You are a talented artist and are preparing to embark on a career in the visual arts world. You have a bounty of impressive artwork, but, unfortunately, talent and inspired works aren't enough to land you the dream job. Not until your portfolio is ready.
Whether you draw, paint, design, sculpt or photograph, you will only be taken seriously in the art world when you have a well put together presentation of your creations. Whether you are showing work online, in person or both, your portfolio is key to your sales pitch. As the viewers’ introduction to your work, a portfolio tells your story and showcases your skills, interests, and attention to detail.
Presenting the right work to the right person can open up huge professional opportunities. Thus, having a powerful and effective portfolio could mean the difference between achieving your goals and falling short of your potential.
Whether your goal is to get admitted into a desired college or university, land your dream design or photography job, or simply to sell more of your artwork in person or online, improving your portfolio lays the groundwork on your path toward success. It’s your move.
This guide is designed to help you to take charge of your portfolio and achieve your artistic goals. This is written for aspiring and/or active professional artists who wish diligently, strategically, and productively market their work.
The three most essential steps in the portfolio creation process are clarification, preparation, and presentation. To thrive in any competitive scenario, every professional has to pay attention to all three, no matter what medium or you’ve chosen.
If you follow these three steps, you will have thoughtfully chosen your strongest pieces of art and organized them in a way that best suits your upcoming interview or meeting.
Photographers Near Me.Invest time and energy into thoughtfully jotting down all your artistic and professional goals, no matter how outlandish they may seem. I've found it valuable and insightful to explore why I want to achieve a goal, not just what the goal is.
"If you don't know where you are going, you'll probably end up somewhere else."
~ Lewis Carroll
Secondly, and more specific to putting real power into your portfolio, you must begin with the audience in mind. How exactly do you want people to feel while viewing your work? What reaction do you hope to elicit?Answer these questions in writing to become clear on your what your end-game is, so you can be thoughtful and focused throughout the process.
Review your first list of desired future artistic achievements and ask yourself if you’ll need a portfolio to reach those goals. The simple formula is this; if you are a visual artist then you need one or several awe-inspiring portfolios. Whether you want to be a freelance artist or photographer, be hired on as a permanent employee by a person or company, own a studio, or to make a living selling your artwork directly or through galleries, your competitive edge, your ability to create interest, resides in your portfolio. The trick is, different opportunities will require different displays and selections of your artwork.
To clarify and define your desired outcome(s), ask yourself these three questions:With that target in mind, decide which of your pieces will most likely win their favor. For an example, if your dream job is to work as a National Geographic Photographer, you’ll want to design a portfolio utilizing your most compelling photojournalistic images, detailed pictures showcasing the culture and raw beauty of your subjects. You may also want to include wildlife photography and landscapes. This would not be the appropriate audience to share your wedding photography albums or even your best-posed family portraits with unless they were of indigenous tribes in Australia and in front of an erupting volcano.
If you’re going to be presenting your work to get accepted into a college or university, most art programs will clarify exactly what they’ll want you to provide. Generally, an admissions representative will ask to see works of yours that falls into specific categories such as observational art using a still life, figure model, or landscape, personal art in any media that is your own original concept and a home exam where they’ll give you something specific to draw, paint or photograph.
It is important to remember your artwork is not your soul, but rather a singular expression, exploration or experience. An artist’s portfolio, much like a chain, is only as strong as it’s weakest ‘link’ or work of art.
Each piece in your portfolio must be clean, complete, and thoroughly edited. The last thing that you want is for the viewer of your work to be thinking of what they would edit or change. It is recommended that you limit the number of images that you are showing to no less than ten prints and no more than twenty.1
According to Brian Dilg, the head of the New York Film Academy's photography school, the single most common error in judgement that people make when arranging their portfolio is that they include images from the same photo shoot which are too similar.2 Therefore, it is best you show a variety of images from a range of different events. Whether we are presenting about paintings, designs or photography, you will want to show your diversity of skills and cross-capabilities while still keeping to the central theme or style of each gallery.
There are also many online businesses such as Shutterfly.com or Snapfish.com where you can create a photo book of your collection. These offer many design options from custom page colors and textures to various cover types. I recommend you keep it simple with solid color backgrounds and avoid getting fancy with custom frames and designs as they can easily be very distracting.
Remember, the goal is to showcase your work and talentsWhichever platform you choose, you’ll want to research and familiarize yourself with SEO (search engine optimization) techniques. Both platform options have their benefits and drawbacks, so here is a brief synopsis.
Creating your own website can take a serious investment of time and effort, and in some cases coding knowledge. You can save time and money by using sites such as Wordpress, Flickr, Weebly, and Squarespace. Through these sites, you’ll find many customizable templates with a great deal of design flexibility. Some sites include unlimited photo proofing for your clients, which is a time-saving feature that they’ll appreciate. Lastly, beware of sites and platforms that charge fees for each upload.3To improve your website’s speed, you should compress your images with jpeg-optimizer.com, tinyjpg.com, or tinypng.com. A faster loading site makes for a more pleasant user experience. Avoid using non-professional website names, and try to keep your site name in line with your line of work. Take the time to perfect each page, and keep an eye out for typos and grammatical errors.
Dedicated portfolio websites are a great solution for those, like myself, who don’t have any coding knowledge and simply want to upload images for views, shares, and sales. Sites like these are less customizable from a design standpoint, therefore making it a bit more difficult to brand yourself, although they also have built-in SEO, and therefore can attract traffic quickly.Take some time to explore portfolio building sites such as FineArtAmerica.com, Foliolink.com, Zenfolio.com, FolioHD.com, Orosso.com, Photoshelter.com, Pixpa.com, and SmugMug.com.4 These portfolio services enable you to drive traffic with search engine friendly URLs and unique meta tags for your images.
Whichever platform you choose, you should take the time to optimize your site in every way possible. Make your contact information easily accessible, write a powerful and relatable biography, and include a professional photo of yourself.
In any effective sales process, your goal is to find where you can provide the most value to the prospect by asking the right questions. This may sound obvious, and it is, but the most important element is to be genuinely interested in what the other person likes, wants, and needs.
If there are certain elements the buyer is looking for, it is wise to subtly point out without over-emphasizing those particular strengths and qualities in your images. Do your best to make your conversation 80% about them and only 20% about you.
You may want to create a script for yourself so you have time to rehearse, review and revise portfolio sales pitch. Mastering your presentation will take practice, patience, and persistence.
One way to make yourself more comfortable speaking to clients or recruiters is to practice presenting your portfolio in front of the mirror. It may sound embarrassing, but it will help you to build inner strength and confidence. After that, present to your trusted family and friends. You’ll get some positive and some constructive feedback, so make adjustments as needed.
If the work that you chose to share is not exactly what they are looking for, don't lose hope. Ask what is missing and what they’d like to see more of next time. Then, without hesitation, schedule a follow-up meeting with enough time for you to make the changes that they requested.
It is important to keep in mind that relationships with admissions counselors, art directors, gallery owners, and buyers aren’t formed after one meeting, but rather take time and nurturing to become mutually beneficial. In other words, be patient with yourself and your portfolio, and enjoy doing the work that causes your art career to flourish!
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