You've scoured through the brochures, filled out the applications, wrote those navel-gazing essays about why you want to be an artist, but now the worst seems to loom over you. You have to present a portfolio of your work. It's difficult to trust your belief in your own art when you wonder "Am I good enough?" The key to your portfolio is to convey not only your skills, but also your potential to do more.

If you are applying to any BFA degree program, you have presumably been taking art classes and creating work for a while. You love drawing, painting, sketching, making things — that is why you are considering art as a profession. If you are in high school, you have most likely been following a certain series of courses within a curriculum. Perhaps as an adult, you've produced work on your own or through some classes in the community. This is the exact type of beginning art colleges and universities expect. Have faith in the instruction you've been given; usually those particular assignments are part of the continuum of art instruction with which your portfolio reviewer is quite familiar.

Now the hard part is refining, editing, and perhaps adding to your portfolio before the big day. Begin by gathering your work from the past two years. Lay it all out and try to step back and be objective. You want to select the work the really speaks to your talent and capabilities.

A good portfolio must reflect breadth and depth. This means that you want a level of variety in terms of media and style, complemented by a number of pieces that exhibit your personal focus. Technical skills, craftsmanship, conceptual ability, and expressiveness are just a few of the overall capabilities that your reviewer is considering.

These abilities are often found in the following areas within a portfolio:

1. Drawing from Observation. These are the still life studies, figure drawings, and self-portraits that are absolutely critical to any portfolio. The more there are the better it is for most art schools. We want to see how you interpret the world around you, how you make compositional choices, how you handle the media to show light and form. These skills are critical to success in a B.F.A. program.

2. Work in Color. Pastel, watercolor, oil paint, whatever you prefer as long as you can convey an understanding of using color as one of your tools as an artist. Work from life as much as possible for your subject matter.

3. Design Work. Art colleges like to see that you have the ability to think abstractly and conceptually. Bring in work that uses color, form, line, and texture, as design elements. Perhaps use one of your realistic drawings from life and reinterpret it as an abstraction. You could even bring in three-dimensional design pieces.

4. Other Media. Portfolios are as individual and unique as the artists creating them. If you have worked in a darkroom, bring your photos. If you have made jewelry, built a website, kept a sketchbook, thrown a pot, illustrated a story, sewn a dress, or bound a book...bring it in. This is where you can reflect your specific interests. You may want to express your focus through a series of pieces that are based upon a theme that is particularly important to you.

5. Requirements for a Particular School. Some colleges will require you to complete a self-portrait or a specified assignment. Be sure to clearly review any such assignment carefully.

Overall, your portfolio should contain 10-20 pieces and typically does not need to be presented in a certain type of matting or case. However, you must take pride in your presentation. This represents craftsmanship and care in your work.

Slide portfolios are perfectly acceptable and are a good way to document your work as well. Be sure your work can be clearly read and that each image fills the frame. If the slides are too light or too dark, take them over. Never send bad slides. Always take care in labeling each slide clearly, with your name, size, and media. Number them and include a description sheet with any information you would like to convey to the reviewer about each piece. A self-addressed stamped envelope is typically required if you want your slides to be returned to you.

In addition to these suggestions, be prepared to discuss your work. Your interviewer is very interested in how you can participate in a critique, what artists you enjoy, where you've seen self-improvement, and why you made certain decisions in your creative process. Be relaxed and open with your thoughts.

I once read this quote on an art college poster: "To be good is not enough when you dream of being great." Getting accepted to an intensive college level art program can be that life altering chance to produce your own great work. Good Luck!

This article was originally created for TheArtBiz.com. It appears on NYFA Interactive courtesy of the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Library.