Deviant Art Portfolio

Maxim · Nov 2010

I am currently looking into making a free portfolio for my artwork. I will most likely upgrade my account when the time comes to start looking for a job so that way I can make a site with its own domain. The two sites that I like the best are carbonmade.com and the deviant art portfolio page. I decided to go with deviant art because you always have carbonmade in the url even if you upgrade accounts. My question is this, do employer's look down upon deviant art portfolio's?

Also as a sidenote if anyone knows other sites similar to carbonmade feel free to let me know. Thanks for the help guys.

-M

Xoliul · Nov 2010

Don't know if it's worth anything, but I would look down on DAportfolio, if only for the fact you can not get rid of the stupid welcome page.

I just think that the 40-50 dollars a year you pay for a decent URL and hosting are worth it if you're serious about things...

Skamberin · Nov 2010

Getting your own url and making the site from scratch also shows how serious you are about your work.
Echoing a "no" to DA portfolio, because of the welcome page and because DA itself isn't exactly known for being very serious and having the best of the best.

Fomori · Nov 2010

How about Wordpress? Free hosting from themselves and you can purchase your own domain name. There's loads of free/cheap themes/templates to find online, get one that's set up to have a nice gallery and you're sorted with a professional looking site. It does require more tinkering than something like Carbon Made and Deviant Art though, so if you don't want to be adjusting settings and appearance then maybe go with an "out-of-the-box" site.

Kewop Decam · Nov 2010

Skamberin wrote: »

Getting your own url and making the site from scratch also shows how serious you are about your work.
Echoing a "no" to DA portfolio, because of the welcome page and because DA itself isn't exactly known for being very serious and having the best of the best.

nope, no good people on there at all

http://slipgatecentral.deviantart.com/

Jeremy Lindstrom · Nov 2010

Kewop Decam wrote: »

nope, no good people on there at all

http://slipgatecentral.deviantart.com/

Yes, there are 'gems' on deviant art but those are few and far between the anime and furry fan pages of 95% crap and 4% mediocre art, and the 1% awesome sauce art. Deviant art is known in the art circles as where art goes to die..

slipsius · Nov 2010

Kewop Decam wrote: »

nope, no good people on there at all

http://slipgatecentral.deviantart.com/

What the hell is that guy doing on that page? His stuff isnt anime......

Yozora · Nov 2010

Theres nothing wrong with using deviant art, it just looks more professional to use your own site (assuming your site isn't designed very poorly).

Just because there are really good artists using DA, it doesn't suddenly make it the better option.

The cheapest domain-solution is to get a domain name and then forward it to html pages on a free dropbox account.

Ben Apuna · Nov 2010

Sort of what Yozora suggests, you could make a weebly account like I did for a nice readable url then link everything else to your dropbox.

I went from paying around $100/year for [noparse]www.benapuna.com[/noparse] (at hosting.com) to $0/year for benapuna.weebly.com not a big difference if you ask me. With weebly there's still an option to purchase your own domain as well if you can't stand the .weebly.com.

Xoliul · Nov 2010

$100 is really pricey though, Ben. I pay 35 euros, about 50 dollars for domain and hosting with unlimited transfer.

Wahlgren · Nov 2010

Don't know about hosting since I use a friends server for free. I'd look into dropbox.

I only pay for my domain name which is like... 5 usd a year or something? I def think you should cough that up. It just looks better (and looks is everything for us artists yo!)

Thegodzero · Nov 2010

DA is one step up from using your facebook/myspace account. Yes it works to hold your art online, but unless your well connected and or have a job it would be a bad idea to have the DA intro screen be the first thing they see about you. Your website in many cases is where they get their first impression of who you are. What using your facebook/myspace account says about you is "Hey I'm just giving this a try, but don't want to put any effort into my work". DA says "Hey i like getting attention and don't want to invest any money in getting a job". That's all before anyone sees your art...

SnakeDoctor · Nov 2010

Idk, I see it both ways but I really think that its better to focus on great art instead of trying to make a perfect portfolio. As long as you have the basic elements you should be fine. I was looking at DA portfolio and I truly don't think they look half bad. If you pay $5 dollars a month you can erase all of DA logo's and have your own custom URL. This site was made with DA portfolio service and it dosn't look half bad for $5 a month http://zilla774.darkfolio.com/ . The only problem I have with it, is that it links directly to a welcome screen instead of the art. This can be easily solved by displaying the piece of art that you are most proud of on the front page. Everything is right there. If you can show that you can do great work and an employer can easily inspect it you should be fine. That's my two cents at least.

XenoKratios · Nov 2010

Xoliul wrote: »

Don't know if it's worth anything, but I would look down on DAportfolio, if only for the fact you can not get rid of the stupid welcome page.

I just think that the 40-50 dollars a year you pay for a decent URL and hosting are worth it if you're serious about things...

Shouldn't your work show how serious you are, not your website, or the fact that you have one?

I'm not sure why you HAVE TO make a website, to be honest (imo) if a company likes your work they should interview you, know who you are/ your work ethics, then decide if they want to hire you.

ZacD · Nov 2010

dropbox+domain name is all you really need, and that's $10 a year.

eld · Nov 2010

XenoKratios wrote: »

Shouldn't your work show how serious you are, not your website, or the fact that you have one?

I'm not sure why you HAVE TO make a website, to be honest (imo) if a company likes your work they should interview you, know who you are/ your work ethics, then decide if they want to hire you.

That's what I say each time I come to interviews without pants, I mean, my work should speak for itself?

but seriously though, registering a domainname and paying for some cheap low-bandwidth hosting is dirt cheap and makes it easier for people to remember you and your site, and they'll get to your work with as few clicks as possible.

It's all about leaving good impressions.

gauss · Nov 2010

think of DA, like polycount, as just another facet of an overall online presence strategy. you need your own good clean site as a portfolio. you should post on communities like polycount. having a deviantart page is an easy way to have a place to upload stuff you're working on in a way that's less carefully chosen than a portfolio--many great artists i know dutifully maintain a website but rarely update it, it is their portfolio, their "official" face. a DA page would be like maintaining a polycount sketchbook, as it would be a conceptart.org sketchbook, or several other equivalents--it's just getting your work up and being a part of a different community.

Maxim · Nov 2010

Wow I didnt know this would become so popular. Lots of good information here. What I am refering to is the DA portfolio service. Most people seem to be referring to just uploading the picture so people can comment etc on your galley. What I am referring to is the actual portfolio service that they offer. Here is a portfolio that was made with deviant art and some more information regarding it. I could of misinterpreted what people were saying and you guys could of actually meant the portfolio service.

http://news.deviantart.com/article/86515/

http://daniellemckay.daportfolio.com/

Ben Apuna · Nov 2010

Yeah Xoliul you're right, $100 is quite pricey. I started that account up a long time ago when that seemed to be the normal price for such things, after that it was just so convenient to just renew every year...

Nowadays hosting is a lot cheaper and even free.

Out of curiosity for anyone that pays attention to these things. How much bandwidth does a typical portfolio really use per month?

XenoKratios · Nov 2010

Not sure what human etiquette has to do with an interview.. but I think you're trying to say that it is more professional to have a website.

To be honest, I would hire you if your work was good eld, probably laugh at the fact that you aren't wearing pants and make you uncomfortable.

All kidding aside, I think if you can achieve a place to show your art for free and it looks good, why not?

I mean the point of portfolio website is to show your viewer that you are good in the field you're applying, if it can be done through carbonmade, bleidu, picasso or DA, why not?

Especially carbonmade, those guys are awesome! (eg. http://oyo.carbonmade.com/)

Renaud Galand · Nov 2010

If you have nothing confidential to show, I'd go with www.cghub.com. Easy to browse, easy to access and very professional community ! I'm personally planing to transform my website into a blog and just use cghub to showcase my portfolio.

eld · Nov 2010

Ben Apuna wrote: »

Yeah Xoliul you're right, $100 is quite pricey. I started that account up a long time ago when that seemed to be the normal price for such things, after that it was just so convenient to just renew every year...

Nowadays hosting is a lot cheaper and even free.

Out of curiosity for anyone that pays attention to these things. How much bandwidth does a typical portfolio really use per month?

If you're using up a ton of bandwidth that means a ton of people are looking at your work, which can only be a good thing.

The ony I'm using is for 1.25e a month, 3000mb storage, unlimited bandwidth (max 1mb per hit) which is incredibly fitting for a portfolio. one.com

Deviant Art Portfolio

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