An artist's portfolio separates those who engage in art as a hobby from those who successfully translate art into a profitable business. A professional artist portfolio can help you convince physical and online gallery owners to display your work, and is typically necessary for entering juried art exhibitions and contests. It showcases the visual art pieces that most effectively demonstrate your talent and vision. Creating an artist's portfolio is time-consuming, but a carefully planned and executed portfolio can help you get noticed in the art world.
Instructions
1. Choose the art pieces you believe are most consistent with your vision, and that best demonstrate your talent as an artist. Your art portfolio should have a cohesive element -- all of the pieces can represent a single medium, such as sculpture or oil painting, or express a unifying style or theme.
2. Stage your artworks for digital photography. Cover a table with clean, smooth material and place it against a white or neutral colored wall.
3. Place your digital camera on a tripod to avoid image blurring. Set the tripod 4 to 8 ft. from the artwork, depending on the size of the work.
4. Set up lighting on both sides of your camera at 45-degree angles from the center of the artwork to achieve consistent lighting. If possible, hang a white umbrella or sheet between each light source and the artwork to diffuse the light and reduce glare.
5. Take several digital photographs of each artwork. Transfer the images to your computer and select the sharpest, most evenly lighted image of each work.
6. Use a digital image-enhancement program, such as Photoshop, Splashup or GIMP, to correct any lighting problems, and to crop unnecessary white space from each image.
7. Save each enhanced image in JPEG in a single digital file.
8. Write a brief artist's statement using a word processor. The artist's statement should describe your artistic vision, include your name and contact information and list the artworks in your portfolio. You may also include a photograph of yourself in your artist's statement.
9. Save the artist's statement in Word or PDF format in the same file as your artwork images.
