Art School Entrance Portfolio Prep Guide
14 years ago, I used to teach art classes privately. One of the most popular courses was the Art School Portfolio Prep class, and I am happy to say that every single prospective student I taught did get into their art school of choice! I haven’t been teaching these classes for quite some time, so I figured I would put up my guide on the blog for free. This portfolio entrance guide was specifically for the Alberta College of Art & Design from 2010-2014 or so, and I believe it has since changed the guidelines to be looser. They have also renamed the school to the Alberta University of the Arts or “Au Arts”. We used to call it ACAD, so that is what I still refer to it by. I attended that school from 2002-2006 and majored in Drawing, completing the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree within the 4 year timespan. It was alright, but that is a story for another time.
I also worked for them in the Admissions department, plus I attended 3 weeks of High School visits to talk with prospective students on portfolio submissions, High School grade requirements and personal statements. This was long ago, 2006-2007 or thereabouts.
Preparation for ACAD or art school portfolio – October 9, 2010. Instructor: Ljubica (Luba)
Day 1
- Discussion about what to expect in First Year art school
- Questioning, “What do you want to learn? What are your goals, aspirations?”
- Don't worry about what you will do after school is over... better spend your time thinking about what you will be doing in school. Example: Take advantage of the school's facilities like sculpture studio, ceramics studios, glass blowing, wood shop, printmaking, dark room, photo rooms
- Overview of application process including portfolio submission (everything is online now).
- 12 to 15 complete art pieces needed for portfolio.
- Warm up introduction to drawing
• Drawing each other; blind contour, don't look at your paper – use different materials
• Drawing a white orchid on black, toned colour or grey paper – using charcoal... using knead. eraser for charcoal removal (highlights)
• Drawing orchid with sketchbook upright on easel – using charcoal
Homework
- 3-5 drawings/sketches in your sketchbook using charcoal and kneadable eraser.
- Spend at least 20 minutes on each drawing.
- Make sure you plan your drawing first using window method (using hands or cut-out paper).
- Subject matter: Anything you want to draw, but make sure it is life drawing (no photograph).
Ideas & Suggestions #1: Make an arrangement out of simple, recognizable objects in your house: Lamps, fruit, bottles (no labels), flowers or greenery, pillows, sheets crumpled and folded, tea kettle, pots & pans, forks, spoons etc. Try not to use toys or figures which are trademarked (like Mickey Mouse).
Ideas & Suggestions #2: Draw your own left (or right) hand in different poses, like clutching a pencil, or holding an object, flat against a table, making it look like a claw, etc. Try drawing your foot, or both your feet as well.
Ideas & Suggestions #3: Go outside and draw the scenery. You can go to a park, or sit outside and draw what you see in your yard. You can go to a busy area and draw people walking past. Challenge: Draw the people in your home... ask them if you can draw them, and get them to hold a pose for 5 minutes or more (these sketches are very quick and if they take 5 minutes, you will have to draw 4 of them to equal 1 of the 3-5 homework pieces required).
Ideas & Suggestions #4: Self-portrait. Look in the mirror while drawing yourself. You can use charcoal, contour drawing (just lines), blind contour or a mix of both. Challenge: Try doing this while making a funny face and try not to laugh too much.
Ideas & Suggestions #5: Pick something to draw that you don't want to draw... for example, if you don't like the idea of drawing machinery or buildings, challenge yourself and draw those things. Examples: The family car, pets in the home (pay attention to fur detail), landscape with buildings, flowers.
Next class: Acrylic painting! We will paint a still life (not flowers). Bring an apron/old clothes.
Preparation for ACAD or art school portfolio – October 16, 2010. Instructor: Ljubica (Luba)
Day 2
- Talking about the technical chemical composition of acrylic paint aka acrylic polymer emulsion,
- Differences between acrylics, oils and watercolours,
- How to hold your brush properly
- Draw little thumbnail sketches in book before beginning painting (composition)
- Looking at a Value chart
Homework
- Plan to complete one painting by next class.
- Draw at least 4 thumbnail sketches in book before beginning your painting.
- Use L-shaped composition cut out to help you.
- Experiment with paint in your sketchbook before starting a painting.
Subject matter: Read below, pick one or more, depending on how much time you have.
Ideas & Suggestions #1: Take a head of cabbage and cut it in half. Create thumbnail sketches of the interesting insides of the cabbage. You can do this with other vegetables or fruits... dragonfruit, onion, pomegranate, pumpkin.
Ideas & Suggestions #2: Realistic: Paint an interesting vegetable or fruit. In your thumbnail sketches/painting composition, make sure it is not too big and not too small.
Ideas & Suggestions #3: Find a leaf with interesting patterns on it. It can be from a tropical plant in your house, or dried leaf from outside. Make a painting based on this leaf or a pile of leaves.
Ideas & Suggestions #4: Paint something in only warm colours: Red, Orange, Yellow, Brown
Ideas & Suggestions #5: Paint something with only cool colours: Blue, Green, Violet, Purple
Next class: Oil painting of landscape! We will paint from a photograph that you took yourself, or that is in your family. I will show you how to “crop” it (not actually cut it) so it will be interesting to make a painting from.
Preparation for ACAD or art school portfolio – October 30, 2010. Instructor: Ljubica (Luba)
Day 4
- Intro to glazing techniques
- Historical examples
- Black & White underpainting first, glazing in layers.
- Intro to palette knife painting / impasto
- How to use the palette knife
Next Class & Homework
Think about Glazing. We will be exploring glazing next week. Take a look at this website: http://www.penroseart.com/vermeer01.htm
Think about collage & mixed media. Bring magazines, sewing kit/thread/needle, “stuff” (that you want to incorporate into your painting). We will be working with faces as subject matter.
Homework:
- Thick knife painting / impasto using acrylic paint
AND / OR
- Use palette knife to mix puddles of color before painting. Study your reference to obtain colours for the mixed puddles. It will make the painting process faster and more accurate for realistic paintings.
Subject matter: Anything you want to paint for your portfolio.
Next class: Bring your black & white / glazing paintings from home to work on during class-time. Also bring a reference photograph of something else you want to paint.
Preparation for ACAD or art school portfolio – November 13th, 2010. Instructor: Ljubica (Luba)
Day 5
- Collage using Acrylic Gel medium
- Image Transfer collage using Acrylic Gel Medium
- Ideas & concepts you could work with using collage but make them relevant to your interests.
Homework
- One or two collage pieces in your sketchbook using the gel medium
- You could create an ever-moving collage that you don't stick down but only use as a reference to draw from.
- Try to combine drawing or painting with your collage techniques.
Ideas & Suggestions #1: Make a collage out of pictures of people's hands & feet into a tree.
Ideas & Suggestions #2: Do a collage self-portrait using cut-outs of things you like.
Ideas & Suggestions #3: Express a controversial idea using collage.
Ideas & Suggestions #4: Play with opposites. Example: Using flowers, collage a city out of it or vise-versa... create the image of a garden using collaged bits of buildings & mechanical images.
Next class: Using a grid to transfer a small image onto a large painting surface. Paint with which ever medium you want.. oil or acrylic.
Preparation for ACAD or art school portfolio – November 27, 2010. Instructor: Ljubica (Luba)
Day 5
- Collage day 2
- Example of complicated collage with 3-D elements (crumpled paper, twigs, branches)
Homework
- Create an acrylic or oil painting using your collage as the reference. Paint everything you see... all the torn paper edges, all the elements of the collage including any masking tape you've used or cardboard or anything.
- Bring all of your drawings that you've done... sketchbook or loose paper drawings. We have to look at them all to see what to do next.
– Bring a rough draft of your personal statement.
– From the ACAD website: “Tell us about you – your background, ambitions, inspirations and goals. In a statement of approximately 500 words, explain your reasons for wishing to study visual arts and design. Include references to your artistic interests, specific influences and educational background in the arts. “
- Essay structure: THREE Paragraphs, one page double-spaced.
Paragraph #1: Your Introduction/Background – What introduced you to art? Perhaps you have a family history of art, maybe a relative introduced you to the arts or you really loved art in school and as an extracurricular activity. You can't stop thinking about art.. you like everything to do with all forms of art, including theatre, acting, movies, music, video games, etc.
Paragraph #2: Your Ambitions & Goals – “Explain your reasons for wishing to study visual arts & design”. Where do you see yourself after art school? What can art school give you in terms of experience that will further yourself as a creative person/artist? What do you want to learn while in art school? And etc.
Paragraph #3: Your Inspirations & Conclusion – References... artists & designers you admire, styles of art or points in art history/art movements you love & any previous arts experience you may have.
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Portfolio requirements:
5 Drawing Pieces
5 Variety Pieces
5 Personal/Original Pieces
= 15 total pieces for submission
+ 1 Personal Statement.
Next week we will be drawing. Bring your sketchbooks, I will supply the rest.
In conclusion…
I should probably make a YouTube series outling what exactly I talked about in all of these classes. Its one thing having it on paper but its entirely another thing to go through it all step by step. Honestly, I would probably release this for free because I don’t feel I need to profit from the information at all. There are a ton of click-bait videos out there which will simply make you watch a long rambling speech for like 15 minutes full of sponsored crap and then at the end they will be like, “Purchase my tutorial for $10!” … how annoying lmao.
Ljubica Todorovic
August 15th, 2024
Calgary, AB Canada
