I am not too fond of the splash page for a number of reasons. The website logo is not linked. The style of the font type makes the site subtitle look more like ‘Tbaditional Abtfolio’. The ‘Enter’ text is barely visible as it is squished on top of the site meter button. There are too many links on this page that is not necessary. It looks so unprofessional and much too similar to the work of a newbie (and I was there at one point in time). Despite the beautiful sketch, the rest of the page is a put off.

Information

Site: Halftone
Type: Personal
Owner: Tina
Reviewed By: Misao
Date Received: 02/10/08
Date Completed: 06/16/08
Preview

Presentation

The purpose of a splash page is to introduce visitors to the website, and to warn visitors of required scripts to view the site properly or of inappropriate content. It is suppose to build a sense of anticipation in the visitor. The feel of this splash page is nowhere near anticipation. I feel discouraged for a lack of a better word. Let’s start top to bottom.

The website logo/splash image is very well designed. The sketch of the girl is very beautiful and the choice of font type is passable, but the font type of the subtitle looks too messy. The R’s look too much like B’s. Maybe merge the original layers together and use a small brush to erase the black smudges at the bottom center of the letter.

Normally, the splash image would be linked to the homepage. For obvious reasons. If it isn’t, an ‘enter’ link should be visible and displayed in a way to accentuate the splash page. However, in this page, it is all wrong. The size of the link is very small. The text decoration (underline) does not accentuate the style and decoration of the text in the splash image. Not to mention, there is no line break between the link and the site meter button. It is barely visible.

Then there’s the site meter button. Most people display not the site’s link ware button, but the counter which links back to the site. As a visitor and as the web owner, I would believe you are most interested in learning how many people have visited the site by having a counter provided on this page, and not a link to promote the site where you got the counter from. The Mozilla button is also unnecessary. Mozilla Firefox is a very popular Internet browser in and by itself. There is no need for you to advertise for them, unless there is a script or some sort of coding on the site that is not visible in any other browser (which is not the case as most, if not all, Java scripts and HTML coding are visible across Firefox and IE browsers; though it may differ on the coding diction).

The Rings and Cliques link is useless because it takes visitors away from your site to a page where there is nothing listed under Webrings and one broken link. The link to International Artists Day should have been linked to a new window since it is a promotion of an external event. The same rule applies to all remaining links, which shouldn’t be on the splash image anyways. They belong on a separate page titled ‘Resources’ or ‘Events’ or ‘Sponsors’ or ‘Links’. Because as it stands right now, I don’t know whether conclude the site as a personal website or a personal advertisement page.

The main layout looks better but it isn’t at 100%. The whole scrapbook/sketchbook idea and pencils is great but space was not utilized at full capacity. There is too much leftover space to the right of the navigation links. Consider moving the links to the right by about 20 pixels to make the left and right space margins somewhat symmetrical. Then consider adding another 10 pixels of space between the two columns of links so there is more space to separate ‘Autographs’ and ‘Hire . Request’. There is also a lot of extra space between the left portion of the layout and the top of the update layer. Consider moving the update layer up about 20 pixels to fill up the space gap.

There is a huge gap after the little snippet about the web owner (where ‘rocker’ appeared twice) and between the mailing list table and guestmap button. In contrast, there isn’t any spacing at all after the ‘latest art’ heading and ‘autograph’ heading. You may want to play around with that. There’s too many “things” in the right column and it is in no particular order at all. It looks so disorganized. The home page is a place to for updates and to give visitors a preview of the site’s content such as example works, latest additions, mailings lists, counters, tagboards, etc. Therefore, the For Sale!, Autograph, and Site Stuff is not necessary. They should be placed in the artwork, autograph and sitely sections respectively. The two or three latest art pieces should be sufficient and each should have its own line space for maximum visibility. The width of the border should be thinner if using a dark border colour or keeping its current width if using white as the border colour. Either way, make sure border styling is consistent throughout for all images.

Next in the column should be Upcoming. Again, each preview should be displayed on a line by itself for maximum visibility. Then followed by the Mailing List table. However, the background colour should be removed, the mailing list heading should be larger and follow the same heading format as the others, and text should be centered (again to coordinate with the rest). Next should be the Greeting Card table with its background removed, table width resized, change of text colour, and heading modified to coordinate with the other heading style. The guestmap button can appear directly below followed by the W3C button. Click here to see the more organized version of the homepage.

One thing I don’t get is the link to Firefox. I am assuming that Halftone can only be viewed properly in Firefox and that is why the browser’s link was provided on the splash page. But organization is completely all over the place in Firefox. Again, padding/margin is all over the place. The text does not align with the headings in the right column. The bottom border does not run the full length of the heading width. This is what I see. Red marks the spots.

The HTML is a mess though I have seen worst. Let’s start with the style sheet. There is such a thing called external style sheet where all coding within the <style type="text/css"> and </style> can be transferred to a separate file with a .css file extension. It makes editing much easier, simpler and more organized, as well as reducing the length of the page source. Replace the ALT="** PLEASE DESCRIBE THIS IMAGE **" tag with alt="" unless you want the message ** PLEASE DESCRIBE THIS IMAGE ** to appear in IE every time the mouse hovers over the image. It doesn’t look very attractive. Background image specification in the body tag can be removed since it is already provided in the style sheet.

Since a W3C link was provided, I tried to validate the website but it failed miserably. I am not going to go into every single detail error since Markup Validation Service does the same.

The style sheet was a bitch to read and separate. Have you not heard of line breaks? Separate the specifications by sections and by each attribute. For example:

body {
background-image: url(hg_patrnset02_21b.jpg);
color: #6C6A6A;
}
:link {
color: #5B5B5B;
}
div.c36 {
position: absolute;
left: 10px;
top: 495px;
width: 500px;
height:10px;
}

Notice the ease of the above coding style versus the one found on the site? There is no need to provide a z-index unless you are coding a layout where parts of the layout is transparent and you want text to be visible underneath the transparent areas. If you have no clue what this means, then you obviously don’t know how it is used and don’t need it. The rest of the coding looks great although again, like the page source, it failed validation. The most prevalent error is that the file within the brackets of the background-image specification cannot contain brackets.

I also don’t understand the use of internal frames to style this type of a layout. An internal frame is usually used where long content need to be fitted into a small box (i.e. Click here). In your case, the internal frame is not needed because the layout is structured as a header and unconstricted and unlimited space for text.

Content

Before I proceed to the site’s content, I’m going to comment on the updates organization. It is too lengthy. It is June. Do you think people really care or will read what you’ve added to the site in March? The answer is most likely no. Unless March was the last time you’ve made an update, which isn’t the case. Why would a person need to display the most recent 8 updates on the main page is something I don’t understand and think is unnecessary. The most recent 3 entries is sufficient. Keep within the time window small.

Artist

Where is the page title? Is it Artist or Favourites? Make sure to include the page title first at the top of the page, and then smaller headings for the page’s content. Line break is required after the Favourite Movies line and after My Fave CDs heading. The left and right alignment on this page’s content is completely skewered compared to the homepage. I see that consistency and coding is going to a problem. I learned a great deal about you from this page although your thoughts and ideas jump all over the place. First about selling your art to favourite movies then back to selling art. I am also developing a splitting headache from the sight of a grammar error in every single sentence, literally. I am surprised at your poor writing skills considering your age. Because I am so irritated at your poor writing skills, I have rewritten this entire page for you. Pay close attention to the changes.

I have been drawing for as long as I can remember, since grade school. Art runs in my family. My dad is an artist, my aunt is also an artist, and my grandpa is a photographer. The first piece I did was a portrait. I don’t know where it is but I am in the process of looking for it. Since that first portrait, I have been working hard perfecting my art skills. I have always been open to honest criticism so long as the criticizer refrains from being a jerk. Though I prefer graphite, I do occasionally practice in colour, and I work best with photo reference.

I took about four to five art classes when I was in school. All the classes were taught by the same teacher. I took three of those classes during my last year (of high school?) and received high marks. My art teacher admired my art more than that of my classmates because I was the only one who didn’t do anime, which for whatever reasons, he didn’t like.

I can draw almost anywhere with my sketchbook. I take it with me everywhere: on the bus, to family reunions, at restaurants–and it is always a conversation starter. I even take my sketchbook with me to the sets of my favorite series, Supernatural. I work on sketches while watching the cast film all day. My art generated a buzz with the crew, and I often have people approaching me for a glimpse in my work. This one time, after the filming was done for the day and the crew were on its way to an interview, both Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki stopped by the fan crowd to chat. I have both their signature on one of my art sketches of [insert].

Most of the pieces in my gallery at the moment are fandoms: artwork of random things and people that catches my mind. That is how I have always been. But, I am open to try other subjects. One of the many terms used to describe my gallery was “walking through a scrapbook, and each of it’s pages tell you something different.” I must say I really like that comment.

I love fantasy and sci-fi. I go nuts over well-made fantasy and sci-fi movies, and also over those with poor storylines. Because of my obsession with anything fantasy and sci-fic, I don’t have a static favourite movie; it changes all the time. My current favourite is the Potter series. I love how Rowling create simple answers out of highly complicated scenarios/problems. **Reviewer comment: the movies are adaptations of Rowling’s original work so the movie may not run true to the novel.** She has great love for her large fanbase, which encompasses people from different groups. I am also a current fan of Lemony Snicket because of his odd and unique style.

There are many artists that I admire, and I have a hard time naming a few. However, if there is one person whom I admire most is Katerina, who helped me start the notion of selling of my works and finishing this website.

Believe it or not, I have recently decided to sell my art because I got tired of wasting my time looking for a corporate job behind the cash machines. None of the places I have applied to for the past three years have gotten back to me. So now I am taking my future into my own hands by pursuing something I do best and enjoy most, drawing. I have been known to draw for family and friends as a replacement for Christmas or birthday gifts. I have always taken commissions works at every opportunity. I make all my layouts myself in Photoshop and write the codes in **Insert program**

Journal

This section was not reviewed as it is a separate blogging website. I suggest making a note either in a title tag or as a footnote that this link is not exactly part of the site.

Artwork

The text in this section is different from the other pages. The text is Times New Roman, the font size is a size smaller and the italics makes it harder to read (though not all the description are italicized). There is no alignment at all. Since a two-column table is used to organize this page, I suggest adding a valign="top" tag to the right column so that the title of the page (artwork type) is aligned with the top margin of the thumbnail image, and make sure the width of the table is set to 100%. The page looks rather stupid at the moment with so much extra space to the left and right. There is also no sense of organization in the display of links. Normally the ‘Misc’ link is displayed last in a list because it is the one that doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Commission - These art pieces are wonderfully drawn. It is absolutely beautiful although Melanie’s uncle looks like his left shoulder was abruptly cut off. Aside from a description of who the work was commissioned, consider adding a few more details such as the date it was commissioned, how long it took to complete the assignment, the date it was completed, actual size of the work, and maybe an appropriate cost as a reference for potential customers. There was no description for the sketches of the little girl and the women (and why there are seven sketches of her).

Page wise, there is no organization again. There is an extra line break after “Demetre” that wasn’t applied to the other titles. The seven previews of Ms. Mysterious Lady and Ms. Mysterious Baby is not aligned to the left with the rest of the content, and there is no space break separating these previews from the detailed previews of Demetre’s flower.

Misc - The description for this section needs to be reworded. The two part of the sentene is the same thing, just worded differently. “These drawings don’t belong to any category” is more accurate. Descriptions about each drawing, when they were drawn, why they were drawn, using what mediums, etc. would be helpful to visitors.

Gifts/Music/Movies/Misc TV/Actors & Actresses - These are very nice pieces. Excellent work. I did notice that the sketch of The Phoenix from X-Men looks a little old. I’ve seen the movie so I know that when Jean came back as The Phoenix, she wasn’t doing so well appearance-wise. She looked drained and exhausted and frustrated and all else (evident by the visible veins and wrinkles on her face and neck). However, your sketch of Jean makes her look more like a 60-year-old granny.

Otherwise, the same comment about including a description and other information also applies to this section.

Heroes - The description next to the link is awkward. It isn’t fluid. Try rewording it to: “This addictive drama delves into the lives of ordinary people, from all over the world, whose lives become interlinked when they gain superpowers. The series is on its second season, and airs on NBC & Global (USA/Canada) on Mondays at 8/9C.” So is it 8 o’clock central or 9 o’clock central?

The description on the actual art page is also awkward. Try: “This addictive drama delves into the lives of ordinary people, from all over the world, who gain superpowers. These heroes include a young dreamer who believes he can fly, a high school cheerleader who is indestructible, a heroin-addicted artist who can paint the future, a psycho killer that eat human brains and absorb the powers of those he attacks, telekinetic’s, telekinesis’, a Japanese time traveler, a telekinetic cop, a politician (that can fly) whose brother can absorb the powers of those around him, and the list goes on. Each of these lives become interlinked as a result of their superpowers.” This newly written paragraph has no spelling errors. The original paragraph has six spelling mistakes; one of them a capitalization error.

Smallville - “Depicting the young life of Clark Kent before he becomes everybody’s favorite Kryptonian hero. Smallville is currently on its seventh season on CW (USA) on Thursdays at 7/8C.” The words in italics are corrections. The bold styling in the main description should be removed. It doesn’t follow the same format as the other pages and isn’t necessary.

Smallville follows the story of farm boy Clark Kent before he makes his transformation to Superman (**Reviewer’s comment**: the Man of Steel is actually Iron Man, not Superman). The series tells the life story of Clark from the time he is a little boy to when he is all grown up, through the struggle of him getting his powers to him meeting various people like Lex, Oliver Queen, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and many other important characters. While the series is unique in its own, it retains the old Superman story we all know and love.

The information about when the show is aired differs from this page to the section’s parent directory.

Supernatural - “Follows the lives of the Winchester family, who become emotionally tormented by a demon, after it killed their mother. The brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are on a mission to track down this demon. Along the way, they fight off every evil supernatural urban legend and discovers how they are interlinked with the demon. Supernatural airs on CW (US) on Thursdays at 8/9C.”

“Starring Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) as the Winchester Brothers. The brothers travel the country in their ‘67 Chevy Impala on a mission to hunt down the yellow-eyed demon that mysteriously killed their mother when Sam was six months old and recently took their father.”

Autographs

This section is interesting. I am actually really surprised that these people actually sign your art and mail it back. I also like the way you’ve organized the pages so that there is a story to each autographed art. However, the story for the art piece with Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki is extremely confusing. Your thoughts were so scattered, I had a hard time following. You may want to rewrite this section though to make it more fluid.

“Occasionally I like to mail a copy of my art to the celebrity to get autographed. I always send a good copy of the art, never the original. I normally send two copies. One for them to sign and send back, and one for them to keep as a thanks. Just click to enlarge the art. I always mail to the addresses from the fanmail.biz database. I check the feedback forum to make sure they are valid before sending the mail.”

The sentence “It usually depends on if they actually sign pics, and not send preprints, or how much I like the person and how much I like the drawing.” makes no sense whatsoever. I can’t decipher what you’re trying to tell me.

Album

I like the structure of this section. You may want to consider applying the same layout throughout the rest of the website, for your artwork and autograph pages. Some corrections required: take out the word ‘then’ at the end of the sentence in the description to ‘works in progress’, and the correct spelling for ‘refferences’ is ‘references’. Otherwise, this section is very well organized.

Links

Rather than having separate pages for each category/type of links, make a list on the same page (except for the image links as it is pretty lengthy). For example:

Pixels
On My Cuteness

Scripts
Paper Wings
Hot Scripts
Free Scripts
Dynamic Drive

Image Galleries
Click here for entire list  - **Warning** Extremely long

The title of the only ‘pixel’ link is spelt wrong. The last three ’script’ links were all linked together to Hot Scripts. The following links are either broken or have moved:

Images - frank iero.net, Visual Addiction Scans, HQ-HEAVEN.ORG, TrashyLife, Movie Capture Gallery, Oxoniensis Art, Extravaganza, KCASSIDY.NET, Simply Erica, BRANDONROUTH DOT US, JARED-PADALECKI.NET, Adrianne Palicki FANS, Something Extraordinary, ovie Capture Gallery, and P I R A T E ‘ S L I F E

Muse - HB Portrait, Aurelia, Katerina, Chris Grey, Nelson Aves, and Heather Page (linked to Chris Gray)

You will need to reorganize the format of the Image links so that it doesn’t look so jumbled. Try adding the top vertical alignment to the tables cell properties. There is no need to capitalize all the letters in the site title (or URL) because the website does it. The list would look more organized if the English capitalization rules were followed. (i.e. HQ-HEAVEN.ORG versus HQ-Heaven.org). Half the links on the ‘Communities’ page are not community links. Half of them are reference links, so unless you’re honestly have a part in the Firefox committee and Rights for Arts, I would move these links to a separate page under a separate heading.

Otherwise, I like the variety of small buttons and small banners available for linking purposes. You should consider converting a few of the black and white ones into colour.

Contact

I like how two email addresses are provided on the page along with a contact form. It always is a bonus to include two types of contact in case one doesn’t work. There are spacings next to each word and symbol in the first email address provided and none to the second email address. Separating the addresses by spaces is not going to protect you from spam. The only way to protect against spam is by not using providing your email address to anything but to real people that you know who won’t share your email.

The heading to the feedback form needs to be adjusted so it says only ‘Contact/Feedback Form’. Unless you share this contact form with anything else, there is no need to add the site title to the heading. The font type was only applied to ‘name’ in the form table. ‘How did you hear about us’ should be ‘How did you hear about me’. This is a one-man/woman website so you’ll need to use the singular form. You can help make the form look more interesting and appealing by specifying attributes to input and textarea.

A line break is required between the contact form and the Quick FAQ heading. The ‘q’ in ‘quick’ needs to be capitalized. The FAQ is informative but is ridiculed with spelling errors and grammar mistakes. It would take my too long to point them all out. However, if you copy and paste this in a Word document, and hit spell check, Word can help fix up most of the mistakes.

Hire

The correction abbreviation for Canadian currency is CAD. The link to current commission works is linked to a new window. A target tag should be added (so the link opens in the frame). How do you measure “one size bigger”? As in standard sketchbook paper size or by inches? You need to be more specific. A table breakdown would be helpful like the following:

Size	Price
9 x 12	$60
11 x 14	$70
15 x 20	$85

Then maybe include a note along the lines of: The cost applied to single person and two person drawings. For drawings with more than three people, add $5 for each additional person. The shipping information further down the page says shipping depends on size and location (use the term ‘location’ over ‘overseas’) but the price above says “including shipping”. Which is it? You’ll need to make this clear. The ‘Ordering’ information should be provided above the order form. There is also no need to bold the text in this entire section. There is no information about the type of payment you prefer. Cash, money cheque, personal cheque, credit card, PayPal? Again, there are ways to spice up the order form so it doesn’t look too bland. The word “commission” is spelt wrong throughout the entire page (the spelling in quotations and italics is the correct spelling).

Request

I am to assume that requests are pieces you’ll complete and scan for the site’s portfolio and nothing else? If so, make sure you explain this. “Requests are drawings (that you recommend/suggest) I will consider on my spare time for free. Once I complete the request, I will scan it and post it to my portfolio (on the site) for viewing. You are then free to save the image file from my site to your desktop or you may request a copy of the original (for a price). The original piece will not be for sale. Requests typically take anywhere between XX to XX weeks.” You can word however you like, but stress the difference between a request and a commissioned work in case potential clients get confused.

The same comment applies to the request form on this page. Consider aligning the table to the far left, specify the table width at 100%, and the column width wide enough for the headings: email address, colour or pencil, first and last name, etc. to be visible across only one line.

Final Statement

I really enjoy visiting your website. Your artworks are wonderful and I like how you offer your visitors the option of being commissioned. However, the website itself is a disaster. There is no organization, no clear format, and the entire site is filled with spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes. That is a surprise and a shock to me considering your age. I would have expected the author as a 12 year old child, and some have surprisingly good grammar structure. I suggest reading up on a few HTML tutorials to help you with the website designing part (try Good Tutorials), buy or download a free layout template (try Free Layouts), or hire a web designer to make a custom website for you. I hate to say it (because it sounds discriminating and it is nothing I would do) but there are people who will not bother with browsing the rest of the site even if your artwork is exceptionally well because the site is poorly designed and organized. The quality of the website speaks a lot to the owner and content’s reputation.