Please look at my art portfolio

Weak Kitten

Graduate Poster
Weak Kitten
Joined
Sep 1, 2010
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I know we aren't supposed to use this forum for self promotion but I just finished my portfolio website and I'd like some feedback.

I know the layout and especially some of the text formatting is a bit rough but please let me know what you think. Comments on the art itself are especially appreciated as long as any negative comments are constructive.

If you are interested please go to: www.mimsysherry.com

Oh, and remember to turn off any script blocking in your browser. It uses some simple scripts to make large versions of the images show up when you mouse over them.

Oh, and if any of you know of someone who needs to hire a freelance artist I charge very reasonable hourly rates for someone of my experience level.
 
Weak Kitten said:
I know we aren't supposed to use this forum for self promotion but I just finished my portfolio website and I'd like some feedback.
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That first image of the woman in yellow is truly a priceless masterpiece!

The rest are good, too. Especially the fantasy art -- the old man with the beard reminds me of my Aikido teacher.
 
Fnord said:
That first image of the woman in yellow is truly a priceless masterpiece!

The rest are good, too. Especially the fantasy art -- the old man with the beard reminds me of my Aikido teacher.
Today 05:53 PM
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You're right, I should make a note on my website that it's just a photo and not my work. I'll have to go find the name of the woman who took the photograph.

I'm glad you like the fantasy art. I always have great fun with those but they aren't where I've been making my living lately.
 
If this is your commercial portfolio, decide who your audience is. If you're looking to do general design, some of the fantasy stuff, especially the ones that lean toward "furry" art could be a turn off.

You should only have one page of images per section, just your best, not everything. There are a lot of images in there that aren't distinctive, or don't show your skills to the fullest, for instance, your first fantasy character isn't up to the level of anatomy and perspective that you show with your other images. Most of the generic cellphone backgrounds just look like filters and clip art, they don't show off your skills very well.

The clip art section has a lot of repeats from your zodiac images, that makes it look like you're trying to pad it out and don't have much work to show.

Your figure sketches are very nice, they let your talent be seen the most of everything posted, but even those should be cut down to just 10.
 
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I rather like the figure of the man with his head between his knees. It avoids the contortions of the earlier drawings, and shows emotion rather than movement.
 
I enjoyed the figure studies. Were those drawn from life? I'd love to see more drawing done from life...that said, very nice! Thanks for sharing!
 
Cavemonster said:
If this is your commercial portfolio, decide who your audience is. If you're looking to do general design, some of the fantasy stuff, especially the ones that lean toward "furry" art could be a turn off.

You should only have one page of images per section, just your best, not everything. There are a lot of images in there that aren't distinctive, or don't show your skills to the fullest, for instance, your first fantasy character isn't up to the level of anatomy and perspective that you show with your other images. Most of the generic cellphone backgrounds just look like filters and clip art, they don't show off your skills very well.

The clip art section has a lot of repeats from your zodiac images, that makes it look like you're trying to pad it out and don't have much work to show.

Your figure sketches are very nice, they let your talent be seen the most of everything posted, but even those should be cut down to just 10.
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That's some pretty solid advice cavemonster. What do you do for a living? You sound like you know what you're talking about.
 
Weak Kitten said:
You're right, I should make a note on my website that it's just a photo and not my work. I'll have to go find the name of the woman who took the photograph.
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Uh, yeah. I'd put your art on the first page, or make it more clear that that's a photo of the artist (if it is).

I also thought it was a painting you'd done and I was blown away. Seriously. It was right up there with the Dutch masters. I was surprised not to see the same breathtaking genius in the more commercial art samples. Not a good start to have such a let-down, when the commercial art is perfectly good in its own right, if you come at it with the right mindset.

Also, just a navigation point: "main" and "index" are confusing, because "index" often means the main page of a website. "Main" actually does lead to http://www.mimsysherry.com/index.html I wonder if you could you rename "index" something more specific, like "examples" or "samples" or "gallery" or even a longer heading like "Examples of my [or Mimsy Sherry's] artwork"?
 
I would take off the photo. I'm just being honest but it looks like you just got back from a Fairy Festival or something. I've recently had to close down an examiner page because my personal interests were interfering with me being able to get a job. I'm being blunt because I don't know you and I'd want someone to look at me and tell me the truth. If you do put your pix on the page you might want to do a self portrait sketch.

I also agree that the sketches are very interesting. I'd make those bigger. I also liked the Zodiacs even though they are zodiacs because they look professional and well done.

The other sections on your page look too unprofessional and uncreative for an artist. For example there's no movement on the page. It's very flat. I work with a woman who does graphic design and she would criticize your fonts. (She did mine) as too basic. You want a bit of pizazz. Also if you don't design art for your own website then it sort of makes it look like doing art is a Hard and time consuming thing for you, which would make people hesitate about hiring you.
 
Hey, you work with Mousechief! Cool! You guys are doing very interesting stuff with indie games.

As for the website, it looks a bit plain and oldschool. A lot of that has to do with the use of black, bold verdana in the headings and links (on my Mac), which signals "default" to me.

Other than that, I second renaming "Index" to "Gallery". I'd also move the "please enable scripts" notice down below the images and replace it with a link that very explicitly says "back to gallery" or similar. I had to stop and think for a for second how to get to the categories.

Personally, I'd also dial back the bevel/emboss effect on the button images, but that's down to taste. I do suggest you remove any empty buttons, though, that's just visual clutter.

You could also consider what the quite saturated background does to the perception of your images, and whether that's helpful or not. There's a reason why photographers' portfolios are often grayscale in their backgrounds and UI elements.

Hope this is of some use, and looking forward to Arcada Mia :)
 
A friend of mine makes her living at graphic design. She does small jobs but I like some of the things she has on this page. For example I like her sketch of herself doing graphic design on the main page. I like the thumbnails of the images underneath. That gives it some flow and movement.

I also like that the colors on her page seem to match her style as an artist. That seems to be missing from yours. What kind of art do you do? Also if you did anything with a company you should have their logo on the work that you do. Also a bio page, blog and a contact page would be nice.

Instead of Index you could call it Portfolio.

http://www.cynthiadiblasi.com/illustration/studio.html



And I found this page I thought you'd find helpful

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/impressive-graphic-designer-portfolios/
 
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very impressive art. It looked like a scanned hand drawing or are they really are. I am a frustrated artist who try to draw on photoshop but still not working.
 
Weak Kitten said:
I know we aren't supposed to use this forum for self promotion but I just finished my portfolio website and I'd like some feedback.
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If you are interested please go to: www.mimsysherry.com
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Your art doesn't really do it for me, but I felt compelled to respond, because the very first image that comes up on your site—presumably of you—bears a very strong resemblance to someone else that I know, named “Sheri”.
 
Weak Kitten said:
I know we aren't supposed to use this forum for self promotion but I just finished my portfolio website and I'd like some feedback.

I know the layout and especially some of the text formatting is a bit rough but please let me know what you think. Comments on the art itself are especially appreciated as long as any negative comments are constructive.

If you are interested please go to: www.mimsysherry.com

Oh, and remember to turn off any script blocking in your browser. It uses some simple scripts to make large versions of the images show up when you mouse over them.

Oh, and if any of you know of someone who needs to hire a freelance artist I charge very reasonable hourly rates for someone of my experience level.
Click to expand...

Good studies. You obviously have a talent there. Now, forgive me, but very little of it is art yet, but excellent artwork. For art, you need to send a message; the works you show are mainly clichees. Excellently executed, but clichees.

For bread, while you evolve your art, consider webpage design, for which you have an obvious talent also. There are at least ten million professional websites out there that could benefit from your hand!

You could easily compete also for magazine and book-cover ilustrations, but that business is teeming with young talent. Web design is more dominated by computer nerds, with preciously few artists.

Don't give up, you have something.

Good luck, Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
EEEK! The thread killer strikes again. Wuz I that bad?

Hans :dio:
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No problem. Truth is I don't really care if it's ART, I do graphic design for a living. The communication I do is in UI icons and advertising material and I enjoy it. Some may think less of me and say I'm not a TRUE ARTIST but frankly I saw all of the scams that artists and galleries were running on their clients in New York and I'd rather just make a humble living doing something useful.
 
Weak Kitten said:
That's some pretty solid advice cavemonster. What do you do for a living? You sound like you know what you're talking about.
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Sorry for the delay. I'm actually a puppeteer, but I've done a fair amount of freelance design work, got my BFA from kind of a fancy school, and have a lot of friends who do illustration and design.

A few more bits of advice.

As people have said, that's a nice picture of you on the front page, but potential clients are looking for your work right off the bat. You should lead with your work. You're looking for design gigs, not modeling.

Preferably, your layout itself should have some design elements to show off your skills, right now you've got rectangles, one with a gradient.

Think about creating a logo from your name, perhaps replacing that photo portrait with a drawn one if you still want your face there.

You've got a very large block of text there, which aside from the photo is the only thing on the entry page. Clients don't know if they want to bother reading about you until after they have seen your work. Consider snipping that down to a brief paragraph on that entry page and then have the rest on a separate About the Artist/ Bio/ whatever. Also, right now, in Firefox, your text overflows the box which looks like an unfixed bug.

Have you spent much time looking at other illustrator/designer portfolio sites?

Here are some examples.
http://www.annejulie-art.com/gallery.html
http://www.markryden.com/
http://www.thebungaloo.com/HOME.html
http://tinyinventions.com/index.html

A few things you'll notice are ubiquitous, some I've already mentioned.

- Designed text. At the very least your name should be in a very specific font, ideally it should be a clear and intriguing design.

- You see images of work first. And generally most of the page real estate is images. You'll never see a lead in page where there's more to read than to look at, and even then the text you do see is usually specific news, links to relevant work etc.

- Most backgrounds you'll see on illustration sites are white. You want your site to either be neutral or to complement your images. White or gray sites with simple design elements highlight the actual work. That isn't to say you can't have a richly colored portfolio...

http://www.emotionslive.co.uk/#
http://www.giblette.com/

But it is much tougher to make it work, and requires a very thoughtful, striking design.

Google portfolio sites, look at the good ones and you'll find 90% have a white background or close to it. Of the remaining 10% most will be gray, black or neutral browns. This isn't because these people are uncreative, it's for the same reason that gallery walls are white, it makes the artwork pop in contrast and saves you from any clashes between background and a variety of work, each with it's own palette.
 
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