How to seek the best art tutor for your art portfolio

As the school exam results were out here in Scotland last week I wanted to talk about the subject of engaging with support in the form of an art tutor.

We all like to think that our young people are receiving everything that they need from school.

However, our personal experience this year has been evidence that to tip the scales to achieve what was needed for our daughter in maths – extra support of a 1 to 1 nature was required.

And I would say that this can be true for any subject. However, an art tutor is vitally important for some pupils.

There is no suggestion that the teacher isn’t or hasn’t done a good enough job. Certainly not in this case. But by engaging an art tutor to work specifically with you/your young person, you can really get the 1:1 support that helps with ideas of an individual nature.

This is so important in a portfolio for art school / uni.

Presenting a ‘cookie cutter’ portfolio that is guided by the curriculum and your young persons teacher alone, is not going to cut it.

There are many reasons why it can be a great decision to seek guidance from an art tutor.

From reassurance that what you’re doing is ‘right’, to having additional support needs that aren’t best met in large groups. Whether you’re at school or not, some people just prefer and benefit best from more 1:1 support.

The conversations and dialogue that can lead to interesting and individual ideas just doesn’t happen so easily in large groups.

And by showing YOUR individuality and ways of seeing the world, you’re presenting the very best of YOU to the art schools/unis.

If you haven’t done so already – please download my “How to avoid the top 10 mistakes holding you back from getting into art school”. In this free PDF I talk more about individuality and showing ‘you’ through your portfolio.

We all know that everyone develops, matures and learns in their particular way and at their own speed.

However, we have firm benchmarks in place in formal education for where young people ‘should’ be in their learning journey. This is set by standards and the education authorities/exam boards.

However, as a parent, I know that you cannot force this with your young person.

By embracing their pace and their needs, you really will bring out the best of their creativity. And this is where an art tutor can really support and guide on a personal level.

If you’ve been noticing that your young person has been struggling to fully understand what is required and why, for their schoolwork, then I would say it is wise to seek an art tutor then.

If you leave it too late to bring in an art tutor you may find that your young person becomes very switched off from the subject and loses the love for art quite rapidly.

There might also be the need to engage an art tutor even if you don’t see your young person struggling.

One of the most common reasons I see young people to help with their art portfolios is when they haven’t been offered a place at their chosen university or art school.

They are understandably very upset – but at the time of applying didn’t know that they potentially had a problem.

This is a very good example of seeking guidance from an art tutor before problems arise.

An informed and experienced art tutor will be able to assess your young person’s work at the start of the academic year that they are applying in.

Depending on what they see, they can recommend additional, further work that may need to be done. And can identify where there are gaps the work and understanding.

This is especially important if they are applying to some of the very competitive art schools / unis around the world.

Choosing a suitable art tutor very much depends on the goals of you/your young person.

It’s important here to define where you want to be, what you want to achieve and by when?

If you’re looking for an art tutor to support schoolwork, then it’s important to look for someone who has in depth knowledge of the curriculum that your young person is studying.

Many art tutors will have teaching certificates of some kind (primary, secondary or for further/higher education) as it’s common for artists to supplement their work with teaching.

However, art at high school is very different to art preparation for University and Art School. Likewise, primary compared to secondary.

Therefore, an art tutor must have experience and knowledge about the work required, standards of the exams and art schools/unis.

In addition to this is knowledge of the mindset and processes required for preparing students beyond the school curriculum.

Be wary of an art tutor who is absolute about what you need for your portfolio if applying for art school/uni and how you do it.

There are many ways to work and this is decided by you – this is what they want to see. They want to see how YOU have approached it, not what your teacher thinks you should be working on or a tick box exercise.

This is how I approach an art portfolio for art school or university with students on my portfolio preparation course PLAN CREATE SUCCEED.

My course encourages and expects that an abundance of work is created to allow for experimentation, happy accidents and taking paths that weren’t expected.

Individuality is key and encouraged.

This is very dependent on the level that you’re seeking support with and your aims and ambitions.

Art is not like maths, it’s not cut and dried, wrong and right.

Therefore any art tutor who is approaching your creative development in this manner may only be suitable if this is what you’re seeking.

It’s important to be able to see demonstrations and examples of processes, techniques and concepts. This can be achieved remotely, online and in person.

But the best way to find out is to compile a list of questions on this subject to ask.

A tutor who encourages you to find the answers yourself, rather than telling you all the answers is very beneficial.

As is a tutor who encourages experimentation, risk taking and failure.

Word of mouth can be a very effective way to find an appropriate art tutor for your needs. If an art tutor has a good track record then others will surely know about them.

There are many social media groups for parents, education groups also local communities who know of support.

Google of course is a great way to find an art tutor but doesn’t always throw up specifically what you may be seeking due to the competitive nature of Google and it’s ever-changing algorithm.

The parent council of your young person’s high school may be worth asking if anyone had experience of working with an art tutor.

I’ve also found that Instagram is a great place to find artists, not just to admire their work but to find out more about what makes them tick, how their minds work that is translated into art.

Many artists also provide tutoring and mentoring and will talk about their process here too.

This is a great opportunity to watch, engage and ultimately take action when you feel ready to do so if you have already built up a know, like and trust relationship via social media.

The list of areas that can be helped, not isolated to improving your art, is vast. When we talk about improving art we often associate that with being able t draw better or to produce works that are more life like and represent the object that is being drawn / painted better.

My advice would be to arrange a call or a meeting in the first instance with any potential art tutor that you are considering engaging with.

As art is such a personal subject it is important that you are a ‘good fit’ – by this I mean that you and the art tutor feel a connection to enable the best working relationship.

If this connection isn’t there, you may feel that the art tutor doesn’t ‘get’ you.

This can be frustrating as you’ll perhaps be lead down potential paths with your work, with all good intentions from the tutor, but just doesn’t fulfil your requirements.

This article was written by Julie Read, a leading educator in the Creative Industries, as featured in The Guardian newspaper, on a mission to create a legacy to ‘unlock your creative genius’.

My passion and mission is your art portfolio, to help to get you that place at college or university.

CLARITY, in particular around the creative process, sketchbooks, and what the Colleges actually want to see are the founding principles.