Interview and portfolio advice with BA (Hons) Fine Art

Your digital portfolio should be a well-presented collection of work that contains something that shows you are unique, creative and imaginative. 

It can be in the form of a PowerPoint, a PDF file, or a link to an online portfolio, such as a website or blog.

The portfolio should contain no more than 30 images in total and should include a piece of written work. You don't need to include all of the work you have carried out on your previous course, just a good representative collection, ideally from the past year or two, that will show us your potential.

So, as a basic guide in putting together your digital portfolio, we would like to see three to six good quality images of key artworks (as an outcome of an art project or assignment) which you consider to be in a completed state. We would like to see some images of the development of these artworks so we can see how you have gone from point A (the start of your project or assignment) to point B (the finished work).

We would like to see your most recent work at the beginning of your digital portfolio and for it to take us chronologically back in time from there. 

Your digital portfolio can include images of a:

• finished painting(s)
• finished sculpture(s)
• series of digital photographic artworks
• object(s) you have created
• installation or site-based work
• images of prints
• link to a sound work
• link to a film or video work
• link to video documentation to an art performance or action
• other creative practice relevant to your application.

Images of artworks’ development can include:

• sketches, notes or plans for sculptures
• designs for objects you have made or are making
• sketches and paint/colour tests for paintings
• development for photographic based projects, contact sheets, Photoshop tests etc.
• sketches and documentation images for printmaking projects
• links to film/video work tests
• links to sound work in progress

If you have had the opportunity to carry out life drawing, please include a maximum of six images.

It is important to give a context to your work in order to explain it. We would like you to add written explanation next to, or below the images, effectively talking us through your work, telling us how well you feel an idea or process has worked and what you have learnt from it. We would like you to add any references you have made in relation to your projects, such as artist work, writings on art that have helped inform the development of your artworks.

We would also like to see one example of your writing included in your digital portfolio that shows your research skills and ability to communicate and reflect. This can be an essay or a review you have written on a subject relating to art (on an exhibition, an artist, group of artists or an art movement etc.), or if you haven’t had the opportunity to carry this out on your present art course, it could be on another subject that you have studied in the past year or so.

We want you to enjoy your experience of your optional informal interview at one of our Offer Holder Days. Our informal interviews are an opportunity for you to showcase your portfolio, for us to learn more about you, and for you to gain further insight into our fine art programme.

Interview pre-work:

Reviewing your portfolio and learning more about your practice will form the major part of your informal interview. Please use the digital portfolio guidance section of this page to put together a digital portfolio ahead of your interview.

Interview preparation:

We want to use the interview as an opportunity to learn more about you, so we recommend you come prepared to discuss your portfolio, projects, motivations and interests in both a general and fine art context.

BA (Hons) Fine Art: Interviews will last approximately 30 minutes, with 20 minutes scheduled for your portfolio review, and 10 minutes for any questions you might have for our tutor. These are one-on-one interviews with a Fine Art tutor.

Additional information:

A majority of our interview sessions for our Fine Art courses are scheduled to take place after our Offer Holder Day events. To make the most out of your day we recommend also registering for our Offer Holder Day talk.

Please see our Offer Holder Day page to learn more or make a booking.

If you have been given a Conditional offer, you will need to supply a Digital Portfolio and you will be invited to an Offer Holder Visit Day. Should you wish to book an in-person interview with one of our tutors please email interviewtostudy@plymouth.ac.uk or call +44 1752 585858.