Publishing My Web Portfolio

Having finally dedicated some time (only four weeks to be exact) to prepare my web portfolio after almost two years, it is not hard to look back and wonder why I did not do this two years ago.

A good freehand drawing professor of mine would say, "It didn't take you twenty minutes to sketch that drawing; it took you three months and twenty minutes." He was referring to the two months since we joined the class, and what he meant was we had been learning and adapting the new skills over the course of those three months that we ultimately applied to the drawing, plus the twenty minutes it actually took applying the ink to the paper. What this mindset also showed me was that it is not a race. Surely you should be getting better and more efficient the more you draw, the more you design, and the more you write, but you should not sacrifice quality for expediency.

Something I used to tell employers in interviews was, "I am a third-year college student, but a 21-year art student" but after graduating from college, I could not use that clever line any more. The point being I was 21 years old and have been drawing since I could remember. Now I am 25, and I have acquired several skills all of which are still growing and developing. In different stages of my life, I was taught and have taught myself sketching, oil painting, watercolor painting, graphic design, photography, woodwork, architectural design, and writing. Each of those skills and media has taken me years to enhance, and am still enhancing in the hope that further practice makes perfect.

I have used the time between my college graduation and now to think and re-think the branding. I have gone through multiple very different iterations of a web portfolio until I developed something I really liked. I was trying to create a web site consistent with the visual already established in my hard-cover portfolio two years ago, and also with a dynamic feel. I believe this version has the same branding, with some updates, while giving a smooth aesthetic, which the previous iterations failed to do as they were only superficially based on the book portfolio, resulting in a stiff and dull experience.

As you look at my portfolio, try to look at each piece as a product of years of drawing, designing, writing, etc. rather than the actual hours or days spent executing the piece. Though it is a difficult selling point to say "I take years for each project/piece", that statement should show the true value of the piece. That said, please peruse my latest 25-year-old pieces in my brand new two-year-and-four-week old portfolio.