<p>Ari, I'm no artist, but as a layman, I opened the link and said WOW. My non professional assessment is that you have a high level of talent. Try reposting on the visual arts subforum, and get input from people with background and specific insights.</p>
<p>All of my others online are done for different websites and they are just characters without backgrounds so they're pretty boring and not worth posting, lol</p>
<p>I think they will look for two things: talent (innate creativity) and technical skill (learned ability). IMO those images are all indicative of your skill, but not necessarily of your creativity. It is relatively easy to see these are simply copying reference images. Otherwise, the quality is excellent. The admission counselors won't be judging it though, the art department of the schools will review it, and if they like it they will write a recommendation for your application. So keep in mind that professional art faculty will be assessing your work [but then again, except for the top not-just-art art schools like Yale I'd imagine that they would be impressed with your work].</p>
<p>Hmm the cougar was the only one where I've really used a reference picture (blue jay I used one for the marking patterns) but thank you for your perspective. I agree, none of them are very creative</p>
<p>I just have to jump in here and wonder how in the world you guys do this via Photoshop?! They're really breathtaking - creative or not (of course, I think creative is completely subjective. The ability to pull these things from your mind and get them down on "paper" in a manner that invokes admiration and awe is creative to me.)</p>
<p>Absolutely submit a portfolio. I have a 3.2 GPA, took the bare minimum of SATs once each, have okay ECs...and I was just admitted to WashU. Tons of kids with perfect scores/GPAs were waitlisted, yet my mediocre stats passed muster. I'm pretty sure the portfolio was my ticket, and here's hoping it will continue to be.</p>
<p>Most schools say that they want a "diverse" portfolio, but do what you want. It looks like you're pretty specialized, so submit the work you're proud of and good at. My portfolio consisted of 12 black and white, clean-lined pen illustrations, all of a very specific style. I also handmade the CD envelope...so basically, I'm saying I stood out. I'd suggest an absolute minimum of 10 pieces though, and either go totally diverse how they ask or completely specialized. Show them that you are good at something and know what you want to study, if you do in fact know already.</p>
<p>I meant to be more complimentary than that, also. AMAZING stuff! You'd stand out anywhere, especially at a super-competitive school where too many kids are qualified or have perfect scores already.</p>
<p>for what it's worth (from a CMU graduate from the 70's - i'm on this site with my daughter appying for college this year) they were still interviewing perspective art students in those days but what i think is important is that you show a range. when the art professor asked me why there was such scope/variety to my portfolio i said that i wanted to show range. obviously going into an art program from high school, i had no real idea how my life would evolve. as a freshman i'd be taking all kinds of 2 & 3 dimensional art classes. i think they liked the idea that i was open and that's so important to being able to expand your abilities. i was not much of a painter but i have an excellent concept of space specifically negative space which is critical for how you see the page. line drawing is all about the weight of lines and what kind of lines you make - how you use tools like erasers. it's all about how you translate what you see. but go with your gut. what you like is what you should show. what you believe in. someone brought up doodles...i brought them....they went over great. anyway hope that helps...good luck. one last thing - i had marginal grades and sat scores. it was all about my portfolio.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the nice comments
Novkat, almost all of my drawings are based off of animals, so I should probably would on expanding my focus.
I'd love to take an art class in school; I've always wanted to but have never been able to since my schedule is full with orchestra. I'm hoping I'll be able to take one or two in college</p>
