deviantART is offering a new, fabulous feature for us, Beta Testers.


This brings us to some pretty important questions...

What is a portfolio?
Why should an artist have a portfolio?
What makes a good portfolio?
How should I organize my portfolio?....

I will try to answer these questions in one short article.


WHAT'S A PORTFOLIO?

A simple answer is "A showcase of your talent". But there is more to a portfolio then meets the eye. A well done portfolio reflects who you are and your strengths as an artist with only a few images.

dA provides you with an online portfolio option. To open your portfolio, click HERE

WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE A PORTFOLIO?

A portfolio can be used in many ways. This is your best tool of sharing your work with others. Its short and simple, and should summarize your accomplishments as an artist.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PORTFOLIO?

A portfolio should provoke interest in your audience. A perfect portfolio will engage the viewer, and leave them interested in your work. If a portfolio is too long, it will bore the audience, if its too short it will not show your full talent.

Your portfolio should be based on the audience you would like to impress, but in general, it should contain your best work, showing your personal style and a variety of techniques and talents.

HOW SHOULD MY PORTFOLIO BE ORGANIZED?

As of right now, there are not very many options for organizing your portfolio in dA. As a general rule of thumb, keep it short and sweet.

Your work should be the center of attention so do not create any busy backgrounds or anything else that will compete with your work.

You have a freedom to organize your images in what ever order you would like, but I suggest keeping them organized by theme or technique.

~ For instance, keep all macro together and all the landscapes together. There shouldn't be a picture of a landscape and then a picture of a macro and then a black and white image, unless they are all of the same theme, and provide necessary details for each other.

~If you have a very random assortment of images, I suggest making them all unified by matting them in the same color or making all of them the same size.

WHATS THE NEXT STEP?

Its time to put what you learned to practice.
Go to your portfolio and explore your options. Just play around and soon you will find which images deserve to be in a portfolio and what looks the best.


And don't forget to pimp this article by + it!

Thank you for reading!