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Developing Your Artist Portfolio

by Ryan Lewis

Creating an Artist Portfolio

Creating an artist portfolio can be both a great exploration of your own artistic self and a completely daunting task outside of your comfort zone. As if creating artwork isn’t personal enough, now it’s time to put your entire art career into a portfolio and self promote. Even with this in mind, building an artist portfolio is a necessary and important step in defining yourself as an artist and building a successful career.

The artist portfolio should be viewed as an evolving grouping of letters, images, features and statements. It should never be static. An artist needs to be committed to maintaining originality and creativity throughout and updating the collection as the need arises. Revisions may include focusing the document to a specific group or gallery, removing outdated themes or making sure the images maintain a high quality. Too often artists focus on building the ‘perfect’ resume but are still handing it out years later.

Each artistic medium will have a unique standard for artist profiles. This article is designed to target a broad range of important features and give the artist a starting point when creating their own personal artistic profiles.

Where you’ve been: the Artist Resume and Bio

While the artist resume details your progression and experience, it is not the same type of document you write to apply for a job. The artist resume should detail your accomplishments, success and art education in a professional manner. When writing an artist resume it is important to first make a list of all the major artistic events of your career. This includes inspirational works, galleries you have visited, other artists you admire, shows and events you have attended and commissioned works you have created. Once you have an understanding of your past, you need to put it down in a format that is easily understood.

The resume should be divided with logical headings that group items such as your exhibitions, solo shows or educational courses. Clearly mark each section using bold or italics and use headings that are common terms within the industry. List all your experiences in reverse chronological order starting with the most recent item. Keep each section uncluttered, remove unrelated text and focus on specific events and themes.

Usually the artist resume is kept between 1 and 4 pages long – depending on the target audience – and is printed on a white, off-white or lightly shaded paper. Ask your local stationary supply store for a high quality resume paper. Make everything as clear as possible by using a font, such as Arial or Times Roman, that is easy to read and the font size between 10 and 12.

An artist resume is not a C.V. or an artist bio. The C.V. is a chronological listing of all events and professional functions you have attended. The bio is written to highlight the key features of your resume with additional details. Keep all three documents clear and concise. When people are interested in reading more about you, do not drown them with your life story or irrelevant material.

Who you are: the Artist Statement

The artist statement is a very important part of your overall ‘persona’ as an artist. It may seem silly to write about yourself but keep working. Do not stop before you give yourself a chance. An artist’s statement written by the artist will normally be more meaningful and representative of your true self. If you are unsure, get your family, friends and colleagues to read the statement and make suggestions. Be bold but make sure it’s you on the paper not someone else’s impression of you. If all else fails, get professional help with the written statement; however, always approve and improve the final draft.

When writing your statement, try to bring in information from a few different aspects of your work. Start with the intangible features such as where your ideas came from and the feeling you want to inspire. Discuss the technical side including the mediums you chose or the conditions that you worked in. Finally, talk about your passion and maybe even include a few motivating factors that have affected your direction.

The artist statement can be Artist or Piece Specific. The artist specific statement should talk about you, the art show and the general impression of the pieces included. An art specific statement is used to promote one piece of work or a small series. It acts as a feature sheet and is very effective in creating an emotional link to the piece.

An important thing to keep in mind is who you are targeting. If you are attending a country fair you are going to have a very different crown than during the opening night of a solo show. Talk to people, read other statements and try to determine what piques the interest of your audience. The more they know about you the better they will like you and your art. Buyers and art critics want to know that some feeling and passion went into your work. Let it show through in your statement.

What you create: Work Samples

When it comes down to it, the work samples are the most important part of your portfolio. While the resume may get you looked at, it will be the work samples that get your foot in the door. These samples can range from color prints of your work to video presentations or CD/DVD shots. Again it comes down to knowing your audience and the industry standards for your genre of art.

If you are not going to create professional looking work samples, don’t make any at all. There are too many artists in the world for judges or galleries to waste their time on an unprofessional portfolio. If you can afford it, hire a professional to take the pictures and match the colors for you. Distributing high quality and brilliantly colored images will make your career move forward much faster. Being young or inexperienced is not an excuse for representing yourself unprofessionally.

If you decided to take the pictures yourself then set your area up the way professionals do. Hang a white fabric behind the pieces. Get a few bright yet muted lights at different angles to highlight all sides of the piece. Use a tripod and a hands-free cord to improve clarity then take some test shots by moving the lighting or angles. When you are finished, get them developed and see which ones worked and which did not. When you are happy with the results, take pictures of all your work and get them printed on a high quality photo paper.

The second step for the work sample is to have a summary sheet for your art pieces. This should detail the title, dimensions, medium, materials, completion date, artwork statement and any other supporting information. Print this document on a separate sheet and include it with the work samples in the portfolio. Remember to label each piece so that the judge or gallery owner can associate the art to the details.

Final Items

With a professional artist portfolio you not only impress those viewing your work, but you can feel confident in the presentation and discussion of yourself as an artist.

Make sure you have completely read through the portfolio many times. Look for errors, outdated information, grammatical or spelling mistakes and proper placement of your materials. Get a friend or colleague to look through as an additional check. The goal is to take away any potential negative impression from the portfolio allowing your artwork to speak for itself. A judge or gallery owner will be more likely to spend those extra few seconds if they like what they see. One small error could be the difference between success and rejection.

Find out as much information as you can about the group that will be viewing the work. It may require some shuffling of the information, work samples, the inclusion of a letter requesting representation or a required form to be completed. If a gallery accepts your portfolio then it means they are interested in seeing your work. Your portfolio should tell them about you and about your art in a well organized yet particular way. The advantage will go to the artist who gets their point across quickly and efficiently.

Do not get discouraged if it takes a few tries before you find a successful format. Ask fellow artists to show you their portfolios. Make mental notes about what you like or what you would change to improve the collection. Talk with art groups or even contact artists that already have gallery representation to see what has worked for them. It is your responsibility to promote yourself and develop your career so ask questions and get o know the industry.

As the old saying goes, ‘don’t try to reinvent the wheel’. If you find a common successful factor in your craft go with it. Make it yours. Art is about creativity and about putting yourself out there so be confident in yourself, your work and your portfolio.

About The Author: Ryan Lewis, Artist and BComm graduate, is a member of ArtistLane and currently shows his artwork at the Gust Gallery in Waterton Lakes National Park. Ryan Lewis writes articles for ArtistLane pertaining to the business aspect of being an artist. You can view his work on this site or at his personal website RyanLewis.ca.
To contact Ryan Lewis, send a message via e-mail to Lewis@ArtistLane.com.