Preparing a Portfolio
Portfolio Clinics
These 1-day workshops are designed for learners ages 15 and up interested in pursuing a creative pathway towards post-secondary education.
Across 2D and 3D materials, art, and design approaches, you’ll gain hands-on experience, professional insights, and portfolio-ready pieces to show the full scope of your creative potential. The various workshops, taught by OCAD U faculty who are professionals in their field, present an opportunity for you to explore different techniques, mediums and approaches to a studio practice applicable to any art and design program.
You will come away with a better understanding of how studio-based research and creative process work can come together to support a strong portfolio piece.
Questions? Email: portfolioclinics [at] ocadu.ca (portfolioclinics[at]ocadu[dot]ca)
Portfolio Clinic Package
2026-2027 Workshops
Window Packaging Design
Instructor: Karen Justl
Dates: October 17, November 21, December 5 and January 16
Register here
Graphic design and illustration can often work hand in hand to create a unique and impactful narrative for package design. In this workshop, students will explore how illustration, typography, colour, composition, and branding work together across different surfaces of a package to tell a story.
What you will learn:
- How to develop a concept and design through sketching, brainstorming, and critique
- Explore how to combine traditional and digital approaches to communicate your ideas and personality
- Incorporate graphic design techniques and illustration skills to create eye-catching and thoughtful packaging for products
- Learn how process work and research support portfolio development
- Experiment with problem solving, visual branding, and marketing strategies
Fabricating a Metal Pencil Box
Instructor: Ellie Oram
Dates: October 17, November 21, December 5 and January 16
Register here
In this studio workshop, youwill create a small pencil box with a handle made from metal, for storing stationery supplies or trinkets. You will be introduced to a combination of basic metal forming tools and hand tools to fabricate their box. The box will begin as a 2D sheet of metal and be transformed into a functioning box with a customized handle.
No prior experience in metalwork is necessary to participate in this workshop.
What you will learn:
- Basic metal fabrication techniques including folding and spot welding
- Hand finishing techniques for metal
- How to safely use metal shop equipment
- How to translate a 2D sketch into a 3D object
- Easy ways to document 3D work and process work for portfolios
Drawing and Painting the Figure
Instructor: Par Nair
Dates: October 17, November 21, December 5 and January 16
Register here
This workshop introduces you to skills and techniques for observational figurative drawing and painting from a live model. You will work with both wet (acrylic paint) and dry (soft pastels) mediums and use a viewfinder as a tool to understand perspective, cropping, scale and foreshortening. You will experiment with different approaches to representing the figure while developing confidence in both quick gestural studies and more sustained poses.
What you will learn:
- Develop technical skills in observational figurative drawing and painting to incorporate in portfolios
- Gain knowledge of working from a live model and work with short gestural poses as well as long sustained poses
- Explore a combination of both dry and wet mediums
- Develop understanding of colour mixing and colour theory
- Use perspective, foreshortening, cropping and composition to effectively to render figures
- Use a viewfinder to strengthen compositional decision making
- Identify and develop visual language, style, and strengths while receiving feedback and guidance
Registration for Portfolio Clinics for fall 2026 and winter 2027 is now open!
Take the 3-workshop package and build a well-rounded portfolio.
Portfolio Resources & Tips
