How to Prepare Yourself for a Portfolio Review

By Brooke Hunter-Lombardi, Columbus College of Art & Design

When considering colleges that require a portfolio of artwork, an important part of the application process is preparing for the personal interview where you will show a representative your work. All artists should take time to prepare for the experience of presenting their portfolio.

Your portfolio can be reviewed at a variety of venues. You should try to get frequent input on your progress; it is through criticism that you can identify areas of your work that need further development.

There are two different kinds of reviews that you can seek out:

1. the informal or preliminary review
2. the formal or final review

An informal or preliminary review occurs every time you show your work to a friend or trusted mentor, someone who is familiar with you and your creative development. An informal or preliminary review can also take place by meeting with a college representative prior to your senior year in high school or at least one semester prior to college entry.

This review could occur when a college representative visits your school, if you attend portfolio day, or at an early college visit. At this review you will get tips to improve your work for admittance as well as improved scholarship opportunities.

In preparing your work, you should:

• Be less selective so there is more to talk about with your reviewer
• Take works in progress
• Take a recent sketchbook
• Place works in chronological order with the oldest piece shown first

In preparing yourself for the optimal experience, you should:

• Be prepared to ask questions
• Be open to criticism (don’t take it personally)

A formal or final review takes place during your senior year in high school or the semester prior to your college entry and in general occurs during a college visit or when you mail your portfolio to a college. Of course, as long as you continue to make artwork, you never have a final portfolio of artwork. You only have a final chance to show work for particular opportunities.

If this review takes place in person you may find out if your portfolio has been approved for admission and get scholarship information.

In preparing your work, you should:

• Be more selective (10 to 15 pieces)
• Take only best quality works
• Include a strong sketchbook as one piece in portfolio
• Place works in an order that shows off all aspects of your ability and keeps the viewers interest (see the article How to Prepare Your Portfolio for Review)
• In preparing yourself for the optimal experience, you should:
• Be open and ask more questions

In both cases, you should remember that in addition to being interviewed by the college representative, you are also conducting an interview. You should try to prepare a list of questions that you would like answered.

Some topics may include:

• College curriculum
• College entry requirements
• Scholarship opportunities and deadlines
• Financial aid opportunities and deadlines
• Specific questions about your portfolio and artistic development.

You will be meeting with an art professional that has probably engaged in the review and critique of artwork many times, and is likely to have been through this process as an emerging artist him or herself. You should remember that the reviewer is interested in helping you develop as an artist as well as evaluating your readiness for the program that they represent.

You should do your best to step back from the emotional aspects of your art making when engaging in a portfolio review. After all, you are showing your work to a stranger who is not familiar with you or your work. It can be hard to listen objectively and focus on the evaluation of your pieces in terms of formal art making when you have spent so much time on the works and they are meaningful to you.

Remember, this is an opportunity to have a fresh, analytical look at your work—it is not a criticism of your personality or a final determination of your ability to be a successful artist.

Each reviewer will have his or her own style of review. Some will ask you to get all of your work out and then the reviewer will page through, setting the pace. Other reviewers will ask you to turn through your works. If this is the case, you should allow the reviewer ample time to see each piece, but keep it going. The length of the review depends on many factors including:

• Type of review (preliminary or formal review)
• Amount of artwork that you are presenting
• Number of questions you have
• Venue (Portfolio Day, scheduled interview on the college campus, etc.)

Portfolio Day

At Portfolio Day, you should expect to wait as long as an hour at each college table and you will have 10 to 15 minutes for the college representative to look at your work. The focus at Portfolio Day is on your artwork and the logistics leave little time for you to ask general college questions. Portfolio Day often seems very hectic, both for you and the reviewer who may feel pressured to review as many students as possible. Remember not to take anything personally, the reviewer doesn't’t know you, and they are not trying to hurt your feelings. Rather they should offer an objective review of the work you are showing and ideas for you to improve. Listen for the positive things that each representative says and listen for any similar criticisms about your work given by multiple reviewers.

It is very helpful to take along a friend or parent to help you handle your work and to take notes for you (in your sketchbook) so that you can fully focus on the review. Plan to get as much rest as you can both before and after this experience.

It is common for students to feel worn out, both physically and emotionally after a rigorous day of review. Go home and rest up after the event. Then review your notes, set goals and make plans for the next stage of your artistic development.

Portfolio Review during Admissions Interview

If your portfolio is being reviewed during a scheduled appointment at a college, the reviewer may spend anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour reviewing your work. Again, this will be determined by the amount of work you have, the number of questions you ask and your place in the process. The amount of time available for your portfolio review will also be determined by the schedule of other activities at the college. You will also need time to talk about college requirements and scholarship opportunities, to take a tour of campus and possibly speak to a financial aid representative.

Regardless of the venue, the reviewer will always expect you to speak about your work during the review.

Some questions you could answer as points of discussion might include:

• When you created the work (is it a recent example or one done a couple of years ago)
• Why you created the work (i.e. class assignment or personal interest)
• What media was used?
• What do you like about the piece? What could be improved?
• What is your favorite piece? Why?
• What is your least favorite piece? Why?
• What are some of your favorite sketchbook pages? Why?
• Which is your most recent piece?
• What kinds of works are you planning to do in the near future?

It is helpful for you to review your own work with these questions in mind prior to the review.

Of course, your body of work should be the most important thing. At times your work will be reviewed when you are not present, such as when making application to a college that you are unable to visit and for most scholarship competitions. For that reason, your portfolio will need to speak for itself.

To prepare for your portfolio to be reviewed without you, you should write an artist statement that provides the viewer with some information about you as an artist (i.e. your motivation for creating, artistic and career goals) and create a slide list or an inventory list for your physical portfolio.

The list should include:

• Your full name
• Your contact information
• Title of each work (or “untitled”)
• Media of each work
• Dimensions of each work
• Year each work was made
• Any award received for individual work of art
• And if needed, significant information to assist the viewer in understanding the piece

When it comes to a portfolio review, you should always remember that it is not a “do or die” situation. It is simply a part of the process in developing as an artist. Even if you do not feel completely prepared or if unfavorable things are said about your work during its review, it is only one time of many that you will show your art as you work to become a professional artist. There will be many other opportunities for review with many other reviewers. You will always continue to develop and work toward building your portfolio as long as you are creating art work and want to grow as an artist. Take a deep breath and relax. You are ready to present your portfolio.

Brooke Hunter-Lombardi is the education outreach coordinator and an adjunct faculty at Columbus College of Art & Design. She was an admissions officer for 12 years in which time she reviewed thousands of portfolios from students seeking admission to CCAD. She has been conducting portfolio preparation workshops since 1995.