Exercise 1.4: Portfolio Development
Portfolio Development: You will prepare an electronic portfolio of at least six completed and neatly scanned plant studies in a range of media studied during the course.
What are your goals with this portfolio? Please briefly articulate them for this assignment.
Please consider the following guidelines when building your portfolio: the degree of botanical detail, accurate color-matching, use of the medium, placement of the specimen on the page, and overall design.
Your illustrations must be presented in a professional manner when building your portfolio. Always show your best work. Plan your portfolio carefully. A good portfolio should have continuity and provide viewers with a clear idea as to what your vision is. It should be organized by subjects or different styles. Horizontal and vertical images, as well as different size prints should be organized and grouped separately. Black and white images and color images should also be grouped separately for easier viewing.
Please be diligent in updating it. With that in mind, portfolios are never actually complete. There are always new samples to add, new skills to highlight, and less effective samples to remove or replace.
Lastly, be creative with your portfolio. As an artist you can brainstorm unique ways to build your portfolio.
The easiest way to organize your portfolio is by way of a well-planned PowerPoint. Students also create elaborate websites. This link is to Shujie Li's website, a recent student's online portfolio.
Hard copy portfolios work well to showcase your work professionally. Portfolios are used to show potential employers, galleries, friends and family. It is a simple way to organize your best work in one place. Your portfolio should be presented in an appropriate case or shipping case. Cases are usually available from good art supply stores or can be found online.
Electronic portfolios are another option to showcase your work, and are increasingly expected, in addition to hard copy. The idea of an electronic portfolio may sound daunting. Many artists are either too busy making art or simply just do not know how to get started. We will get more into detail on electronic portfolios throughout the course.
Creating your online portfolio need not be intimidating, but it is also not something you will be able to do in a day. Just like the other artistic pursuits you embrace, it can be amazingly creative and express the unique aspects of who you are, making your portfolio something truly special that showcases you and your work.
Your assignment is to go online and research online portfolios. Some places to start looking are the following:
Google search botanical illustrators and other illustrators/artists to check out their online portfolios for inspiraton.
ArtPlantae Today - A great website with featured botanical artists and their portfolios - www.artplantaetoday.com
Guild of Natural Science Illustrators - A community of illustrators including events, information, blogs, classes, and more - www.gnsi.org
Association of Medical Illustrators - Another community of illustrators including galleries, resources, events, info and more - www.ami.org
There are various free electronic portfolio websites that make it easy and fun to build your online portfolio without any need for html. A few websites to research, each are varied in format and style:
If you are more tech savvy, you may already be aware of website building programs such as Dreamweaver, Kompozer, Amaya, etc. For these programs you may need to have an understanding of html. For the purpose of building your simple online portfolio, explore the above websites. All should offer free simple services, please do not feel the need to buy anything extra.
If you find an online portfolio noteworthy to share, post it in the blog. Remember, the online portfolio you research does not necessarily have to be that of a botanical artist to be noteworthy and excellent as a fine example. Feel free to ask any questions you may have. Spend a good amount of time researching hard copy and electronic portfolios.
Lastly, please explore the portfolios of Kellie Cox, and Rosemary Glos, two artists who have been instrumental in the development of this course: