10. A fan drawing of an anime character. The problem with these lame attempts at anime is that they only tell us WHAT YOU LIKE. We want to see WHO YOU ARE.
9. Something you made in elementary school
As a rule of thumb, make sure none of the works is over 5 years old. No one cares about what you did yesterday, what matters is what you're doing right now.
8. object that is very fragile, use a photo of said object instead.
7. Elaborate written concept of a work you're going to make but haven't made yet!
Anyone can come up with a good idea, what makes you good is how well you execute.
6. Scuff marks, buckling, and tears show a lack of organization and manners.
So if it ain't clean, toss it out!
5. Inappropriate, insulting work aka Andres Serrano done wrong. One of the worst things you can possibly do is submit a work of art that may offend the person reviewing it.
4. A piece takes more than a second to set up. The people reviewing your portfolio only have a limited amount of time to go over a ton of candidates. So walk in, show them your goodies, walk out.
3. A work that you doubt is your best. If you don't believe that your showing us your best stuff, we're not going to believe either.
2. Anything that took looks like it took less than a minute to make. That's not efficiency, that's laziness.
1. Artwork your friend drew for you. If you did this, congrats, you have committed the worst unforgivable sin in the book: plagiarism. The Devil plagiarized God and look what happen to him!