How to Make Artist Website Templates

Adobe Dreamweaver

Artists require website templates that have unique qualities and customization. So whether you are just a template creator, or an artist trying to create a template for your personal website, with the right tools, you can easily create a beautiful template. With the correct process of design creation, you can bring artistic qualities into Web design.

Instructions

Making the Design

1. Open Adobe Photoshop and create an image with dimensions of 1024 by 768 (see Resources below).

2. Use the filler tool to dump a background color into the image. Make sure that the color will go with your overall color scheme.

3. Click on the "Texturizer" tool in the "Filters" menu (in the file menu) to apply a texture to the background. This will provide a good base for your design.

4. Click on either the rectangle tool or the rounded rectangle tool to create boxes for your navigation links, your content box and your logo. Apply filters and blending option to these boxes as desired. Try to match the effects with the type of art design you do.

5. Add a copyright to the bottom using the text tool. Then save the file as a .jpg to your template website folder.

Making the Template

1. Open Adobe Dreamweaver and create a new HTML (see Resources below).

2. Click on "Insert," "Layout Objects" and "Layer" in the file menu. This will insert a new box into the design, in which you can add text, pictures and code.

3. Insert the design you just created into the layer, then drag the image to the top left corner of the page.

4. Click somewhere on the screen that is not covered by the image, then click on "Page Properties" at the bottom of the screen. In this menu, change the background color of the page to match the background color of the image.

5. Click somewhere on the image, and using the polygon, rectangle and oval tools at the bottom-left side of the window, create hotspots around all the navigation buttons in the design. Link these to the other pages that will be used in your template.

6. Save the file as "template.html." Use this file to create all of the other pages in your template site.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't be afraid to take a good amount of time creating the template image. This will make the website look professional.

• Always use your own work when creating publishable content.

Resources

• Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Professional Image-Editing Software)
• The GIMP (Open Source Image-Editing Software)
• Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 (Professional Web-Editing Software)