Visual Art Portfolio Path

Complete 100-Day Creative Challenge

Elective. Foundation — 100 consecutive published pieces forces more creative growth than any single project. Domain-agnostic: works for photography, illustration, or digital art. Proof: numbered posts (Day 1–100) on a single platform with timestamps confirming consecutive daily creation.

Build a Photography Portfolio

Elective. Photography branch — 30 strong images across a coherent body of work. Proof: URL to a live portfolio (Behance, Squarespace, VSCO) with 30 images and a visible creation date.

Learn Illustration

Elective. Illustration branch — series of 10 finished pieces from fundamentals to complete work. Proof: URL to a public gallery showing 10 completed pieces with creation dates.

Master Digital Art Fundamentals

Elective. Digital art branch — curriculum-driven fundamentals (anatomy, colour, lighting) with 10 finished pieces. Proof: public portfolio URL with 10 pieces and completion dates.

Design a Typeface

Elective. Type design branch — highly specialized craft. Proof: complete working typeface A–Z + numbers published on a free font platform (Google Fonts, FontSquirrel) or personal site as a downloadable file.

Get First Art Commission

Elective. Commercial validation — someone paid you to make something. Proof: brief, invoice, and the finished commissioned work.

Sell First Original Artwork

Elective. Sales milestone — an original artwork sold at market price to a buyer. Proof: invoice or sale receipt.

Get Work Exhibited Publicly

Elective. Gallery milestone — work accepted and displayed in a curated show. Proof: acceptance letter or exhibition program listing your work.

The most comprehensive free figure drawing and anatomy curriculum on YouTube. Applicable to illustration, digital art, and character design. Start here for any figurative work.

Adobe's free portfolio hosting platform — the de facto standard for visual artists. Your public portfolio URL for proofs lives here. Timestamp-visible, shareable, and searchable by creative industry.

The largest free communities for artists building fundamentals. Weekly critique threads, resource wikis, and progress posts from people at every level. The sticky guides in r/ArtFundamentals are the best free structured curriculum for self-taught artists.