Wordpress Session 3 - Articles/interviews

An extra I decided to add was an interviews/articles page, taking a similar format to that of David Shrigley's website by linking the article to a separate text based page for each  text. This keeps the layout consistent and guides the audience to the text. 

I felt because I have this interview I did with NEST magazine that I should include it into my website, it's a lot more personal than my statement so it helps to contrast and mix it up. Also it looks professional at the same time, showing that I am in magazines and such. 

Artist Statement 1 - Introduction

My opinion of Artist statements or about pages in Artists websites is that they should be in 3rd person and consist of a short paragraph or two summarizing the artist in their practice, medium used, common themes, also can be place of study and current location of working. 

In the past I have attempted a few of these for various online portfolios and about pages on projects I work/worked on in the past/now. These will have changed slightly as I explore what it is I want to do as an artist, but some parts will still be relevant. 

I have taken two of the most resent ones:

Ideastap - An online creative resource and online portfolio for artists, writers, actors and designers.

About Me reads as follows: 

"I'm a Artist who has a passion for films, theatre and writing. I currently study Fine Art at Leeds College of Art, during this time I am exploring my interests by working on films, writing for a range of projects and further exploring my practice as an artist. I am mainly based in Leeds but also have a good London link. 

In the past I have worked with the Griffin Players theatre group as a set builder and designer and part of the art department team with Glow films. I have also wrote articles for two charities, LCET where I wrote in their monthly newsletter and a featured piece in the World Vision magazine. As an artists I have been shortlisted for various projects and also exhibited as part of a collective on various occasions. 

I am currently working as a writer on a collective year long project called 'Hoard' as well as writing articles for my university magazine 'Nest' along side my studies."

Hoard - A year long art project following the theme of hoarding and collection. My role within the project is recording sound for the website and covering the project as a writer. 

About Me reads as follows: 

"Paisley Boyd is an artist/writer whose practice explores the themes of language and text; through observations of social interactions within society. As a writer she explores how the written word has a place in art, as well as contributing to magazines and online publications on a variety of subjects.

In relation to HOARD, Paisley’s work involves making collections of words through interactions with the artists, their work and the themes of the project. These then start to become a written documentary to run alongside that of a visual documentation from the artists involved."  

The first one is in first person, very informal, relevant to the layout of the website however not something I could use on my website as it is too open in my practice and involves everything else I do. For my website I want to reel it in a little and talk more about my practice as a working artist and writer. The Hoard piece is a little more relevant, more so in writing style and content in the first part of the paragraph. This could be used and expanded on further to include more about my practice, where I am based and also about my education/work background. 

Wordpress Session 2

The theme chosen was simple white and black colour scheme to fit in with my white paper and black text style of print that is present in my work. Also in doing so I wanted to keep the design simple and let the work speak for itself.

In terms of the menu I wanted to keep it as short as possible and keep to the two-three clicks rule, in which anyone can get to the page they wish in not more than 3 clicks on the page at one time. The only point in which you need to click more than once in the articles/interviews page which once on it you can choose which article you wish to view, again only two clicks. 

I decided on a subheading for the gallery section, I was going to split it by years 2012, 2013, 2014 but then this didn't work well as projects overlapped so decided to name them by projects which worked better. 

Once this menu shell and pages were created it provided a good guide and gave a structure, to then add the content and flesh it out. 

Artist Website Research 2 - David Shrigley

Looking into how artists present themselves through their websites I decided to look at David Shrigley's website as I am very familiar with his work and have been to a talk by him, so I feel that I can get a better understanding about how his work and personality may reflect onto his site or if not why it doesn't. Another reason being is that he uses text in his work which will be helpful to see how he presents this. 

Firstly his website has a lot of subheadings which is understandable as he has a lot of work and also works in quite a wide field of mediums. It is a very organised way to present it, worth considering as a layout if I expand my field of working and present it as one website.

This website has a lot of content which can get messy in a webpage however this site you can get to what you are after in two to three clicks which is an important rule for a website, or you will loose a lot of your audience to being impatient. Also this rule goes for how long it takes a webpage to load also, it needs to be quick and easy to navigate.

Things to consider that would be useful for my own website:

Exhibitions listing page - Solo or group exhibtion.

Articles/interview page - This site links each article/interview to a separate page on the site where each article is laid out as the same style of text based review. This keeps the design constant and also doesn't take anything away from text.

Contact page

Also don't be afraid to add humour if it's in your work see - Help Desk in Shrigley's site. He links his sense of humour that is reflect in his work over into his website.

There isn't an about page present in this website however I feel that it successfully portrays his work and practice with any explanation needed about the artist as it can be found in other places on the site. Also a fan of his handwritten titles for each page, it portrays to way he presents text.

Artist Website Research 1 - Mike Winnard

I decided the first artist website to look at should be one of the graduates from Leeds College of Art and maybe a more recent one. The reason I choose Mike Winnard's website is that I am familiar with his work and him as an artist so I have a further understanding of how well his website may reflect him as an artist. 

His work is very visual and his imagery stunning, so it's not surprised to see that and loads of it as soon as you click on the page. I like the idea of the home page being a artist blog, this works well for Winnard because he is regularly updating his website and is very active as an artist. If he wasn't this would reflect very badly as it is the first thing you see when you go onto the website. This update is great for his target audience and buyers, they can get regular news on whats being made in doing so makes sales and advertisement more effective. 

His about page is very empty, however he has linked all of his social network links and contact details and reflecting on the images and text that accompanies them he has no real need for an in depth about page as the rest make it self explanatory. 

His exhibitions page clearly states key events and exhibitions he has been apart of and then his gallery shows the rest of his work in its fullest. As his practice is quite wide in medium used his gallery section is split into clear groups, this is especially important because there is a lot of work and would be easy to become messy. 

Overall it is clear and suits the purpose of representing his work and business he has created. 

Photography Session 1 – Basic Set Up

This session was an introduction to using the photography studio, the cameras and lighting to take professional images of our work.

Camera set up

ISO - 100 for studio flash lights
         - 200/400 for continuous lighting.

Shutter speed to then match this on the light meter, remember the fast the speed the less light it allows in.
1/125 shutter speed

White balance
- Custom white balance works best if possible,
- Tungsten setting for continuous lighting
- Flash setting for the studio flash lights

Use manual focusing would be best for the best consistent shots, however auto focus can be used. 

Lighting

Studio lights - continuous lighting, needs to be light from both sides to eliminate shadow.

Flash Lights - a quick fire light that mimics natural lighting.

For my flat paper images the studio lights are the best choice as it is easier to light and works best with the paper.

Wordpress Session 1 - Introduction

The first session acted as a basic introduction to wordpress, explaining what wordpress is and the difference between the two kinds.

Wordpress.com 

- Limited layout
- .wordpress is present in the url
- Easy to use
- Decent free account available 

Wordpress.org
- Expensive
- More Advance
- Requires knowledge in website making to use

With this is mind we are using Wordpress.com and using the blog layout to recreate it into a working webpage. 

As we are taught each step we have also been given a easy step through guide for when we are at home and need help, which is a very useful resource. 

http://lcadcomputerresource.wordpress.com/

This website is a regular come to guide, to refresh your memory of what you were taught. 

This session mainly explored creating an account and the different uses as explained above, also what wordpress is capable of doing.

Introduction

This blog will contain all my research, thinking and processes I go through when designing and making my Artist website for the PPP2 module.

The first thing to think about would be how I want to represent myself as an artist to the public in a simple yet professional way. If this is to be used after the module, I need my website to clearly show who I am as an artist, what work I have produced and exhibitions I have been part of and ways in which people can contact me. Also taking into consideration how I can optimize my websites layout and content to fully represent my practice as an artist.

I will post about the technical steps of building my website through my wordpress lectures and photography sessions, my plans for layout, how I go about choosing content, workings of my artist statement and research into how other websites look and especially into artists that relate to my practice.