Your profile page is your introduction, artist statement, and first impression all in one! Make your page pull in potential buyers by being articulate and informative.

Upload an Avatar

Customers want to connect with you as an artist and a person. Having a compelling avatar will cause buyers to click through to your page and recognize your posts in the forum as well. A photograph of yourself or a small piece of your most popular work is appropriate. Keep in mind that the image must still look great and clear at a small size. It’s good practice to keep your avatar the same as soon as you decide on a good one – it becomes your face on the site. Your fellow artists and buyers will come to recognize it.

These artists have great avatars:

Write an Artist statement and Biography

Your artist statement and biography are how you connect with your internet buyers, but writing about yourself can be tricky! Be sure to describe what you do, your materials, your inspiration… anything that relates to your artistic process.

Some ideas to get you started:

• Make a quick list of the words that describe you and your art. Use this as a starting point.
• Ask a friend how they would describe your work , and include that in your statement.
• What would you tell someone if they had never seen your work? Give an introduction to what they are about to see.
• Think about how you feel when you look at your work and when you are creating it, and what you hope your viewer will feel.
• Write about the materials that you use and why you use them.
• Describe your education, any awards, or upcoming shows, and update it as often as necessary.
• Be yourself! Write in a style that reflects who you are, and what your art is about.
• Do keep your statement and biography short and to the point.

If you are really stuck, you can always ask the wonderful members of our community to help you out! We have a thread on Artist Statements that has a lot of great advice.

Note: If you are selected to be a Featured Member, a small portion of your artist statement and biography will show on the Imagekind homepage, so start your artist statement strong.

Lights Out by Chris Leavens

Chris Leavens has an awesome writeup for his bio.  He covers his history, his artwork, and where else to find him. Perfect!

Power Pug by Michael Sprouse

Michael Sprouse focuses on his life as a professional artist.  An interested buyer would find all the information that they need here.

Post your CV

If you have a CV or Artist Resume, then your biography section is the perfect place to post it. The organized, clean nature of a resume guides a buyer through, and they will probably spend the time to read it. Pare down the information so you only show the essentials: education, important shows, prominent buyers.

Post your upcoming events

Having a show soon? Exhibiting in a coffee shop? Having a sale? Let your buyers know in your profile!

Use keywords to attract search engines

The text in your profile page is indexed by major search engines. Including key terms like “photographer” or “watercolors,” will help searching customers find you. Keep in mind that you need to be as specific as possible, so that you can attract customers who WANT your work!

Check your grammar

Take the time to spell and grammar-check your profile: this will make your information polished. Presenting yourself as a professional will inspire buying confidence from your customers.

Use HTML in your profile

We allow limited HTML to be inserted into your profile. HTML can be used in the text box where you write your bio or artist statement, where you edit your profile. Some ways to use this are to:

• Format your artist statement with line breaks and paragraph breaks to give a polished appearance.
• Use bold or underlines to emphasize and highlight recent accomplishments, and to draw your customers’ eye to the most important information.
• Include your logo if you use one. This will strengthen your brand awareness and personalize your profile page.
• Add links to your blog, personal website, or reviews of your work.
• Let the world know if you have been a featured artist with a link or graphic to the featured artists page.
• Feature one of your favorite, most popular, or best-selling images. You can link to a framed image directly from your Imagekind galleries, or you can make your own graphic and host it from your personal website.
• Limit yourself to just one or two images inserted in your profile, and make sure they are kept to thumbnail size. Try to keep your Recent Images up high on the page, as these will change as you upload. Keep your buyers interested!
• Be sure to keep at least part of your biography or artist statement in good ol’ text format! Search engines cannot index text that appears in image files.

You can use HTML in your gallery and image descriptions, too! You can offer detail images of the pieces, or links to matching pieces. Again, be sure to keep these short so your images are still kept in view!

You can read more about allowed HTML in our forum. Remember, only 3000 characters can be in your Bio section, including HTML code. Also note that any affiliate or pay-per-click links are not permitted anywhere in your Imagekind profile or galleries.

Wildflower Dance by Natasha Wescoat

Natasha Wescoat uses HTML in her profile.  A small image is inserted, and important points are emphasized.

Fractal Butterfly by Angel Mist

Angel Mist has inserted an image that highlights her best work framed.  The rest of the description is well organized, and the use of HTML to center the text works very well.