General Admissions & OTCAS How do you go about making an art portfolio?

[Reddington]

---

Members don't see this ad.

It's a silly question, but I've never made a portfolio before for my ceramic pieces. I don't know what it entails, what a "professional" one looks like, what to write, etc. How did you guys go about it? Did you just staple a bunch of 8x11 photos together and call it a day or did you have to do something specific? Thanks!

 

[weaver84]

Go to an office supply store and ask for a nice portfolio or presentation binder. You'll also need clear page holder inserts. It doesn't have to be expensive, just not a cheap neon orange plastic binder. Take some great photos of your pieces. Use rubber cement glue to paste them onto black paper(at art supply store). After drying, insert your pages into the page holders. Optional, if you've got the tech savvy to do so: create your pages on your pc, but have the files printed professionally on *heavy weight*, high quality paper at a Kinko's/Fedex etc. They can also bind this for you there, but this can run into surprisingly, a lot of money. There's really a 100 different ways to make a portfolio, just choose what suits you 🙂 PM me if you have more questions!

 

[idontdance]

Having made a portfolio the FedEx kinkos way, here is what I would do if I had to do it again:
1. Borrow a nice camera from a friend and take great photos of each piece. If one doesn't do it justice include two.
2. Upload to the computer, crop/fix as necessary.
3. Layout on a photo book site like shutterfly. Typically you will do 1 piece per page, but you can group related pieces together. Online sites often have deals so it shouldn't be too expensive and then you don't have to think about paper type or worry about formatting it correctly to print at FedEx.

As for as what to write, you will want a cover page, ex, "ceramics portfolio" or "OT application portfolio" with your name. With each piece include a name, date of completion, medium, (group or individual effort if applicable), if it was personal or academic work (if applicable). If everything is from a college class, you can have a paragraph at the beginning briefly explaining that. You can organize it any way that flows, by style/kind, or even chronologically.

I'm not sure how fancy of a portfolio you wanted but this way they come out clean and professional, and are relatively cheap and easy to make. Good luck!

 

[Reddington]

Hmm, I checked out Shutterstock, and I like the option, though I'll certainly check out making one from scratched if it means saving some money.

I also screwed it in that I didn't take pictures of my pieces on a solid background before giving them away. Looks like I have some photoshopping to do.