Portfolio requirements for Graphic Storytelling 

Your portfolio should represent you as an artist and storyteller and include your best work.

The portfolio is your chance to show off your unique skills and creative abilities.

We are looking for applicants who can showcase a broad understanding of skills relevant to Graphic Storytelling and who are willing and able to learn new skills and methods and explore new avenues for creative work throughout their years of study.

The portfolio requirements for Graphic Storytelling are designed to allow applicants to showcase their skills in the main areas we work with on the course: Drawing, (Visual) Storytelling, World Building, and Pitching.

You are free to choose the medium of your drawings – traditional or digital. Please note that all dialogue and other text must be written in English.

Portfolio requirements, Graphic Storytelling 2025

1. Video introduction (max 3 minutes)

One important skill for a graphic storyteller to possess is the ability to present themselves and their projects to potential clients – in other words: Pitching. Most of our graduates work as freelancers, and their ability to convey their ideas and solutions successfully is essential to sustaining their careers.

In this category, we are asking you to record a video introduction of yourself – an application letter in video form. Here are some suggestions for topics to cover (please don’t feel obligated to include all of them – or to limit yourself to these):

  • Why are you applying, what made you choose this specific programme, and how does that choice tie in with your ambitions for the future? Where do you hope four years at Graphic Storytelling will take you?
  • How do you see your own strengths and weaknesses as a creative in terms of craft, vision, drive etc.? Where are you especially hoping to improve by studying at TAW?
  • What or who inspire(s) you as a creative person? Consider naming some favourite creators or works (comics, illustration, books, films, games …) and talking about how and why they inspire you.
  • Tell us about any relevant experience you may have, work or study or other. Anything from paid work to passion projects applies.
  • Formative experiences: Things you have done or that have happened to you, good or bad, that you think shaped you in terms of who you are now.

When reviewing the video, we will look at your ability to communicate succinctly and clearly about who you are and how you see yourself profiting from the course (Pitching).

We will not be judging the video based on image or sound quality, editing or other technical aspects – as long as you are in the frame, and we can hear what you are saying. Feel free to record the video with your phone, a web camera or whatever else is easily accessible to you.

Please upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo. If you wish to restrict access, you may set the video to “hidden,” “unlisted,” or password-protected. Before submitting your application, ensure that the link and video function correctly. It is essential that we can view the video without being required to sign in to YouTube or Vimeo.

Tip: On YouTube, select “Unlisted” when setting the visibility of your video. On Vimeo, you can choose “Hide from Vimeo” or use a password, as long as anyone with the link and password can view the video without logging in.

Important: Avoid settings such as “Private,” as these require the viewer to have an account and log in to access the video.

2. Sequential Storytelling (8 – 12 pages total)

Comics are an ideal medium for practicing and showcasing skills in key areas of the Graphic Storytelling course, specifically Drawing, (Visual) Storytelling, and World Building. For this part of the portfolio, we are asking you to create two different comics, one that is fiction and one that is non-fiction.

2a. First comic: Non-fiction (4-6 pages)

A comic about real world events or phenomena, where you use the comics form to concisely convey information about something that you find interesting – within history, science, the arts, psychology, or something completely different. The comic can be a neutral explanation of the topic of your choice or offer some kind of commentary on it.

Formal requirements:

  • The comic must include dialogue and/or captions.
  • The pages should be finished; color is optional.
  • Autobiography is not allowed – unless you are using yourself as an example of something you’re explaining (so: if you’re a twin and the comic is about twins, you are allowed to incorporate your own experience as an example).

When reviewing the non-fiction comic, we will look at your ability to:

  • Create visuals that demonstrate technical skill and are expressive, consistent in style and design, and which communicate clearly (Drawing).
  • Use comics panels, panel-to-panel progressions, and page layouts to convey complex information in a compelling and readable way (Storytelling).

2b. Second comic: Fiction (4 - 6 pages)

A fiction short story, where style, genre, theme etc. is completely up to you. Try to create something that shows off who you are as a storyteller and what you like.

Formal requirements:

  • The pages should be finished; color is optional.
  • The story must have a clear beginning, middle, and end – it should not be the prologue to a 3000 page epic.

When reviewing the fiction comic, we will look at your ability to:

  • Create visuals that demonstrate technical skill and are expressive, consistent in style and design, and which communicate clearly (Drawing).
  • Use comics panels, tiers, and pages to convey complex information in a compelling and readable way (Storytelling).
  • Design or research a setting for the world of your story and portray its inhabitants and environments in a way that is believable and compelling (World Building).

3. Illustration (6 pieces total)

In the Illustration category, you will be able to work more freely and creatively with tools and approaches than might be ideal for comics. Here, you can showcase your ability to compose more complex images, perhaps with multiple focal points (Drawing), as well as your ability to tell stories with pictures in service of a text that’s not your own (Storytelling).

Depending on your approach, you might also find opportunities to demonstrate your talents for character and environment design (World Building).

3a. Illustrations for a poem (5 illustrations)

Create 2 large, full-page illustrations (portrait or landscape – page format optional) and 3 vignettes (simpler and smaller standalone illustrations without borders of the kind that often occur in combination with text) for one of the following poems:

Elizabeth Bishop: One Art 

Lewis Carroll: Jabberwocky

Robert Hayden: Middle Passage

Adrienne Rich: Diving into the Wreck 

We would like you to imagine you are creating the pieces for a deluxe illustrated collection of the writer’s poetry. Feel free to include examples of how the illustrations might be placed on the pages of the collection along with the poem.

Formal requirements:

  • The illustrations should be finished; color is optional.
  • The illustrations can be realistic or stylized, but they must relate to the text in some discernible way.

When reviewing the poem illustrations, we will look at your ability to.

  • Create visuals that are technically accomplished, expressive, and well-composed (Drawing).
  • Convey or interpret the meaning of the text visually while ideally adding an extra layer to it (Storytelling).
  • Reflect or comment on the text through character and environment design (World Building), if applicable.

3b. Your work space in 2030 (1 illustration)

Create one illustration showing yourself in the place where you dream of working in the far-flung future of 2030. Is it an artists’ studio, a big animation or game company, other? Give us a sense – through the drawing – of what your life is like then, what kind of work you’re doing, what kind of people you’re working with (if any). The drawing should take up a full page of your portfolio and be fully finished; color is optional.

This piece will showcase and be evaluated on your ability to:

  • Create visuals that are technically accomplished, expressive, and well-composed (Drawing)
  • Communicate your visions for the future (Storytelling).
  • Imagine what the professional world might possibly look like for you on the other side of a Graphic Storytelling bachelor degree (entrepreneurship, a component of Pitching).

4. Life drawing (min. 8 drawings)

Drawings from life of human beings, using the tools you prefer. We like to see a mix of everything from detailed studies of the human form to quick observational sketchbook pieces; at least 4 of the drawings should depict the naked human form.

When reviewing the life drawing pieces, we will look at your ability to:

  • Understand and convey the anatomy, proportions, and weight of the human figure (Drawing).
  • Capture and convey fluid, gestural motion (Drawing). 

5. Writing (100 words)

Being able to write good prose (as in text) is an important skill for a graphic storyteller, whether used in the context of comics, books or scripts (Storytelling) or to present ideas and projects in a compelling way (Pitching).

For this part of the portfolio, we are asking you to write a “100 word story”. For inspiration, check out 100wordstory.org.

You will find that 100 words is very little to work with and so you will have to tell your “story” in a very concise, possibly lyrical way. That makes the form a good (albeit difficult!) test of your writing abilities. You are free to choose the subject of your text.

When reviewing your 100 Word Story, we will look at your ability to convey something – a mood, a series of events, a thought – in very few words, as well as your technical proficiency in prose writing (Storytelling).

6. Optional (max 5 pages)

This is where you can include additional work that didn't fit into the above categories, but that you still feel helps to show who you are creatively: drawings, animation, story ideas, graphic design, other creative projects. Here, you can showcase your skills in any of the categories.

Also, should you have relevant recommendations or references and wish to include them in your portfolio, this is the place to put them.

FAQ

  • Yes and no.

    As a cartoonist, illustrator or visual development artist, having a distinct style can be a strong asset, and so we are not necessarily looking for jacks of all trades. On the other hand, it is good to demonstrate curiosity about different styles and approaches to making images, since part of the point of a program like Graphic Storytelling is to give students the opportunity to develop their own voices as visual artists through experimentation.

    So, some stylistic versatility is a plus – but it can be overdone.

    Some applicants are so focused on showing versatility that their portfolios are weaker than they could be, simply because they do substantially better work in their comfort zone than outside it. If you think this might be the case for you, consider allowing yourself to work in a style you’re comfortable with for the main categories – perhaps using different tools and methods (e.g. pencils, pens, digital brushes; blackspotting, graytones, color) to create variety that way – and then adding some work to the “optional” category that demonstrates an openness to try styles that differ markedly from the one you tend to work in.

  • It is perfectly fine to have mostly traditional or digital drawings in your portfolio. However, we do recommend supplementing the paper drawings with some you’ve made on a screen (or the other way around) to show that you are able to work with other tools than the ones you are used to – or at least are open and able to learn it.

    If you are not very happy with the results, you can always consign them to the relatively low-stakes Optional category.

    As a student on the Graphic Storytelling program, you will be working with traditional drawing tools AND digital drawing software within the first couple of weeks of your studies, so it is important that you are open to learning how to use both.

  • No. The important thing is that the comics reflect your own tastes and interests. When looking at your portfolio, we want to get a sense of who you are as a visual storytelling – not what you think we want to see.

  • It does not.

  • It is not a requirement, no. But please indicate which part of the text your illustration would accompany, either in the form of an image caption or alongside the piece. And if you have ideas for how your illustrations might interact with the text, by all means show us!

  • We highly recommend doing the drawings for the Life Drawing section in real life drawing sessions with naked models – and not from photographs. A lot of information is lost in photographs, and it is easier to analyze the human form and draw the shapes correctly from a live, naked model where you can see bone structure, overlapping forms and how shadows are wrapping around the forms of the body.

    Drawing from photographs should be considered a final resort, but if there’s no way around it, please supplement these pieces with observational drawings of real life clothed people.

  • Yes! You can put pretty much anything in there, even if it’s not directly related to comics, illustration, or visual development. We love to see what other creative projects applicants get up to, and we’re always interested in references that suggest they’re ready to take on the tough (but hopefully meaningful) challenge of studying Graphic Storytelling.

    Some applicants want to include projects that are longer than the allotted five pages – a longform webcomic, for instance. In those cases, introducing the project, showing off a favorite page or two, and then adding a link to the entire thing can be a good solution.