ART BLOGS or How to stay motivated and share your current work with the world (or at least your friends)

Portfolio or art blog. How should I share my artwork with potential employers and fellow artists?

Every artist looking to be employed should have a digital art portfolio. This should only be your very best work.You will want to review this portfolio regularly, re-evaluating your work, adjusting what is included and fine tuning the presentation of your skill set.

An art blog, on the other hand, is not for your best work, it is for your ongoing work. This should be viewed as motivation to keep working, a way to connect with other artists, share your talents with the world, document your progress, push yourself, make goals and archive your work. Some of the best digital artists I know maintain regular art blogs. In these blogs they post works in progress, ideas for future projects, tips they have learned and want to share and whatever else strikes them. Many artists will participate in monthly theme "contests" or groups, for motivation, group critique and camaraderie.

Disney Interactive in Salt Lake City has an active art blog for the artists working in the company. This is not required by the company, but rather the artists have found that it helps them to keep making art, explore ideas and encourage and motivate each other. The artists regularly give one another challenges and critiques. From this community blog you can also link to the individual blogs of many of the game artists and get an idea of how an art blog can be used by a professional artist.