While Kambara is quick to say that she’s not an artist herself, she has built a career around facilitating creative people. “I always wanted to support artists,” she said on Rising Together. “I just needed to be around creativity all the time.”

And for her job, “Creativity ends up being how you manage projects and how you manage others and how you’re able to support a team to take care of the vision.” That type of organizational thinking is exactly what’s needed when assembling a portfolio.

For prospective students, portfolios are a way to clearly demonstrate artistic capabilities like perspective, depth, dimension, and even color theory. The work itself should get all the focus, argued Kambara. Any unnecessary explanations or muddled captions will detract from your perceived skill level.

That’s why the veteran producer and production coordinator recommends that students start early, building their portfolio a little at a time so that the end result is clear and organized rather than rushed and jumbled.

“A nice thing about working on it over time is you can step back and see what you may want to edit before you submit it,” said Kambara. “If you procrastinate, it gives less opportunity for editing and getting feedback from others.”

That being said, you’re not trying to turn the portfolio into a work of art in and of itself. The point of the portfolio is to let your actual artwork speak for itself, and the best way to do that is to put it out there and then get out of the way. The presentation shouldn’t overshadow the artwork by being overly showy or complex.

“Your portfolio work will speak for your style and voice—let your work shine and show who you are,” said Kambara. “Lay out an organized presentation of your work and use a uniform font for the text.”

“A non-cohesive presentation is a common mistake,” she added. “When portfolios are not presented in a cohesive way, it can distract the reviewer from intently looking at your work.”

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When assembling an artist portfolio, Caloiaro emphasizes observational work that demonstrates technical ability more than personal expression.

“The biggest problem I see [in student portfolios] is including too much fan art or other work that does not clearly demonstrate foundational abilities,” Caloiaro said. “It’s fine to include pieces that demonstrate your ability to invent and conceptualize, but most schools want to see your observational work. As an art professor myself, this is what I look at most seriously when evaluating student work.”

While aspiring artists are eager to demonstrate individual style and perspective, Caloiaro urges patience. Style should be built on a solid foundation, and there will be plenty of time for personal style to evolve organically.

“At the student level, I don’t think artistic voice is something that should be emphasized as heavily as observational work,” he said. “Individual artistic voice will develop naturally. It’s like handwriting—everyone has a unique way of writing that develops without any real intention of individuality.”

Still, he added, “observational” is not the same as sterile photocopying. Good observational art still leaves room for a sense of perspective and emotion.

“Creativity is something that comes through more in conceptual, narrative or inventive work, but it also shows in simple things like how the individual artist makes marks or interprets the subjects that are being drawn, painted, or sculpted,” he said. “It’s important to not just copy things in a formulaic way, but do so with expression and enthusiasm. You can creatively respond to your subject without approaching it with mathematical stiffness.”

For teachers, too, there’s a balance to be struck between pushing the foundations and allowing for individualism. “If you get away from the fundamentals too soon, the student will be much less versatile,” he explained. “And if you stifle too much of their creativity, their work can get sterile and dull.”

It’s a balance he admits that he struggles with himself. The key is to read the situation.

Caloiaro said that teachers are responsible, in part, for broadening students’ horizons by exposing them to widely varying styles as they develop.

“Once they are farther along in their schooling, it’s important to expose students to wide range of influences (both historic and contemporary), so the student is less likely to just regurgitate the same type of work that they are seeing on the internet, social media or even from their peers,” he said.

Portfolios, especially when you’re trying to get into art school, can become an all-encompassing pursuit. But it is possible to put too much emphasis on compiling a portfolio, at the expense of the art itself. Above all, Caloiaro added, “Don’t stress about it.”

“While it is important to have the portfolio in mind, the work that is done throughout the school year should not be simply viewed as a means to an end, but should be done with skill and passion.”

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