New website online

[AlexWeldon]

http://www.benefactum.ca

I've finally gotten around to getting at least the skeleton for my new website finished and online. There's nothing in the Games or Blog section yet, but I've got a small portfolio for viewing in the Art section. The application I wrote for the portfolio is a bit of an experiment, so feedback is appreciated on that, as well as the pieces themselves.

I'll be adding more work to the portfolio as time goes on, but I figure I should wait to see if people love or hate this way of browsing a portfolio before I start adding everything I've done for the past five years to it. As there come to be a greater volume of pieces, you'll see less repetition, although obviously if you keep clicking the same button, eventually you'll max out that variable and start seeing the same stuff repeated.

I am, of course, still available for freelance work, be it design, illustration or writing.

[Pyabo]

I really don't like the portfolio app. The random nature is just unhelpful. The repition just kills it, no matter how much art you have in there.

Having the text descriptions are good, but it would be much better if I could just scroll through your whole portfolio.

[Desktop Gaming]

Yeah its a bit random. The first pic was a drawing of a friend of yours with his parents house in the background. I clicked "show me something similar", and it offered up a lobster in a top hat?

[Maupin]

The design is nice and clean, but I have to agree - when looking for an artist I want to scan the entirety of an artist's portfolio quickly to look for stuff matching in style with what I've imagined for the artwork.

Also, on my screen the page is so small (640x480 is years past being necessary) to start with that by the time you add the applet border, your artwork only takes up about 7% of the browser window, and I didn't see a way to view higher resolution versions. (And my browser window is far from maximized.)

[AlexWeldon]

Yeah its a bit random. The first pic was a drawing of a friend of yours with his parents house in the background. I clicked "show me something similar", and it offered up a lobster in a top hat?

Well, they are similar, as they're both hand-drawn, black and white, and personal, not done for a client. The only difference is one is serious and the other isn't.

Anyway, I see your points... I was planning on adding some code to make it avoid showing you something you've already seen, but based on this feedback, I'll also allow you to switch into linear browsing or a slideshow. The whole idea of the app was to be kind of fun, and also let clients find something in the style they're looking for faster than clicking through a linear portfolio (e.g. if you want cartoony vector stuff, you hit "less serious" and "more digital" a couple of times)... but if it's just annoying, I'll think of something else.

Also, on my screen the page is so small (640x480 is years past being necessary) to start with that by the time you add the applet border, your artwork only takes up about 7% of the browser window, and I didn't see a way to view higher resolution versions. (And my browser window is far from maximized.)

I might make the site itself bigger, but I'm not sure I want to provide high res versions of my artwork... that's just asking to have it ripped off. I suppose I could slap watermarks on everything. I'm doing more pixel art these days anyway, so a lot of what you're seeing is actual size.

[Shaz]

"Something similar" probably means one thing to you, and another thing to the viewer. The viewer would have no idea that two pieces were "similar" because they were both done for you rather than for a client, and probably wouldn't care too much either. I'd like to see categories to choose from (cartoon, realistic, hand-drawn, etc - even if some images slot into several of them), and have it show me thumbnails when I choose one - rather than seeing one image at a time and having to go through them all. Then when I click on a thumbnail I'd like to see a bigger version.

It's just a faster way of getting to the kind of art I really want to see when I visit your site. Otherwise I'm just clicking around, wondering if sooner or later something will turn up that interests me.

Agree on the very small size - so much empty space.

Looking forward to seeing more of you stuff added

[AlexWeldon]

Yeah, I think it's a failed experiment in every sense... both here and from my friends and family, I'm hearing pretty much universal love for the animated pixel monster, general approval of the site design, and universal loathing for the portfolio system. That's the nature of experiments, though - maybe they work, maybe they don't.

I'll make the page a bit bigger in general and replace the portfolio thing with more conventional navigation and a larger area for the art, though it means I'll have to slap a watermark on everything.