Portfolio Planning
https://www.artstation.com/stewarth1997
Portfolio Menu List
- Home
- About
- Contact
- Portfolio
- Sketches
- Environment Art
- Other Art
- Pixel Art
Firstly I would have a home menu, which would have sub-menus leading to 3 different areas of my site, these would be About/Portfolio/Contact. The about menu would contain information about myself like where I studied and what my specialism is, the contact menu would contain methods of contacting me for example, email or direct messaging. Finally the portfolio menu would have different menus, each for a different subject. So I would have Pixel Art as one menu, Environment as another menu, Sketches for a third menu and other art including concept art in the fourth menu.
Flow Chart 1
In this flowchart we can see how my Portfolio page could be laid out, I would start off with the home page which would then have the sub-menus leading to my main 3 different pages which would be About/Portfolio/Contact, by using these 3 as the main page names it allows people to clearly look for what they want. If they want to look at my artwork they would click on Portfolio and then click on one of the next pages which would contain my specific types of work: Sketches/Environment Art/Pixel Art/Other Art, using this format would be a good layout of a portfolio as it keeps everything specific together so for example in my other art page I could put my College work in there as that would an ideal to place it.
Flow Chart 2
For this second flowchart I started out with the home page as this would have to be the first page that people are taken to, from there I would give them a drop down menu consisting of 3 sub-menus, this would allow them to clearly select the area of my portfolio that they would like to explore. These 3 sub-menus would be About/Portfolio/Contact, the about page would give them some basic information about me and what my specialism is so they would know what sort of artwork I post. The contact page would have an email address and maybe a phone number that they would be able to contact me on and it would also have a contact form as this would make contacting me easier. Finally the Portfolio sub-menu would take them a page with another menu consisting of another 4 sub-menus, Personal Work/FMP/Environment Art/Character Art, I would use these 4 sub-menus as it would give the person a wide range of my work to view and it would also let them select what they want to view, I feel that by giving the sub-menus these names it clearly states what pictures will be there.
Portfolio Draft Design
In this screenshot I have managed to create a rough idea of what my Portfolio would look like, I have included the main areas that people will need to see and made it easy to look at. I have made it in this style as I feel it is the best way to lay the Portfolio out, also by having the Portfolio as the first link it will make it easier for people to see my work as they will most likely click that first, I have added other links as well such as a link to my blog so they can look at that, also a link to a new page which will be about me and have some basic information about what I do and finally there will be a tutorials link which will be able to show people what I have done and how I did it.
In this image I have created the main Portfolio page which will be showcasing all of my artwork that I have prodcued. I have created the names for each of the main albums that are needed for right now and I have used shapes to show where the picture for the album would be, I felt like this was the best way to do this as it is a fairly basic layout but clearly shows how I want my Portfolio to look. It is also easier for people to understand as they can look at the title for the album and then have a look at the picture and then they can decide whether or not they would like to have a further look into the album.
This page would be the third page on my Portfolio behind the main page and then the main Portfolio page and in this page I would include some basic information about myseelf so my audience can gain a bit of background knowledge about myself, and I would also include details on how to get in contact with me if they need to. Also in this page there would be a projects tab, stating all the projects I have done, whether they are personal ones or ones that I have produced at College they will be listed here, and this would include a little bit of information on why they were made and what made me chose that subject area. I then created two more pages which would be used to describe my specialisms, these would be my Art Specialisms and then also my Software Expertise, , these two pages would give some informationm on why I chose Concept Art/ Environment Art/ Pixel Art as my Specialisms and then the second page would explain why Photoshop and Illustrator are my Software Expertise.
The fourth page of my Portfolio would be containing tutorials about my work and how I start producing my artwork, I would have 3 sub pages each one dedicated to a different subject, the first sub page would be dedicated to my environment designs and there would be various videos with me explaining what to do for each part of the process, this would allow my audience to follow along with me and build their skills and get better at producing environment artwork. The second sub page would be dedicated to Photoshop and this would have videos explaining what brush settings I use, how to use a graphics tablet effectively and a couple of other videos that would be important for when they use Photoshop. Finally the third sub page would be dedicated to tutorials about sketching and how to properly start a sketch and how to get all of the proportions correct as this is an important part of drawing.
The final page in my Portfolio would be the page that would lead my audience on to my blog which would allow them to gain a deeper insight to my projects that I have completed so far, it would allow them to see all of the projects I have worked on and allow them to see how each of my projects started from the very beginning. Fortunately each Project would be labelled and would be able to find easily so they would be able to find what they want fairly quickly. As I progress I will continue to add projects to my blog to make it more fascinating and to continue building it up as it is very important that I get every project I do up there as this way it will be seen.
Creating my Portfolio
In this Page of my Portfolio I had to include the Basic Information about myself and Include a Professional Headline about myself so I just entered what my Specialisms are as I feel that this is the best way for people to get to know what I do.
This next page simply wanted a summary about myself so I spoke about how I am a student currently studying Level 3 Games Development, I then went on to speak about my specialisms and why they are my specialisms.
Following on from the summary I then had to list my Skills and my Software Expertise as this would make it easier for people to understand what I was good at, for my Skills I listed, Concept Art/ Pixel Art and Environment Design, these 3 skills allow people to understand what I am good at so it lets them know what to expect when they look through my Portfolio. With my Software Expertise I listed the 2 most commonly used softwares that are used with 2D Art, this allows people to understand what I use to make my art and will help them out if they want to learn to.
This is my social page of my Portfolio, in this page I have linked my Twitter and my Instagram accounts, this is because I am more active on those 2 platforms and using these is a great way of showing the world my art as it allows a lot of people to be able to see it. Also by using these 2 it allows people to message me and get some more information about my artwork as I can respond quickly.
This image shows that I have uploaded the work that I produced during my first year which consists of Pirates’ Loot and also The Return of Camelot, these two are important to showcase as they allow the viewer to see how my artwork improved from one project to the next and it allows them to see what I made and how I made it. Also I have made an album which consists of my own personal work that I have been producing in my spare time as I find it relaxing and enjoyable to do as there are literally no boundaries.
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