Creating "About me" page on my website

Self Introduction in "About Me" section for my website.

My name is Agata Sibielak. I have been very creative since I was a child and loved creating my own art. I am studying Fine Art at De Montfort University in Leicester where I am expanding my knowledge and skills. In my achievements I have many paintings painted with acrylics and my favorite reverse drawing method (white on black). However, most of all I find my passion, love and creative thinking by creating works in 3D format. I had the opportunity to prove myself by making dioramas, Objet D'Art, sculptures and clay reliefs. I see my future as an independent artist, but the next years at the University will hopefully open up many other opportunities for me.

Here is the finished "About Me" section on my website: 

First draft of major project "Happy Animals"

Happy Animals is a project of  6 works created in Pop Art style to draw the recipient's attention to the problem of cruelty against domestic animals. 

In the modern world, a pet is almost a member of the family. We love them and want the best for them. But can you be sure that the way you treat your four-legged friends and the choices you make on their behalf really serve them?

The unconditional love that our pets give us motivates us to change, take on new challenges and give meaning to our lives, and also encourages the owner to be physically and socially active. Many studies conducted by American organizations prove that pets provide their owners with a wide range of health benefits. Among them, we can highlight their effect on reducing stress and anxiety, they can reduce the likelihood of heart attack and stroke by lowering blood pressure. Horses, for example, are used in hippo-therapy and help in pain relief and psycho-motor coordination in people with disabilities and children with cerebral palsy.

As responsible owners, people, and society as a whole, we have a responsibility to care for all pets, and together we should stand up to cruelty to pets.

Wix website: About Page , social links, home page and mobile view

 Today I began to add my profile picture on my website. I opened media from the sidebar and uploaded my picture from my computer. 

Next I checked mobile view for my website If everything looks as it should and if there are no problems with viewing site. 

So there was a problem with the title that didn't fit and the font had to be changed. I used text editing to do this.  

Next I added a social media links. I opened sidebar menu, click on media, found a blogger link and added the icon of that website to my website.

Then I added the link to the blogger icon and checked the mobile view.

Everything is working properly, link opens the blogger website in a new window. I also checked other sections to make sure everything was in place and working properly. 

Then I added a 'back to top' button as you can see in the bottom right corner. I clicked on 'mobile tools' from sidebar and I added the icon to my site.

Further research: Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami, A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death, 2009

I want to create 6 pop art works with pets as a manifestation against animal cruelty.  

In this new work, Murakami presents the legend of the Karajish, or "Chinese lion", a mythological animal that guards the doors of Japanese Buddhist temples, separates the sacred from the secular, banishes evil and promotes happiness and joy. The lion was first depicted by Chinese and then Japanese artists, based on Indian and Assyrian versions with Buddhist iconography, without the actual animal. So these depictions of an exotic animal just got more and more imaginative. Karajishi was chosen for the role of Shohaku Soga (1730-1781), a renowned iconoclast who combined Zen and Chinese styles with wild, virtuoso brushwork and equally valuable wit and ingenuity, and whose interpretations of Zen Buddhist ascetic Daruma, another famous outsider. was the main inspiration for Murakami's 2007 series.

 On a large, four-panel canvas of astonishing intricacy and pictorial detail, Murakami presents an allegory of ritual and survival in raising a karajishi whose parents throw themselves off cliffs like puppies to test their strength and endurance. On an eerie bridge made entirely of human skulls sits an adult karajishi while his sons play, presumably survivors of Darwin's exercises. Stacks of skulls - each individually and carefully presented in imaginative color combinations - are balanced with moody, abstract, vibrant tones achieved through traditional design and painting techniques, including kesuri, where the image surface is created by stretching and sanding. layer by layer to create a rich and versatile patina that combines the sophisticated depth of Japanese lacquer with the alchemy of Warhol's risky Oxidation paintings.

Reference:

Takashi Murakami (2018) Gagosian. Available at: https://gagosian.com/artists/takashi-murakami/ (Accessed: November 16, 2022). 

Software test: Krita

 Today for the first time I will try to test the drawing programs to prepare my major project. I will start with the Krita program first.

First i open it with open file command and i choose a photo I downloaded from free stock images to keep my pet's proportions right. 

First i used the 'contiguous selection tool' to separate the horse from the background. When I separated them for each I made a separate layer that I could work on. then I started looking for a suitable filter for the background. so I chose 'filter', 'artistic' and 'halftone' from the menu. I adjusted the settings that were right for me and came out with a yellow dotted background. Then, on the horse layer, I chose a different filter, 'index Colors' and here I adjusted the colors as desired. At the end, I changed the selection to the background and selecting 'filter' with the appropriately matched 'halftone' and we have it..

I tried other colors to see other possibilities.

Software test: Photoshop

 Today we will be testing Photoshop software for major project. I will be creating a first page for my portfolio.

I started a new page by selecting new from the top menu, and then I used the dialogue box above to select "Print" from the top menu. I then selected "A3" from the presets, and I selected "Portrait," with a white background and 300 resolution.

Then, I had a clean, white canvas on which to work. The title "Happy Animals" was then added in a 72 point Century font. I positioned this in the top left corner using the move tool.

The images that I obtained from Unsplash was then added. I first downloaded the images from Unsplash, then I selected it by clicking "open" in the top menu. When I opened the image in Photoshop, I used the crop tool to remove the distracting edges from the picture. After that, I chose "select," "all," "Edit," and "copy." Back in my main canvas, I clicked paste before using the modify controls to resize image and the move tool to position it properly. I repeated it 2 more times. I next wrote my concept part using the text tool once more and the Century font.

On Tailorbrands, I created a logo, from which I made a snip and saved it to my desktop. Then I put this in Photoshop. I then chose "select" and "all" from the top menu, followed by "Edit," "copy." I then returned to my page and chose paste. To add this in the proper location, I used the move tool and the transform controls. 

Website research: Banksy and Andy Warhol

 Because I create my own website I will study other Fine Artists website to compere and contrast them with my ideas. I will consider overall design, colors, and typography, navigation usability/user-friendliness, links and mobile views.

 I will be looking at Banksy and Andy Warhol websites to see in more depth as my further research how they presenting their work .

I will begin at looking on Andy Warhol home page.

The home page is quite busy but I can easily find whatever I am looking for. The menu bar is clearly visible. The overall look is very satisfactory for me because warm colors and the artist's work dominate. Typography is clear and eyes friendly with sans - serif fonts in white and turquoise colors.  

The "About" section is not typical as it is a whole museum dedicated to artist's work. This section is very clear and pink  and fonts are in pink colors as well which I like. This section also shows photos from this museum in which the artist's work is presented. At the bottom of the page we have an additional bar pointing to other parts of the page , e. g. contact, founding, vision and values, rights and reproduction and collection. 

If I want to see the artist's portfolio, I have to go to "Art" section from the main bar. This section contains information that each time different works are presented, a short information about all the artist's works and a link to all exhibited works from their collection. When I click on the link, a new page with the museum collections appears as we see above. On the link page, everything is in the same style and well organized. the site has 6 exhibitions whose descriptions can be looked at closely and click on each one separately. When we click on the selected one, all the works from this exhibition appear with descriptions, and each work can be enlarged and seen from a closer perspective and with a more detailed description.

Website creation: Homepage/contact page

 Today I began create my own website. I used Wix.com website editor and this is template I choose for ma website Portfolio.

Then, I changed the title of the page by inserting my full name, I changed font to TREND and my name was 24 ppi and the title was 48 ppi.

Then using the menu bar on the left side I deleted " Let's chat" as it will not be used by me. Then I changed the names of the pages in the main menu bar to be appropriate for me.

Then I changed the date and put my full name in the copyright and made sure it appears on all pages.

Then I changed the names of the sections that were on the home page and added to them also temporary images that I found on Pixabay. I downloaded them on my computer and uploaded  them to Wix as seen below.

I changed the background color to a little more suited to me and this is how my Homepage looks like.

Finally, I changed the contact form, its color and style. Anyone can contact me by sending an e-mail application.

In the next post, I will describe customizing " About " page.