Links to my Web Presence
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Victoria-Upson-Illustration/188429587947299?ref=hl
http://victoriaupson.deviantart.com/
http://torjaneupson.carbonmade.com/
Website : www.victoriaupson.co.uk
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/victoriaupson16/
http://victoriaupson.deviantart.com/
http://torjaneupson.carbonmade.com/
Website : www.victoriaupson.co.uk
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/victoriaupson16/
PORTFOLIO
http://www.awwwards.com/websites/portfolio/
10/03/14
Here are some useful Videos I have watched, some have given useful information, others you have to take apart to find the useful elements.
1: This video shows how to make a physical portfolio, It's a but too complicated for me to produce in a short amount of time. This is something I can attempt in the future.
I actually found this tutorial really useful I could make a leather portfolio in exactly the same way as they have created this one. I want to give this a go at some point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4UMp7U_3Ow
10/03/14
Online portfolio's: I already have a website/blog and a carbon-made portfolio, which I am happy with as it is easy to use. However, I want to research alternatives, there may be a better option out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRwSvHnD0lM
03/03/14
Above: best protfolio builders (I already use carbon-made !)
http://www.creativebloq.com/portfolios/examples-712368
10/03/14
I especially like 'Lizzie's site.' Her artistic stamp has been put on the portfolio so that you do not have to search her portfolio to work out f you like it. It is the first thing you see. I must use my logo in the same fashion and build my portfolio/website around it.
CHOOSING PORTFOLIO PICTURES
I already have my online portfolio, which is quite up to date. The only issue I have is that my work collates into three categories
storyboards
generic
fashion
In the contact sheet below I have shown all three mingled together. Ideally, I would like to work in all or one of these genres. I think, preliminary promotion suggests I concentrate on them all for the moment and if I find I need to split my work into 2 places (2 websites maybe one for generic one for fashion).
I have 2 versions of my graphic novel. I would love include pieces from both in my portfolio, however, I already need to dwindle these images down. To do this I may make one image out of 4. I.e the 5 olio pieces could become one editorial image (this could be done on Photoshop).
My Portfolio as it stands (web-presence)
These images are taken from my website: This is revised from the contact sheet above. I want to go through these and then produce another contact sheet that revises the order that my portfolio will go in.
1st couple of pages are fairy tales
below is my editorial section: My portfolio should be edited in this way, organised into sections.
Graphic novel in 2 ways: Sketch and finalised. One is a storyboard and the other a graphic novel.
The second will not be in my printed portfolio.
NETWORKING
Every year I attend summer Gala's and through friends and family know someone who owns a printers. As my family uses them on a regular basis (every year for 30 years running the show printing programmes etc.) they have agreed to do my a favour and print my portfolio for free! This saves me a great deal of time and money. I have prepared and finalised the files in a folder 'to print'.
The requirements:
- MUST BE 300 + DPI
- MUST BE A4
- CAN BE MORE THAN ONE PER PAGE
- MUST BE THICK HIGH QUALITY WHITE PAPER
- MUST BE SUBMITTED USING FLASH DRIVE
Below are the Finalised images
Above Final images edited and cleaned up for print.
My Portfolio: I have chosen a black display folder because my work does not need to be removed from the wallets, it is easily scanned in and the wallets are thick , don't wrinkle and are of good quality.
Above: The final layout of my portfolio
- It is organised into figurative/concept an storyboard/editorial/fashion
- I have tried to group colours to make it coherent
- I have put my business card in the wallet at the front of the portfolio
WEB-PRESENCE
Creating a domain name:
options:
victoriajaneupson
victoriaupson
torjaneupson
torupson
Full name preferred because it is more professional and will be on all contact/legal information etc.
choose .co.uk as opposed to .com because .com is far more expensive
Places I can get a domain name from:
http://www.names.co.uk/domain-names
http://uk.godaddy.com/deals2/?gclid=CISPwbm0g70CFSfmwgodzFYAkg&isc=gofhuk25¤cytype=GBP&ef_id=Uxsr3gAAAWi8gw8B:20140308165826:s
This is a really lonwinded way of going about looking for domain name registras, so I have decided to research the best ones in terms of polls ans statistics.
Below, comes from the site 'Life-hacker.com'.
http://lifehacker.com/5683682/five-best-domain-name-registrars
Which Domain Registrar Is Best? ( Poll Closed )
Total Votes: 9,142
The first two sites I found too difficult to navigate, so I took the advice of a peer and tried Go-daddy, which was easy to set up and cheap in comparison.
For victoriaupson.com they wanted to charge me £27 for 2 years. However, for £5 I was able to get:
www.victoriaupson.co.uk
This subscription lasts for 2 years and I can manually update it after that time and re-subscribe if needed.
What am I going to connect my domain name to?
Ideas:
- I can create a website and pay to connect it to my domain name:
I.e Weebly, yahoo, go-daddy
This could be expensive and there are other ways of doing this free.
- TUMBLER: I can create a tumbler for free and make it look like a website, or I can create links on the blog that link to a WEBSITE and PINTEREST PORTFOLIO etc.
- This could also be done on BLOGGER which I already now how to use, so this could be quite simple.
- CARBONMADE: I already have a portfolio here and for a lesser price than weebly I can attach my domain to it. It is, however, silly to do this when I can, for free make a:
FINAL IDEA:
Go between page, functions as a link to all aspects of my web presence.
Here is a quick sketch of what this can look like.
I already have a pinterest account, a facebook page (business) an online portfolio and a deviant account which I have been using successfully for many years.
This will basically be a go-between for my domain name and all of the important places I want people to visit when they search my name.
I have an about page on my website. However, as I am tailoring what is effectively a blog site; I can make one post with a short 'about' section and photograph so people know they are on the right track.
USING BLOGGER TO MAKE A PAGE TO CONNECT MY DOMAIN TO:
Now I have decided to use blogger, I have created a rough new blog and called it 'Victoria Upson Illustrator'. However, the title will be my logo. I now have to connect the site to my domain name. To do this I followed the instructions under 'settings'.
I navigated my way around my account on go-daddy until I found a file manager. If you clock quick add nothing happens-however, when you click add host you get an option to add a record. You only get on www. so you have to get it right first time as this is a long-winded process. (learned this the hard way, I added my fmp page originally, which was incorrect, it needed to be a specific page).
Blogger then have me instructions under settings. You have to add a CNAME (your name effectively) then type in bloggers address www.ghs.google.com.
This is the bit that takes time as you have to wait for one hour for go-daddy to register your change to the account and file-editor.
Once the hour is over you can go back to blogger and 'add a custom domain' which I did. So when I type in my domain name it directs straight to my created page that links to the entirety of my web presence.
So now I have connected my domain name to a blogger tailored to direct the user to the entirety of my web presence.
Creating the blog:
logo:
This is my logo, I use it whenever it is needed, It means there is an image people can specifically relate to me. It can either be used with or without the calligraphy
I decided to use the image with my name on because then I do not need a typed title anywhere on the page. Now I know what the logo/title will be it must decide on what elements of my web presence are important to include. I am happy with my layout design from earlier. I have decided these are pages that it will link to.
I have changed the font to something that looks handwritten like my calligraphy (logo). I want it to tie it. I have chosen orange font to complement the logo and kept the orange/white theme going. I am happy with how this has turned out. I would have preferred to connect to a professional website of course but I wont do that until I am earning; at that point I will get someone to make it for me.
above: about/ I have completed a small autobiography for my official website which I have included in a post on the blog. It will let people know in brief what my abilities are.
I have had a Facebook admin page for a couple of years now. I don't spend a lot of time promoting it as I am not a massive user of Facebook. However, I have a few professionals who keep an eye on this page. People at digital leaf for example. For that reason it is useful to have; it is very quick to update and you get get efficient feedback. I prefer to have the page so that I can keep my art posts separate to my personal page, I don't like the idea of people searching me and seeing my last drunken photo. I am not really a twitter or tumbler user; so for that reason I will endeavor to use my Facebook page to a greater extent and see exactly how far I can push it.
I change the profile photo often, so that a new piece of work is the first thing people see. However, the logo remains and I will keep using it for another couple of years (until it is very outdated). This page is the best representation of my work as it is currently.
Above: I organise the posts so that they appear in groups. I try not to upload a single image an stick to collections so that everything is in an album or a category.
Above: Grouping examples. Editorial group on the right and graphic novel on the left. two very different projects but by grouping them and uploading then collectively the page is organised like a blog. The Fairy tale section in the image above that all relates, so as you scroll down you can see the progress and intent. It's quite a good vessel for development.
ABOVE: example of gallery options. This is a fashion album and the gallery displays coherently if you click photographs/albums etc. Just like a blog, I can update this site for as long as I need to.
DEVIANTART
collectives/favourites/
I have been using deviantart for many years (about 7 years). I didn't use it for a long time but re-learned it a couple of years ago. For me, despite opinions that it unprofessional and not particularly useful, it has been a really rewarding site to be on. I love the fact I can communicate with some of my favourite Illustrators (Abigail Larson/Campbell) and there is always a chance they will see your work. Commenting, gaining feedback, compilation and 'favoriting' a lot of influential work is easy to do and deviant is full of enthusiastic people. I am always getting requests to be part of groups and collectives, which is really rewarding, it means people are taking interest in my work and want to promote it for me. Some collectives are more worthwhile than others but it's easy to suss out whether it's worth submitting by looking at the other artwork.
Submitting work is long-winded. You can only upload one image at a time and this involves adding keywords/categorizing/re sizing adding title and description. Sometimes this isn't relevant to the image but has to be completed so the image can be submitted. It is important to think about the keywords because when people search for things this is what links your work. Above is as an example of the gallery, you can organize it into galleries and projects, which I haven't. Deviant is more about that moment when your image is submitted...that's when the people online see it, it more a browsing site than a portfolio and gallery site.
contacting people/receiving work/opportunities
Second page of correspondence. This is ongoing.
There are other opportunities on Deviant
- competitions
- notices
- promotion
- adverts
- points and badges
CARBONMADE (PORTFOLIO)
Carbon made it a really simple portfolio site. Even though I don't really need it on top of a website and various other sites, I like to keep it because it is so simple to navigate. It is also easy to send to people, organised into projects; you can send a link directly to those or the gallery in its entirety. See example of Galleries below.
Problem with site: For free use you only get a certain number of images and projects. After a while they up the amounts, you just have to stay a member and you get more opportunities after a few weeks. If I had had a website when I made this portfolio I wouldn't have made it; however, I keep it updated because it's free and may be useful, as much web presence for free I can get is important.
ABOVE: Simple clean gallery. See how the site organizes into thumbnails you can scroll through. Example of graphic novel above and contrast to project below which is a fashion line. It works for all kinds of work because it is so simple.
PINTEREST
SEE HOME PAGE TABS FOR MY PINTEREST PAGES.
Part of the project is to keep pinterest boards and document research. Below you can see a couple of pages that concentrate on portfolio and promotion. I have been using this for my research project too but I feel this can interlink.
WEBSITE
Research into the best website builders:
tumbler
weebly
moon-fruit
go-daddy
google
I have already decided on weebly as a website builder because it was mentioned in a seminar and looked easy and quick to use. Computers are not my thing, so I needed to choose something simple.
Below: here is the final blog, an amalgamation of all of my other sites/blogs/portfolio's. I have included my generic logo in place of a title, a contact page, a gallery and an autobiography.
home page
'about'
The first collection if my generic Fairytale work. I have only included work that is less than 2 years old because I want everything to be as up to date and in keeping with my current work as possible.
It is important that I show versatility show I have completed an editorial section and also uploaded my comic books. These are all things I love to do and want to continue doing. I would be happy to gain work in all of these fields.
In the future I hope to have a website specifically for fashion work but I am happy for a section of the gallery to be dedicated to it. At the moment I don't know which way my work will sway.
Below shows the buttons you use to build the site. You simply drag them across onto the template and build into them. Its very easy to use so, for me, this was the best website builder.
AMENDMENTS TO CONNECTING DOMAIN NAME TO BLOG:
- Blog page is no longer needed becasue it is felt to be confusing
- I need to create a page that only connects to website
- I can keep the blog
- It should be simple.
Splash Page
Why use a splash page?
- It can be created for free using google blogger
- It means when my domain is searched it directs straight to this page
- There is no other option other than entering my website
- Its simple to create
Only downside is the 'no posts' bar beneath but it is a small proce to create a free link between domain and website.
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