Color Comp.

This is what I have developed for my website's color scheme so far.

Website Wireframe

My website's black and white wireframe.

Website Concept

For my portfolio website I want to use the theme of an old abandoned carnival, something that could relate to the oddness that my artwork has. There's a lot of material to pull from for this idea, using sorts of games and attractions and re-working them to my website could turn out really cool. I want to have a grungy kind of color scheme that would give it an abandoned, worn and rusted look. I plan to use roll-over images and animated gifs to make it more interesting. 

Website organization

I want to organize my website by having a home page, a Gallery page and a Resume page. The Gallery page will be split up into 3 categories, Drawing, Photoshop and 3D rendering.

For text I decided to use a font called Bleeding Cowboys, it's grungy while at the same time elegant, I think this font has good visual appeal. The secondary font I am using is called Didot and I think it works well together with the main, the body font will be Arial, which I think has a good contrast to the other 2 fonts. 

"Winter Duel"

This work is a print from an etching I did for my printmaking class in 2007.
My process of creating this piece was that I started by sketching trying to think of an idea, I created the winged character wielding the sword first, then I created the staff of the figure on the left. Then I created the town below in my sketch and added the moon lastly. I transferred the sketch onto the surface of a the wax covered metal plate using tracing paper. Then I began scratching out the design using a sharp metal stylus. After that the plate was dipped into acid and the design was burned into the metal plate and it was ready to cover with ink and use for printing.

I enjoy printmaking very much. When I was thinking of what kind of design to do I was inspired by the change of seasons, at the time it was the end of fall and winter was beginning. The figure on the right represents the season of fall and the figure on the left represents the season of winter.

Color schemes

Not much of my artwork is done in color, I usually just draw in black and white so for this I tried to find drawings I have done in the past that involved color and tried to get some results from them. I like the top bar's color scheme a lot.

Investigating the portrayal of other fine artist's work on the web

Many artists post their work and share it with the web using pre-existing websites like deviantART or Flickr, but many take the time to create a web space devoted to showcasing their work in a more presentable space.

I took the time to investigate some personal portfolio websites of illustrators and other fine artist on the web and I noticed that many aren't very similar visually, but some organization techniques are used over and over in some, such as the use of a wall of small thumbnails, and many break down their work in to several sections if they work using a variety of media. Most of them seem to be HTML based, just showing of still work in a not too crazy way, I think it's a good idea to focus the website simply around the artwork instead of placing some crazy flash opening, unless that's the focus of the artists work. There's something about flash presentations on portfolio websites that just make me think "smoke & mirrors".

It's a shame how overtime some of the artist's portfolio websites disappear overtime, there used to be a great website for an illustrator/ website design team named Holographix, their website was very impressive and comical.

Some of the websites I enjoyed were:
Okimi.com The portfolio of illustrator Kimiaki Yaegashi, I like the stylish yet simple organization this website uses to present the art. The website's appearance complements the art that it showcase and I find it very visually appealing.

Torikago Garou the homepage of artist Musubu Nakai, this website uses a basic HTML approach but I like the straight-forward organization, it really brings your attention to the content and lets you appreciate the artists work.

The portfolio of artist Logan Hicks , This web page has a very professional feel to it, even though the background may be a gaudy design it flows well with the kind of artwork he does. It's like if it was a business card that grew into something much more, that's the kind of feel I get from this website.

The portfolio of horror photographer Joshua Hoffine , This webpage uses flash in a refined way. The website uses a lot of white space, but it works well. It's well organized and uses a vertical sidebar of thumbnails for the viewer to skip from work to work, I like the use of a vertical sidebar on the right.

The website of artist Sickboy, This webpage uses flash in a highly creative way, it presents a table full of things and when you hover your mouse above the object it becomes more colorful and interesting. There is also secondary navigation bar at the bottom to quickly get to the place you want if you didn't have time to look threw the contents of the table. I think it's really cool how in depth the flash aspect of this website is, it kind of seems unnecessary at times, but it works for the most part.

I can't say that I noticed that many similarities in the websites I have looked at, but I think that's a good thing, an artist should be somewhat of an individual.

Font Family: in class test

Rough Draft: Resume

Work:
Stop & Shop- Bakery Dept. (2007-2008)
Brittain-Parnell Signs- Apprentice (2006)
Education:
Mercer County Community College (2006-Present)
Auto-CAD certification
Certificate in Architecture
Hopewell Valley Central High School Graduate (2006)
Software:
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Dreamweaver
Auto-CAD
Maya
Awards:
Highest proficiency in Architecture/ Engineering/ Computer Graphics in the Class of 2006 at Hopewell Valley Central High School.

Entry Level Jobs

I researched entry level jobs as a graphic designer and discovered that you must be proficient in programs like adobe illustrator and photoshop. Most of these jobs also require you to have a general knowledge of computers and an artistic ability. You also would need to be able to work under weekly deadlines and you would need to be able to juggle multiple projects. Many of these entry level positions seem to pay around 10 dollars. 

The requirements seem to be that you need to be very self-motivated, creative and able to comply with deadlines. And you need to have the knowledge of the programs used (photoshop and illustrator).

There are many other jobs in the world that make use of the same tools and technology that graphic designers use such as animators, web designers and UI designers. These jobs just seem to take what graphic designers use and add a more specific concentration to it. Some of these jobs compared to the entry level graphic design jobs pay much better, in the 20.00 to 40.00 per an hour range.   

Many of the entry level graphic design jobs that I have seen on job search websites seem located in New York, Florida, California, Georgia and Texas. 

Company's I would like to work at.

One company I would love to work for is Grasshopper Manufacture, they have job's available in the Graphics department, it would be awesome to have a job there working to create characters in 3D and Game environments or to create 2D art that goes with it. Their games seem so cutting edge and I think they are amazing. Even though they are located in Japan, If I could contribute in someway to the graphic aspect of the company that would be amazing.

I'm not sure of what businesses are out there, but I would like to create t-shirt designs or handmade things to sell in stores. I am interested in companies like BxH which is a Japanese punk clothing company. Their designs are very cool!

I'm just having a hard time to decide what I really want to do, I have many interests but it's hard to decide which one to stick with. I want to create illustrations to be featured in magazines sometimes too, I have created illustrations for my high school literary magazine and It was really fun. To create spot illustrations to go along with an article would be really cool. I don't know if my drawing style would be appropriate, But I like how the spot illustrations in The New Yorker and in Rolling Stone are featured.

In Class Assignment

• What software do you know? I have experience using AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Maya, Google SketchUp, Dreamweaver and I am currently learning how to use the video editing program Final Cut Pro. My favorite software is MS paint to be honest.
  

• What creative skills and talents do you have? I have somewhat of an architectural background, I have my certification in AutoCAD and an general certificate for architecture I can use AutoCAD efficiently in both 2D and 3D. I can create animated GIFs, Webpage layouts and edit photos in Photoshop. . I am a good fine artist, I think my strongest area is drawing, I tend draw from imagination instead of from a reference. I like drawing on clothing with fabric medium to make T-shirts or Jackets with a design of my own.
  

• What are you favorite things? Art that my friends have given me, my own sketchbooks, action figures, manga.
  

• What are you interested in? I am intrested in Digital Photography, Comics/ Manga, Certain fashion that's more on the punk side of things, Video Games, Pixel art, Art in general, Printmaking, Japanese music, Rock.
  

• What are you passionate about? Making art that seems new and worthwhile.
  

• What do you hate, can't stand or despise? I dislike superficial people and people who take advantage of others.
  

Job hunting using careerbuilder.com

I'm still uncertain which kind of job I would like to have in the future, I am stuck between wanting to do something more on the fine arts side of the spectrum like illustration or I am thinking of doing something that is more on the technical side of the things, like a job that makes use of 3D modeling skills or architectural knowledge. For this assignment I searched for jobs that required "3D modeling" using CareerBuilder.com

The website provided a good ammount of matches for jobs all across the country and it was easy to sort them out by Category, Company, City or State. A good deal of them were located in California, Texas and Florida but there were still quite a decent ammount for New York and New Jersey. Some of the jobs that look appealing to me were Architectural Designer/ AutoCAD 3D, 3D Graphic designer/ animator, and CAD Technician.

I would definetly recommend CareerBuilder.com for anyone who is looking for a job, it is easy to use and very well organized and seems like a great reasource.

First Post.

Testing.

Link test.