I think it is a great idea to share your artwork, sketches, and experiments. You can get great feedback from others and it will help you grow as an artist. I still think you should keep this experimental stuff separate from the portfolio that you use to try to get work. If you don’t have anything “official” just yet, my suggestion would be to start working on creating some stuff! If you want a website for potential clients to visit, they are going to want to see what you can DO. That means you want to show off your BEST work. You should not be putting stuff in your portfolio just to fill up space. Doing so will hurt your chances of getting hired. Work on creating some pieces that you will be proud of that will best represent you and your artwork.

For aspiring artists who do not have clients and aren’t necessarily looking for them intently, how do you feel about posting most experimental illustrations and sketch-ideas in the portfolio itself? I notice that you separate your illustration blog content from you official portfolio stuff… but you have so much great stuff to draw from, which makes this possible. Much of the work I do now is exploratory and not “official” in a professional sense… but is it worth sharing? I would guess that something is better than nothing…

I’m still a big fan of frames and basic Microsoft Front Page or Dreamweaver pages. The basic the better.

Kurt: My art director wants us to put together a webpage showcasing the work that we do that would be off of our company’s main site. Of course it needs to be in Flash. That’s what all the cool kids use, don’cha know? I’ve suggested alternatives for people who don’t want to visit a flash site, but so far no luck changing her mind. Oh well.