I made a website!

Okay so in the past I posted about the process of making a website and things but it wasn't until the final months of my third year that was website actually started looking nice and full. It is now fully updated and ready to go.

You can view the full site HERE

Still a little more work to go but it's looking sharp!
I want to change the links so that it is written in my own font, that will hopefully happen sometime this year.





Another screen grab of the site, after three years it is honestly satisfying to see all of these tiles filled with my artwork. I was an aspiration of mine when I started first year to have a nice and consistent web gallery, now I have one. May it continue to grow and evolve!

Self promotion - the final product and presentation

Above is an image of the final product separated into it's elements, there is an a6 print which has my details printed on the back, a green Aztec banner which will hold the small green tiki head badge. there is also a large alien sticker and a folding tiki head print. all of this will be presented within a white monster envelope.

And this is everything all packaged up, the pack also includes my hell boy sticker, i have also made a second pack which i will present to hallmark when i travel up to Bradford and their pack will also include a sticker of my face as shown above.

I managed to track down a large blue envelope which matched the blue that was on my CV and packaged it accordingly. on the reverse of the envelope i placed a large sticker of my face to act as a teaser to what is inside, it also kept the boring blue envelope from being so dull.

 I had been under a lot of stress during this module as i had to hand my work in early because i am to go on a internship with Hallmark the day before the original deadline. With that being said i have accomplished so much within such a short amount of time and i am extremely happy with the results. with my original badge packs aside, everything else was created parley for this module and i feel like i have produced a large array of visual images and products. Now it's time for me to seal it all up and hand it in, I will get back just in time for the summer show which is looking up to be something awesome!

Finally i handed in the large black book on the left. That book was used as my summer research sketchbook, it was made last summer and i nearly filled the whole book. The task was for us to make a research journal which would hold artist reference, lost and found objects that we find interesting and anything else we deemed fit to go in there. At first i did not really see how this would help me but looking back at it at the end of this year i can see where my influences have came from. That book holds information and reference to artists such as Chris Riddell, Tony Moore and Skottie Young, in the past those guys were my absolute favorites and my style was heavily influenced by them. Looking further into the book i can see artists such as Micheal Slack, Brandon Scott and Thomas Flintham who are amazing artists, they have all inspired me to change the way i make images, i do not rely so heavily on the line work as i used to, instead i use colourful shapes to convey movement and emotion, a skill that those three artists utilize in every one of their pieces. The book works well as a reference guide as i can look at it if i ever want to try out a new style, it was because of exploration that i found Micheal Slack and which ultimately lead me to work in a new way.

Self promotion - making business cards

I took some of the basic sketches from my book to show potential ideas for my business card. I liked the idea of having a monster mouth which would have my details inside, i also liked the simple Aztec boarder design, it was hard to pick one as they all matched my theme. After remembering that i will be using my monster print from the envelope task i though that maybe it would be best if i used that image for my business card as it was my strongest image.

I mocked up a business card for print at my house and this was the result (above). The back of the card featured the stamp image of my face and all of the necessary details where as the front had the original envelope design. I was going to order some cards from MOO.com but i did not think that they would arrive on time so i knew that i would have to make a mock up business card.

The cards were glued back to back, they had a green and black layer of card in between so they were nice and thick. The downside however was the fact that my template was the wrong size, thus the micro card was born!
The small business cards actually worked as you could still read all of the important information and the images were still nice and crisp. With it being smaller i could also add this to my little promo package quite easily. This was a good mistake.

Self promo - general research

After the first business card task we were given i then proceeded to scan Pinterest for some interesting business cards so that i could gain some inspiration when making my own. I found so many awesome cards it was unbelievable, there were so many good ideas it was hard to narrow my choices down to the ones above. I chose some cards because of their simplicity, quality of print and strength of image where as others were chosen because of the material, concept and quirky gimmick. The fluorescent space invaders were a particular favourite of mine because they look like they had been laser cut out of coloured perspex which gave it a really nice look and finish. The little skateboards were also quite a good idea, they reminded my of the small fingerboards you could get as a kid. The skateboard card featured a 'Powell Peralta' logo which is a skateboard company so the link could not have been any more obvious, quirky and to the point.  It was nice to see some cards that were breaking out of the traditional rectangle shape, it showed me that my cards can be unique, as long as it fits in my pocket it is good to go. The leather ones labelled 'Franks' and the triangle shaped cards were good examples of unique shaped cards.

Finally i wanted to mention the gimmick cards such as the personal trainer card in the top right and the double sided x-ray card near the centre. Both have the standard rectangle shape but there is something unique about them both, the x-ray card is printed on some kind of clear plastic which allows the viewer to see the skeleton of the character from both sides of the card which is a pretty simple yet effective idea.
The personal trainer card in comparison is not transparent at all but it does have an interactive element as you can peel away the person on the front and that then reveals a different character underneath which symbolises the change you go through when you begin fitness training, the first character also doubles as a sticker.

Self promotion - making a font.

My friend showed me this cool website that allows you to make a font using your own handwriting, the site was called MyScriptFont.com. The process was pretty easy to get my head around, you start off by printing out one of their alphabet sheets, you then follow the guides and trace your own letters over the top, finally you add any additional letters you need and then scan it in. I was never really any good at making fonts but i thought i would use this opportunity to give it a try, most of the fonts that i made looked pretty similar and not all of them worked, some had too many curls and edges. The plan was to make a font that would then go onto my CV as the finishing touch, unfortunately i did not really like any of the fonts that i made and i much preferred some of the existing fonts i had installed on Photoshop.

Here is a test sentence for one of my fonts, as you can see some of the letters are faded and none of it seems to line up properly. It was a good first attempt but it was not strong enough to be used as part of my creative CV.

Self promotion - The final plan pt 1

After creating an illustrated CV, a folding tiki head, some prints and badges i believed it was time to start visualising how my promo pack would come together, whilst i was making the products i did really consider how i would package them. Below is a basic drawing taken from my sketchbook, it maps out the general idea of what i had in mind.

The plan was to make a simple box that would have a monster version of my face printed on the lid, inside there would be a large monster sticker, a set of three badges and my folding tiki heads. I was also going to include a miniature poster but at this point i had only made the items above (minus the box) so i drew the diagram based on that. The though of making packaging intimidated me slightly as i know how long it took me to make boxes before, also getting each unit to look the same is a tedious task. I took a break from packaging and drew out some more monsters, i coloured them and printed them onto envelopes as an experiment. It was then that i realised that my packaging could consist of a custom printed envelope. I decided that i would use my monster print from the envelope task, create a new banner, tuck my stickers and fold out items in the back of the print and then slide it all into an envelope. Maybe I was thinking to far outside of the box and in this case, simple is more effective. 

I think i prefer the white over the brown, it makes the monster pop. I tried to incorporate all 8 of the monsters on the envelope i could only print on one side because of my printers restrictions and if i made them any smaller i would loose too much detail. I tried to add a couple of them to the sides but the print margins were too big and it would not print all the way up to the edge. I like the four singular monsters on the white envelope, it delivers the right amount of info without giving too much away. I thought that it would be cool if i made my own custom stamp that i could use on each envelope along with a real stamp when i send my work away, it would add the finishing touch to the envelope. I decided to use my face as a stamp because; like a regular stamp there is normally a profile image of a person present on the stamp, it is also a good idea because the promo pack is trying to sell me and my work. 

Pretty happy with the finished result, my moustache is as pointy as ever and i look like i haven't slept in about 3 weeks, seems about right. I polished the design off with a green Aztec boarder which helped to crop the image nicely. 

Self promo - Ideas

I did some general research using pinterest, i was looking for ideas that were interesting and a little outside the box, i wanted something the focused more on the quality and presentation of my work as apposed to the informative data that will be present. Following on from the previous module i was interested in making some small resin toys which would have their own retro packaging like the example above in the top left.

It was a good idea but then i remembered how long it took me to actually make these toys, it took around 15 - 20 hours to complete the toys and that was time that i did not really have on this short module so i soon scrapped that idea. There were some really good ideas that i had found online, a lot of them had a quirky little gimmick but It still managed to work as a stand alone print. The Mario dress up print was a particular favourite of mine as everyone knows that character and all of the accessories made complete sense, maybe it would be cool to illustrate a version of myself in that style. Other note able ideas include paper cut tribal masks, wooden carved robots and books with fold out interaction flaps.

In the top image there were quite a few monster themed images that popped up, the envelope task was heavily inspired by monsters and i thought it would be good to research them for the second stage.

Fore the envelope task i made some rough monster stickers, i thought that it would be cool this time if i made some bigger stickers with a lot more detail. Everyone loves a sticker, I also thought that the vibrant colours that come with my style accompany the sticker medium perfectly. The large image in the centre above showed an awesome collection of monsters, i particularly liked the transparent green one.

After looking through my monster board on Pinterest i decided that monsters were definitely the way to go and drew out this transparent alien/monster. I had an idea to use the photocopying technique to layer up some colour and then print the insides over the top so it would give it the transparent look, I instead decided to colour this image digitally as i believed i would get a better effect.

After a long time tweaking layers and messing around the opacity of my colours i eventually ended up with this result (above) I am super happy with the outcome, i managed to change the colour of the outline to green, this seemed to contain the linework whilst merging it with his jelly like body.
I eventually chose to make this monster into a large sticker because a thought the application suited the colours. Keeping with the sticker theme i started to draw out some character designs for Hellboy, i thought he would make a pretty awesome sticker and it would tie in with the general monster theme. Below are some basic sketches, i tried to draw him in a geometric way so that it would tie in with he rest of my work, it was pretty fun to draw an already existing character in my new style.

I went for the centre design in the end because the composition just worked a lot better for me, this way i could also see the whole character which i though was good.  When i get around to printing this one out as a sticker i will more than likely scale it to palm size so that it can neatly tuck into the rest of my work. 

Self promotion - Creative CV

This task envolved us adding some creativity to our already existing CV'S, the design had to say something about us as an illustrator and it also had to be fun and interesting to look at. At first i was a little worried about making up a new CV as i feared that i would not have enough room for all of the important details. Before i started doodeling out some ideas i thought it would be best to research some already existing Creative CV'S so that i could get some inspiration. I found some really cool designs, a lot of them were not actually restricted to the standard A4 format, a lot of them folded out and had some cool interractive features. Below are some of the examples that i found.

There were so many creative CV's online, some were really heavy on the information and had little illustration where as others were really visual but only highlighted the necessary information. I think that when i come to making my CV i want it to be incredibly visual and fun, i will need to review my CV and narrow down the key points of information if i want to do this. 

These are some initial sketches that i mapped out after doing some general CV research, Following on from the last module i wanted to keep my style consistent. I used a lot of geometric Aztec style imagery for the last module and i instantly started to draw using elements from the previous module, i instantly started to draw tiki heads as it seemed appropriate. I had an idea which consisted of creating a monster CV, the mouth would be open and inside there would be an image of me sitting inside of the monster, the tongue would then fold out and my details would be written there. I also liked the tiki head idea as it would allow me to keep my document with an A4 boundary which would make it easy to print. We wee given roughly a week to mock up a CV and i thought that for the short time period that we were given it would make more sense if i were to make a tiki head CV. 

I searched around for some tiki head designs and they came in a range of shapes and sizes. It was quite hard to find tiki heads in the style that i wanted but i managed to montage a couple of images together. I really liked how decorative the tiki heads were as their symmetry seemed to compliment whatever medium they were a part of. The surf board for example is perfectly symmetrical and works really well with the shape of the board. If this CV is successful i will definitely make some other products that keep within the same theme so that my work will tie in with itself.

Above are some of my tiki head sketches, the images on the lower right hand side are the early templates for my CV design where as the others were just experimentation imagery to get the feel right. The image on the far right is good but i do not think that i will have enough room for the information, i will colour it and see how it looks before i move on. 

The coloured version looks pretty good, unfortunately there is not enough room within the mouth to fit the appropriate information inside. I could maybe use this as a business card design though so i will hold on to it for future reference. 

I went ahead an coloured the other version that i made and it looks a lot better, i also managed to narrow down the original CV and fit all of the important stuff within my tiki's mouth. After showing my fellow illustrators the rough mock up i was then told that the text was pretty boring, they said that the text almost let the image down because i had put so much time into making the image and the text was just dropped in. I then decided that they were right, i wanted my CV to be fun and easy to read, my image deserved better than that. I looked back through my original sketches and decided that it would maybe be a good idea to mix my two original themes together, keep the large tiki head but give it a large fold out tongue that would hold all of the important information. 

Above is my finished CV, the tongue folds out three times, when the tongue is folded up it looks pretty silly but i think it really comes to life once opened up. I initially printed out a cheaper quality version of this and after some talks with the lecturers i decided to change the font to the one above, it is a lot more legible and it seemed to work better with the image and concept. This CV was printed in two parts and then stuck together with glue, the paper had a medium gloss finish which helped to bring out the colours really well. I originally went for really toxic colours and it was pretty harsh on the eyes so i am glad that i toned the colours down slightly. 

After making the CV i began to think about products that i could make for my promotional pack. Going back to me envelope task i mentioned that i wanted to make a huge monster totem pole, using that idea and going along with the tiki theme i came up with the above images. The plan was that they would all fold up into a little zig-zag print and then extend into this tiki totem pole, once they were coloured and printed off they were roughly the size of business cards. It would have been cool if my details were on the back and each tiki head were perforated so that the owner could tear one off. I am pretty happy with how these guys turned out and i will include this product as part of my final promotional pack.   Also after the success with my badge packs i decided to make some tiki themed badges, below are my my results. 

The images were made using some of the earlier sketches a starting point, i really like the one in the middle but i think that the green one is the strongest image. 

Self promo - The one day badge pack workshop

The second task we were given on this module only lasted a day, we had to create a promotional badge pack which we would showcase and share with everyone at the end of the day. We were originally meant to make one large badge but we were then given the choice of making some smaller ones. I personally chose to go with the larger template as i thought they looked cooler, i also had more room to show me design off

Above are some viking heads that i had lying around in my doodles folder, the green one wasn't quite finished but it wouldn't have taken much for me to finish it, i thought they would make some awesome badges but if thought i would look through my portfolio first to see if there was anything else that was a little more appropriate.

In my own time i made these little monsters which were originally meant to be stickers but i thought they were perfect for my badge designs, they were colourful, fun to look at and a lot of my work is based around a general theme of monsters so i thought that it tied in perfectly.

Above are the finished badge packs that i made, i chose to make another pack just because i had some extra time near the end of the day. The pack on the right is the original image that i use as my header for this blog, i thought that because of how busy the image was it would not really matter where the template was cut and it turned out pretty good as the design follows over to the sides of the badge.
I think the outcomes were pretty successful, maybe if i were to do it again i would make my name a little bigger as it it quite small in comparison to the rest of the product. The pack on the right managed to keep the badge pretty still within the packaging but the one on the left was pretty loose and the badges kept sliding around, in the future i would maybe need to pin the badges to the paper but apart from that it is all good.

Self promotion - The envelope task

During the second week of the module we were all given a small envelope, the task was for us to make a small promotional pack that would fit inside of the envelope which we would then show the rest of our class the following week. I did not really have a clue what i wanted to do and the small format made me feel quite trapped. i drew up some initial sketches for what i wanted to do but i thought that i should think simple as i only had a week to do this. Below is the basic planning page from my sketchbook.

Using my initial Pinterest research i manged to come up with a few designs, at first i thought it would be cool to make a little pop up monster card which would stand up on someones desk, that way it is something that the owner would want to keep and put on their desk instead of throwing it away. Another ideas was just to make a really nice print which had my details on the back of it, that way the owner gets something work keeping and because the details are on the back it will not obstruct my artwork. Finally i had the idea of expanding past the envelope size by making something that fits into the envelope but then folds out to make something a lot larger. The image on the bottom left shows a basic plan of what i wanted to do, the plan was to make a monster that stretches open to reveal its massive mouth and long arms. I really liked the long monster idea so i started to draw out some plans, i thought it would be best if the item broke down into three sections as then i could keep the paper size smaller meaning the printing cost would be less. I quickly decided that it would be a lot cooler if the stack was compiled of three different monsters standing on top of each other like a totem pole. Below are the three monsters that i mocked up to be stacked together. 

From top to bottom the stacking order goes from left to right. I messed around with feet shapes and head sizes so that it would get wider at the bottom. I started colouring the one on the left first and once he was finished i decided that he looked pretty good on his own and maybe he would be more effective this way. I used some of my Aztec patterns to complete the image and below is the final result. i think it works pretty well!

I ended up just using this idea as i thought that he was strong enough on his own and did not really need the other two although i would like to make the other two for future reference at some point. 

I printed my image on A4 card and i included the above image so that i could fold the card in half and glue it to give a double sided effect. I essentially made a large business card and i was pretty happy with the end result. Once this card was complete i moved on as i wanted to add a couple of other things to the pack, at the point i still had a few days before it was due in so i thought i would make the most of it. I looked through my sketch book and there was one image that i had previously worked on and wanted to finish, i thought that this promotional pack would give me to opportunity to finish this image and make it into a miniature poster. Below is the image in it's black and white format. 

For a while i made a big thing about getting rid of the line work and stripping it down to pure colour, i really love that style but i didn't want to forget my roots so for this image i wanted to keep the line work and just fill it with vibrant colour.

Some obvious problems occurred when i coloured this image as it came straight out of the sketchbook, for example the image just cuts off and some of the image was lost. The finished image (later in post) demonstrates how i handled that minor problem with the use of some boarders and crop marks. I really liked this image and i think that the colour palates were well thought out, i ended up printing this one on my ink jet printer on some Hammer White paper which has a parchment texture over it, i thought that was fitting seeing as the image was of a medieval theme.

Finally i wanted to test out the new sticker paper i had recently purchased so i drew these guys free hand using Sketch book Pro, pretty simple designs but i thought they were perfect for little sticker designs. The prints came out really well and i just cut them out by hand.

Finally once everything had been printed i made a simple little band to hold it all together, it fitted perfectly inside of the envelope and i was really happy with the results.
I think that this was a pretty nifty idea and it explained enough about me without giving too much away, i think i will use some of these elements for the next stage of self promotion.

Self promotion - The pillar of shame verses the pillar of glory!

The first initial task we were given for this module was given to us from both Caroline and Mel, they had literally covered a table in business cards that they had collected over the years. We were given to task of selecting 5 cards, three of which we liked and two that we utterly hated. Below are the ones that i liked, there were a lot that i actually liked but i managed to narrow it down.

I chose the first one because it wasn't so much a business card, but more of a promotional image. The image is beautiful and colourful and it immediately caught my attention, the artist also used a really nice boarder to frame the image meaning that the design and presentation was well considered.  Below there is some text that seems to give a small narrative to the image.
The next one is so simple but i loved it, the guy on the horse caught my attention first but then i noticed that there were characters from James and the Giant Peach on there as well and i instantly connected with the image. The back of the card is pretty minimal but i thought that it was a nice balance as the reverse had a lot going on. The third one was another larger image that i picked up because i understood the reference to Alice in Wonderland straight away, the style is not really my thing but the finish on the card was really nice and the layout seemed well considered so that was reason enough for me to choose it.

Above are my selections for the pillar of shame, the first one came in this little brown envelope which at first seemed like a professional way to package something, it had a little hole cut out of it so that you could see what was inside, this would have been a good idea if the image actually lined up. The reverse of the envelope also had the same shape cut out but the reverse of the card of nothing to show meaning that the application and design were not well thought out at all. The artwork on the card was extremely messy and time had clearly not been taken to neaten the image up, i wasn't sure if the artist intentionally made a stylistic choice to make the image this way but i don't like it regardless. The back of the card on the other hand actually worked really well as it gave off that handmade feel but it seemed like it was executed a lot better, the artwork is not consistent and the flow of the card doesn't really entice me into wanting to hire this artist.

Finally the second card was chosen because i thought that the orientation was completely wrong on the front, maybe the negative space was supposed to be used as the sides of the building but i didn't really like it, the business card is door shaped and it would have made more sense if the image was flipped vertically so it followed the corners of the card. The information on the back was informative but a little too simple in my opinion.

Self Promotion - Gaining some ground

After completing the previous independent pracitces module I have been inspired to create a range of products to sell, the module also taught me that a product not only demonstrates my skill level but it promotes who i am and what i stand for as an artist. I was very happy with the products that i had produced for the previous module and i am sure that some elements will work their way into this module. I learnt a lot about who i am as an illustrator and how i generate my work. I learnt how to sculpt, make foam cut outs and even design and make my own boxes, they are some useful skills to have.

The new self promotion module is just another step forward in that direction as i am to make a product(s) that i can send away to companies that i would want to work for, i also have to think about the general public, i need to have something at the ready should someone want to get in contact with me.

When i think self promotion i think business cards, post cards, badges and labels, i will need to think further than that for this module as i want my things to stand out from the crowd, i want them to be remembered. 

For the most part of this year i have been absolutely certain that i wanted to be a children's illustrator and i am pretty sure that i want to continue down this path although i feel as if i could broaden my path on the way to my end goal.  Before i made my own self promotional pack i wanted to look around and see what other illustrators were doing to promote themselves. 

Over the last two years i have had the pleasure of being able to work with artist Jack Teagle, he ran a comic book workshop a while back and he was also one of the campers at camp CBSP which was another awesome comic book event, throughout the workshops i have learnt that Jack' style of imagery works really well outside of paper and because of which he has been able to make a variety of things which he then sells in his shop. Throughout this module i am to find ways to effectivley promote myself as an illustrator through psychical products and virtual space.
I chose to use Jack Teagle as my first point of research because he seems to have the full deal, a huge online presence, online stores, a vast range of promotional products and a big career to back it all up/.

Jack Teagle is hugely inspired by comic books and throughout his career he has made a bunch of his own little comics about his life. Above is one of his comics named 'Turtle Fighters' which was being sold at Teagle's stall at the stuff fair, i picked one up because the idea was so good and it was very cheap to both buy and make. The comic only consisted of three pages but it folded out into a A3 poster which i thought was a really nice touch, at the end of the comic Teagle also added his website and his name at the bottom of the page which helped to promote him. 

I thought that a comic book was significant to Jack Teagle and that is why it works well as a promotional object for him, i wanted to know if every illustrator needed to have a significant item for their promotion to be effective, does it all need to tie in? 

I had a quick look at Greg Kletsel because he has some really abstract work and i wanted to know how he promoted himself, Like Teagle, Kletsel has a massive online presence with sites such as Tumblr, Instagram and twitter to name a few. also in comparison Kletsel has a very tactile look to his work which makes it look very home made which reflected well in his store as i saw hand made badges and screen prints, he did not need much more really. 

I now need to search further and look at a bunch self promotional ideas and packages so that i can begin to make my own. 

Self promo - various artist websites

Tom Gauld 

Tom Gauld's website is pretty simple in terms of the layout, the page scrolls whilst the side bar stays the same which is pretty cool because then you have full navigation of the page and no need need to head back to the top to click something. The part that scrolls just looks like a news feed for Tom, it contains updates covering his work and any upcoming events he may be a part of, from here you can also see any new publications he has been working on. The top half of the side bar works as a portfolio for clients as it lists the names of his best work which you can then click to view on the same page, this is good because then you are not drawn away from his site by external links. The side bar also features a shop where you can buy some of Tom's publications and it also provides external links for other places to get his items should his store become out of stock. Finally at the bottom of the side bar are some external links which link to his other pages such as his Flickr, Tumblr and Twitter. Over all a really professional website and very simple to navigate though the news feed has a lot of small text and it's a little too organized for my liking.

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        MCBESS 

Mcbess has such a simple home page it's unreal, each of the icons below his name represent a different page, one goes to his blog, another goes to contact information, the pencils link to his art work, the forth links to his music video's/tracks and the last one links to his store. Nice and simple, straight to the point. Again similar to Gauld's page as most of the links remain on the site and do not take you away from the page, good technique for easy accessibility and very professional.

I clicked on his art icon and i got this really nice show reel for his work and it allows me to scroll through most of his work, i like how everything is exclusively in black and white and it helps to stylize the page.

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MICHAEL SLACK

Micheal Slack is one of the most stylized artists i know, i can tell his work a mile off and i can do the same with his webpage. I love his custom header and i also like how simple his layout is in comparison to his bright and wonderful images. Under Slack's header you can see a bunch of links which help you navigate the site, there is a gallery for viewing his general work and there is a separate illustration link which i thought was useful because it helps to refine the search. This is one of the most professional sites i have seen, there is a really good "in print" icon which shows you everything slack has published and printed. I mentioned that Slack has a very stylized page and that shows through a variety of elements, the custom header being one, and FaceSlack being another witty pun for a link to his Facebook page. There are bunch of external links to his Twitter account and his blog etc. Over all a pretty awesome page.  

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SCOTTIE YOUNG 

Scottie Young is one of my favorite artists at the moment and like Slack he has a very stylized and simplistic page, every post has it's own little square and a little description underneath. Most of the posts on the main feed are one of his daily drawings which i think is good because it shows that he is constantly working and he is always adding to his huge portfolio, it's also good because it shows he is up to date with his site. The light paper texture in the background is also a nice touch as it helps to bring out his black and white drawings. Scottie is a big Twitter user and he has a feed on the side bar specifically for the recent related Twitter posts which is pretty cool, he manages his site in a professional way. Something else that is pretty handy is the little reminder that pops up and allows you to follow his blog so you can get updates whenever he posts something. Over all this site is very social savvy and is professionally managed,  nice and simple lay out though it has to be said that because he has so many posts it gets hard to find his professional prints among the doodles.

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CHRIS RIDDELL 

Riddell has probably the simplest page out of the ones that i have looked at, the front page has this awesome animation of a fish on a bike, the only site i have looked at which has an animation on it. All of his links are at the top of the page and they all link to internal pages which show the various publications he has been involved in. Riddell does not really like technology and there does not update his page too much, He shares another page with his friend and writer Paul Stewart and that one is a little more informative but i chose this page because you get to see a lot of Riddell's earlier work and his design process which is nice to see from such an influential illustrator.