5 Unofficial Rules of Receiving a USEFUL Art School Portfolio Review

Oct 16

I tabled at National Portfolio Day a handful of times, representing my alma mater, Emily Carr University. And I have some secrets to reveal about the experience!

While you might go there expecting the hosts at the tables to take the lead and provide brutally honest critiques, that’s an outdated idea of how portfolio crits generally go. The first thing you should remember is that the representatives for the schools at National Portfolio Day (NPD) want YOU to come to THEIR school! We are partially there as ambassadors for our school and are trying to recruit the most amazing artists to apply. From my experience, school reps at these events typically have their best customer service caps on.

That makes for a lovely experience (hopefully!) for attendees. Still, it also means that part of the success of your portfolio review is dependent on YOU and how you allow the session to unfold. So here are five unofficial rules to ensure you receive a useful art school portfolio review at NPD or elsewhere.

Be Ready to Explain Each Piece in 30 Seconds

Portfolio reviewers like to ask open-ended questions like, “Tell me more about this piece,” or “What inspired you to create this work?”

This is not your chance to jump into a lecture on the creation of the work! They are fishing for information they can provide feedback on - that’s the point of the review! It may help to prepare a concise 30-second talking point about each piece before the review. Reviews at big events like National Portfolio Day may only last 10 or 15 minutes, so getting to your point quickly is very important.

2. Come Prepared With Specific Questions

Ideally, before you get a review of your portfolio, you’ve already spent a lot of time thinking about it, shaping it, and trying to craft it. This means you likely have questions that you need answering!

Don’t waste time with generic questions like “Which piece is your favourite?” or “Which piece should I exclude?” because a reviewer is only one person whose opinion is subjective. Try to ask questions that get to the heart of what the reviewer is an expert on.

Some examples include:

If there were one additional piece you’d like to see in my portfolio, what would it be?
Does the array of work here showcase my technical skills? (Better yet, mention some specific technical skills you are trying to showcase)
Are there any pieces in my portfolio that you feel have a strong concept or story? Are there any that have less depth?
Am I meeting all the basic grading criteria for portfolios at your school? Are there any particular criteria I should pay more attention to?

3. Do NOT Talk More Than the Reviewer

I know it can be nerve-wracking to sit across a table (or on the other side of a webcam) from someone reviewing your portfolio. Ten or fifteen of your best pieces are just out there on display to be judged by a stranger! But I promise, as mentioned in the intro, that a good reviewer has your best interest at heart (and the school’s!)

So take a deep breath, slow down and DON’T TALK MORE THAN THE REVIEWER.

I can’t tell you how often this happened while reviewing portfolios. The artist would talk for seven or eight minutes in a ten-minute session. Hey, I love listening to people talk about their work! But at the end of the session, I move on to the next one and don’t need to hold onto any details out of our conversation. Meanwhile, you are left with only two minutes of helpful info.

You might think to yourself - what a scam! Interrupt me if I’m doing the wrong thing! But, again, reviewers are representatives of their universities. We don’t want to be rude, come off as dismissive, or leave you feeling like you had a bad experience. So, we let you guide the tone of the conversation.

But you are doing yourself a BIG disservice if you dominate the conversation. You can listen to yourself talk about your work anytime, but you only have ten or fifteen minutes to listen to the reviewer talk about it.

4. Take Notes (or Have Someone With You)

There is nothing wrong with taking notes during a session! The reviewer may also take notes - ask if you get to keep them or if you can take a picture of their notes with your phone, if possible. Reviews go by fast and can be nerve-wracking, and it’s normal to get out of one with your head spinning. The hope is that when you are home and settled later that evening, you can remember a handful of useful tips to apply to your portfolio. Taking notes or bringing a friend or family member with you to help listen and recollect is a huge help.

5. Listen to Nuance

No one is going to tell you that your work is terrible.

Or, at least, I hope they won’t! Because art is subjective. Every good reviewer knows that. They know they are one opinion only, and even if they are doing their very best to represent their school, they likely won’t even be on the admissions committee doing the final reviews. So it would be utterly self-serving of them to tell you that your work is terrible and a useless critique for you!

But every artist has room for improvement. You may have a blunt reviewer who clearly identifies these areas of improvement: “I’d like to see more technical drawing skills demonstrated here,” “I think you are relying too much on digital tools to do the hard work of creating a final piece,” or “The colours in this piece are not harmonizing very well; you could use more variety in your saturation.”

Comments like that are GOLD. Hold onto them!

However, you should also look for nuanced comments. Things like, “I’m not sure the finish level of your work is quite ready for a portfolio,” could mean you need to spend more time on your work, photograph it better, finish it, or spend more time planning before executing work. Listen for the tone of comments like these and, if necessary, ask clarifying questions! Comments like these require self-reflection to determine how you’ll respond to them (not in the moment but in portfolio revisions). Did you sort of phone that piece in and just stuff it in your portfolio for the review? Be honest and make it better for the final.

Portfolio reviews are valuable as you prepare your portfolio for art school applications. Even if it’s tricky to balance these five tips, I promise they will help you have the best review experience possible!

I do portfolio reviews as part of my art coaching! Check out the details here