How to Make a Drawing Portfolio [+ Ideas & Examples]

An art drawing portfolio, or a drawing portfolio, is a compilation of an artist’s best works. Although a drawing portfolio sounds fitting for professional artists, many art students often need to make one for their classes or university applications. 

A drawing portfolio represents the quality of work, style, and progression. It is important to recognize that there is no perfect drawing portfolio. A good portfolio represents your passion, personality, professionalism, and inspirations. 

A drawing portfolio is useful for freelancers, artists, and art students. Depending on your current role, you might need to focus on different specifics in your drawing portfolio. Nonetheless, an art drawing portfolio is the first impression of an artist, so it needs to stand out amongst others. 

An art drawing portfolio shows an artist’s technical, creative, and conceptual abilities. These abilities are unique to each individual, and a drawing portfolio tells an individual’s personal story.  

There are different mediums that can be used to present your portfolio drawings to the audience: 

🎨 Physical drawing portfolio 

Whether you need a physical drawing portfolio or not depends on the purpose of portfolio submission.

If you are applying to become a student at a film school, you will likely use a digital file. But if you are a fine arts student, you need to present sketches and drawings physically.

An advantage of having a physical drawing portfolio is the authenticity and rawness in the work. However, you may easily lose it, since you don’t have a second copy and you need to put some effort into maintaining the quality of the drawings.

💻 Digital drawing portfolio  

A digital drawing portfolio is useful for people in the art fields of graphic design, illustration, animation, filmmaking, and game design. 

An advantage of using a digital drawing portfolio is that it’s unlikely for you to lose it. With the advancement of cloud services, drawing pieces backs up automatically. The downside of digital pieces is that some institutions may still want to see observational work. Observational work can be done easily with physical drawings.  


Whether you need to make a physical or digital drawing portfolio, remember that the most important thing that a portfolio requires is the representation of your skills and ideas. Often, people like to see an artist’s progression, because it shows your creativity and commitment.

1. About me/Biography

In the about me section, briefly explain who you are. This introduction includes your inspirations, hobbies, interests, and techniques used in the artwork. 

2. Resume/CV

As an artist, it is essential to show that you are participating in exhibitions, competitions, and awards. Some artists have apprenticeship and teaching experience, and these experiences show a whole different skill set that can be valuable to clients or future employers.  

The example below shows the first three pages of a portfolio, where the maker has included a short introduction about themselves and some experiences that they have.

3. The drawings

The drawings are the highlights of a drawing portfolio. Usually, artists show their work in the drawings section of the portfolio. Remember to show your best and recent work. Many institutions recommend 10 to 20 pieces in the art portfolio drawings. 

4. High quality images of the drawings

Most people are looking at the digital copies in the art drawing portfolio, so ensure the quality of the images is good. High-quality images allow the audience to inspect details further, as people cannot physically inspect the piece.

✨ Choose a suitable online drawing portfolio website. 

Choosing an online drawing portfolio website is highly important. Since there are plenty of online platforms to choose from, you can feel overwhelmed easily. Remember to focus on the features a platform can provide.

✨ Produce high quality images to include in your digital drawing portfolio.

High-quality images allow the audience to evaluate the details of the art pieces. In particular, the drawings in the art portfolio can be physical sketches and paintings.   

✨ Categorize your drawings into different types.

Categorizing art portfolio drawings reflect an artist’s presentation skills. Categorization allows the audience to grasp the concept and technicality of the art better. 

✨ Make sure links are working properly.

If you include backlinks in your portfolio, ensure that your backlinks work, so the audience can redirect themselves to the web destinations. When backlinks don't work, it reflects poorly on the artist. 

✨ Update your portfolio with your newest works frequently.

Remove your old projects and let your recent work shine. If you still think that your old projects can bring value, make an additional section called “archives”.  

✨ Use a consistent layout and design.

Consistent design and layout is an intuitive design thinking principle. The audience can get confused easily if you have an inconsistent layout and design.  

✨ Promote your online drawing portfolio.

Many artists find the idea of marketing their art portfolio drawings tedious. But promoting your online drawing portfolio can attract more leads. Use social media platforms to showcase your drawing portfolio examples, and more people will know you. 

Before you start building your drawing portfolio, here are the best places to find painter portfolio examples, with a focus on how to show off your style:

1. Behance

Behance is a fantastic place to see how artists turn their art into a gallery experience. You'll find portfolios that don't just show the painting, but show it hanging on a gallery wall or in houses. You can also find case study portfolios that show how a painting can be used in a real campaign. It's a great place to learn how to show the project lifecycle, from the initial client brief and rough draft to the final product.

See drawing portfolio examples at Behance

2. Cake

For freelance illustrators or artists who are building their portfolio, Cake is agreat place to see how to merge your creative works with a professional resumes. You can find examples on how to organize your work by "client" or "project type" so an employer can find what they need in seconds.

See drawing portfolio examples at Cake

3. Pinterest

Last but not least, you can directly go to Pinterest and look up drawing portfolio examples. Pinterest has a giant visual collection, where you can find examples ranging from actual portfolio examples or certain drawing examples. It is a fantastic resource for upgrading your drawing skills and also learning how to make your work look like a professional, cohesive brand in your portfolio.

See drawing portfolio examples at Pinterest

Other than the websites mentioned above, you can easily search "Drawing Portfolio Examples" on Google and find portfolio websites where artists showcase their work.

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--- Originally written by Diana Shih ---