[DangerousLlama]

hello, i'm pretty shy about posting; i usually post in the speed paining forum.

I was wondering what you guys think of my work at www.dangerousllama.com (its not quite finished...)and if you think I'm good enough to do any kind of freelance work...

I really have no idea how to get started doing freelance work, so your advice would be appreciated... (i've read some threads about freelancing but still a bit lost...)

thanks.

[Mikko K]

Just checked your site,

It seemed at first that there's no images at all 'cause the thumbnails load to the panel on the left. My connection is quite fast and still they all appeared after many seconds of loading (all at once).. maybe it would be easier to see something is actually coming up if the thumbnails were on center of the screen, just my 2 cents.

It's also little difficult to check those thumbs by scrolling the bar but I soon realized you probably meant to keep it there so you can navigate while viewing a picture. So it's okay the way it is.

About freelancing, I don't know about the markets or anything so I leave that to others. Your work has potential and you're young so keep up!

[AndyT]

Ok I'm no professional but I'll write a few things.
The navigation of your page is weird. I waited a while and thought the link must be broken.
Until I realized that new links appeared in the nav bar. That is a bit ... unusual. (Damn ... Mikko K was faster)

About your work
What I miss in some of your images it that the enviroment should affect the objects more.

There is too much black and white for shadows and highlights.
In the shadow areas you should still define the forms. Don't be lazy there.
Work with the biggest brush possible. It will give your images a cleaner look.
Play with edges. Your clouds for example should have softer edges. They look too solid.
The objects that should pop more have edges that are too soft.
You should draw from life and reference more.
Try to learn from looking at stuff by professionals and learn the theory behind art.

Btw. I really like the slash screen image and that one:
http://www.dangerousllama.com/2dgallery/digital/2003/stuffed.jpg

The talent is there but learning would still be important.

That said I think a lot of the professionals would say: go for it, if it actually is what you enjoy doing.

One of the better (old) threads with the topic "what does it take?":
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=34751

Edit:
Oh right ... conceptart.org has a bigger forums about employment and art as a business.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

There is one thread about the game industry but also with a lot of general info.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6649
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[Gort]

You definitely have navigation issues. Given that your overall goal here is to fish for freelance work, make your work the most accessible thing. Don't compound the simplicity of navigation by burying your most important stuff. Don't make the nav complex through media types for your artwork. In otherwords simplify by putting all your 2d work in one place, but when it's shown describe it as digital, acrylics, mixed, etc. Right now your navset is kind of hosed, as it doesn't adhere to any convention for navigation. It looks like you've bound yourself to that tiny little frameset over there on the left. Lose it. Open things up a bit. You navset is the backbone of the site, so give it some value (but don't over do it)

Simplify. Make it easy.

I'd lose the splash screen. It might be one step into the site, but you're still making users jump through it to get in. It's OK but if it were me I'd lose it.

Lose the Updates. Again if I'm an art director and have been directed to your site with the possibility of hiring you, I don't really care about your personal sketch blog. I don't mean to offend, but what you sketched over a bowl of cornflake this morning has no relevance to me. Make your site streamlined - it's a point of sale for you, so put your abilities up front. If you want to have a blog of sorts that's fine, but don't let it stand in the way of what you do best.

Jus' my two cents.


_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[stacy]

I think this might be close what you're trying to do.
http://www.stink.com/bruce/

The little menu on the left is simple, with only Illustration - Animation - Clients - Biography and Contact links.

The Focus (default) is the Illustration link. The Icons are small and load quickly.

The Frame with the menu is static and the only one that pops up is the Illustration Icon panel. It does not open into a second frame lower down.

When you click on an Icon, it appears to the right (like yours) WITH an intersting description and a note about who the client was.

When you click on Animations you get a very simple, very easy to use cluster of Icons and links.

If you like this website then yoyr technique is very similar and can be changed easily I whould think.

I learned about this link WAY back when I got GoLive4 and a training CD from www.lynda.com

[weaselball2]

wow, I took a quick look at your html...it....ummmm....needs some work.
Most websites have stopped using frames completely, because frankly, they're horrible. You have 5 frames from what I can see. I also noticed your link to lasik eye surgery, wha????? What you need to do is to redo your html code. Do it without ANY frames. For the gallery I guess 1 frame could be alright, to anchor the user at your site, but beyond that NO frames. What you're trying to do (make the menu be on every page without having to code it on every page, make dropdown menu, ect...) is done with javascript and server side scripting. This is usually in the form of php or Perl.
Your post has a more personal feeling to me, becuase im about your age. I took the opposite route though, I got into computers instead of art even though I liked both. Only now im beginning to draw.
An okay alternative to making a professional looking website without knowing html, javascript, and server side scripting is to make it in flash. Flash is frowned upon sometimes though, becuase of it's fixed size and because not everyone has it. Flash studio also costs $$$, whereas php and Perl are free
If you really don't feel like learning all this stuff or paying money, a secondary solution is to use an editor with html templates. That way the editor will automatically slap your menu on every page you save. This is a menial solution though, as it wont code the dropdown menu for you.
A very good solution is to have someone make a website for you. This is very unlikely though since most kids your age will say they know how, yet all they can do is use dreamweaver/frontpage, or at most code html.

[DangerousLlama]

hey, thanks for feedback.

i wanted to focus more on my work but i guess my site makes it hard to do so... I really just use it as a personal site to show people and I haven't given much thought into doing any kind of commercial work until now. I tried to make the side menu as small as possible to leave room for pictures, but i guess it makes it hard and slow to navigate. I'll definitely change it.

pretty much all i do every day is paint so i thought It'd be a good idea to put it to some use. All my traditional paintings and stuff (which currently aren't on my site) are from life, and my digital paintings i do (late at night) for fun...