" The Killer Portfolio: Part Two, Revenge of the Killer Portfolio "

In the first instalment of “The Killer Portfolio” Angi Sullens, Eric Lofgren, and Judith Metzger gave some great advice for getting started with your portfolio. In this second edition, I would like to answer some more specific portfolio questions. For example, what is an artist statement/biography? Where do I get slides? How do I put it together? These are important things to know about a portfolio. Here is a simple guide to the staples of a portfolio.

The Artist’s Statement

As an artist you will be required to sum up your theory’s, ideology, history, practices and use of materials in a concise statement. This is an opportunity to describe your art and what it means to you. It can include your inspirations and what drives you to create, or the history of your growth as an artist. For example: “When I was a girl I read The Lord of the Rings and there was no going back.”. The artist statement is a personal thing. You can choose to reveal as much or as little about yourself as you like.

A helpful tip when writing your artist statement is to read the statements of other artists. This can give you a good idea of what is expected and it is always interesting to see how others view their art. You will come across cheesy one liners like “My art is a window to my soul and right now the window is closed.”, or in depth exposé’s involving influences of the family sitcom on an artists choice to paint leather recliners.

Your Statement will probably be re-written a thousand times through out your career. This is totally normal. Ideas change and artists grow so the statement should reflect this process. Sometimes you will be required to write different Statements for different things. Whenever your involved with a specific project, a specialized statement to explain your thoughts behind it becomes necessary.

The Artist Biography (AKA: C.V. or Curriculum Vitae)

The Biography is almost the same as a resume, tailored towards your career as an artist. Include exhibitions, professional credits, job experience, education, articles, reviews and any other pertinent information. Your contact information is also a must. Keep it simple and straight forward. A single page is often all that is necessary. When your list starts to grow adding another page is ok.

It is very important to keep the information in your Bio current. Always list your accomplishments starting with the most current. It is not necessary to include everything. As your list grows you can pick and choose a smaller list of credits.

Photographing Your Work

It is so important to produce quality reproductions of your work. Whether you are publishing it to the web or producing slides or prints your work should be as close to the original as possible.

Unless you are a very experienced photographer yourself, I would recommend hiring a very experienced professional photographer. This is an area where investing some money is well worth it. You can buy cheap materials to produce your work, but if your portfolio is full of mediocre reproductions, your selling yourself short. From this photo shoot you can get slides, prints, and negatives. The negatives are a good thing to have if you need more copies in the future. You can get copies from slides but these are never as good a quality. Try to get as many slides per piece as you can afford.

For the non-digital artist scanning your work can be a great asset. The equipment is expensive but a good scanner and accompanying soft wear is all you need. Once scanned and imputed to your computer you can do a thousand things with the images. Even though the scanner is an easy way to document your work, I would still recommend getting the photos taken. Especially for larger pieces which have been scanned in several parts and reassembled.

Putting It Together

There are many ways to put together a portfolio. It can be fancy or simple. I think that since the artwork is a reflection of you the packaging should also reflect your aesthetic.

A physically strong portfolio is important. You want it to take some punishment and still look good. To keep the pages clean I like to use plastic sheet covers. Make sure that each page has your contact info clearly marked. Any additional paraphernalia included in the portfolio should also be labelled. Never assume that if you send a portfolio it will be sent back. If you want anything returned include a self addressed stamped envelope.

A good heavy duty slide sheet is also a must. Each slide should have the title, size, and date of the piece as well as an arrow indicating the top. A slide list should always accompany your slides and the numbers should correspond to a number on the actual slide. Depending on the quality of the slide or even the position of the image in the slide you may need to tape. Taping is done to get rid of any excess space around the image. The tape to use is specially designed for slides. It is silver in colour and will block the light of the projector. When the slide is viewed all you will see is the image surrounded by black. This really makes the slide look clean and professional.

It is very important to customize your portfolio according to where you are sending it to. If your proposing an exhibition, applying for an illustration gig or entering a contest, make sure your portfolio has all the required elements. If there are any submission guidelines make sure you follow them to the letter. A personal touch is always a great addition - a cover letter is often all you need to accomplish this.

I hope this simple guide filled out your knowledge base. Being a professional artist is definitely about producing great artwork, but it’s also about acting, talking and walking like a pro. If you take yourself seriously others will too.