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I Got Accepted into Goldsmiths University for Fine Art & History of Art HERE'S HOW! Portfolio Review
Nov 30, 2024
In this video, I share my Goldsmiths University portfolio that helped me secure a place to study Fine Art & History of Art. From sketchbooks to finished pieces, I’ll walk you through the creative process, inspiration, and thought behind each work. Whether you're preparing your own art portfolio or just curious about what it takes to get into a top art university, this video is packed with tips and insights.
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0:00
welcome is that how I should start it no
0:01
hello I'm not Mrs downfire welcome yeah
0:04
that's the best intro I've got my name
0:06
is James I'm a seconde gold Smith
0:08
University student and I study Fine Art
0:10
and history of art it's a dual honors
0:12
degree and Goldsmith is one of the only
0:14
ones in the country that does it if
0:15
you're looking to join Goldsmith
0:16
University it's actually fairly good uni
0:18
the art department is great the visual
0:19
cultures department is good obviously
0:21
every uni has its ups and downs but one
0:23
of my favorite things about Goldsmith is
0:24
in the fine arts department we actually
0:26
get like our own Studios it's great you
0:27
can use it whenever you want but just
0:28
like many students m for a foundation
0:30
year into Goldsmith's I was struggling
0:33
with how to do my portfolio and there is
0:35
like no help online so I'm going to talk
0:37
you through the portfolio process
0:39
because Goldsmith is notoriously
0:41
terrifying the first thing you should
0:42
know about Goldsmith's University is you
0:44
should be terrified about your portfolio
0:46
they really really make a big emphasis
0:47
and a big strong point about it is a
0:49
scary process it's become cold I'm not
0:52
built for this weather Goldsmith
0:53
university has a very odd portfolio
0:56
process thing at the time I was applying
0:58
for universities I was living up in
0:59
Lancashire studying my Foundation degree
1:01
at Blackburn college so I'm going to
1:03
show you my portfolio that I used and
1:04
let's go I'm hoping it's recording oky C
1:07
donkey Doodles this is like the first
1:09
page of my portfolio and a couple tips
1:11
and tricks is one of the biggest things
1:14
that I would always suggest if you're
1:15
applying for any portfolio is to make
1:17
sure that you have this little white
1:19
border around your Works um it looks
1:22
much nicer cleaner more professional
1:24
imagining like it is actually mounted on
1:26
a wall that's like one of the biggest
1:28
things i' actually suggest um
1:30
they definitely want to see more of your
1:32
recent works that you've been working on
1:33
through your foundation or any works
1:35
that have made more of a large scale
1:37
impact so this was one of the first ones
1:39
I submitted um Goldsmith is notoriously
1:42
known for being a more contemporary and
1:44
conceptual art school so I was really
1:47
focusing a lot more on conceptual works
1:48
at this point in time so for anybody who
1:50
doesn't know the painting The Gleaners
1:52
um this was taken from The Gleaners
1:55
edited and then put together within like
1:57
the whole just stop oil people thing
1:59
that was like was a huge thing that was
2:00
going on at this point in time so it was
2:02
more of a modern impact statement piece
2:04
um I did a couple of these so also I
2:07
wanted to quickly mention make sure you
2:08
have like a title there as well um and
2:11
the date in which you did it just the
2:13
year is good enough they they don't want
2:14
too much reading unless you've got one
2:17
piece that has a good amount to read
2:19
about like needs explanation something
2:21
I've definitely learned about most of
2:22
the tutors at Goldsmith is they care
2:24
more about what the artwork says for
2:27
itself not a huge written piece saying
2:29
this is what the artwork means so in all
2:31
honesty the titles were just sort of
2:34
thrown together but um I'm saying too
2:36
many Ms aren't I I do apologize again
2:39
you can see the piece is very much just
2:41
okay here's one artwork I want to
2:43
demonstrate I want this powerful impact
2:45
statement piece to show you the way in
2:47
which you outline and coordinate The
2:49
Works should be like a story that one of
2:51
the most beneficial things I gained out
2:53
of Blackburn and doing my Foundation
2:55
degree was telling me that I need to put
2:58
it together like a story quite often and
3:00
they self admitted it is they'll look
3:02
through your first two or three pages of
3:05
your portfolio and then if it's not
3:06
thrilling them they they'll they could
3:08
click off it so make sure it has an
3:09
impact this was my second piece so
3:10
obviously you can see the storyline sort
3:12
of continuing along this just stop oil
3:14
thing yeah it it just looks good this
3:17
was the next one oil before men this was
3:19
the presentation that I did for this one
3:23
I didn't want to include this with all
3:25
this because it would be overshadowed so
3:27
I had the same title and then basically
3:29
walked him through it so image projected
3:31
into oil and reflected onto the ceiling
3:33
and then obviously the date so this was
3:35
just I had the image here you can see
3:37
the image reflected into a bucket of oil
3:40
which then bounced up onto the ceiling
3:42
and then like any footsteps it would
3:43
make it shake and have some audio things
3:45
going on with it but this couldn't be
3:47
really shown be seen as a video they
3:49
just wanted photographs and they just
3:50
wanted to see the artwork itself if you
3:52
do have a video you can actually submit
3:55
the video to be seen and then moving on
3:57
this was again in that story line
4:00
process you know the justop oil stuff
4:02
again this is just showing that
4:03
storytelling process which is really
4:05
really nice digital collage so all of
4:07
this was just photoshopped out of
4:09
different photos that I'd found of
4:10
justop oil protests mashed in together
4:12
using Photoshop techniques I was really
4:15
really into the whole digital art thing
4:17
at this point in time you know just
4:19
learning Photoshop learning illustrator
4:20
doing all this sort of stuff digital
4:21
collage digital collage was such a big
4:24
thing in 2022 2023 it was just
4:27
everywhere it was what we were doing at
4:28
Foundation year it was just something I
4:30
was personally genuinely interested in
4:32
so I I just put it together in my
4:33
portfolio that's the sort of works I was
4:35
really focusing on this was the third of
4:37
May the original painting is the 3D of
4:40
May by Goya which is if it's it's really
4:42
interesting go and look it up if you are
4:44
into that I hope if you're watching this
4:46
you're thinking about applying and you
4:47
know a little bit about art history
4:49
that's another thing Goldsmith genuinely
4:51
is very interested in your art history
4:53
knowledge and knowhow more towards the
4:56
conceptual side contemporary side stuff
4:58
yeah just just know that as again you
5:01
can see this is an impact piece this is
5:02
something that gets people thinking gets
5:04
those like cogs in your brain ticking
5:06
and really makes people and interviewers
5:08
look at the work and go hm okay this
5:10
might be interesting he's worth an
5:12
interview the way the interview process
5:13
works is you'll have your personal
5:15
statement that you send to them and
5:16
you'll have your Goldsmith's portfolio
5:19
and you send that to them this should be
5:20
10 pages that you send off to them
5:22
they'll review it if it's successful
5:24
they'll then invite you for an interview
5:25
that's a whole other section with the
5:27
interview again this was more trial and
5:29
error stuff I didn't have any titles for
5:31
these ones these were something that was
5:32
just put in there to show I've explored
5:34
and experimented with different things
5:36
and ideas along the same thing I don't
5:38
have a better word than thing this was
5:40
another one this was called oil on the
5:42
rig you can see that I have taken the
5:45
ideas that I've put into this and the
5:47
other ones and implemented them into
5:49
this this one was incredibly successful
5:52
for everything I did at that point in
5:54
time this was just beautifully
5:56
picturesque so I had this image I
5:59
photoshopped the the police and the just
6:01
stop oil protesters into it and then I
6:03
showed what it would look like projected
6:05
into the oil this had an astonishing
6:08
result and people responded so
6:09
incredible to this work the other reason
6:11
is because the image was generated with
6:14
AI like just this background bit all the
6:16
rest was Photoshop so it was something
6:18
that was very new at that point in time
6:20
nowadays AI is everywhere but back then
6:21
it was like gosh it's only 2 years ago
6:24
wow it was nowhere like it is just first
6:27
being released chat GPT was wasn't
6:29
really a thing but generating the image
6:33
with AI people really wanted to talk to
6:35
you about that then for my last three I
6:37
really wanted to show some other works
6:39
some really experimental works that i'
6:41
done mostly before um when I was
6:44
actually at College to show my thought
6:46
process and my Evolution so the way it
6:48
works is I didn't want to show things i'
6:50
done early on first I wanted to show the
6:52
things i' done newest and then work my
6:54
way down to some of the older works this
6:56
was a 3D printed in taglio etching that
6:58
I did in 202 one and the project that we
7:02
were doing at that time focused on
7:03
Cotton slavery and the history of cotton
7:05
Industries up in Lancer where I was
7:07
living it was a huge theme it was a big
7:09
thing at the time so I decided to make
7:11
this in taglio etching from 3D printing
7:15
it so I made the digital drawing 3D
7:17
printed it with a 3D printer and I then
7:21
on the next page show I didn't show any
7:23
of the results fascinating I didn't show
7:25
the results the funny thing is about
7:28
this is that the the results were
7:30
actually inverted I had made a terrible
7:32
mistake in that the photo the the
7:35
drawing that I done which was a digital
7:38
drawing and etching um when it was
7:40
printed the actual 3D printing the
7:42
things were inverted so the way an integ
7:43
etching works is you've got the print
7:45
you've got the ink in it and then you
7:46
print it onto the paper and it rolls
7:48
through it using pressure and then it
7:50
shows the all all the ink sort of like
7:52
oozes onto the paper and it's printed
7:54
funny thing was is that it was
7:55
completely inverted so all the bits that
7:57
were meant to be black and drawn were
7:58
all white
8:00
and all the other bits were just it
8:01
looked really cool I'm actually
8:03
surprised I didn't include the final
8:05
results I think I actually don't know
8:08
what was going through my head but as
8:09
you can see it still looked pretty nice
8:11
um this was just put together did look
8:14
good yeah this was again on that theme
8:18
you know staying on that same theme I
8:19
can't just put one work in there and say
8:21
yeah this is what I was doing at the
8:22
time this actually shows okay my
8:24
exploration into the theme big thing
8:27
about Goldsmith is exploration of theme
8:30
you can explore mediums and different
8:32
things like that but they really want to
8:33
see your exploration of a theme my theme
8:35
that I'm studying at the moment is
8:36
definitely around portraits and oil
8:38
painting that's just my current theme
8:39
and interest and they fully support it
8:41
which is great this was just stuff I
8:43
could talk about but it all needs to be
8:45
self-explanatory if you're trying to
8:47
explain something completely just in the
8:49
portfolio they're not going to read
8:51
every single one it needs to be
8:53
self-explanatory the exception for that
8:55
is that I had one piece which is the
8:57
final work in my portfolio that present
8:59
you need to start with a bang and end
9:01
with a bang but the the very ending one
9:03
had to have an explanation because just
9:05
looking at this you wouldn't know what
9:07
it's talking about you need to read
9:10
about what the whole project was so this
9:12
was entitled the reimagine project and I
9:15
did a lot for this project essentially I
9:18
created four original oil paintings of
9:20
A2 size scale which is this big yes as
9:24
an art student you will have many
9:26
canvases lying around the idea was then
9:28
to destroy
9:29
all of these original paintings through
9:31
a tree Shredder and use the remains in
9:33
epoxy resin to create a new artwork
9:36
entirely showing that idea of recycling
9:39
and upcycling so you can see me
9:41
destroying it then I uh have the remains
9:45
then I actually mounted the epoxy resin
9:48
sculpture bit into a tree stump and
9:49
surrounded it with dirt and stuff which
9:52
it was really cool um at the at the
9:55
exhibition of the college work I
9:57
actually got to meet the mayor he liked
9:58
the work etc etc my problem with doing
10:01
this project that I found in the time
10:03
was that it was too big a scale to be
10:07
presented for a college project this
10:10
sort of work and size and scale of an
10:11
artwork needed a little bit more I was a
10:13
little bit way too ambitious back then
10:15
for I need to be doing this I need to be
10:17
doing that which which was a good thing
10:19
and Goldsmith clearly saw that I was
10:21
ambitious about what I was doing I also
10:23
build a website around it and I wrote a
10:25
book um that was sold on Blackwells
10:28
Barnes & Noble Amazon blah blah blah
10:29
blah blah blah blah whatever the piece
10:31
also lit up which basically it just
10:33
looked cool on the portfolio this was
10:35
probably the one I struggled most to
10:37
present because again it was just such a
10:39
large project a lot of things I didn't
10:42
actually mention or show in the
10:44
portfolio bit was that they were sold as
10:46
nfts The Originals were digitized and
10:49
then sold as nfts for auction and the
10:51
profits were
10:52
donated which is explained in the thing
10:55
but is not seen in the pictures that's
10:57
where you need to get across okay what
10:59
needs explanation and what can just be
11:01
presented in photographs my microphone
11:04
is not collaborating with me today at
11:06
all it's falling off its hook so that's
11:09
my portfolio that I submitted to
11:11
goldsmith it's 10 pages they review it
11:13
and then you're invited for an interview
11:14
when you are invited for the interview
11:16
it is a very daunting process now I've
11:18
heard very different things from
11:20
different people um but I'm going to
11:22
tell you my experience with it it was
11:24
terrifying it was it was a lot of fun
11:26
though once I left the interview I had
11:28
the wor migraine ever imaginable so as I
11:31
mentioned I was living up in Lancashire
11:32
at this point in time I was invited for
11:35
an interview an in-person interview I
11:37
was very surprised by this as I thought
11:39
the interview would be online over teams
11:41
um U which had also been accepted to did
11:43
the interview online over teams and zoom
11:47
which was better for living 216 miles
11:50
away so my dad drove me down to London
11:53
we stayed in a hotel and we went to the
11:55
interview in the interview itself they
11:57
told me to bring along works that I'd
12:00
shown in my portfolio any original works
12:03
that I had and could present as well as
12:05
any photographs of work and just bring
12:08
my entire portfolio that I'd like to
12:10
present any works that I didn't submit
12:12
in my portfolio that I would love them
12:14
to see so I brought down this massive
12:16
portfolio folder a sculpture and a
12:19
couple of other things that I was
12:21
excited to talk about and when I got
12:23
into the interview it was just this big
12:25
white room and I don't even remember the
12:30
exact people who interviewed me I just
12:31
blacked out over because it was so
12:34
daunting because the moment I sat down
12:38
and all the niceties were out of the way
12:40
the first thing they said to me was okay
12:43
pick three works that you want to show
12:46
us and I panicked internally my heart
12:50
rate was going through the roof like I
12:52
thought I was going to break a rib that
12:54
was the moment my brain shut down and
12:56
went into panic mode of I've got all
12:58
this stuff I need them to see everything
13:00
I've done in order for them to even
13:02
consider me which was completely wrong
13:04
at the time but I I think I handled
13:08
myself well they told me to pick three
13:10
pages out of the portfolio to show them
13:12
so I decided to pick three of the ones
13:14
that I knew were going to go well which
13:16
was the reimagine projects and the
13:18
justop oil projects that I'd done the
13:20
problem was as you saw they were spread
13:21
out over more than just three pages so I
13:24
showed them the words and I convinced
13:26
them somewhat of like this one project
13:28
spread across two two sheets so I took
13:30
the two sheets out and I also showed
13:31
them the book that I'd written too they
13:33
looked at them they asked me a bunch of
13:34
questions one of the questions being was
13:36
are you interested in oil painting in
13:38
mediums or was this just a means to do
13:40
the project um I told them I do enjoy o
13:43
oil painting but I did do this for a
13:45
means for the project etc etc and then
13:48
you cannot read these people it was just
13:51
completely daunting the fact you can't
13:53
read the interviewers they they they
13:56
there was just nothing you couldn't tell
13:57
if they liked your work or whatever at
13:59
the end of it they said okay thank you
14:00
very much for coming in we'll be in
14:02
touch if we have any news for you it
14:04
really did feel like a job interview at
14:06
a place I felt completely unqualified
14:08
for as well as that I think all artists
14:11
suffer from a little bit of impostor
14:13
syndrome the good benefit thing is that
14:15
I was able to talk to a bunch of the um
14:18
other students and the students that
14:19
were actually there at the time who were
14:21
helping people out and they told just
14:22
relax just breathe it's okay which which
14:25
was good it was good fun got to know a
14:26
bunch of people then I left so stressed
14:29
out I thought I didn't get in I was
14:31
panicking whatever I think they do that
14:33
on purpose but don't tell them I said
14:35
that after that later on I finally heard
14:37
that I'd got in absolutely ecstatic over
14:39
the moon and I've been genuinely
14:41
enjoying my time at Goldsmith uni so far
14:44
okay so that's that for my portfolio
14:46
review thing I hope that helped if you
14:48
are thinking about applying um just in
14:51
general just some tips and bits and I
14:53
hope that has shown a little bit of the
14:55
idea of what your portfolio should look
14:57
like if you are looking to get into
14:58
Goldsmith's um yeah thank you very much
15:00
and if you got any questions let me know
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