Rebranding all my Social Media and developing an online presence

As part of my progress I wanted to look at making myself a social media presence so my "brand" would be more accessible online.

Doing this will help me develop my own visual style not just in paintings but as a visual brand. Having a visual style includes the way I will present myself online. This is important in order to begin practicing as a freelance illustrator because this visual brand is the fist thing a potential client will see.

I looked at artists websites that I liked.

Looked at sucessful deviantart artist pages

Yuumei is a very successful artist on deviant art but I think her page looks really plain. Her two (very successful) comics are at the top of the page for easy access but they are very small and not very visually eye-catching. I feel her success is pullingv iewers to her page at this point, not the artwork or layout that is visible.

Artgerm is another artist. I think his page is better displayed. There are areas for audience interactivity which makes people want to join in and his art is visible at the top of the page. everything again is very small but I think that's just deviantart's layout. You can, on deviantart, choose to put one large image at the top of your page (if you are a core/paid member), I think it's interesting neither artist has used this option.

Forever Amber's is another blog I really like. She's not an artist but I really like her blog's layout and think it's really readable.
I like the big, square images against the white backgorund. They're really attention grabbing.

After looking at these blogs. I updated and created my own set of social network sites.

Deviantart

I put my other social media links in a pinned journal post so they are easily accessible to viewers.

Mt latest painting is also displayed on top of the page ( as large as I can make it without core membership) so people who view my page know what I do and what I'm about immediately.

Facebook

My facebook page allows me to utilise the cover photo and the profile image as a way to display my artwork grouped together. This is really effective in showing my brand. I think it's also important to update regularly to keep people informed of your process so they don't forget about your page/artwork.It's important to keep people interacting with your work.

Behance

I see Behance as a more professional deviantart and really like the way it lays out work, I think it's really effective in displaying your brand and your imagery. This is a website I also took heavy influence from in my own page.

Wordpress

This is my own "official" art page. I did as much as I could with it, because I soon realised to use all the features you needed to upgrade to a paid version and it's about £70 per year! Without any promise of income or work from this site yet I can't warrant spending that much.

I edited the layout as much as I could. I took influence from Wykie Beckerts portflio page and Behance mostly to create my layout. To have bolder text and actual images for social media links I'd have to pay for a subscription so this is fine for now. My other social media is in a place that is easy to see and my images stand out really well on the page.

I have made sure to include links to all my social media on all of my ages (on Facebook it's in the about section and on behance it's further down in the sidebar, although my wordpress is linked directly under my name as it is my main site.