The first step: first understand what foreign universities value most about your portfolio.
In addition to the professional skills, the most important thing for foreign universities represented by Britain and America is what you have thought about in your portfolio, such as the experimental and even forward-looking characteristics embodied in it.
With the ideological foundation, you can play at the point you think. You want to solve the problems of a certain type of households through interior design, or you are full of expectations for the future development of the industry, and so on. These are the most common and safest starting points for preparing a portfolio.
In other words, when you are preparing your portfolio, you need to hang these starting points at all times. I think it is a core standard to highlight the purpose and make the school feel that your research is valuable and original enough at a glance [note 1]. It's like discussing the problem of conductive wires in the same collection. A is talking about how to make this line meet the needs of one person, two people and many people, and B is talking about how to make this line more beautiful and hidden. The result must be that A's works are valuable and people don't need them. What's the point of being so hidden and beautiful? (Of course, this example is a bit extreme. You can still give consideration to appearance on the basis of practicality. )
Secondly, it needs to be clear: what aspects of the collection will the school specifically inspect?
When a school looks at a student's portfolio, the most intuitive thing is to examine your typesetting logic, the second is to examine your professional skills, and the third is to look at your independent thinking ability.
Unclear typesetting logic affects the understanding of your thoughts and the willingness of the school to continue reading your portfolio. If the typesetting logic is not clear, then the other party may not have the desire to continue reading. The smell of wine is also afraid of the deep alley. There are so many students applying every year that the school doesn't have time to read and understand your portfolio, so it has to show the most important things without reservation first.
On the one hand, professional skills are reflected in the visual performance of the picture, on the other hand, they are reflected in the content of the picture. In other words, no matter how good your painting is, if you don't master the basic scale, it will also give people a sense of bluffing. Independent thinking ability is the last level, and these factors are basically the key points to determine whether your work is attractive or not.
Back to the details of the specific portfolio, this is all-round. Let me give two examples.
1. Sketchbook of portfolio
Sketchbook is a very important existence in foreign education system, especially in Britain. Students applying for the UK should generally be required to submit their own sketches. Its greatest value is that it is convenient for you to write down ideas, pictures or materials conveniently.
Of course, all good habits are not so comfortable from the beginning. You need to abuse yourself. When you really accept it, you will find that on the one hand, it will help you review at any time, on the other hand, it will also make the applicant school know your project ideas at a glance, and then get to know you through your ideas. These parts are closely related.
In addition, we should correct a misunderstanding, that is, the essential purpose of sketch books is not to show people. Many students often only pay attention to the end of the exhibition, hoping to have a beautiful sketch book from the beginning, and don't know how to start. In fact, the best way is to draw and observe it and write it as a diary. It's been a long time, and it should be a great sense of accomplishment to look back at your massive sketch books.
2. Do you want to cross portfolio projects?
Most people need to set aside a relatively concentrated period of time to prepare the works of art students studying abroad, and the progress is generally very tight, so there will often be endless situations, and "rolling drama" is inevitable. But my advice is not to do it easily. People's energy and attention are limited. If it is completely synchronized, it is easy to cause both sides to be bad.
Is there any clever way to arrange the time? I think 1-2 weeks can be superimposed at the beginning and end of a project, which has proved to be very clever and effective.
The process of making a portfolio is actually very painful. The most terrible place is not the overloaded work task, but the situation that a project becomes more and more difficult, even more difficult to get out. My own students have encountered it, and later they became more and more unhappy, and once wanted to give up the application.
In this case, I think the first thing to judge is whether it is suitable to get out and start a new stove at this time, that is, will a slight change of direction now make your previous efforts waste too much? I think it's ok to turn 20 degrees ahead of time if you can basically use the previous things, but if you want to turn in the direction of 180 degrees, it's really ... time is precious. I suggest keeping the current direction and crustily skin of head to finish things. At this time, you really need to listen to others' opinions to change your mind.
The project is stuck, and the sooner it is completed, the smarter it is. Don't think about giving it some space and time, and then it will get better. The actual situation is that the longer the delay, the more negative the mood, which will only be more and more unfavorable to the project.
Therefore, it is best to measure your interest from the beginning, evaluate the difficulty of the project, and then do it after you feel appropriate.
The above are the details that art students need to prepare for studying abroad. The difficulties for art students to apply for studying abroad mainly focus on the production of portfolios and interviews. I hope you can refer to Bian Xiao's suggestion when you apply seriously, understand the main points, enrich the application connotation, and get the ideal offer!