Painting From Life vs. From Photos
If you are an artist, what kind of website do you want to have for your own use?
As an artist:
- Do you want a web gallery? (for a some good examples, see David’s site, Steve’s site, and Franklin’s site)
- Do you want a blog, an online version of a diary?
I think many artists would like to have some kind of combination of these (unrelated) things. The problem is that the off-the-shelf solutions such as WordPress or Blogger are not designed for artists’ needs. That is why a lot of us spend/waste a lot of time tinkering with our websites, to customize them for our specific goals.
Recently Rex brought something exciting to my attention, a new version of WordPress that allows one to host many blogs. That is to say, if someone designs a good artist website template, they can allow other people to create their own blogs with this template on demand, for free — much like you can already get a WordPress blog for free.
To be useful for many artists, such a system should address the various issues that artists consider in a website.
What do you want in an artist website? Can you give examples of sites that have good design features?
Let me give some examples of what I want. My current site, zipser.nl is a first approximation of what I want in a blog. Something sort of like Hanneke van Oosterhout’s gallery site is what I would like to have bundled into the same website — a site with both blog and gallery functionality.
Both the blog and the gallery in these examples could be improved, and then there is the question of how to package them together. What should be the front page, for example?
Artists want a lot of different things, plus they often want their site to look different from everyone else’s. In my case, I wanted a very simple but distinctive way to show people some of my photography as the basis for conversations like ones we have on A&P. I doubt I’ll ever sell significantly from it, but it may be instrumental in sales elsewhere. I have no blog and no immediate plans for one, but I will soon be adding a page with a blog-like view of my posts here, with links for full posts and discussion.
I find Hanneke’s gallery site very clunky. The organization is unclear, and the tiny images on first view are unappealing. The first impression could be so much more seductive. I would probably feature a large detail that shows rich color, shape, and texture.
Steve,
That is some great feedback on the gallery site. A detail would be a good idea. Do you think it is a mistake to show prices next to the pictures?
Artists’ naturally want their sites to be different from other artists. One aspect of this is in the artwork itself, another is in the flavor of the design. For the design to be useful to more than one person, it would need to have some flexibility in terms of colors and fonts. If there is an option for a background image, that would also add a lot of individuality for those who utilized it.
Karl, I want both a gallery and conversation, but I keep them separate. For conversation I come here. I like the people, and the coffee is pretty good.
I designed my website using basic html. There was a bit of trial and error at first (and I’m still learning), but I’ve pretty much got it working the way I want. Though I do update it from time to time, especially when I’ve photographed a bunch of new work or I have a show coming up. Here are some of the features that are important to me:
1.) I want the site to be uncluttered and simple to navigate. I have a title page that never changes, and it goes to a page that I use as a hub (main_menu), from which you can easily get to any part of the site. And from any page on the site you can get back to the main menu in one click.
2.) I want people on any kind of computer, with any operating system and browser to be able to view the site. For this reason I avoid flash, javascripts, or any type of html that can only be read by some browsers.
3.) I want viewers to be able to see recent work and older work, and to be able to choose what they’re looking at. I keep links to various bodies of work available on the main page. Each one has a name, a short description, the years covered, and an indication of how many images are in the section. The sections are arranged chronologically, with the most recent at the top.
4.) I want viewers to be able to view each image and the page it’s on without scrolling. And I want them to be able to move forward or backward through each sequence. I always tell them where they are (image 12 of 23, etc.).
5.) I want viewers to see the whole image, but be able to enlarge it. For my most recent body of work, people can click on the image or a link that says “enlarge” (both work), and a larger image will open in its own window. I haven’t gone back and done this for earlier work.
6.) I put simple label information with each image, as you would find in a catalog. Title, medium, size and date. If it’s in a collection I’ll say so. I never put prices on my site, because I work those out with the galleries I show with, and I don’t want to create conflicting information.
7.) Though I sometimes change the appearance of the way things are organized (and how to navigate), I leave the underlying structure the same (the full path to any page or image). I do this because sometimes people on other sites link or refer to parts of mine, and I don’t want to break their links.
8.) I have a short statement and a resume available from the main page, but they are not what is seen when someone first gets to the site. I consider these to be background information, and I don’t want them to get in the way of people seeing the work. But a lot of people do look at them.
9.) By keeping my site modular, it’s easy to update it with new work. I sometimes choose to hide access to older work from the main page when I want to feature something new, and I can do or undo this with a simple html tag, which doesn’t break anyone’s links to the hidden work.
10.) Basically, I want the site to be easy to find and navigate for viewers, and to require a minimum of maintenance on my part.
PS – Karl, I’ve noticed that on the main A&P page you now have to scroll WAY down to find the sidebar w/ recent comments, etc. When you’re reading an individual post the info is right there, but not from the main page.
David,
That is not good! I don’t see that on my system (Mac with FireFox or Safari.) What system do you use? How long has this been a problem? Anyone else see the same thing as David?
Thanks for the tip!
UPDATE: I think I found the problem and fixed it — but since I don’t see the problem I’m not sure. Please let me know if it looks better now.
Karl, whatever you did fixed the problem. I’ve noticed it for a couple of weeks, but figured it was a temporary glitch.
I’m using IE v6 on Windows XP. I have access to the other browsers (Safari on my Mac, and Firefox on Linux at work), but for a number of reasons I’m mostly on IE for general web stuff. I know there are many things people don’t like about IE, but it is still the most common browser, so I design everything to work on it.
David,
We try, but we need to do better. Here was the problem: someone posted an image wider than 450 pixels. This will always break the front page. But this should only have been for the last few days. Maybe it happened more than once.
EVERYONE: if the site looks broken, it probably is for one reason or another. If you see a problem, let us know and we will fix it ASAP.
CONTRIBUTORS: Please keep your images 450 pixels wide or smaller.
ADMINISTRATORS: Try to make it that so over-sized images do not break the site in the future.
Thanks!
Could we have a list of the categories on the front page? If there was a category ‘photography’, my photographer friend Ginger, would probably have an easier time navigating.
Could we have a list of the categories on the front page?
Birgit,
We don’t change the basic template code on a day to day basis, but I think your request might come true soon. For the moment, I’ve updated this post to list some categories (above the clouds).
Re Browsers. According to our site statistics, IE versions are in the minority (a little over 40% with 50% going to Firefox and 10% to Safari (which uses the same code base), so we can just cancel the idea that IE is the most popular browser among our users.
Lat night, I figured out a way to install IE in Linux using some special, custom software, so I have a new debugging tool, however.
Birgit,
We decided not to go with the categories on the front page because we have SO many and the list was growing…
And by the way, multiple categories on any post actually HARM the indexing that search engines use. It’s better to use just one. It makes the post easier to find in a search from any search engine. All the site optimization experst recommend that. Like an essay, you should be keeping to one topic anyway.
But I’m drawing right now. I was alerted to the oversized image breaking the sidebar only minutes ago. Bye.
David,
Thanks for your list of 10 things you want/have in your art site.
1. Unchanging title page — What are the advantages of an unchanging title page?
2. Portability across browsers is critical for the web.
3. You divide your artwork into categories by bodies or theme, each category arranged chronologically. This is conceptually related to a blog.
4. No scrolling. This is unlike blogs.
5. Enlarge work on demand using image links
6. Simple labeling of work. No prices on site because of real world gallery relationships.
7. Use permanent links.
8. Have an about page, but not in the way of the art.
9. Keep site modular — this reflects the fact that site will be updated with new bodies of work.
10. You want it to be easy to use for you and others.
All of these could be handled well with blogging software, even though your site is not a blog. The advantage of using the blog software is that it gives you a reliable user interface. You divide your work into categories and build the site as you go. What if you want to radically redo the ordering of the presentation, or grouping of pictures? If your site was based on WordPress and used Categories, you could make major changes by clicking on and off Category checkboxes. You could also easily put work in and out of the gallery whenever you wanted, without touching any source code. If the site is hand HTML coded, it might be a lot more work to make major changes. Making minor changes always has the element of risk of introducing a minor bug.
Of course it would take a some thinking about how to morph a site with your site’s characteristics onto a blog structure in the best way. At the end of the day, the result for the user could look the same. But imagine you want to invite comments on a particular piece of work? If you had the blog basis, you could always do that for just one page of the site.
To click or to scroll? Looking at your site and Steve’s site, and recalling others, I see there is a preference for no scrolling. This is interesting. I recall a gallery site where the scrolling was horizontal rather than vertical. I’ll have to find that link.
Interesting post since I’m currently working to have a new portfolio site designed.
David…I love your site…it’s clean, easy to navigate, and the emphasis is on the art, as it should be.
If an artist’s site is actually a ‘virtual gallery’…then it should be designed as a gallery—-clean, simple, easy to browse through. How many actual galleries do you walk into that have floral wallpaper on the walls?
The plan for my site is something similar to what David has…..my photographs will be the focus….a simple design that I can update and change easily as my portfolio grows. Hopefully it’ll be just as easy to design and maintain.
I’ve done about eight redesigns of my art and writing site and finally have something I don’t feel a pressing need to change. One thing I’ve found helpful that I haven’t seen mentioned above is the ability to link directly to an image. It has come up that a gallery or prospective buyer has asked if a work is available, and they can paste the URL for the image into an email and I don’t have to wonder which work they’re talking about.
I hand-code my site, but if you’re not up for that you might want to have a look at Textpattern, with which you can make other kinds of sites besides blogs.
Franklin,
That is an important point about being able to get image links. With Flash-based sites, it is very difficult to send someone a reference to an image.
Your site contains a lot of information but it is intuitive and well organized. It is also a pleasure to look at.
Karl,
Thanks! It’s gratifying to hear that it works for you. I’d be more than happy to answer technical questions about it if people have any.
First of all – great blog!
Karl’s comment about using blogging software in a non-blogging way is right on – blogging software provides built in rss feeds for your posts (I call them “news”), easy categorization, standard interface for remote site management, etc. All things that are difficult and time consuming to build in to a custom site (for me at least).
The problem is that there isn’t a gallery system that is well integrated in to the theme or skin concept within the available blogging platforms. I ended up using plogger.org and making it fit in to wordpress…and although it does require a bit of technical knowledge the way it currently works, I don’t see any reason that a customizable gallery could become part of a blogging platform.
Such an integration would be a best of both worlds solution for me.
Brian
Re Browsers. According to our site statistics, IE versions are in the minority (a little over 40% with 50% going to Firefox and 10% to Safari (which uses the same code base), so we can just cancel the idea that IE is the most popular browser among our users.
Rex, I didn’t realize Firefox had passed IE. It’s good to know, but it doesn’t change my policy of designing a site that can be viewed on all browsers. I guess I’ll have to get Firefox on my computers at home so I can check things on that too. I originally designed it mainly on Netscape (nostalgia), and checked it on IE.
1. Unchanging title page — What are the advantages of an unchanging title page?
Karl, I do that because it gives me a neutral starting point (which I like visually – I patterned mine after Woody Allen’s film titles), and also because I’m coming up pretty high on all the Google searches I want to, and I don’t want to mess with that.
All of these could be handled well with blogging software, even though your site is not a blog.
That may be so, but I set up the site years ago before I was even aware that blogs existed, and I have no interest in redesigning it right now. Low maintenance is the key for me. If it ain’t broke…
imagine you want to invite comments on a particular piece of work? If you had the blog basis, you could always do that for just one page of the site.
Karl, I have no interest in doing that. It would be one more thing to keep up with. If I really want comments on a painting, I’ll post it here on A&P.
David…I love your site…it’s clean, easy to navigate, and the emphasis is on the art, as it should be.
Thanks, Chantal!
My proficiency w/ html is basically kindergarten level, but I’ve put a lot of thought into the look and functionality of my site. Mainly I want it to be simple, feature my work, be easy to navigate, and not take up much of my time. At some point I’ll maybe take Karl’s suggestion and learn some other ways to manage it. But for now I’m spending that time in the studio.
Brian,
Good point about the RSS feed. Some time ago, when Art & Perception was a solo venture, I didn’t even know I had site feed until a reader mentioned it. I was pleasantly surprised. That blogging software creates feeds by default is a big advantage. RSS feeds could become a way for people to follow many gallery sites in parallel.
David,
One thing I’d like to say about your site as it presents you and how you present yourself here on this blog…
You are a great writer. You communicate with this sense of lightheartedness and affection that is very endearing. At the same time, you make no bones about just what you think and feel, but your website, while it shows your art very well following all the excellent criteria you describe, just does not show this other very gifted, utterly delightful, dashingly witty, perfectly charming side of you. At the very least, please put up more of your thoughts and ideas!
And yes, websites need to work on all browsers. Even if IE were ten percent of the market, we’d still need to code for it. (I draw the line at 2.5%, however; for example, this blog displays on old Netscape, but there are no formatting instructions whatsoever. It looks like a page out of 1994. But you can still use the site.)
I do SO wish that Windows users get Vista and IE 7 NOW! The image rendering alone makes it worth it.
Rex, well, I don’t know what to say except thank you. It’s very kind of you. I need to update my site soon anyway, since I have a bunch of new work to post and a solo show coming up on February 24. So I’ll try to think of how to integrate what you suggest. I’m not immediately sure how to do so, since I don’t want the writing to overshadow the artwork, but you’ve given me something to think about. Thanks again.
PS – Rex, can I use IE 7 with Windows XP, or do I need to change operating systems also in order to run it?
What is different about the image rendering? Is it about color accuracy, or resolution, or both?
Although I may be a bit old fashioned compared to some of you, blogger works well for me for now.
My site at http://simplisticart.blogspot.com serves well for my interests in oil painting and science. It allows the following for me and I am quite happy:
a. It allows me to post small pictures of my paintings that users can then enlarge if they really want to (to study texture and detail) at a click of the mouse.
b. It allows commenting with moderation
c. It allows me to group paintings or scence topics under relevant headers or tags
d. It gives me a variety of themes to work with respect to the presentation and look and feel aspects of the site as a whole..
e. It works fine on all browsers (very important)
On the whole, a combination of Blogger or WordPress (to serve as a community discussion forum) and a site like Saatchi Gallery (for hosting paintings) should be all an artist would want (just my view).
Sunil
Sunil,
Art & Perception started on Blogger and it worked well as far as users were concerned. But for writing posts it was a misery — the servers were always going down. Maybe it has improved.
I think you make an attractive website using Blogger, a nice variation from the standard white background art sites.
Rex and David,
I would not be so certain about the relative frequency of IE and FireFox use. That data is likely skewed by the fact that some active members of Art & Perception use FireFox.
David,
Your site inspired me to take on the challenge I proposed — making a gallery site like yours, using blog software, with the advantages that I said should be possible. I’m also inspired to finally put together a good online presentation of my own work. I think the internet is a frame for artwork, and can be a gallery. I’m excited to see what I can do.
David,
Your welcome.
The image rendering improvements occur in Vista. MS wrote a whole new code base. The most obvious difference occurs when resizing images on the fly. The old code exchanged speed for beauty, so image quality was compromised greatly when any image was displayed at a different size than the original; furthermore, IE would “helpfully” resize images for you to fir in a window. (Yes, one can turn that feature off.)
This was all a reflection of the MS marketing philosophy which was designed to appeal to office management types rather than artists, engineers, scientists, and programmers. You will note that all the tight art, science, engineering, and programming apps are NOT written by MS.
But you need Vista for the new code. It can be installed in separate partition or disk, however, and you can dual boot your system. Finally, in 2007, MS has caught up with what we’ve had in the Unix world since 1970 something.
Karl,
Re frequency of use of browsers: I said, “our users.” And those counts are based on some several thousand unique visitors per day.
Rex, thanks for the info on Vista. I think I’ll skip adding partitions and leave my Windows setup as it is, since I mainly have it for business stuff. If I need something to look good I can use Safari on my Mac. And most days I’m on my computers at work anyway, and one of them is Linux w/ Firefox.
By having a website you will have the opportunity to showcase your art to thousands of visitors everyday to view your work online. Sell directly to collectors and make invaluable contacts around the world.
Advantages of having a website:
– Showcase your Portfolio of works
– Provide your biographical information,
– Be on the Search engine
– present all information about you and your art
– Opportunity for a Comments page
– Provide your Contacts
– Access to Curators, collectors as well as thousands of visitors
– Announce your exhibitions
My designer husband specializes in making them,personally tailored to suit your own needs, check him out on http://www.coolfly.co.uk
Probably good idea on my next post to feature him!
My friend Peter recently developed a website for artists:
http://www.flatgreywall.com/root.html
He wanted it to be easy to manage/navigate, with an uncluttered look, fast performance, and no distraction from the artist’s work. So far, it hasn’t taken the world by storm; partly because he doesn’t have the budget for marketing campaigns, partly because he’s highly unconventional and the site reflects this; partly because there seems to be a threshold component — nobody wants to be the first…
I’d appreciate any comments/feedback, if you get a chance to check the site out. The success of online galleries like Saatchi seems to indicate that the internet is indeed a great place to display one’s art, and to find potential buyers as well.
For those looking to start a site or looking to change, here’s a new web publishing option that looks intriguing from just a (very) quick glance:
http://www.squarespace.com/
I’d be interested in hearing from anyone already using this.
We’ll I’ve grappled with this for a good while now and have been using pixelpost as well as wordpress for a few years. WordPress is in my opinion the best solution for blogging but I can never come up with a template that complements both text and photo posts equally. If I want to say, go off on a rant about Warhol or something and dont want to include a picture in my post then it should look equally as good on the page as a simple photo with a caption. I’m also very interested in any ideas that you all have come up with.
Thanks for the excellent comments everyone. I’ve been working on a studio/blog template (or “Theme” in WordPress parlance) that will be ready for show and tell (and use) on Monday. I hope you will all come back for a look and test drive.
The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)
Hi,
I m artist really I like this blog and completely agree with the article.Thanks for sharing this informative blog.
Hi
For artists out there, Mudboard is a website that allows artists to display their work online, supporting most text, document, image, music and video formats. It also has a shop for people to sell their creativity. We are trying to create something that allows artists to share, sell, socialise and collaborate in an environment of endeavour and respect. Would love some feedback
p.s. sorry…great article by the way