Hey anyone reading this!
This year I applied to Sheridan’s illustration program for fall of 2018. Many changes were made to the portfolio this year compared to previous years, so I figured it might be helpful to others to show what the differences are!
This year I applied to Sheridan’s illustration program for fall of 2018. Many changes were made to the portfolio this year compared to previous years, so I figured it might be helpful to others to show what the differences are!
This years cut of was 58% and I got in with a score of 70%. It’s also very important to note (PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THIS ON THE SHERIDAN WEBSITE) that you need to complete 2 semesters of post-secondary in order to being eligible for the illustration program. Because of that, I did 2 years of VCA at Sheridan. This is my first time applying to illustration.
Here’s my score sheet:
DRAWING TEST (worth 40% of overall grade)
Mine are all done on 11x14 bond paper. Don’t forget you have to scan them (8.5x11) and put the copies in an envelope for further grading. Also, this year they wanted to see the originals from the drawing test.
Make sure to give yourself time for scanning, the Sheridan scanners suck.
DT1A.Figure Standing
DT1B. Figure Sitting
They completely removed the figure doing an everyday activity this year, and instead opted to specify your sitting figure has to be holding an object. I decided to have both my figures holding objects just to be on the safe side, which I believe was a good choice on my part. But feel free to get more creative than just a figure with a phone! For example, my roommate (who also got in with a score of 70%) drew me standing and doing dishes.
DT2. Room Drawing
This year they removed having to include a figure in the room drawing. This assures the mood and atmosphere of the drawing can be conveyed without having to rely on a figure, which honestly, makes it easier in my opinion.
DT3. Window drawing
This drawing is all about perspective (linear and atmospheric) so just… try to find a better angle than I did!
DT4. Objects
Another big change to this year's drawing test was for the object drawing you can pick whatever three objects you want and just draw those. By contrast, in previous years you had to pick 3 objects with specific shapes (sphere, cylindrical, cube) draw them normally, then draw them with a transformation taking place. Being able to pick whatever 3 objects you like was nice, but I can understand why I didn’t score too highly on this one.
PORTFOLIO OF ORIGINAL WORK (worth 60% of overall grade)
I don’t have too much to say about this section. If you take art fundies or VCA just try your best on assignments so you can hopefully use those in your portfolio of original work! I highly suggest putting a self portrait on the very first page of your portfolio.
My portfolio was 18x24 (available at the school store, I just didn’t feel like having to scan/take pictures of my life drawings tbh).
The big change this year was instead of 25 pieces, we could only show up to 20!
(this is where my drawing test was inside my portfolio)
(a very simple transitional page)
(For sculptures, take a crap ton of pics and use a lot of angles)
SKETCHBOOK
It’s mandatory to show visual curiosity. I was seriously busting my ass to finish this thing! Don’t beat yourself up if there’s some pages and pieces you really don’t like in your sketchbook, they wanna see your good and bad stuff in there.
Here’s some of my favourite pages:
(More sketchbook pages on my instagram, somewhere)
And hey why not, here's some pages I don't really like!
TO CONCLUDE I hope this is at least somewhat helpful?? My biggest advice is to just try your best, as cliche as it sounds. Be proud of the body of work you produce, and be proud of working so hard! You are constantly learning, growing, and improving, so don’t give up! Good luck!
If you have any questions or anything feel free to shoot me an email enyawarren@outlook.com
