Building an illustration website portfolio - Part 2

What and why I included certain things in my website portfolio

A few editions ago, I shared the tools I used to create my website portfolio, and at the end, I mentioned that I would like to discuss best practices for building a website as an illustrator. Well, today’s edition is all about that 🎉!

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I finally finished updating my website, and I’m going to tell you how I did it

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The first thing I’d like to talk about is something really important and should be the first question you ask yourself before creating your website:

What is your goal with your website?

You might be wondering why I’m bringing this up since it seems obvious that the goal is to showcase your portfolio. But it’s important to dig a little deeper into this.

What’s your goal with your website?

Maybe you’re just starting your career as an illustrator (like me). Maybe you’re already established in the market. Or maybe you have an online shop selling products featuring your illustrations. Depending on where you are in your journey, your website will have a different purpose.

In my case, I’m an illustrator at the beginning of my career. Right now, my main goal is to get a contract with a publisher to illustrate children’s books and to find an agent to represent me. So my target audience is children’s book publishers and literary/illustration agents. In the future, I’d love to have a stationery shop with my illustrations.

Here are some questions to help you define your website’s goal:

• What do I want in terms of my career right now? Do I want to work as a freelance illustrator? Have an online shop with my illustrated products? Write content about my creative journey?

• Who is my audience? Publishers? People who love buying stationery? Brands that use children’s illustrations in their products?

• What kind of income streams do I want to develop (commissions, products, books, Patreon, etc.)?

DIY or hire a designer?

Once you define your goals, it’s time to decide: will you design your website yourself or hire someone?

Yes, you can build a website with a lower budget, but it requires time, and some basic knowledge of how a website is structured.

There are website-building platforms, like Squarespace, that are easier to use, but in this case, you almost always have to pay a monthly fee to keep your site on the platform.

On the other hand, you can hire a web designer to create the design and build your site on the platform of your choice, or even work with both a designer and a developer. So, think about what makes the most sense for you: paying someone or building the site yourself.

However, if you're reading this, I assume you're interested in creating your own website. So, let's go over the steps to build your portfolio website!

Planning and building your portfolio website

Gather references

Before creating an account on WordPress or any other platform, look at other illustrators’ websites. Gathering references is the first step to creating a website that is both visually appealing and easy to navigate. This will help you figure out:

• how many pages you need;

• how to organize your content;

• how to build your portfolio page;

• how to write about yourself and your work.

This saves time because you don’t need to reinvent the wheel — many website structures follow common patterns that work well (unless, of course, you want to do something completely unique). For example, a contact page usually includes:

• a short message;

• a contact form;

• an email for those who prefer direct contact;

• maybe an illustration.

I recommend taking screenshots of websites you like and saving both the image and link for future reference. Trust me, I’ve been there — trying to find a site I had screenshotted but forgot to save the link to!

Here’s a useful extension for full-page screenshots: Awesome Screen Recorder & Screenshot.

At the end of this edition, I’ll share some illustrator websites I like for inspiration!

Designing your website

After gathering references, it’s time to plan how many pages you’ll have and how to structure your content.

Most illustrator websites (without an online shop) have these core pages:

• Home: Either a summary of your site or your main portfolio page;

• Portfolio: If you want a separate page just for your artwork;

• About: A section where you introduce yourself and what you do;

• Contact: Some people combine this with the About page, but you can keep it separate. It usually includes a contact form and your email.

Additional pages depend on your services and products. Here are some I found on other children’s book illustrators’ sites:

• Sketchbook: A page for sketches, showing more of your process;

• Shop: If you sell physical or digital products;

• Newsletter: A dedicated page for people to subscribe;

• Blog: If you create written content (great for SEO!);

• Books: A section showcasing the books you’ve illustrated;

• Design: If you also offer illustration services for print, websites, etc.

If you work with illustration for other areas, such as character design, visual development, animation, concept art, etc, it can be useful to organize separate portfolios on your site. That's one of the biggest advantages of having your own website — you can have all your work in one place, but still keep different portfolios separate.

I know, Behance has this feature, but it doesn’t let you neatly separate portfolios unless you pay for it.

Besides deciding how many pages you need, it is time to define more important things:

• your logo (if you don’t have one);

• your color palette;

• your typography (ideally, 1–2 fonts: one for headings, one for body text);

• any extra illustrations to enhance the design.

How I organized myself to get started building my website

I used Figma to organize references and design my site because I’m familiar with it, and it’s made for UI/UX design. In Figma, I:

• created my color palette;

• picked fonts;

• added my logo and favicon (the small icon in the browser tab);

• designed all pages except for project pages (I copied those from my Behance projects).

In this way, whenever I need to update something, all my design info is in one place.

You can also design your pages in Photoshop, Procreate, or even on paper — whatever works for you. Just make sure to keep your design elements (colors, fonts, logo) organized somewhere.

If you like planning, I’d suggest setting up a timeline before you start gathering references. You can use Notion, Trello, or Asana to create a schedule.

Here’s a rough breakdown of my process:

1. gather references;

2. create a logo and color palette (if you don’t have them);

3. design the website;

4. build the website on your chosen platform.

It took me three weeks to complete everything. I didn’t have a logo or color palette yet, but I already had an idea of what I wanted. Also, I’m familiar with Figma (for design) and WordPress (for website building), so that sped things up.

Tip: Spend extra time on gathering references, a little less on designing, and the rest on building the site.

Why I designed my website portfolio the way I did

As I said at the beginning of this newsletter, your website should align with your goals and audience.

My goal is to have a home for my portfolio, mainly for children’s book illustrations and illustrated maps. And I wanted to structure it in a way that I can expand my services later.

My current audience is agents and publishers, so I structured my site like this:

• Home: Summary of who I am + portfolio highlights (I still want to add a section mentioning that I’m seeking representation!).

• Illustration: My children’s illustrations and maps portfolios, with a filter to separate them.

• Sketchbook: Some sketches and studies (I plan to add more character studies here);

• Newsletter: A page to tell that I have a newsletter for people who want to subscribe and follow my journey.

• About: A separate page where I talk about myself and link to my YouTube and Instagram.

• Contact: A page explaining my services and how to reach me, with a contact form + my email (because I personally dislike only having forms).

I believe there are still things that can be improved on my website, but I think a website is never truly 100% finished. It’s always a work in progress — whether because you want to add new sections or because your goals have evolved or changed.

Portfolio and course recommendations

If you’re still unsure about how to structure your portfolio, here are some useful resources:

YouTube videos

• How to make a character design portfolio

• 9 Things you need in your picture book portfolio

• How to make a portfolio website for your art

• Making the absolute best artist portfolio ever

Courses

• Expressing Yourself with Personal Passion Projects – by Kevin Lyons

• Freelance Illustration: Develop Your Portfolio – by James Hughes

• Online Portfolio for Children’s Book Illustrators – by Marissa Valdez

• Building a portfolio for a career in children’s illustration - by Jimena S. Sarquiz

Portfolio website references

As promised, here are some illustrator portfolio websites for you to get inspired by:

• Anoosha Syed – Clean and client-focused;

• Raahat Kaduji – Clean, well-organized, with a strong visual feel and a shop;

• Gia Graham – Colorful, well-organized, with clear categories;

• JooHee Yoon – Organized, clean, and client-focused;

• Rebecca Green – Clean, atmospheric, with a shop;

• Jessica Smith - Colorful, well-organized, with a shop.

If you have more portfolio website references, feel free to drop the links in the comments section below.

I hope this content was helpful to you! And if you’d like to leave a comment, go ahead — I always enjoy chatting with you in the comments. It’s a great way to discuss ideas and gain insights I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

If you've made it this far, thank you very much. 💚
Charlene ⭐