You may have noticed that artists related to different fields like graphic design, photography, comic drawings, sketching and illustrations, have a portfolio file to showcase their best pieces of art.
As an artist, it is very important for you to have a portfolio file as it saves you from the mess of turning on the laptop and browsing folders to show your work during an interview.
However, we can’t show our portfolio file to anyone who connects with us via internet. Many people have websites and blogs as their online portfolio but not everyone prefer having them as it’s a bit complex to manage them and it also costs money in maintenance and renewals.
Many people send their portfolios in emails as attachments but the problem with that is you can send only few images or the archive size could get heavy. Secondly, recipient has to download the archive first in order to view your portfolio. This is something that most of the people avoid.
You don’t have to worry anymore as there are lots of websites where you can register for free to create your profile, upload your artwork, talk to other artists and get their opinions about your artwork.
Many of these communities have forums where you can get into creative discussions or post your questions & queries. You can give your portfolio URL to anyone who is interested in watching your work. You can also use it in your resume and email signature.
These are the best websites for art portfolios where graphic and web designers, photographers, illustrators, comic artists, digital artists, painters and sculptors can upload their work.
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DeviantART
DevianART was founded in year 2000 and now it has become one of the biggest art communities for artists. It is like a social network for artists where you can upload their artwork and get tips and critics from other fellow artists.
You can comment and favorite artwork by other artists and even follow them to get their updates. You can chat with other artists by joining available chatrooms or you can create your own.
This great site offers free as well as premium membership. Premium members can enjoy some great features and privileges such as changing their usernames, scheduling deviations, having access to the Sta.sh storage, administrate more than 3 groups, access to premium widgets and much more.
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CGSociety
CGSociety is another popular art website that people love to visit most. This website has some great portfolios of digital and 3d artists that you would love to watch.
You can enjoy browsing great artwork by visiting Galleries section of the CGSociety, take part in different art challenges and read latest CG related news, articles and trends. Through CGTalk forums, you can get involved in the different art discussions and post your questions regarding anything related to art.
If you are looking for a job, CGSociety can help you find a job. You can do a quick job search through its Jobs section which allows you to search a job based on country, state, occupation and the industry of your choice.
Other than that, this website offers great workshops and video trainings as an ultimate learning material for CG artists. -
Artstation
This is one of those websites that I love to visit more often. Artstation came to the existence after a well-known CG website CGHub was shut down by its owners. This site has a clean layout with a top row showing sponsored stories.
Gallery thumbnails are arranged as a grid pattern displaying the artwork of different artists.This website allows you to filter the artwork as Trending, Latest and Picks. You can even choose the media type (digital 2d or 3d, traditional 2d or 3d) and subject matter (Animation, Concept art, Game art etc.)
A bigger version of the artwork can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail. The page with bigger version of the artwork has a sidebar that contains artist’s information and comments. You can click on the artist’s name to see more of his/her works.
You can read the Artstation magazine for latest CG news and articles. Artstation also has “Jobs” section where you can find job of your choice.
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Zbrushcentral
Zbrush Central is a great community for Zbrush artists or Zbrushers. You can take a look at some amazing digital sculptures by visiting the Gallery. You can browse different sketchbooks created by different people to see their completed and WIP sculptures.
It is a great place to develop your sculpting skills and get critics from professional sculptors. You can read interviews of some great artists.
Learners can visit ZClassroom section for videos covering basics to advanced techniques on different topics such as sculpting, texturing, rendering and posing inside of Zbrush. Zbrushcentral has a tutorials forum where members can share their tricks and tutorials.
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GameArtisans
GameArtisans is a great community for those who love to create game art. You can have a look at awesome 3d artwork from different artists, browse different art pages, and take part in art challenges and ongoing art discussions.
This site has a clean layout which allows you to navigate easily through the different categories. It has tutorials section covering major 2d and 3d software programs.
You can look for the job of your choice Inside Jobs section and go through other categories to read more of CG news and articles.
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Behance
Behance is nice and professional looking website for the artists. You can find pretty much every type of art on this website. You can look at creative finished projects and work in progress.
People who are looking for artists to hire can post their jobs in the job section. This website lets you browse through different categories like Architecture, Graphic Design and Illustration.
Behance makes it easy to filter the search by location, featured, most popular, most recent, most viewed and most followed so that you can easily find the artwork you are looking for. Behance is one of the greatest websites for art portfolios.
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Conceptart.org
ConceptArt, as the name suggests, is a community dedicated to concept artists. People can browse sketchbooks of different artists by visiting ConceptArt forums and ask art related questions. This website allows artists to search and post jobs.
This website offers some awesome workshops covering basics and advanced aspects of digital art. This is a great websites for people who are interested in learning concept art.
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Visualart
Another great site where you can upload your artwork, take part in creative challenges and get comments & critics from other artists. You can visit Visualart forums to join art discussions related to 3d, graphic design, photography and web design etc. You can visit Visualart blog to read CG related articles and learn more about events and challenges.
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Vfxartportal
This awesome site features artworks and videos including demo reels, 2d & 3d tutorials, behind the scene videos, vfx breakdowns and so on and so forth.
Vfxartportal has a gallery grid on the homepage which can be sorted as Latest, Popular and Featured etc.
You can also browse some awesome and high quality stock images including trees, metals, landscapes, rocks and many more.In their Store section they have some great stuff like Photoshop brushes, actions, painting tutorials for newbies and art learners.
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Coroflot
Coroflot is a great website that offers unlimited storage to its users for free. You can completely personalize your portfolio and track how many people followed, viewed and added your work to favorites.
This website has a nice and clean layout with masonry styled gallery on the homepage which can be sorted as Most Recent, Most Viewed, Staff Picks or You can choose from the Specialties sidebar to display images belong to a particular category. Inside “Job Board” section you can post a job or look out for a job of your choice.
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Artician
Artician has a variety of portfolios that you would like to browse. On this website, you can find artists with skills like Graphic Design, Digital Art, Photography, Web design and Animation.
Artician forums allow you to join discussions related to different topics. You can also visit Artician Magazine and enjoy reading news and articles on different art topics.
This website also offers a Pro account with some additional features like browsing without ads, more exposure to users with pro account, Pro users can upload their resume on their page and much more.
I hope you enjoyed the list. If you think I have missed something, feel free to let me know in your comments below. Thanks!