Website

Ok, so here is what I have so far and this is the link. It is really generic right now but I'm working things out. Ideally I would like to have a video placed on the home page of just a collection of shots of me working on different pieces. Some of the sites I looked at were Zach Johnsen's, which looks suspiciously similar to blogger, lol, but still looks very professional, Sylvia Ji's site, which is great reference for slideshow and gallery presentation, and a few other student artists as well. Something I liked on Johnsen's site was his artistic inclusion of his sketches, and the fact that he had a news section for updates on gallery showings, work in progress, etc which doesn't apply to me at the moment but would be a great addition on a site in the future. Unfortunately my current thumbnails just look like pretty pictures, because for some reason I am having trouble getting the shadowbox to link to my images. I can get it to work fine in dreamweaver but whenever I transfer it to the html here, or even skip dreamweaver and just plug it in myself in the html, all my images show up as boxes with questionmarks and no links. I even went to the shadowbox website to follow the instructions they gave there, and it's still not working, so if anyone has any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong I'd love to hear them. I also think it is a good idea to have downloadable portfolios for people to take with them while viewing the site, as well as resumes, etc. Johnsen's website has a link to his own blog on top of the fact that he is the one who personally updates and comments on his own website, and I really like that because I think it is important to give a personable impression to your viewers. As great as purchased designed websites by web designers are, I think developing your own site and including your blogs and own comments shows that the artist is not only involved with the media, but is interested in getting personal and up close with their fans. I've checked out Behance and love that it's very professional, plus there is immediate connection to job postings and businesses. It's definitely intimidating to see the level of ability on the site, but it's just another reason for pushing to get to that ability myself. Taking this class has really helped me become more comfortable with wacom products and digital illustration in general. I now have several brushes that I feel competent in as well as a better idea of how to approach the start of digital work. Being able to watch the blogs, technique videos, and the process of other people was really helpful in speeding up my abilities. I'm actually looking forward to sitting down and producing a full fledged digital illustration that I can be proud of now; I think the patience part is the only thing that still needs a little push every now and then, lol. Finally getting around to creating a delicious account has also been a great thing, speeding up finding resources and sites that I never would have seen. That was a good requirement for taking this class. I think everyones' work was great throughout the course, and I wish everyone the best of luck in advancing their talents!