National Portfolio Day 2021

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
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I went to 2021 digital NPDA today. I got the reviews from CCS, CCA, Ringling and SVA ,for animation major, either by attending the zoom meeting or joining a chat. Each Counselors was super nice, engaging, and their explanations were specific enough for me to look back how far I’ve made. However, I found out their reviews were suspiciously complimentary. A faculty from CCA gave me reasonable feedbacks that I need to show more of my experience and story rather than focusing on the established skills. The rest, on the other hand, didn’t give me a single feedback on my portfolio, saying that it’s strong enough( I asked them questions).

My private art instructor and I know that my portfolio isn’t competitive. It’s mostly direct observational painting and studies, which was less than enough to tell my story and uniqueness. Simply put, mine is “boring” one that is limited in showing fundamentals and skills. So I just wanted to share some info with those who attended digital portfolio review for 2021 application, just to know if I got the compliment that I deserved. Maybe I’m just overthinking but I want to know what experience you had.

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Welcome! Unfortunately having NPD on zoom limits the ability to see what other students have in their portfolios and eavesdrop on their critiques so you can guage the competition a bit better.

My D went to Ringling for CA. She absolutely loved it (tons of work!)

The strengths for animation will be figure drawing, more figure drawings showing action (vs still life), quick sketch, perspective. Strong fundamentals are great.
It will not be the same for someone going into illustration or fine art which often includes more still life, different media for example. (More story maybe like your creative process).
When my D was at NPD (long ago) the instructor liked one thing in her portfolio which was a quick sketch of a squirrel rolling down a hill. She was told to go “do more of that!” Do include works like sculpture or wire art showing the ability to work 3d . Good luck!
Look up the old threads here on the forum–you’ll find a lot of good info on many of the schools.