Online Portfolio Help
-
We are new here, and this is our first post. We are twins, and we are both seniors at Kutztown University in PA, studying communication design, with a focus on illustration and advertising. We do some freelance illustration work, and have illustrated a few children's books. We mostly use a Wacom tablet to illustrate, but we also enjoy painting with oils, acrylics and watercolor.
We will take a portfolio class in the spring, but we don't want to wait until then to get something online.
We do have a small Wix website for our business, but that does not seem like the best format for our portfolios.
Here is the portfolio page from our Wix site. Right now, both of our work is on one page. Once we find a site we like, we will each create our own.
http://www.meilidesigns.com/our-artwork
What is your favorite site to display your art? We are looking for something simple that we can update easily. Any other suggestions for us?
Thank you for your help!
Jessica & Kaitlyn
Mei Li Designs -
Not sure what you are looking for or why you think you need something other than what you have now. If Mei Li Designs is your business name, then that is where your art should be displayed. Best thing you can do is develop the relationship between your business name and the art you produce as that business, if that is the model you want.
Things I would suggest you do would be do begin producing some mock assignments that relate to the work you are trying to get. You need more of that in your portfolio. And I don't know if I would separate your portfolio by artist, but by medium, or subject, or by style (or like your services page). Neither one of you displays a specific style from what I can see, and if you plan to do this together as a business, your portfolio should be organized in such a way that potential clients are not confused when looking thru your individual portfolios and see similar work.
Hope that helps.
-
I've heard a lot of people like the ease and format of Behance. But it's actually more important to have good, cohesive work in whatever you use for a portfolio page. If your work is good and cohesive, people will find you.
-
@tombarrettillo Thank you Tom! You have given us a lot to think about.
-
@withlinesofink Thank you Laura!
-
hello, MeiLiDesigns! I just looked at your portfolio. And it really impressed me. I am a creative person who is in love with literature, writing, I help students write their academic works on this site, I can confidently say that such works as MeiLiDesigns, Genesius Steps, Katy Perry, Sport Still Life, Still Life are excellent!!!!
-
What I would say about the pieces on your site is that they are not targeted. When I look at all the work I'm not sure what you do. You should figure out what it is you both want to do and focus all your design or illustration in a that area. Are you wanting to do children's books, are you going to do graphic design, portraits,....? Maybe it's too soon and you don't know what you want to do...then maybe just keep what you have for now until you figure out what you're really passionate about. Then put all your work, money, and effort into making pieces that fit into that market. You could always take the SVS portfolio class as well with Lee White and I bet that would get you moving in the right direction. http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/3205/live-portfolio-critiques
-
@daniel-lee Thank you!
-
@evilrobot Thank you so much for your response! We love your Wizard of Oz characters!
Right now, our portfolio is mostly assignments we had for our HS and college classes, so that is why there is a little of everything and no real focus yet. What we would like to do is improve our children's book illustrations, and find employment as illustrators. We are working on a children's book right now called The Adventures of Super Liam, and Kait just finished a book called Frank Stinks.
We know we need to work on our portfolios, and while we would love to participate in Lee's portfolio critique, as college students, we can't really afford to do that. We do both work as freelance artists, and we also play music professionally, but are limited in the number of hours we can work in the fall because we are taking an unpaid internship.
We really appreciate your help!
Kait & Jess
-
I'm pretty much going to echo what others have said, in that you need to focus your portfolio more. As you complete more pieces, don't be afraid to take some out. An important thing to show is that you can execute a specific style more than once, otherwise potential clients won't be confident in what you will deliver. As you get more illustrations to put in there, I would definitely take out anything that looks like it was done for school, like still life paintings and self portraits.
Good luck!
Website: www.tessawrathall.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tessawrathall_art/
-
This post is deleted! -
@tessw Thank you Tess! We really appreciate your input.
-
I just looked at your portfolio! This is amazing! I love literature and writing. But I always had problems with the essay. Thanks to the EssayService Blog, I was able to raise my level higher. You guys are awesome!
