How to Build the Ultimate Art Portfolio

By Alicia Webb, eHow Contributor

updated: June 12, 2010

Prepare for your career as an artist by assembling a great portfolio.

As an professional artist, you will often need to demonstrate examples of your best work in the form of a portfolio. You will show your portfolio to college admissions officers, prospective employers, and family and friends. The foundation of your success as an artist lies in your construction of a neat and concise portfolio of work. Building an ultimate art portfolio requires the artist to answer many important questions and make many difficult decisions about their artwork.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You'll Need:

Examples of your best artwork
Camera
Portfolio case

the sketch of the naked woman image by dpaint from Fotolia.com
A portfolio should always contain a few quality sketches.
Decide if your portfolio will include a broad range of art or specific styles only. A general fine artist should showcase his sketches, charcoal works, paintings, photography, multimedia and digital work. An artist with a more specific type of art or goal in mind will create a portfolio that showcases his specialized work, along with elements that lead up to the creation of that work, such as sketches.
art image by Svetlin Rusev from Fotolia.com
Choose your best pieces for your portfolio.
Choose your best art. Select the most complete pieces that show off your best skills as an artist. Consider what your audience wants to see from your portfolio. Ask professors or fellow artists to critique your work and help you choose what to eliminate. If you feel you don't have enough pieces to demonstrate your skills, create more artwork in the areas that lack.
portfolio image by andrey polichenko from Fotolia.com
A nice portfolio case shows your professionalism.
Decide how you want to present your portfolio. If you want to show off your original pieces, choose a large portfolio case in which your artwork will fit. Otherwise, photograph your artwork and have your images printed into glossy 8x10 photos. College admissions applications often only accept slides, in which case you will need to have your images developed into slides.
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Digital art may fall into a category of it's own.
Categorize your portfolio. This will give your portfolio an organized feel and allow viewers to focus on specific areas of your work, if necessary. You could categorize by medium (pencil, paint, digital), type of subject (people, still life, cars) or simply put your artwork in order from what you consider your best pieces to the pieces that aren't quite as strong.
calendar image by Alex White from Fotolia.com
Keep your portfolio neat.
Assemble your portfolio. If you've chosen a large case, simply add your artwork in the order which you've established. If you have your 8x10 photos, select a nice book featuring plastic photo sleeves. If you need to assemble a slide portfolio, you can buy a case made to hold slides. You can purchase items made specifically to showcase your portfolio at local art stores or online sellers, such as Jerry's Artarama or Dick Blick.
internet image by Stephanie Bandmann from Fotolia.com
Create an online portfolio.
Create an online portfolio. In addition to your hard copy method, you will greatly benefit from creating an online portfolio. This will enable you to simply send a link to anyone who desires to see your work. If you don't have your own website to display your work, you can use a site such as artportfolio.net. Sites like this specialize in hosting online portfolios for artists.
business presentation #14 image by Adam Borkowski from Fotolia.com
Plan how you will present your portfolio.
Create a plan of how you will present your portfolio. During a portfolio presentation for college admission or potential employers, speak of how you became an artist, how your skills have improved or how your passion as an artist is demonstrated in your work. In an article at Design Mentor Training, Nomi Altabef, Associate Education Director at Sessions.edu, explains how "an effective portfolio illustrates the designer's self-presentation and communication abilities as well as showcasing the work."