Hello, and welcome to the bottom half of the website. This is the community section, where you can manage your Artist Profile, upload image galleries, and create exhibition listings. You can also write a blog, comment on each other's stuff and chat in the forums. Here's a quick guide to get you started using the site.
Artist Profile
To start with, you probably want to create your artist profile. Check out Karen's profile to see how it will look when you're finished.
To create your own, log in with the username and password we sent you. Then, under the menu labeled with your name, click "My profile". From there, click the "Artist Profile" tab. Then you can add in all your information - please make it as detailed as possible!
Remember to save it when you're finished. If Karen has already put some info on there for you, the changes will be visible straight away, but if you started from scratch, it won't go online until it's been seen by a moderator. You can edit your profile at any point just by going back to that page.
Portfolio
Add images to your Artist Profile in your Portfolio. Go to "My profile" again and this time click the "Artist Portfolio" tab. Upload some images of your work - these will appear prominently on your Artist Profile page. You might want to make them into smaller files in Photoshop before you upload them, as large files will take a long time. All images displayed on the site are resized down to 640x480 pixels, so large high quality images won't look any better than smaller ones!
Exhibitions
Once that's done, you can start adding exhibitions to your profile by clicking "Add an event" in the menu. As well as adding the title, image, dates of the exhibition and blurb information, you can tag the names of artists involved - remember to include yourself - and the gallery where it was held. If those artists and galleries have a profile page on this site, your new exhibition will be listed on their pages too. Again, new exhibitions won't appear on the site straight away, but I'll publish them as soon as possible!
As well as adding your upcoming exhibitions, please add as many of your past exhibitions as you can.
Image galleries
If you want to add some images to the site, click "Add an image gallery" in the menu. Give it a name and start uploading pictures.
If you're just adding a gallery of your general work, tag it with your name and it will appear on your profile page underneath your main portfolio album. If all the work is from one exhibition, tag it with the exhibition name too so it will appear on that page, and if you like tag the name of the venue so the images will show up on the venue page.
Blogs
I'm really hoping that we can get a few artists regularly writing blogs about their artwork, art in general, art in the news, exhibition reviews, or anything really, so let me know if you want one and I'll set it up for you. If you already have your own blog, I can set it up so entries you post on there also appear on this website automatically. Let me know the address of your blog and I'll sort it out.
You write blog entries by clicking "My blog" then "Write a new blog entry" under the menu (duh). Your post will show up on your blog and also in the latest blogs section of the front page. Read everyone's blogs by clicking "Blogs" under the "Community" menu.
Forums
Click "Forums" under the "Community" menu. At the moment there is one forum for art discussion and one general forum, and within those you can start your own forum topics, talk about exhibitions, plan new ones, etc. There is a thread there where you can introduce yourself to the website, so please go ahead.
Comments
You can comment on exhibitions and image galleries, as well as people's blog posts, and I really want to encourage as much interaction as possible, so please do! Click "Add new comment" at the bottom of a pages to comment.
