Fine Art Scholarships: Art + Design

 To have your portfolio reviewed, please register for a Fine Art Showcase Day. 

Art + Design Portfolio Review FAQs

What do I need to prepare for the portfolio review? 

Students must submit a portfolio of 12-15 of their best artworks. Consider asking your high school teacher to help you make choices. Artwork should be original and demonstrate your abilities in drawing, color, design, and any specific area of interest. Faculty welcome seeing artwork created outside of class projects that demonstrate your personal initiative, creativity and/or volunteerism and extra-curricular interests. 

Ideally, the portfolio will demonstrate your artistic breadth and depth; it will display a variety of media and highlight your skill level. Consider including works which show a variety of compositional strategies and scale of work, different angles of view, a range of subject matter, etc. 

How can I prepare to present my work? 
What was the assignment if the work is a class assignment? How did you respond to teacher’s prompts? Which work/s show your greatest strengths? Which work/s provided the greatest challenge? How did you arrive at your selected subject matter? 

Examples of pieces to include: 

Observational Drawings 
Drawing from life (avoid including works copied from magazine photos or images taken from web): 

• Still life 

• Self portrait 
• Figure drawing 
• Landscape 
• Perspective studies 

Include a variety of drawing and painting media: graphite (pencil), charcoal, conté, pastel, pen & ink, acrylic, etc. 

Other 2-Dimensional Media 

• Printmaking 
• Photography 

Digital Work (include CD or Web URL in portfolio) 

• Animation 

• Illustration 
• Game design 
• Web design 
• iMovies 
• YouTube 

Works in 3-Dimensional Media 

• Sculpture 
• Ceramics 
• Fibers 
• Jewelry/metals 

Sketchbooks 

• Show us your process 
• Process books/sketchbooks/research journals/free writing or journaling 
• Thumbnail or preliminary sketches for works in portfolio 

Other 

• Volunteer work for yearbook, church or community posters, 4-H, etc. 
• Theatre work: set design, costume design