18 days to go before application deadline and your’re still trying to figure out what to put in your portfolio, right?  Well here are some helpful suggestions to get your RISD portfolio in-tip top shape and out the door by February 15th.  I have broken the portfolio preparation into several simple steps for you to follow.  Please keep in mind however; that these are just suggestions and you can really put anything you want into your RISD portfolio!

Step 1: First thing’s first; get all of your artwork together in one massive heap and spread it out on the floor so that you can look at everything simultaneously.

Step 2:  It’s now time to eliminate a few things right away.  Any pieces that you have done prior to your junior year can be taken out of your RISD portfolio. Chances are, these pieces are not as sophisticated as your more recent works and you only want to include your best!

Step 3: It is my suggestion that your sketches, drawings and paintings of pop-culture icons and celebrities can be edited out of your portfolio.  If Johnny Depp was not in the room with you while you were sketching his portrait, I suggest you remove it from your portfolio.  We want to see original artworks and if you’re copying a celebrity picture from a magazine, it’s clearly not original.

Step 4: You have now hopefully edited a few pieces out and your probably feeling a little less overwhelmed. Now it’s time to hone in on your strongest pieces.  Generally, the pieces that you had the most fun creating will be among your strongest.  If you struggled with a dull assignment in art class, we will be able to see that struggle and it will be dull to look at.  Pick out the pieces that you were most engaged and excited about creating.  Also, in selecting these works, you may want to include a few works that were done from direct observation.  This is not mandatory, but drawing from life is such a huge component to the Freshman Foundation year that we suggest showing us a few examples.

Step 5:  You have now whittled down your selection to your favorites and It’s time to ask yourself some questions about each piece: Does it have a good composition?  Does it reflect my level of skill? Does it make use of the whole paper? Did I execute my concept well? Is it interesting to look at? Did I put effort into it? Is this piece a good reflection of my unique creative perspective?

Be honest with yourself.  Remember, less is sometimes more and if you truly feel that only 12 of your pieces are your best, then only submit those 12!  You will most-definitely undermine the integrity of those 12 works if you decide to throw in your inferior works as filler.

Step 6: Congratulations, you have now edited your portfolio down to only your best works and it’s time to reproduce them into 35mm slides, jpegs or printouts. You can choose any one of these three methods-it’s completely up to you! You might consider enlisting a friend with a nice camera to help you shoot your works, or you might even hire a professional. Again, it’s completely up to you!  Make sure whichever method you chose, that the reproductions are clear and accurately reflect the original pieces. Think about lighting and perhaps showing multiple views of three-dimensional pieces.  If your reproductions are terrible, we will not be able to indentify your true abilities, talent and artistic vision.

I hope these tips get you through one of the toughest aspects of the application process.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at lscotto@risd.edu.

Good Luck!
Lee Ann Scotto, Admissions Officer

With less than 3 weeks to go until the final Freshman Deadline, panic is in the air about the three assigned drawings.  I get questions every day on my facebook group about ideas, media, size, and more.  Here are some of my responses:

“Velum yes, glue no:) Have fun!”

“You can certainly do a drawing of altered paper for the two sided drawing, but you still have to do an additional altered paper drawing. Nice try though :)”

“You can alter the paper to make any form you want with any materials you want, but the drawing of the altered form should be 16 by 20 inches in graphite on white paper. Have fun with it!”

“Bigger is fine. Don’t worry about it. We start to worry when they are smaller than the required size. Breathe. :)”

“Water with the graphite is fine.”

“That sounds great. I can’t wait to see the result!”

“You should consider the whole area, but you don’t have to draw on every square inch. Have fun! Easy for me to say, right?”

Over and over again, I say “Have fun.”  I can only imagine how illogical this advice must seem to someone who is completely stressed out about the admissions process.  Have fun.  Have fun.  Am I crazy?  How could anyone possibly have fun with any part of a college application?  College admissions is far too serious, right?

Well, it is serious, and I don’t want to try to diminish that seriousness in any way.  But here’s the thing, most artists create their very best art work when their minds are open, when you feel free to let your inspiration take hold of you and lead you.  Putting yourself in that head space to do these three drawings will be really hard, but is absolutely critical.  The best drawings that we see are always the ones where it’s clear the student loved doing them.

So how do you get to that head space if you’re completely stressed out?  First of all, breathe.   Okay, the next step is to think about what you love to draw.  What’s your favorite subject?  What’s the thing that you would draw without any assignment at all?  The final step is to take that thing that you love to draw, and somehow incorporate the assignment into it.  Say, for example, you love to draw fruit.  You love setting up bananas, pears, oranges, and other organic edible things in still lifes.  Arrange the fruit in the spokes of a bicycle wheel, or in a shape that roughly approximates a bicycle, or in the shadow of a bicycle, or in a bicycle helmet, or on a plate with a drawing of a bicycle on it, or…well, you get the idea.

We’re trying to get a sense of your unique creative perspective in these drawings.  It will be different from person to person–illustrators and sculptors draw in completely different ways, but both perspectives are still valid and wonderful.  Your perspective will emerge as you draw, without any effort on your part, provided you do a drawing that you love.

I hope this helps, but if you still have questions, ideas, or panic attacks, please contact me any time.

Lucy King, Assistant Director of Admissions

Contact me at lking@risd.edu

 Lectures, openings, club activities …. each day RISD offers students a tasty menu of things to do outside of the studio and classroom.  You’ll find them all displayed on the digital bulletin boards located around the campus, and you’ll probably need to polish your time-management skills to try to take it all in.  RISD students can also enjoy the co-curricular activity menu at our neighbor, Brown University, as well.     Ed Newhall, Director of Admissions, contact me at enewhall@risd.edu 

Before (left) After (Right)

New look of the RISD bookstore

 Over the years the RISD store has gone through many changes.   Last semester the bookstore side of the RISD Store was closed for renovations. What came out of this renovation was a new space that encourages community awareness and involvement. 

If you are visiting our campus, stop by the RISD bookstore and check out the new look. http://www.risdstore.com/