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How I Put Together My Portfolio: BA Fine Art & Art History

On top of having to write a personal statement and submit your UCAS application, students applying to art courses often have another hurdle to overcome: creating a portfolio. Although the idea of creating a portfolio can be a bit intimidating at first especially as the guidance around it can be a bit vague from my own experience it’s much easier once you get started, which is why I recommend starting to construct your portfolio early: either at the start of Year 13 (if you’re applying from A-Level, which is what I did) or at the start of your Foundation year (if you’re applying from Foundation).

The first thing I personally did which was admittedly a bit boring was research! I watched YouTube videos of UK students showcasing their portfolios, read articles on portfolio tips and listened to a podcast or two on how to start putting together a strong portfolio for art school. I learnt that, although portfolio advice can differ a lot between sources, the most important thing is communicating your own creativity: making it your own portfolio rather than something that looks exactly like someone else’s.

The second thing I did was gather ALL of the artwork (GCSE and A-Level coursework, as well as non-school related pieces) that I had made in the past two years for personal review. I obviously had some pieces that I really liked, and others that I didn’t; however, I wanted to select work that both showed my technical skill and felt like an authentic form of personal expression artwork that clearly felt like it was mine, rather than just made for a generic coursework requirement.

(I had also read that universities liked to see the development of your practice rather than just a set of finished pieces so I made sure to flick through my recent sketchbooks, and note my favourite pages or sections to include.)

Eventually, I’d narrowed down my work to about 20 to 30 images. I then re-reviewed these images and identified any ‘gaps’ e.g. not enough developmental pieces, too coursework-based and created some small, additional pieces to rectify this.

Lastly, I checked each university’s portfolio page requirements and formatted my portfolio accordingly. It’s not uncommon for different universities to ask for a different number of images/pages, but I found that they mostly asked for somewhere between 15-25. All of my submissions were digital, which made things a lot easier, and allowed me to play around more with arranging the composition. Although 15-25 pages can seem like a lot initially, you’ll be surprised how quickly you manage to fill them!

I hope this was helpful to any art applicants and if you have any questions, feel free to reply below! :smile:

Eve (Kingston Rep).
Reply 1
HI Eve, Thanks for this. It's very helpful. Roughly how much of a portfolio should be completed work and how much can be projects in progress or just sketches to convey a theme or particular inspiration? Presuming there should be a short description accompanying each image or scan to provide background or explain its inclusion? Appreciate your feedback. Thank you.
Original post by Infinia
HI Eve, Thanks for this. It's very helpful. Roughly how much of a portfolio should be completed work and how much can be projects in progress or just sketches to convey a theme or particular inspiration? Presuming there should be a short description accompanying each image or scan to provide background or explain its inclusion? Appreciate your feedback. Thank you.

Hey @Infinia!

In my portfolio, I aimed to have about 30-40% 'completed' work and the rest a mix of experimentation, sketches and works in progress. Most of my completed pieces were A-Level coursework or pieces I had made for particular deadlines, but I think it's also a good idea to have one or two complete pieces that aren't related to your studies to show you enjoy making work outside of a school/college environment.

In terms of descriptions to accompany images, different universities will ask for different levels of detail. I know some universities I looked at didn't want the caption to include anything beyond the title, medium and dimensions of the work, whilst others asked for a short one-two sentence explanation. Make sure to read each university's portfolio requirements before submitting just to be safe. 🙂

Hope this was helpful!
Eve (Kingston Rep).
Reply 3
Original post by Kingston Eve
Hey @Infinia!
In my portfolio, I aimed to have about 30-40% 'completed' work and the rest a mix of experimentation, sketches and works in progress. Most of my completed pieces were A-Level coursework or pieces I had made for particular deadlines, but I think it's also a good idea to have one or two complete pieces that aren't related to your studies to show you enjoy making work outside of a school/college environment.
In terms of descriptions to accompany images, different universities will ask for different levels of detail. I know some universities I looked at didn't want the caption to include anything beyond the title, medium and dimensions of the work, whilst others asked for a short one-two sentence explanation. Make sure to read each university's portfolio requirements before submitting just to be safe. 🙂
Hope this was helpful!
Eve (Kingston Rep).

Super helpful. Thank you very much for that Eve!

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