My (Accepted) Grad School Portfolio
Hello everyone!
Now that I've officially gotten into grad school, I thought it would be fun to share the portfolio I used to apply with.
Since my undergrad didn't require a portfolio, this was my first time putting one together for an application. It was a little daunting, and I'm sure you remember my portfolio ideas last year, back when I was looking to pursue a Visual Arts MFA. Well, changing to a Comics MFA helped "legitimize" my comic work as contenders and I had an entire backlog to look through and pick favorites. Unlike my original Visual Arts plan, I didn't have to recreate the entire portfolio from scratch. I only drew 5-6 new pictures, and that was to finish up the Inktober one-shot I wanted to include. I did have to do some light clean up work as well for a few other pieces, and a lot of rearranging on a page.
The hardest part was selecting the pieces. I think I got pretty close on my first iteration. I believe I went through another 2-3 drafts before being happy with my selection. Then after a portfolio review with the department chair, I was definitely confident.
In terms of order, I knew I wanted to start with comics first, to get that out of the way and prove I knew how to draw them. Then I wanted to show more of my non-comic art, whether it was characters, personal pieces, or watercolors. I did my best to make the flow as smooth as possible, using composition, medium, and color to help transition from one piece to the next. So, without further ado, let me walk you through the portfolio!
1. Gender comic
They always say put your best work first. I definitely felt this was the case. This was one of my more recent comics, but also one of the best/favorite ones I've done, in my opinion, especially within my This is My Life Now series. It has really resonated with a lot of people, especially on tumblr, where I still get notifications on it, and I felt it really encompassed the type of comics I like to make: personal, intimate, emotional, but still funny.
2-5: Inktober Comic
I knew I had to include this. It's one of the only fictional, narrative works that I was close to completing, and I really enjoyed the little story and how I told the story. I also thought it would make a good impact after my opener. It was a challenging project, but I thought it turned out well. I remember being in dilemma about whether to finish it or not, but I'm glad I did. This was also, hands down, the HARDEST one to figure out how to arrange for the best readability. I wasn't sure whether to go portrait or landscape, how many images to put, etc. But I think it came out well in the end.
6. Oregon
I wanted to include another comic to show range, especially one that was more typically humorous, and decided to go with this one because I liked the artwork, and it was a good blend of nature in my comics. This was still a draft at the time, so I cleaned it up, keeping the desaturated mono color palette, and really worked up the mood in the 4th panel. I wanted to play around with values as well. Interestingly, this is still a comic I haven't shared online yet, probably because it was taking me so long to finish it and I gave up on it at the time lol.
7. Excerpt from Asian Fetish comic
I knew I wanted to include this comic, because it's more of a social justice piece and spoke to issues I believe strongly in, as well as my background. The issue was I drew this comic in my sketchbook, I was running out of room, and it was really, really wordy. What I ended up doing was selecting 2 of the stronger panels that had a good balance of illustration and text. I cleaned it up a little as well, but I ended up liking the lighting tint, so I didn't shop it too much. I had heard encouragement for including traditional work as well, and again, I wanted to show range and diversity.
8. "Moving Blues"
At this point I wanted to transition to non-comic pieces. I thought this gallery piece was the perfect image to do so, since it still has my typical comic staples, but explored in a different way. I wouldn't say it's my strongest piece, but I think it does a good job capturing the intimate aspects of my style. Plus I figured being able to say I had a gallery piece was good.
9. Sketchbook Pieces
Continuing on the theme of emotions and personal work lol. Even though these are sketchbook pieces, I still like them. I think the art itself is pretty good, and again, I like doing personal work lol.
10. "None of Your Fucking Business"
Another gallery piece of mine! Come to think of it, I've done about 3 galleries... huh! Anyways, even though looking at it now makes me cringe at the anatomy, I still really like this, and I thought it definitely showed my point of view and featured another issue I care strongly about, but with a more "fuck you!" attitude. This piece was done for charity and sold! Which was another fun thing to brag about lol. Also, at the time I painted this I don't think I intended for it to look like me, but. Clearly it does lol.
11. Portal House characters
I bounced off the more "character" focused art prior to this one. I wanted to show my character work because, well, I like them and it's another thing I like to do. And of course, Portal House is a comic I really want to draw, so I figured it made sense to showcase more fictional, narrative work that I was interested in exploring.
12. Pwisciwwa Wiwwow DND character sketch
I just really like how this watercolor sketch came out, and again, it's another fun character design I did for the first campaign I played. Plus I feel that there is some storytelling happening in her design itself, which I also wanted to show that I knew how to do, and how I liked to do it.
13. "Fishsticks" Kids on Bikes character sketch
I wasn't initially sure whether to include this, but I really liked the character design and expression. I feel like there is some storytelling going on as well in the drawing. My aim for these types of pieces is for the viewer to want to know more about the character. I asked during my portfolio review whether it was okay to include something more sketchy, and he said it was fine. Plus, again, some diversity as this character is less "cutesy" compared to my other ones.
14. "The Weaver and the Herdsman"
This is an older watercolor I painted a few years ago, but I still wanted to include it. For starters, it's an illustration of a Korean folktale. I want to explore more of that in my work, and I also really like how it turned out. Definitely a lot of story elements in here, along with some foreshadowing with the magpies. I remembered being really proud of this after I painted it, and even though I can see some flaws and would do things a little differently now, I'm still really happy with it. And of course, culturally, this was a story I grew up reading, so I wanted to include it.
15. Plein Aire
And finally, I wanted to end with some full color images. I do a lot of plein aire paintings, as you well know, and it's definitely something I'd like to incorporate with my comic art someday. Plus, you know, the paintings are good! I knew I wanted to include the 2nd one, but narrowing it done to one more was pretty tough. I ended up polling a bunch of my friends and family for their favorites, and there were several votes for the first Jade Cove painting, so in it went! The department chair seemed to really resonate with these, so I'm glad I chose to include them.
So there you have it! My full grad school portfolio, and why I included the pieces I did. Because I have so many interests, I really wanted to showcase the diversity and variety of my work, to give a really well-rounded view of not just my art, but myself as a person and my point of view. And evidently it paid off! I will most likely share this on my blog as well at a later date, but for now, I hope you enjoyed this insider look into my portfolio! Let me know your thoughts, especially what your favorite piece is hehehe. Thanks for reading! <3