How to Create an About Me page that Makes Your Artist Website Shine

The About Me web page of an artist web-site manages to compress in 1 diabolical place lots of of an artist’s minimum favored duties: creating, boasting and internet design.

Building the perfect artist site can come to feel like an difficult job. Whether you want to build an e-commerce shop or simply develop an on the internet gallery for your get the job done, you know that a stunning web page is important to your professional success. And between the “must have” factors for your internet site is a biography or “About Me” section.

Right after all, artwork fans really do not just invest in a canvas or a hunk of clay. They acquire a tale — your story. They want to realize the which means of your function, it is determination. When they imagine their long term heirloom, they imagine telling their grandchildren the tale of the charming artist who established it.

Your About Me webpage truly is that crucial.

The good news is, building a persuasive About Me page for your web-site does not require an army of writers or world-wide-web designers. You can Do-it-yourself your way to a just one-of-a-variety About Me web page that tells your story, showcase your creative eyesight and sells your get the job done.

For two decades, Artweb has been aiding artists create magnificent, no worry internet websites on a price range. In that time, we have produced four uncomplicated creating blocks to create the perfect About Me web page: the portrait, the tagline, the bio and the resume.

Read on to discover the professional ideas on how to make the excellent website introduction to you and your get the job done.

Show off

Producing your about me webpage is a opportunity to promote yourself.  Commence with the fundamental principles.

Your about me website page ought to be succinct, and aimed at all degrees of an viewers.  The finest sites are inclusive, exhibiting likely buyers it’s alright to just like the operate, without having obtaining to understand it.  If text never arrive quickly, you can use your artist assertion as a commencing point.

For inspiration, verify out our tutorial to creating the fantastic artist assertion.

The photograph

A photograph of the artist is a opportunity to showcase your character.  This is not a passport, ID or driver’s license. So don’t just pull out a head and shoulders picture you have hanging all-around and add it.  It truly is worthy of shelling out some time and quite possibly some funds on a shot that is eye-catching, believed-provoking and captures you as an artist.  That does not imply glam. You do not will need hair and make-up.  Just like weddings, the most effective shots are frequently the candid types.  

Fortuitously, the picture you build has several life over and above the About Me web page of your web page. Repurpose it for social media posts, exhibition catalogues or publicity campaigns. Obtain out much more about how to encourage your self on How to Publicize Your Art – 7 distinct tricks.

Under are a several thoughts from artists who made use of their web site shots to actually stand out.

A Self Portrait is truly worth a thousand text

If you are a portrait artist, take into account employing a painted portrait of yourself. Decide for an graphic that conveys your likeness, but also delivers psychological complexity and a window into your artistic fashion. Dependent on your aesthetic sensibility, avoid making a portrait that exaggerates flaws or repels viewers. You are, immediately after all, striving to offer artwork on your web-site.

The Artist at Function

If you are fortunate plenty of to have a studio or share a co-op area, just take shots of you at work.  First, curate the space.  Think about what you want possible purchasers to see.  If you have at any time held an open up studio, how did you present your space?  

Stacks of cardboard bins and rolls of bubble wrap may possibly be essential, but they will not notify your viewer something, besides whether you are tidy. 

Alternatively, display work in its a variety of phases of generation. Make confident there is a good deal to see at different eye amounts. Completed do the job on shelves or partitions, do the job in progress on tables and – most importantly – you. 

Going through the camera or posing at perform, both will perform properly.  Make guaranteed there is superior lighting and use a significant-quality digital camera that will seize all the element in sharp emphasis.  Find out much more about getting fantastic shots for your web-site right here.

If you do not have a ideal studio area, have someone photograph you future to your artwork.  

The graphic of the artist at get the job done generates instant reliability. In addition, it demonstrates you’re passionate about your get the job done. As an additional bonus, if the perform pictured is also for sale, you can website link straight to your shop.

Think about making use of various images.  Modern site builders like Artweb provide carousel configurations which allow for the viewer to flick by a number of images, or gallery photographs that make a photo montage. 

Crafting your About Me website page

It is typical to experience writer’s block when hoping to create duplicate for your website. Here’s a several issues to get your started out.

• What elements and processes do you use and why?
• Who and what are your influences? How have these afflicted your operate?
• How have you and your get the job done created more than time?

Quotations and straplines

Commencing with a quotation can grab your visitor’s interest. Even additional so if you use a pull quotation design that sets it aside from the relaxation of the textual content.  The quote must be yours and it need to be definitive.  Don’t be obscure or uncertain. Stay away from: I try out, I consider, my intention is to,  You must be categorial, my do the job is, I am, it is. Or else, a buyer could wait right until you’ve obtained it appropriate in advance of earning a acquire.  You are conveying (not hoping to express) the elementary aspects of what your operate is about.

Some of the terrific artists have been exceedingly fantastic at summing up their operate in a soundbite. The good August Rodin did it in 5 words: “I invent practically nothing, I rediscover.” Now place those people text against his operate. Do they give a feeling of what he results in?

This time in under 10 words and phrases: “Coloration is my working day-prolonged obsession, pleasure and torment,” states the fantastic landscape colorist Claude Monet. We read through that estimate and see the do the job, and we are not amazed at his torment. They are a best match.

Provide your self – compose a great biography

Your biography really should abide by a brief introduction to your work. Just after all, this world wide web webpage is termed “about me.” It is your biography and you can decide on to include things like regardless of what you want.  Really don’t move up a prospect to boast!

Numerous artists battle with self-marketing. Understandably, you could truly feel uncomfortable listing achievements and successes.  However, we all know how vital it is to promote your self, particularly when making an attempt to sell your do the job.  Concentrate on the areas of your lifetime that you are most very pleased of. For case in point, if you feel you’ve experienced a terrific education, elaborate on how it contributed to your art.  If you researched beneath renowned artists, describe what they taught you.  Where you grew up, your influences, and where by you have lived can all contribute to a powerful biography.

Your biography is a chance to speak about YOU and not just your specialist achievements. As a guidebook you can incorporate:

• Schooling
• Noteworthy exhibitions
• Awards or shortlists  
• Artist’s collectives you may possibly be part of
• Long run exhibits and commissions
• Testimonials (good types, of program)
• Inclusion in collections – private and public
• Pertinent private record

If you are however having difficulties, use our artist’s query and solution template.

The artist’s resume

Your resume can act as an extension of your biography. It’s an opportunity to checklist all of your achievements in detail.  It’s element of your About Me web site but will be far more specific. In all probability, your resume will be most interesting to people wanting to make a fee or a gallery thinking of you for a clearly show.  Think about what they would want to know and what you have to have to share to encourage them!

If you come to feel a resume on best of your statement and biography would clutter your About Me site, you can generate a different web site. Alternatively, you can contain a backlink to a downloadable PDF. Either way, Artweb features templates exclusively for artists, as well as a drag-and-fall editor. Alongside one another, they let you make the two kinds of pages in minutes devoid of possessing to overthink formatting.

The four building blocks of a excellent artist’s resume

It doesn’t have to take times to make a resume that tells the story of your qualifications, motivations and accomplishments. Just include things like these four basic factors:

#1: Your Essential Facts

At the prime of your resume, incorporate who you are and the place men and women can obtain you:

• Your identify
• Medium (e.g. painter, sculptor, mixed media artist)
• Place of residene (condition, town or city)
• 12 months and place of birth (some artists consist of these, but it’s optional)
• Your get in touch with details (if you choose for a downloadable resume)

#2: Education and learning

Consist of your training in date buy, most the latest initially. If you have pursued additional or better training, do not incorporate substantial university except if it’s related to your get the job done.

#3: Exhibitions and commissions

Within your About Me segment, the meat of your resume will aspect your exhibitions, commissions and awards.  These bona fides signal your accomplishment in the artworld. If you are just starting up out, the list may perhaps be brief, but that is okay. Even if you’ve only shown your work at an open exhibition, graduate show or group artwork center, you should really shout about it!

Record exhibitions by yr.  Each and every listing really should give the name of the present, its location (gallery name and metropolis/state) and no matter whether it was a solo or team show.

Additional, really don’t overlook to include other critical milestones:

• Facts of residencies
• Awards gained and any you have been nominated or shortlisted for
• Chosen commissioned do the job
• Collections that maintain your work – both equally general public and private
• Record of any function that has been revealed in books, or article content composed about you, together with the related visuals

#4: What the critics explained

Ultimately, your resume or About Me area can incorporate comment from critics and printed evaluations (the beneficial ones, of program). Think about the outcome of a 5 star critique on film posters and Tripadvisor. Personal tips can assistance force persons into wondering your operate is worthy of acquire or exhibition.  If your work has nevertheless to be reviewed, look at utilizing a thing from your college or college transcript.  If you are employing a quote, be certain it is fully credited, get authorization if you can, and assure it has entire context. 

Developing a Standout About Me Web page Does not Have to be Hard

If you adhere to these simple techniques, you can Do it yourself your way to a qualified About Me page that captures your inventive vision and helps you sell your art.

And, if you’re asking yourself how to develop your pretty individual artist’s web site without the pressure or cost, think about setting up a free of charge web page with Artweb.