Art Prof Clara Lieu critiques an art school portfolio by high school student Ritu, providing a detailed critique of the overall portfolio, followed by critiques for each individual artwork.
Prof Lieu highlights what aspects of the entire portfolio and artworks are working well, and recommends concrete strategies for how to make progress.
Featured Artist
Leo Knudsen
“I am aiming to get into an illustration or graphic design program. My passion for art has always been in my heart, but it was buried in my high school years because of demanding academics and the absence of art programs in my school.
I’m wondering what I could do to diversify my portfolio. This has been a difficulty because my school teaches only graphite and gouache. For now, I’m planning to do colored 3D art with clay, some concept art illustrations for a fake animation movie, and more graphic design projects.
One of the entrance exams for art colleges that my prep school specializes in includes a five-hour gouache illustration/graphic with a hand-copied word with a specific font incorporated in the piece.
Because I only have five hours after the prompt is given to finish the piece, I can only draw things that can be finished within five hours.
I regularly make these in my school, but would including these in the portfolio be a bad idea, or will the admissions team in the US recognize the context of these pieces if I wrote them down in the portfolio?
I included three of my works in this context at the end of the slideshow as a reference.”
