How to Build a Website for Artists

Are you an artist? Do you want to make your own website? This article guides you through the steps to making your very own website!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Dreamweaver
• Photoshop
• Digital Camera
• Domain Name

1. 
   Set your Artwork on an easel and light the piece from the sides avoiding all possible glare

   Step 1: Gather Your Primary Materials
   
   You will need good photographs of your artwork, if you do not have them, I suggest that you focus on this first. You can take good pictures yourself with a digital camera. I prefer digital cameras for Internet use because you go from digital to digital, it is a smooth transition. You don’t need to spend a fortune on your camera, because the image that you will be using will be optimized (and small) for use on the Internet. I will get into how to optimize the images a little later in this article. Place the artwork on an easel, or flat on the wall. You should have at least two good light sources on the right and left of the artwork coming in at a 45° angle. If you do not have good lighting, sunlight works well as a substitute. Be sure to place the lights in a way that there is no glare on the artwork's surface. You want to create an image of the art, not what it looks like in a room. Now place your camera on a tripod in front of the artwork. Position the Camera so that it is exactly in the center of the piece. Turn off the flash on your camera as this will only splash unnecessary light onto the painting. Place your head down by the camera and look again at the painting to make sure that there is still no glare on the art, it can change from a standing position to the point of view of the camera which is lower. Now place the camera setting on automatic and make sure that you have it on it’s highest quality setting for the photo. If you can make the camera take a TIFF image instead of a JPG as the quality is much higher. Now that you are ready, the lighting is perfect, the artwork is centered, set the timer on the camera to 10 seconds and take the picture. Just for safe keeping, take at least another shot as well.

2. Now take the camera over to your computer and download the images into a folder in your hard disk. Create a folder which has your name on it, then in a sub-folder, called Artwork place your images. To elaborate the images I use Adobe Photoshop. If this is out of your price range, there are several low cost and free programs that you can use. A free program is The Gimp, which is a valid alternative to Photoshop. A great low cost program is Jasc’s Paint Shop Pro which costs considerably less than Photoshop. Photoshop also has a discount version called Photoshop Elements which can be used as well. Open the file in your graphics program. You will find that all around the painting there is extra borders from the wall that need to be cropped out. Take the cropping tool and carefully crop the painting so that only the image remains. In Photoshop go to the image menu and choose Adjustments>Auto Levels. Nine times out of ten the image looks great and ready to be saved. Sometimes you need to try the Brightness and Contrast which is Image>Adjustments>Brightness & Contrast to get the desired look. When the painting looks right we need to change its dimensions for the web. Go to the Navigator and punch it up to 100%. You may find that your image is incredibly large. At this point go to the Image menu and choose Image Size. You will find lots of numbers on the width and length sides, these are pixel numbers, it is a form of measure. If the amount of pixels is not showing then from the drop down menu choose pixels. Your image should not exceed the normal viewing area of a computer screen which is somewhere around 800 x 600 pixels. This is the maximum amount which will fill many screens and take a longer time to download on a dial-up modem, so I would suggest that the width should not exceed 600 pixels. Enter this amount and press Return. Now go to the file menu of Photoshop and choose Save for Web. This is an ingenious tool which customizes your images to be published on-line. Set the quality setting at 65% and make sure it is set to Jpeg, then click on Save. You will be asked to save the file in a certain folder, choose your Artworks folder and name the artwork its name, not "painting number1", its actual name. This is important because you will receive traffic on the internet because you remembered to actually name your painting. Most of my paintings show up favorably on Search engine results because of these simple factors. The name of your painting becomes a keyword,

3. Now you are going to make the thumbnail image of your artwork. A thumbnail image is a smaller image which works like a button on your webpage. Thumbnail images are really important because they give your internet visitor the possibility to see many of your paintings all at once before they commit to downloading a larger image. It is also nice to be able to show several of your artworks at once to give an overview of your body of work. Operating in Photoshop, you still have the image that you saved for the web up on your screen. Go to the image menu and choose Image size. In the width section write: 115 pixels, making sure that the "keep dimensions" box is checked. Press Return and you will see a much smaller version of your artwork on the screen. Now go to the File menu and choose Save for Web. Save the image in the same folder as its larger version and name it the same name as the original artwork, with Thumb at the end of the name Example: Artwork-Name-Thumb.jpg. Remember that the more organized your site is the better it will be for the search engines to index your material.
   
   Now that your artwork is optimized for the web, you should put together a short, and I mean short, biography. No more than two typewritten pages are necessary. Nobody on-line is going to read the book of your life. Include all of the shows you have participated in, your contact information, and a small photo of yourself. This should be the most boring page (graphically) in your entire site, so that if people feel like it they can easily print this page for their records. So remember keep it simple! Save the file in the folder with your name on it and put it in a sub-folder with the title Biography.

4. Step 4. Buying a Domain Name
   
   Having saved away your primary materials or content to make your website, you are now ready to learn how to register a domain name, or web address. There are many providers who sell domain names and offer space for your website and there are a few things to consider before you put down any money.
   
   1) Location: Your web provider should be in your neck of the woods. This is because you will need from time to time to call them and get some information and it is best if they are in the same time zone and speak the same language. I use www.aruba.it which is here in Tuscany, where I live. I have only had to call them a few times, but it has always been helpful that they were near by to answer my questions.
   2) Price: There is no need to spend hundreds of dollars on a web domain name. I spend about $40 a year for my service. This is a good price. You can spend less, but it is inconvenient because of space restrictions.
   3) Space: You should get unlimited space for your website. You never know what you will happen in the future and not having enough space to show your artwork is just unprofessional.
   4) Name: Your website should resemble as close as possible to your actual name such as: www.yourname.com . You will be offered several options, especially if you have a common name which has been surely taken by now. The ending .com is not obligatory. It actually means very little to the search engines, they look at the yourname bit to differentiate sites, so if your actual name is available in .net , .biz or any other dot, you should consider buying it for your website.

5. O.K. You have finally bought your own website domain and are ready to upload your precious images onto the internet. The only problem is that you have absolutely no idea how to do this. Have no fear! It is easier than you think. At this point you need another computer program, you need a WYSIWYG HTML Editor. Now you think that I am completely mad, except that I’m not. WYSIWYG is an acronym for “What You See Is What You Get” and HTML means Hyper Text Markup Language, which you may or may not know is the language of the internet. You know when you click on a little blue word or phrase like www.mattbates.net and it goes to another webpage? That is called a hypertext link and it is why the internet is so much fun. The absolute best WYSIWYG program is called Dreamweaver. It works really well with your optimized images and creates entire websites in just a few easy to learn passages. There are other less expensive and even free WYSIWYG programs available to be downloaded on the internet from www.tucows.com for example.

6. The first step in starting your webpage is to connect to your server. Using Dreamweaver open the Site Menu and choose Edit Sites. Click on New and a window will pop out with more options. At this point, name your site, any name will do. For the Local Root Folder choose the folder you have prepared with your name. For the Default Images folder choose the folder with your paintings, or the original folder with your name. For the HTTP Address add your new domain name, it should read http://www.yourname.com . Now click enable cache. The next step is to choose the Remote Info from the list on the left of the window. Here you will need to get the email from your provider with all of your username and passwords. On the Access tab Choose FTP. The FTP host is almost always ftp.yourname.com. Check with your server if this is not the case. Add the username and password and you should be golden. Make sure you are connected to the internet and Press the Test Tab to see if your are connected. You may need to add a host directory, ask your provider if this is the case.
   
   Now that you have connected to the space on the Internet that you have bought it is time to fill it up with your artwork! The first page that you should make is your homepage. This page will be the page that most people see first. It will be the page that you see when you type www.yourname.com . This page is your storefront window to the world.

7. Step 7. Making Your First Homepage
   
   Now that you have connected to the space on the Internet that you have bought it is time to fill it up with your artwork! The first page that you should make is your homepage. This page will be the page that most people see first. It will be the page that you see when you type www.yourname.com . This page is your storefront window to the world.
   
   Remember in Step 1 when you prepared your images for the internet? Now the thumbnail images are going to come in handy. To begin you should open up Dreamweaver and make a HTML page. If it does not open to one automatically then just go to the File > New or Ctrl N. Now choose Table from the common menu. Make it have 1 row and 1 column with a width of 800 pixels. This will give you a nice space to work in which will fit on any computer screen. It is always good to remember that most people have limited screens so less is more in this case. Click inside of the table and write Welcome to (Your Name's) Website! You can control the size of the type in the properties box on the bottom of the Dreamweaver template. The properties box is important, it is where you will add all of the eventual links and color variations. Center the type and press return so the cursor is directly below the type. Now add another table, this time add 3 rows and 3 columns with a width of 100%, This is a table within a table and will be constricted to the outer table's dimensions. Click inside one of the smaller tables boxes so that the cursor is blinking inside of it. In the properties menu center the cursor with the centering type tool. Now from the insert menu choose image. Choose an image from your thumbnail collection of pictures. Now repeat this process with the remaining 8 cells until you have 9 thumbnail images on your page. Now go to the Modify menu and choose page properties. Make sure to Title your homepage using keywords. Keywords are the words that people type when they use search engines. Don't use too many, just a destinct description of your site such as: (Your Name) Original Oil Paintings in the Style of Abstract Impressionism. Also you can choose the background color of your page, and the color of the type. Now click on the bottom of the first table and add a contact e-mail address. To make it work select with your cursor the e-mail address so that it turns dark with light letters. Then in the properties menu you will see a link box. Type in mailto:[e-mail] and you have made your

8. Step 8. Adding Pages and Linking - Uploading Your Site On-Line
   
   Now that you have your homepage made it is time to make the other pages of your site. What you want is to make links from the homepage to the individual pages which will highlight each painting with a larger image and technical information about each image. We will start with your biography page. Go to Dreamweaver and open a new page. In page properties, Title the page "Biography of Your Name - who makes art in the style (that you make it in)". Add a table with 1 row and 1 column and 800 pixels of width. Copy and paste from Word your biography, or type it directly in the table. On the bottom of the page type Homepage, and hylite it with your mouse. In the properties area of Dreamweaver go to the link box and type: http://www.yourname.com/ you will see that the word homepage turns blue with a line through it, this is a hyperlink and if clicked it will take you directly to your home page. Save the file as Biography-of-Your-Name.htm and we are ready to create the other pages of the site.
   
   In Dreamweaver, create a new file and go to page properties. Title the page with the name of the artwork, better to use a title that someone will actually write in a search engine; for example: "Summer in Tuscany" is a better title than "La Strada per Castelfiorentino". Both titles are descriptive, but only one has any chance of international exposure. Choose a background color and return to the main area. Add a table with 2 rows and 1 column. In the first top part of the table insert an image of your artwork, one of the larger ones. Click on the second cell of the table and name the artwork. Add size, style and copyright information, then write: Home / Biography. Make a hyperlink for your home page and for your biography page as we did in the first part of this section. You can also choose a file from the properties menu by clicking on the little yellow file icon next to the link menu. Choose each file from the menu and you will have made your hyperlink. Remember to select the entire word so that the hyperlink will look and work correctly.

9. Now save the file making sure that it is named the name of the painting, such as Art-Work.htm. Now that you have one page made all you have to do is substitute the image files with new artwork and change the technical information. Make sure to change the page's title in the modify>page properties menu so that each page has it's correct title. When you have all of the new information go to the file menu and choose Save As making sure that you save it with a different name such as Art-Work-2.htm . When you have made all of your pages for all of your artwork. Open your index.html file in Dreamweaver and click on the first thumbnail image. In the properties section link the image to the .htm file it corresponds to. Continue doing this until all of the images are hyper linked to the pages they are related to. Also make sure that the biography page is hyperlink to the biography.htm file so that everything on the homepage is connected correctly. Save the file.
   
   Connect to the internet and choose the site menu. Choose Put and the file will be placed onto the internet on your server. Continue opening all of the pages of your site and Put them onto your server. When all of the pages are on-line open internet explorer and type in your website address. You will see your homepage! Now click on one of the thumbnail images and you will go to that page. Click on the home hyperlink on the bottom of the page and return to the main homepage. You now have a fully functioning website which you can tell all of your friends about. When they ask you who made it for you, you can tel them that you made it yourself!

Tips & Warnings

• Take your time getting your materials together
• Be patient the first time you try to connect to your domain, you may have to ask your server for assistance

Resources

• My website

[Kilogramm]

on 9/12/2008 Wow, tons of detail in this great how to, being a CEO I can honestly say you have alot of real talk in this!

[beyond]

on 9/12/2008 lots of words are scary

[IntellySite]

on 6/18/2008 Very detailed descriptions! Nicely done! But, for those that want an easier solution, try a website builder. IntellySite is a powerful, yet easy-to-use system that can get your website up in minutes. Yes, you'll need to prepare your digital files of your artwork, but beyond that, it is a simple plug n play process.
IntellySite makes creating a website simple, especially for Artists. It comes will all kinds of featured tools like gallery options, custom forms, calendars and email marketing options. And, a FREE trial. www.intellysite.com