back in and fidget with it.

Good luck.

[pmiles]

One option that you haven't looked into is perhaps waiting a year to apply to the school that you want. If you dumped all your high school stuff, it's probably because you didn't consider it your best work... most high school work usually isn't one's best work... just their early work.

Check out the curriculum of the school that you are looking to apply to... what GEs (General Education requirements) are listed? You can knock them out at a local community college for 1/10th the cost you will spend at an art school. The credits are transferable plus you can spend your spare time working on your portfolio. The best of both worlds.

Remember this, one's freshman year in college is the toughest... it's the point in time in which you realize that the instructors are not there to babysit you, could care less if you are paying attention or not or if you are even coming to class. Everything is put on you. Not at all like high school. The attrition rate at any school during the freshman year is the highest because of this. Most people are not ready for college right out of high school so unless you know you are ready to be your own task master, you may be better off waiting a year. Community colleges get you into the groove of college without taking the financial risk that you do in an art school. Know that you are ready for college and commit to it. The better students in art school are the ones that are always drawing, always painting, not playing XBox or going to movies but always working on their craft... literally 24/7.

[AthenaEowyn]

Do you keep a sketchbook? If you do, this helps you in two ways:

1) Many of my art professors have required their students to keep a sketchbook regularly--and grade it--because they believe it is very important to the learning process. Drawing every day is an invaluable experience. Though I didn't always draw every day, I did find myself loosening up and "playing" more in my sketchbook--pasting in little things that interested me, drawing around candy wrappers, sketching kids in class with me when I was bored. It's a great way to keep my hand and mind in motion.

2) If you keep a sketchbook, there's just that much more work to use in portfolio reviews. When I went to Portfolio Day at Carnegie Mellon, I brought my two high school sketchbooks and just laid them out in front of my mounted work. I did the same for my sophomore year portfolio review, marking with Post-it flags the pages I wanted my judges to look at, and took photos of my favorite pages to put in my digital presentation. I don't know how much it helped, but at least it bulked up the number of pieces I had to show. Plus I think teachers like to know that you are interested enough to do work on your own.

I hope that helps. Maybe it's all stuff you knew before.