Analysis of THREE illustration resources

YCN
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The young creatives network, or YCN for short is an agency who seek out aspiring artists and offer them opportunities which help them to structure their professional portfolio and help them gain the experience they need to make it out there in the field.

YCN offer the following opportunities. 

• Yearly awards to showcase members work and keep in contact 
• Publications to help share ideas and new talent
• collaborative shop which sells products made by members
• Online directory of companies which are sometimes hard to come by
• Regularly updated job opportunities list for members.

Why would i use it? 

This sites many opportubnites offer me a chance to showcase my work to a wider audience and through different media, every event i attend would give me some important experience as well as get my name out there. As i am currently at uni i am not looking for a lot of illustration work but the site does give me access to a big list of job opportunities for when i finish my degree which is helpful. It would be good practice for me to become a member before i graduate so that i can send my work off and begin to promote myself. Although there are different levels of membership you still have to pay to become a member which is the only downside really.

YCN has that student like feel to it and i feel like this organisation is directed at children, teenagers and post graduates as more mature artists will not need as many opportunities to get started.  

Layout 

The website is well organised and the front page is literally covered in art work, the site is straight to the point and is very informative. The only downside to the site is that you have limited access if you are not a member therefore restricting what you can search for, though all of the important information is open to the public.

Overview

This website is really useful but is it the best for showcasing my work? I have to be a member to take part in most of the events and that costs money. There are sites such as DeviantART which do not look as good as this one but i can sign up for free and i can also get some quick feedback. For me YCN is a gateway into the bigger world of art and acts as an anchor point for young artists but if you just want some of your work to be critiqued quick then this probably isn't the best sight for it. YCN would only look at your work if you brought it to them which is in London, a bit of a journey for some quick feedback.  

DeviantART
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DeviantART is website built to showcase artists work, comments are also enabled on your images so you can get some feedback on your images, this site is also good for finding artist inspiration.

DeviantART has the following features:

• Mass stock images for reference (credit must normally be given to the source) 
• Free membership 
• Works like a forum and allows feedback on your work
• The chance to get your image on the front page ( randomizes images) 
• Can sell work on the site
• Good artist resource 

Why would i use it?

I have used this site before when trying to find some action poses for my art and they had a wide selection of poses that i could use for free, if the work wasn't for educational purposes then i would have to credit the photographer, some also charge a small fee for you to use the image. There is a seemingly endless list of artists on DeviantART, most of it does not take my fancy but every now and then i come across some awesome artists therefore making this site good for artist reference and inspiration. I can sing up to DeviantART for free and i can treat my account as a forum as well as a place to showcase my work, the site has a cool feature which links my work to other artists who produce the same kind of images which potentially makes my work easier to find. Finally i can use the site to get some feedback on my images. 

Layout 

I am not a great fan of the layout, the colour schemes aren't great and the over all layout of the buttons isn't very well organized. The site probably gets hundreds of uploads every day, this combined with the way that the site randomizes the images makes it easy for your work to get lost. The function that allows members to comment on images using GIF animations can sometime clog up the feed and make it hard to find any critical comments which may have been made.

Overview 

This site is incredibly handy for some quick feedback, it is also a great network for sharing my work around the world. The fact that i can be a member for free and also sell my work on that site is a bonus, the poor layout and chance of loosing my work in the sea of posts is a downside but the site is still something to look at for self promotion purposes. DeviantART does not offer me job opportunities where as YCN does, DeviantART is purely a site for me to have quick access to my own work where as YCN is used to help me get a job in the art world. 

Blogger 

Blogger is a free blog which is linked up to your Google account, it lets you keep an undated journal of images and text, blogger also allows you to make your profile public so that people can search for you using the search bar. If a blog is labeled correctly it can be quite easy to traffic views to your page which can increase the chance of someone coming across it, the more views it has the more popular it will be in the search engine. 

Blogger has the following features: 

• Simple interface 
• Allows external links to be added to posts 
• Allows pictures and video's to be added 
• Labeling 
• Unique layout customization 

Why would i use it? 

It is mandatory that we keep an updated personal development blog throughout the three years of our degree, it is used to show how our work has developed from start to finish. I use the blog as a dairy to document the changes i have made to my images, i also use it as a directory of research, any artist i research normally goes up on the blog and i can re use it for future modules. Having my blog address handy also allows me to have my work with me wherever i go should i need to show someone how i make my images and the process that goes behind it. Blogger is a great way to showcase my work and it also increases my chances of being found by potential client. 

Layout

Blogger is fairly easy to understand and it's also pretty easy to navigate. The layout of the blog changes depending on your preference but the profile page will always look the same, pretty simple not a lot to it, the part where you make the posts and edit everything is unseen by everyone else. I got to grips with blogger fairly quickly and although i wasn't keen on the idea when i first got it i now use it quite a lot because it is a good way to organize my work. 

Overview 

Blogger is a great site which is free to use and it profiles my work in a professional way, the site is easy to navigate and is definitely worth having. The sole purpose of this website is that it is to be used as an online blog, coments are also enabled on the posts so like DeviantART you can gain some feedback on your images. DeviantART is more of a forum and you will be more likely to get a response to your image - whether or not it is a good response is a different matter. 

Summary 

All three of these sites can help me promote my work, YCN offers me potential job opportunities and the chance to work with other illustrators. YCN can keep a portfolio of my work but you have to be a member to get that privalige and that will cost money so if you are looking to just promote your work then i would go for DeviantART. Blogger helps me organize my work and like DeviantART it is free to use making it more accessible than YCN, though it has to be said that Blogger is limited in terms of what you can do with it, you can't sell your work on Blogger but you can on DeviantART and YCN. All three of these sites promote you in a different way. Blogger shows how you work and the path you take to construct images, Blogger also increases your chances of being found using a search engine. YCN give you the chance to expand on your skills and work with other artists, they also keep your portfolio should a potential job come along. Finally DeviantART showcases your work and can give you a small profit by selling some of your work, this site is also good for getting some feedback on your images.