If you’ve ever spent any time looking at artists’ websites (maybe because you occasionally follow links from Drawn! or something), these observations will be familiar:
In the thirteen years I’ve been on the web, twelve of which I’ve spent doing professional web site design, and the last two of which have sent me to hundreds of artists’ web sites, I’ve come to the inevitable conclusion that the thing artists want most when placing their art on the web is for it not to be seen.
There are millions upon millions of bad sites on the web, but artists really work at it. Never have I seen such an array of sites in which artsy designs, misplaced cleverness, highbrow concepts, amateur clumsiness, arrogance and ignorance have been painstakingly employed to drive visitors away.
As a result of this obvious desire of illustrators, painters, comics artists, concept designers and other artists not to be seen, I’ve created a collection of handy tips for how to send editors, art directors, gallery owners, prospective buyers, webcomics readers and casual users hastily clicking away in search of some portfolio site other than yours.
Got your note pads ready?
Good advice that shouldn’t need to be given follows. Most artists must be idiots.
(Of course, when I control+’d a couple of times to increase the font size in Firefox, the professional web site design broke a bit, but hey, what can you do?)
UPDATE: whoops! Added the missing link to the cited article.