Charley Parker of Lines and Colors has written an excellent article on How Not to Display Your Artwork on the Web. It’s lighthearted style drives home some excellent points making it really worth reading. Not only that read the responses too as they are enlightening.

Below is a taster and I found I agree with most of them with the exception of using a popup and close style gallery or using images that display on rollovers. I think both of these techniques can be used if clear navigation, and clean flat site construction are implemented. Everything else that comes under attack I was nodding wholeheartedly.

Use a “free” hosting service that only charges by making your site display pop-up ads. Hey, free is free, right? Besides, everybody loves pop up ads. Don’t bother with real web hosting from decent hosting services even though it can cost $8 a month or less, and don’t bother to look for reviews of hosting services on reputable sites like C/Net.

Don’t take the trouble to get a domain name. Art directors will remember “mac.com/users/~joeblow/web/portfolio/intro.html” much more easily than “joeblowillustration.com” when they go to hire their next artist.

This article is REALLY worth reading if you are a visual artist putting together a portfolio site.