CalArts Accepted Portfolio 2014 - Tori Niu

I’ve been waiting until my admissions decisions to post this. I was accepted into Calarts over a month ago, and really I’m still not over it. I feel kind of dazed, though I’m taking it better than I thought I would.

The experience of applying to this school has been a rough ride. It was long, emotionally draining, nerve-wracking, but I did enjoy myself, and it was worth it.

I almost did not apply to Calarts actually. When I visited the school last April I was simultaneously blown away by the student work and paralyzed with fear that I would never be this good. But after getting a good convincing from my parents, I decided to commit, and I actually did it. Man.

Preparing for Calarts taught me an important lesson; the act of trying and commitment. Believing in yourself is just as important as your base artistic skill if not more important. Improvement begins with the commitment and courage to try. For those of you hopefuls, and those reapplying, that’s probably the #1 thing you need to keep in mind. This mindset carries into any application really. It’s hard, it’s so hard. I’m still not as confident as I want to be about myself, but at least give yourself a chance to try.

I’m only going to post a part of my portfolio. There have been a lot of people looking at past Calarts portfolios and copying directly from them. Please don’t do that because people can tell if you’re just copying a style and not understanding it, and it’s not your personal expression either, which is detrimental to your own artistic vision. There are certainly requirements in the portfolio that you have to follow, and the aesthetic for animation has its differences from other art practices, but there is so much variety even in that. Don’t try to prescribe to one “Calarts” style. If anything, try to stand out (it gives you better chances too in my opinion).

If you guys want to talk to me more stuff about applying, shoot me a private ask on my tumblr or email me at toriknew@gmail.com

Figure Drawing

Supplemental

Sketchbook