Art School Portfolio Critique by a RISD Art Professor

Hear a detailed critique of an art school portfolio, starting with a critique of the overall portfolio, followed by critiques for each individual artwork. Critique by RISD Adjunct Professor Clara Lieu, portfolio by Rachel He.
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Clara Lieu was an Adjunct Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design from 2007-2020. Her artwork has been exhibited at the International Print Center NY, the Currier Museum, Childs Gallery, the Davis Museum, and more. Lieu received an artist fellowship from the MA Cultural Council, has written for the NY Times, and lectured at Brown University, the NAEA conference, and in Vancouver & China. She has been profiled in Artsy, Hyperallergic, KPCC, & WBUR.
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[@Nikkiiwang1]

I wish you were my teacher. Nowadays, teachers are so afraid to offend their students, that they have to bury any criticism in tons of accolades. For example, they would say “Awesome job, great drawing, best I’ve seen, your technique is superb. I like this and I love that. Shadows a touch hard, but otherwise, and I think you’re on your way do you becoming a great Artist.“ Students may feel warm and fuzzy inside, but they are not learning anything. I may not agree with all of your opinions, but you make such a strong argument for all of your constructive criticisms, that I can Definitely incorporate your ideas into my work.

[@artprof]

I'm glad to hear you are learning from our videos, that's wonderful to hear! Thank you for your support!

[@Zoee934]

I'd say the background in 18:00 is a polaroid photo and she's like coming out of it

[@neilagangitlog]

Omg that tiger piece IS an assignment. I saw a similar piece in another portfolio, but it has dinosaurs instead of tigers

[@Wrinklyanimegod]

I love the contrast between the graphite sheet and the bright metal fish. :)

[@kaiaalfhild3642]

I do too, I feel like some of her opinions are bland and based on "traditional" art standards. Like the photographs thing, update yourself and realize photo reference has serious advantages and makes more sense for our world today.

[@BobSmith-pl6sm]

@@kaiaalfhild3642 I think she was emphasizing drawing from life because it forces you to be looser and more expressive rather than being a human printer.

[@catninjaa]

You should add the links of the articles you mention in the description box :) they sound very helpful.

[@artprof]

Good point! I just added the links. Hope this is helpful!

[@artprof]

By the way, much more content is coming soon, we are launching the new Art Prof website in early 2017! If you'd like to be notified of our site launch, you can sign up for our email list here: eepurl.com/bSrjSD

[@Nikkiiwang1]

By the way, you are the one and only KZbin channel I have ever subscribed to. Keep up the good work.

[@artprof]

Awesome, thank you!!

[@eden-yx9jy]

thank you so much for all these videos :) very helpful

[@artprof]

Cool! We have many more critique videos here: artprof.org/critiques/

[@artprof]

Join our Art School Portfolios Group! Ongoing support & critiques, voice sessions with Prof Lieu. Get a chance to connect with other students for $30-$40 monthly. More info: artprof.org/art-school/art-school-portfolios-group/

[@naamahalevi1888]

Hey! I really like all your reviews, they are really helpful. In the beginning of the video you said you'll send the student an article you wrote about drawing from photographs, I would love to read it, I just don't know how since you haven't included a link. It would be really great if you could tell how and where can I read it 😊

[@artprof]

Thanks for the heads up! I put a card in the video where I mention it which links to the article, and I also added the link to the video description. Here is the article: artprof.org/art-school-portfolio-drawing-from-life-photos/ This tutorial we have on gesture drawing also discusses a lot of the themes and ideas in the article as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3irmKaIhJt-qNE -Prof Lieu

[@bluebutterfly5062]

What exactly is wrong with "cheesy" content? When talking about the violin man painting, while i understand the critics about the background and such, i felt the idea was creative and had potential. It seems like a lot of professors just want to see old-fashioned "traditional" art and are quick to shoot down more whimsical and fantasy-like content. Why is that?

[@neilagangitlog]

I think it comes across as cheesy because it's a very literal rendition of a violin man concept.

[@drawingfandome]

As much as I agree those shirts don’t belong especially since she already has other mixed media or not just drawing and painting works to show off! But at the very least they could have gotten a mannequin torso to Put those shirts on to deeply then better! On amazon I saw some mannequins going for 20 to 11 bucks. Granted I don’t know if it would work for sizing since the cheap ones don’t have adjustable sizing! But still fashion designers use them so if your going to show off that type of work do it right! Not to mention this is more personal than critical but I’m sure they put in the shirts and honors society photo just to say “hey I was à in these clubs and look I designed a shirt for some of them!” When I feel all that information should not be in a portfolio and instead should be in the letters to the college or letters of recommendation that kind of thing. That’s more information you tell not show.

[@artprof]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, appreciate hearing what you think a out the work. I'm not sure it's fair to make an assumption that their reasoning for the T-shirts was to show that they were in a lot of clubs, and even if it was, a design for a T-shirt is definitely legitimate for an art school portfolio. Presentation for a T-shirt is tricky, but IMO I think having a person wear the T-shirt is more effective (and costs nothing) than going through the trouble to buy a mannequin. -Prof Lieu

[@EvermoreisTimeless]

At 18:30 what exactly does she mean by the person is disappearing? I thought that she was wearing a white undershirt under the plaid shirt

[@artprof]

I think everyone has a different read on each artwork, that was my first impression, but looking at it again, I can see that could be the case as well. I think what's helpful to artists is to know that a part of their drawing could be potentially misread by some people. -Prof Lieu

[@floweriadna7728]

if we have graphic design work , how detailed or how must the design work be in order to place it in our profolios and not have it be a "weak" area. is there any designers that have strong design work for example?

[@artprof]

It's hard to give a concrete answer because "how detailed" is subjective depending on the artwork, and who you ask. Also, work that is detailed is not necessarily inherently better. Really the only way is for us to look at a specific piece in the context of a portfolio and then figure it out from there. In terms of designers, it really depends on what area of design, there are many areas like industrial design, graphic design, architecture, etc.

[@i3vaT0o]

i would love to have the article for photographing 3D peices

[@artprof]

Here it is: artprof.org/courses/art-school-portfolio/#photographing-3D-artwork

[@parepidemosproductions4741]

It's incredible how critical one can be about something meant to be subjective... IDK if it's the "judgemental" side of me, but I like it... It's like you're trying to bring out the artist to say whatever she's saying the best way she can. Thanks for your content from a non-art artist (it's a thing maybe)

[@artprof]

Yes, critiquing artwork is always tricky because it is so subjective, that's why we have several artists on staff at Art Prof, so we can provide a range of opinions. Everyone sees artwork from a different perspective! Thanks for watching!

[@parepidemosproductions4741]

@@artprof honestly, I know it takes a trained eye to be able to find what would be nothing to the simple art appreciator (since that's all I would be), but how do you discern what is a student's artistic expression from a student's artistic inexperience?

[@artprof]

Great question, really hard to answer though! It's really case by case basis, as every artwork is unique, but I do think a lot of it is seeing a LOT of student artwork and seeing common problems.

[@josie5000]

British art applications are so different it’s crazy...

[@artprof]

Yes, we've gotten lots of comments from people outside of the USA and many of the art school applications could not be more different! -Prof Lieu

[@blackyang925]

i have a shelf full of hello kitty character plushes/figures in my room. is it okay if i draw these plushes from direct observation to include in my work even though they are created by Sanrio artists/designers?

[@artprof]

While that would be okay to do, I would recommend choosing other objects simply because images from popular culture (like Hello Kitty) which are so well known by most people are often times a huge distraction in a drawing.-Professor Lieu

[@LoveHope-mi4lx]

These are entertainment for me.

[@artprof]

Aw that makes us so happy! - Mia Rozear, Art Prof Staff

[@myrkflinn4331]

The fish could cause the dull canvas to have colour .. each area the fish has touched there's colour splodges

[@rosaliajimenez5332]

Could I send my portfolio to you if I want to apply to Illustration in RISD?

[@artprof]

I charge a fee for video critiques, you can get info on how that process here: claralieu.wordpress.com/college-art-portfolio-video-critiques/

[@antheajohnson4234]

Just realised this person, went to the same school as someone else (who Clara critiqued)...

[@artprof]

The art world is such a small place, I tell my students that basically, we all hang out in this neighborhood treehouse on the corner. -Prof Lieu

[@prettysquared7625]

Anthea Johnson yup you can see the same couple of projects! The sunflowers same as the oranges, number 6 same as the dinosaur, number 9 same as the wood burn etc

[@neilagangitlog]

Omg i didn't realize that the sunflowers are quite similar with the oranges, as well as the woodburning piece! I guess that's why admissions officers don't like assignment-ish pieces. Those kinda look the same, especially when your reviewing tons of portfolios

[@neilagangitlog]

Now i also notice that no. 2 is similar with another drawing from a different portfolio, but with a Buddha instead

[@EvermoreisTimeless]

37:52 wait did she mean to say shape/

[@artprof]

I just replayed it, and I did say "shape." -Prof Lieu

[@bheartsbooks]

I agree with a lot of what was said. It had value and was really helpful. However all of the good was completely lost when she said that painting from a photo was doing nothing artistic. I understand the value in drawing from real life. I think an emphasis on drawing from life was enough. The comment was invalidating and simply not true. She basically said that drawing from a photograph was not creating art! Because of that, her critique has no value.

[@artprof]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this critique. To elaborate on the comment about painting from a photo, it's a challenge for us to fully articulate a topic as complex as drawing from photographs in a critique like this, we could produce probably 4 hours of video discussing this topic! So unfortunately the drawback is that at times the opinions expressed in our critiques can come across as being black and white, but we can assure you that is not our intent. There are different degrees of drawing from photographs. In this case, the student is really copying the photograph verbatim and not creatively manipulating or transforming the photograph into an image that is really their own. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are artists who take the initiative to shoot their own reference photographs, use multiple photos as reference for a single drawing, and then transform the photographs stylistically so that the reference photos are not an obvious part of their process. Then there is everything in between, there are many ways to draw from photos. This course on our main site goes into depth talk about drawing from photos, and provides several concrete examples and videos that demonstrate the differences. artprof.org/courses/art-school-portfolio/#drawing-from-life