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What do you think of when you hear the words art portfolio? Many artists don’t know where to start…is it a document? Something physical? Or something else entirely? Today, I️ want to share actual examples of an art portfolio as a well as my tips to use this to get into more galleries.
What to Include:
When creating an art portfolio to send to galleries or designers you want to think about what questions they might ask. Those would include, what are you prices, how can they contact you, who are you, and what type of art do you create?
You want to include all of this information in your art portfolio PDF. I️ like a page with my statement and/or bio, a page for pricing, and a page or two just to showcase the artwork.
Which Pieces to Include:
Next you might ask, which pieces should I️ include? Maybe you paint a variety of work. I️ recommend choosing one style or collection or breaking your collections into different pages.
If you are sending this to a gallery, I️ think choosing the collection that best suits them is the best idea. If you are sending this to an interior designer then you might be better off showing the breadth of your work so that they can choose what works best for their various projects.
How To Format:
You have the information, now how do we format this? I️ recommend using Canva or InDesign to create a well-designed PDF document. Write down all of the information you want to include and then take some time to place it into a well-designed document.
Lucky for you, I️ included three art portfolio examples below. They aren’t anything special and only took me about 10 minutes each to make in Canva. I️ recommend using your logo, brand colors, and brand fonts. I️ just quickly created these as examples to get you started, bu have fun with it and make it your own.
Pro Tip: I️ like to save mine as a standard PDF. A printable PDF will be a much larger file and may not send as easily in an email and might be too large for people to want to download.
How to Send:
I️ like to attach this in an email. As a gallery owner, there is nothing more annoying then an email with a bunch of attachments. Some are huge, some are blurry, and some inevitably don’t open. With this new art portfolio PDF, you are ready to send all of your information as a single attachment.
This PDF also includes all of the important information that a gallery owner or designer might ask. This allows you to spend more time crafting a personalized email to the gallery or designer about why they should work with you vs. wasting an entire paragraph of text explaining about you, your pricing and how to contact you. You can just say, “see the attachment below for all of my information.” How simple is that?
Now, what you all have been waiting for…below I️ included three actual art portfolio examples that I️ created as a starting point. You should make yours your own, but this shows what needs to be included and what can be done with Canva.