Feedback on New Art Gallery Site

[ca...@nospamcarlsart.com]

I'd like your help. CarlsArt.com, my new online art gallery has just been updated with over 300 works of my art, going back about 17 years, and it's got a new look and feel. I've just added some articles and tips on digital art, and started a newsletter. I've been working on this for months, and feel I'm a bit "too close" to evaluate it objectively. If some of you would look it over and give some solid input, it would be most appreciated. My questions are:

1. Do you like the design? If not, what would you change?
2. Is it easy to navigate?
3. How would you rate the quality of the art?
4. What did you like the most, and least about the site?
5. Any recommendations for content? What types of articles or
tutorials would you like to see?
6. Did you feel compelled to join my free newsletter, with tips
and techniques? If not, what could I change on the site
that would have enticed you to join?
7. If you are an artist, would you be interested in promoting
your own site by submitting tutorials to mine? You
would be given full credit with a link back to your site,
if you submit a clearly written and illustrated tutorial
on PhotoShop, a 3D program, Painter, or even traditional
art topics, like drawing, design, color theory, or
composition.

Thank you in advance for your help. I really appreciate it, and hope it will help me to produce a very informative and usable artists' resource with lots of tutorials, artworks, and articles. You may respond to me directly at:

ca...@CarlsArt.com

Carl J
Artist

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Monthly Newsletter:
http://CarlsArt.com
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[Jinny Brown]

Carl,

Doing just a brief check of your site:

The pages, load reasonably fast.

I find the color and home page design a bit "business-like" rather than
reflecting an artist's feeling.. a painterly feeling, for instance.

You might want to mention on your software page that Painter is now
owned by Corel Corporation and the latest version is Painter 6.0.3. This
version has many more drawing and painting tools, and other
capabilities, than the version you mention and the information seems a
bit outdated, especially for Painter users who mostly use later versions
or the latest version.. and for anyone interested in the software, it
doesn't reflect what Painter can really do. For instance, the new
Impasto brushes are amazing, Painter 6 uses Layers similar to Photoshop
Layers, we can make Selections on Layers, and tons more.

In the "Getting Started in Digital Art" article, the recommended RAM is
hardly enough for today's software demands. I have 128 megs and it's
often not enough. I'd use that as the minimum and recommend a lot more..
as much as the person can manage/afford. Also, I noticed a typo in the
last paragraph under "2D art" (the word "the" is spelled "teh"). Use the
spell checker and then do a visual check since spell checker will take a
misspelled word as an ok word if it's an actual word (page misspelled as
pace would pass, for instance).

It would be nice to read how each of the images was created, what
software, techniques, etc.

That's all I have time for right now, but thanks for sharing your work.

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
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